Chicken Corn Chowder

It's June and school is out.  That means one thing…summer!  Nothing says summer like the beach, and nothing says summer at the beach like chowder.

When my kids were little, we would rent a house in the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a week every summer.  On the first day, while the kids were down by the water with their dad and grandmother, I would make a big pot of chicken corn chowder to have for dinner.  They would come up from the beach salty, sandy, sunburned...and hungry.  At dinner we'd eat and laugh and play games, and after dessert they'd fall asleep...HARD...until the sun and the roaring waves from the Atlantic would wake them up the next day.  And we'd do it all over again.

I’m happy to share my recipe with you here.  It’s hearty and satisfying but not too thick, and because of the ingredients, it’s a complete meal in itself.

Summer is the the best 9 weeks of the year. Enjoy every minute of it! :)

windblown, sunburned, showered, and ready for dinner, Summer 2004

-

------------------------------------

(WHAT YOU WILL NEED)

** I serve this with biscuits.  Just buy or make your favorite kind

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 small onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

3 tablespoons butter

2 cups chicken broth

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 cups whole milk or cream

1 cup freshly shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup freshly shredded Monterey jack cheese

2 cups of fresh corn cut off the cob (approx 8 ears of corn) - or - 1 16-ounce can corn, drained

1 16-ounce can creamed corn

1 4.5-ounce can chopped green chilis, undrained

2 teaspoon hot sauce

1 large tomato, chopped

salt/pepper

Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and brown in large dutch oven, with butter, onion and garlic.  Sprinkle cumin over chicken mixture and brown a few minutes more.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add chicken broth, corn, chilis, and hot sauce--simmer 10 minutes.  Stir.  Add milk and stir.  Add cheese and stir gently over low heat until melted.  Stir in tomato and heat together to mix flavors.  Serve in bowls with salt sprinkled on top (makes 2 quarts) 

Summer Luncheon: Grilled Shrimp Skewers, Charred Corn, and Caesar Salad

Memorial Day.  Up north, it’s the unofficial start of summer.  The weather’s warmed up nicely, restaurants and stores are open for business, and golf courses are full.  But here in Southwest Florida, it actually marks the end of our busy season--pretty soon, some of our restaurants and stores will close and nobody tees off after 10:30 because it’s far too hot.  The one thing we do both agree on, however, is that Memorial Day is the holiday for grilling.

This lunch looks so impressive but it can be made in half an hour.  Prepare your sauces and skewer your shrimp first, and while those are sitting in the refrigerator, wash and chop your lettuce and shuck the corn.  It’s the easiest meal you’ve made all year.  And with some cold drinks and a little music, it’s just like the season itself: laid back and fun.  So bring it, summer…we’ve been waiting for you :)

-------------------------------------------------

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

(serves 2, with leftovers)

24 peeled, deveined shrimp (16-18 count) - uncooked

4 ears corn

romaine lettuce

croutons

Your favorite caesar salad dressing 

Your favorite bottled barbecue sauce

1 bunch Italian flat leaf parsley, rinsed

2 tablespoons salted butter

juice of 1/2 lemon

parmesan cheese (to be shaved on corn and salad)

salt/pepper

cayenne pepper

garlic powder

To start:  shuck corn and set side. Wash & cut lettuce, and place shrimp on skewers--place both in refrigerator until ready to use.  Tear off and chop a few handfuls of parsley--set aside.

Make sauces:  Stir occasionally while heating

Spicy barbecue sauce--place some of the barbecue sauce and a few pinches of cayenne pepper in a small sauce pan and heat over med heat until warm.

Lemon garlic butter - In a different small pan, heat butter/lemon juice/a few pinches of garlic powder/and a little of the parsley until warm.

finished barbecue and butter sauces

Preheat grill

Grill corn: I do not oil my corn, I grill it naked because it gets a really nice charred, almost nutty flavor that way.  Turn while grilling until there are marks on all sides--it will begin to make a popping sound like popcorn and then you'll know it's ready to come off. 

It only takes a few minutes.  Shave some parmesan cheese over the top and cover.

Grill shrimp:  Before you place shrimp skewers on the grill, salt and pepper lightly. 

seasoned shrimp, ready for the grill

Place on grill and continually baste with sauces while cooking.  2 skewers will have barbecue sauce and 2 will have butter sauce--this way, you get one of each.  They are done when they are firm to the touch and are no longer translucent, maybe 3-5 minutes on each side (don't overcook or they will be rubbery).  Sprinkle with some more parsley.

finished shrimp

Now assemble your meal...

Cut corn off the cob and place in bowl.  Add salt/pepper to taste.  Mix

Place lettuce in another bowl. Add croutons, salad dressing, some shaved parmesan, and freshly ground pepper.  Mix

caesar salad

Bring all to the table with the shrimp skewers

Eat until you're full and happy

Pour some drinks until your even fuller and happier

Enjoy your holiday

Spaghetti Carbonara

 

 

It's so simple to make but difficult to get just right because, like with all good things, timing is everything. If you misjudge the heat or when to add the water, you could end up with scrambled eggs. Not terrible, but not ideal either.  So when done successfully, you end up with smoky, salty, silky, cheesy pasta perfection, that I happen to know is just as good with strong coffee and bloody mary's at breakfast as it with champagne for a late night dinner. 

