Chicken Corn Chowder

Perfect Supper for a Cold and Rainy Late Summer Day

Had some left over delicious silver queen corn that I bought from Silverton Farms in Toms River.  It is a food that makes late summer at the Jersey Shore such a great place to be.  

The rains have been coming down all day and the temperature has been dipping so I decided to put together a simple chicken corn chowder.  Turned out pretty great.  Here is the recipe.

Chicken Corn Chowder

4 or 5 ears of corn

4 thick strips of bacon

1 large onion

1 T butter

4 cups of water

4 cups of chicken stock

4 - 6 medium potatoes, cubed

2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded or 2-4 cups left over chicken

cayenne pepper

1 block of cream cheese

salt

pepper

Cook the corn until done 4-8 minutes.  Run under cold water until you can handle the ear.  Cut the corn off the ears and scrape down ears. Put the corn kernels and stripped ears aside.

Render the bacon.  Put aside 2 tablespoons of bacon fat.  Cut up the cooked bacon and put aside.

Dice onion.  Saute in 2 T of bacon fat and 1 T of butter in a soup pot.

Pour 4 cups of water and four cups of chicken stock into the onions.

Put stripped corn cobs into the pot and boil gently for about 1 half hour.

Add the potatoes and cook until just soft to a fork.  Take out about a cup of potatoes and mash with a fork. Add back into the pot and continue to cook gently.  Add chicken, corn kernels and bacon, a pinch or so of cayenne.  Cook for about a half hour.

Add the block of cream cheese and mix it into the soup until it is completely incorporated.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Very tasty.  Even better the second day.

Sweet Treats for Finals Week

This week is finals week for our kids who are in college. My daughter is 6.5 hours away at Grove City College in the Pittsburgh area. She is feeling a bit blue, missing home and her boy friend, so my wife, being the good mommy that she is, sent her some early Christmas Cookies to cheer her up during finals week. She found a quick little recipe for some sweet treats called Black Tie Tartlets. She found the recipe on the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies site at Nestles Chocolate. She whipped them up in about 5 minutes. They were so pretty that I wanted to share them with you.

Enjoy!


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Quick and Easy Pasta with Fresh Mozzerella, Tomatoes and Basil

My Dad had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year, so I used them for supper tonight. I made a kind of a tomato bruschetta using tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, a dash of red wine vinegar, garlic, shallots, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper. Then I tossed in some steaming pasta, well chilled diced mozzarella and basil. It was great.

Pasta with Fresh Mozzarella, Tomatoes and Basil

2 or 3 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced
2/3 olive oil
1/4 red wine vinegar or lemon juice
1 minced shallot or about 1 T minced red onion
1 large clove of garlic, smashed
pinch of sugar
salt
pepper
8 oz fresh mozzarella, cubed and well chilled
1 lb medium size pasta (I used medium shells)
10 or so basil leaved, chiffonad

Mix tomatoes, olive oil, wine vinegar, shallots, garlic, sugar, salt and pepper. After it has sat for about 10 minutes and tomatoes have given off some of their juice taste and adjust for flavor. Add a bit more sugar or acid depending on taste.

Boil pasta for 8-10 minutes. Drain, add to tomato mixture. Toss in well chilled mozzarella and basil leaves.

Serve with grated cheese.

Enjoy!

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Peach Upside Down Cake

I made a quick Peach Upside Down Cake with some of the peaches that I got from our Chesterfield fruit picking expedition. It turned out great!



Peach Upside Down Cake

1/4 cup butter
1/2 brown sugar
2-4 small to medium peaches, sliced
1/2 cup butter
1/2 sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 salt
1/2 c milk

Grease a 9 inch baking dish. Preheat oven to 350. Melt 1/4 cup of butter. Pour into baking dish. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly into baking dish. Arrange peaches on top of butter and sugar. Cream butter, sugar and egg together. Mix flour, baking and powder together in a separate bowl. Alternately mix flour mixture and milk into butter mixture ending with flour. Pour batter into baking dish. Bake f0r 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool cake in baking dish for 15 minutes or so. Turn cake out onto serving platter.

Enjoy!

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Quick and Delicious Tomato Sausage Pasta Sauce

I am not adverse to opening up a jar of good quality Pasta sauce from time to time. In fact a company that sells mostly in our New York metro area, Victoria, has a better vodka sauce than anything homemade I have tasted. That being said, it so easy to whip up a quick tomato sauce that unless I am really pressed for time I usually will throw something together. That is exactly what I did yesterday and I have a new favorite quick sauce. I wanted to do a meat sauce, but I only had large portions of ground beef in the freezer, but I did have a small package of sweet Italian sausage, so I took the sausage meat out of the casing and fried it up like ground beef. I then added it to the quick tomato sauce and the result was bellissimo. I have some left over that I am going to enjoy for lunch today.

Quick and Delicious Tomato Sausage Pasta Sauce

2 T olive oil
1 medium onion diced
4 cloves garlic
1 medium carrot grated
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 28 oz. can tomato sauce
1 t. fresh thyme
1 lb. sweet Italian sausage removed from the casing
salt and pepper to taste

Sweat the onions and garlic in the olive oil. Add the carrots, tomatoes and thyme. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Brown the sausage meat, drain of excess fat and crumble the meat. Add to the tomato sauce. Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over pasta with grated Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!