Topic: Harvest Hills Farm activity
Unbelievably cold this morning--in fact they said on the TV that it's the coldest recorded since 1884. My front porch temperature is minus 19, they say the wind chill is minus 50, that wind has been howling all night and continues, the wind turbine is spinning like a top. I upped the clothing to do chores this morning to : 3 shirts, 2 jackets, leggings, pants and thermal bibbed overalls, logger hat, scarf, thermal gloves, wool socks, and continued grippers on the work shoes. All animals and chickens doing amazingly well, but none are interested in leaving their wind-sheltered positions. That's the secret of their success I suspect.
You are definitely stuck indoors. It's the perfect day to make a pot of Corn Chowder, something kids and adults will appreciate.
You likely have everything in the house and you can SUBSTITUTE almost everything to make it work for you. For instance, in my recipe, I didn't have frozen corn but did have frozen mixed vegetables so that's what I used! No frozen--use canned--or even fresh, just cook them longer.
No ham? Use bacon.
In fact,if you don't have a can of cream-styled corn, you can double your mixed vegetables and run the immersion blender through the pot of soup a couple of times to give it a creamy appearance.
And if you don't have chicken broth, then use vegetable broth!
I think you get the idea--today is a soup day and chowder's a great plan.
Corn Chowder
In a medium soup pot, start by cooking 2 stalks of minced celery, 1 small chopped onion and 1 cup of diced ham in 2-3 Tbsp olive oil (leftover ham from New Year's Day?)
(No ham? Substitute 4-6 pieces of chopped, cooked bacon-cook this separately and drain off fat, then add to soup pot.)
Now add 32 oz Chicken Broth, 1 diced potato, 8 oz. (1/2 bag) or 1 can of drained corn (or like me, substitute frozen mixed vegetable blend with corn). Add 1 Tbsp. parsley, a little garlic powder, salt and pepper to your taste. Simmer for about 30 minutes until potato is soft.
Add 1 can of Cream-styled Corn and heat through.
If you'd like a thicker soup, you can add 1/2 cup of dehydrated potato flakes.