 Bacon and eggs all day long...I told you it's perfect :)

------------------------------

(WHAT YOU WILL NEED)

Serves 2, and can be easily doubled

1/2 pound spaghetti noodles

1 egg, and 1 egg yolk

approx 1/2 cup freshly grated cheese:  parmesan or pecorino romano

6 slices thick cut bacon, cut crosswise into pieces

fresh cracked pepper

• The cracked pepper is so essential to this dish that it's an ingredient on its own.  But never cream.  Never.
• This dish is made entirely in the time it takes to cook the pasta.  Another reason it's perfect.
• You can also make this with pancetta.  It wasn't readily available when I started making carbonara in the 90's so I used bacon and still do--I like the salty, smoky flavor it gives the sauce

Start your pasta.  In the meantime, cook your bacon.

While all this is happening, whisk your eggs together with a pinch of pepper and some cheese.  Set aside.

Now the tricky part.  All at once:

Drain grease from bacon and take the pan off the heat.

The pasta should be done so take a ladle full of hot pasta water and add it to the eggs to temper them.  Whisk together so that when you add the eggs to the pan they don't scramble.

Drain the pasta quickly and add it to the bacon in the pan that's off the heat.  Add the eggs and start mixing together.  Move the pan back to the burner you cooked it on and keep turning the pasta until its silky.  Though the burner is still off, the residual  heat will cook the eggs but not scramble them.

Serve in bowl with more grated cheese and cracked pepper.  Eat immediately.

 

Baked Atlantic Cod with Cherry Tomatoes, Kalamata Olives, and Basil

 

There is no technique to this fish, it's just assembly--a few fresh ingredients put in a dish and baked together til delicious.  That's it.  Swear.  Save the tricky impressive stuff for Thanksgiving and Christmas when someone's watching  :)

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

(Serves 2)

2 Fresh Atlantic Cod Filets

cherry tomatoes, halved

kalamata olives, halved

small white new potatoes

dry white wine

chicken broth

fresh basil, cut into ribbons

olive oil

salt/pepper

garlic powder

butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Place fish in a baking dish.  Cover with cherry tomatoes and olives, and drizzle olive oil over all.  Pour some white wine (maybe count to 3) and a little chicken broth (again count to 3) around the fish--just enough so that it's not dry, but not too much that the fish will boil. Sprinkle all with salt/pepper/garlic powder.

Ummm...that's it.  Now bake it uncovered for 30-40 minutes, depending on how thick your filets are.  It is done when it pulls away cleanly with a fork and it is not like jelly inside.

In the meantime, boil potatoes whole until for tender.  Then drain, slice in half, put back in the same pan with some butter, salt, and pepper, and mix all together.  Though you've turned your stove off, the burner should still be warm--put the cover on the pan and let them sit on the warm burner until the fish is ready.  

When the fish comes out of the oven, place it on the plates.  What's left in the pan is your sauce--the tomatoes should have burst a little in the oven and mixed with your liquid.  Stir that all together with the olives so it's incorporated, and spoon over the fish.  Sprinkle with fresh basil and serve with buttered potatoes.

Silly Little Love Poem

A little love poem, written by me about a hundred years ago as a Valentine's Day/Birthday gift.  It's completely ridiculous and silly, and makes little sense...the way true love should be :) 

LOVE, LIKE POPCORN

If I could measure my heart in popcorn 

it would surely overflow

The way kernels do when popped with air--

that seem to grow and grow.

A little at first then suddenly,

as if without warning or care,

multiplying in size and number,

catching you surprised and unaware.

Trying to contain them, feelings and popcorn both,

is the hardest thing of all.

The longer you let them go unchecked

the more in love you fall.

Love, like popcorn.

Warm and fluffy, sometimes salty,

always hard to beat.

And both of them made possible only 

by friction and with heat.

Getting enough of either

is impossible to do.

Good when had by one;

delicious shared by two!

Chocolate Cobbler

On Valentines Day, showing you care about someone with an ooey gooey warm chocolate lava pudding cake says you mean business.  So pick your Valentine wisely, because they're about to fall in looooovvvee...  :)

------------------------------

(WHAT TO BUY)

For the cake:

1 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup white sugar

 1/2 tablespoons cocoa (I use Hershey's)

2 tablespoons melted butter

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

To pour on top:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon cocoa

1 cup boiling water

Vanilla Ice Cream (I use Haagen Dazs)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Butter a small casserole dish or 8 x 8 square baking dish

In a large bowl, mix the cake ingredients until smooth.  Pour into greased dish and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix all dry ingredients (not the water).  Sprinkle evenly on top of the cake batter.  Do not stir, just let it sit on top.   Now, pour the boiling water over the top.  AGAIN, DO NOT STIR

Bake for 30-35 minutes in the oven.  It's a gooey chocolate cake so the bottom will be like pudding, that's okay.  Insert a toothpick into just the top--if it comes out clean, it's done.

Serve warm in a bowl with ice cream

Kiss your Valentine 

Homemade Hot Chocolate with Marshmallow Whipped Cream

 

Hot chocolate by the fire.  Really...is there anything better?

-----------------------------------

Hot Chocolate Mix:

Enough non-fat dry milk to make 20 quarts (the box I buy has 10  1-quart packets, so I buy 2 boxes)

1 pound powdered sugar

22 ounces non-dairy creamer

1 pound Nestle Quik 

Mix all together.  Put 1/2 cup in a mug and fill with hot water

(Note:  this mix makes A LOT so use a very large tupperware container to mix and store it in)

Whipped Cream:

1/2 pint heavy cream

7 ounces marshmallow fluff

1 teaspoon powdered sugar

Pour cream in a bowl and sprinkle powdered sugar over the surface.  Whip until you have whipped cream (I use an electric hand mixer).  Fold in marshmallow fluff until incorporated. Can be made a few hours ahead and stored in the refrigerator until ready to use.

fluffy!