Clam Chowder, YUM!

Clam Chowder

So good and so easy to make…

1 medium onion, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
4 medium size potatoes, chopped
2 – 8 oz. bottles of clam juice
2 cups of whole milk
2 – 10 oz. cans of clams
2 bay leaves
1 tsp of dried thyme
S&P to taste

In large pot, saute onion and celery in olive oil ( I use leftover bacon grease and olive oil) add potatoes and saute for 2 or 3 minutes more. Add clam juice and let simmer (covered) for 7 – 10 minutes. Add milk, clams, bay leaves, and thyme and turn heat down to a very low simmer for about 15 minutes. S&P to taste. (If I want to make the chowder a little thicker I’ll add a Tbsp of masa corn flour when I add the milk and stir well)

I love that this big pot of soup cost me about $12.00 and it makes 5 large servings. Or more like 1 dinner and 2 lunches for the Z Man and me. Because it’s SOOOOO good!!!

Enjoy!

Lori

Wine Time

That’s a picture of what my “wine time” looks like now.

Actually, It’s pretty good. White grape juice (or red, both are good), sparkling water and a spritz of lemon. Mmmmm 😉

I still like to use my wine glass, it feels comfortable for me.

Almost 2 weeks into it and I’m doing ok. 🙂

We bought a new laptop, and Windows 8.1 is a bit to figure out, but we’ll figure it out with a bit of patience.

Take care,

Lori

Head In The Sand…

Have you ever not done something because you were worried about the out come and perhaps being let down by it? I know I have!

Last summer was when I really got into preserving food from the gardens. More than just the usual of canning tomatoes and green beans, I really broadened my skills by buying this book…

This book has a canning recipe for anything you could imagine. And, this book has paid for itself multiple times over by feeding me and the ZMan.

One of the canning recipes I experimented with was pickled red cabbage. The reason was mainly because we had so much cabbage in the garden, and I didn’t want it to go to waste.

It wasn’t a difficult recipe but it was time consuming.

The jars turned out beautiful, but I have to admit that these jars of pickled red cabbage have set in my pantry for about seven months untouched because I was worried that it wouldn’t taste good for some reason.

I worried I would end up tossing it out and all the time and effort that went into growing and preserving the food would be wasted, ultimately leading to disappointment.

All that is another way of saying I had my head in the sand over it.

BUT, last week when I made pork chops I decided to open a jar of our pickled cabbage.

I added it to a pan with a little bacon fat, celery seed, caraway seed and honey and heated it through as you can see here.

IT WAS AWESOME!!!!

It paired perfectly with the pork chops and the sweet potato in this meal…

We will be canning more pickled red cabbage this season, and I hope that my lesson is learned about sticking my head in the sand. I’m thinking at the very least I’m getting better about it because I took a chance and started this blog.

I suppose a chance for failure is just as easily a chance at success.

Y’all Take Care!

Lori