Corn and Bacon Chowder.

I just realized that I never blogged about this chowder I made back at Easter. Which truly is a crime because MAN this stuff is good, and this recipe needs to be shared with the masses!

I got this recipe from a fellow BOTBer, who got it from Southern Living.

What you need (with my adjustments in italics):

1 lb bacon, chopped. (I got a little package of bacon bits from the salad aisle and added what looked right. I just didn't feel like going through the hassle - read: mess - of cooking bacon.)

1 lg onion, thinly sliced (I chopped mine)

10 ears of fresh corn or frozen kernel equiv. (I used frozen and it was great)

28 oz chicken broth

1 med potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

2 carrots, shredded (I admit I hate cooked carrots so I skipped these)

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 cups half and half

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp hot sauce (we don't keep it in the house and I wasn't about to buy a bottle just for 1/4 tsp, so I just sprinkled in some cayenne pepper instead)

2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper (I don't know about you guys, but I never measure these things. Except when making fudge. Long story. But just add a sprinkle.)

What you do:

Cook bacon until crisp in dutch oven, remove bacon and reserve drippings. Set aside.

Cook onion in 3 tbsp reserved drippings in the dutch oven until tender. Add corn kernels, broth, potato, and carrot to onion in dutch oven. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes or until potato is tender. Set aside.

Whisk together 1/3 cup reserved bacon drippings and flour in a skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly for 10 minutes or until browned. Remove from heat and set aside.

Add milk and half and half to vegetable mixture, cooking over medium heat, whisking often until heated. Stir in lemon juice and next three ingredients. Whisk in flour mixture and 3/4 of the cooked bacon.

Cook until thickened, stirring often. You might need to add extra flour. Garnish with bacon. Can be frozen for up to one month, makes 14 cups.

What I did differently: I don't own a dutch oven, so I just used my largest pot. Since I didn't cook the bacon fresh, I just tossed some of the bacon bits in a pan with some oil and heated them quickly, then used a little bit here and there when the recipe called for the drippings.

So the first time I used my pot was to cook the onions with some bacon bits and oil. After that part, I just added the flour to the bacon and oil in the original pan I had cooked them in. I followed the recipe from there on.

To serve I just transferred it into the crock pot (as seen in the picture). We ate about half of it at Easter, since it was just a side to the ham. We froze the rest and just had it the other day, and it was just as good as the first time. I am definitely adding this to my list of freezer meals to be made before the baby comes!