Live Simply with Sparkle: soup

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Rainy Day Potato and Ham Chowder

I'm soooooo in love with this soup.

And I'm sooooo in love with this pot.

Seriously, it's just the best thing and it's my yellow!

It combines all of my favorite things;

potatoes, ham, garlic, and rosemary!

Delicious.

My mom had cooked a ham,
and like me, when she cooks it's for a group,
not just the one or two people that actually live in the home.
I'm going to apologize to my vegetarian and vegan friends,
because this is going to be one in a couple of ham related recipe posts.
To everyone else...
seriously, you need to make this!

There is nothing really healthy to this recipe,
except that it's all natural and made from scratch.
So there is that.
But on a drizzly day,
this is a perfect, hardy meal for a Chambers.

Rainy Day Potato and Ham Chowder

Recipe modified from Recipe Knead
I like my chowder to be filled with potato goodness,
so I've upped quite a few things in my modifications.

4 slices thick-cut bacon

1/4 cup unsalted butter

2 cloves garlic, minced (or 1 tsp of garlic powder)

1 onion, diced

2 cups frozen corn kernels

2 teaspoons fresh rosemary- chopped

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

4 1/2- 5 cups milk, or more, as needed

4-5 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed

2-3 cups of cooked ham, diced

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Cooking Directions:

1) Heat a thick-bottom pot over or Dutch over medium high heat. Add diced bacon and cook until brown and super crispy, about 6-8 minutes. Remove crispy bacon onto a paper towel. Drain the bacon grease. (Heck. Save that goodness for something else.)

2) Use the same pot. It has all of the Melt butter in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic and onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in corn and thyme until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.

3) Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk, and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in potatoes.

4) Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 12-15 minutes. Stir in ham, salt and pepper, to taste. If the chowder is too thick, add more milk as needed until desired consistency is reached.

5) Serve immediately, garnished with bacon, if desired.

Enjoy!

Believe me, you will.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Sparkle Chit-Chat and Soup

Each year my friends and I try to do
something different for birthdays.
So this year we are planning events
or activities to celebrate the new candle on our cake.

To start our September birthday girl off right into the 35 year old world, we met up at The Wine Cellar for wine, chit-chat, and a soup cooking class. In reality, the chit-chat was the most important thing of the night, then wine, and we kind of made a little soup in the process.

Of course, we are professional chit-chatters,

so we can multi-task,

but I was a bit concerned with the large knives and wine combo.

Somehow we managed to not lose any fingers or any blood, so for me it was a successful cooking night. I generally use a smaller knife since I have been known to slice myself....but tonight, I was fine.

Thank goodness we had a teacher that led us through the process and join in the chit-chat too.

Kristi was a natural with that chopper.
If you don't have one, you should pick one up because it helps to release some stress.
Pow! Pow! Bang!
After using that, I felt much better about everything. :0)