I made the cheddar corn chowder (page 74) and the parmesan croutons (page 87). The chowder was very yummy! Phil told me many times that he really liked this recipe and it was his favorite so far. I followed this recipe fairly closely except for a few things. As I was cooking I began to notice how much I was cooking. This recipe makes way more than 10-12 servings. I only used 3 large onions and 9 cups of chicken stock because my large stock pot was over flowing. I had to cook the corn, cheddar (I used regular yellow cheddar because that’s what I had), and half & half in my crock pot because there was no more room for it on the stove. Once the chicken stock solution was finished I just added it to the corn mixture and let it cook on high for about 2 hours and then I let it simmer one low over night in the crock pot. This recipe is great, but I would cut all of the ingredients in half. Phil’s suggestion, if you have room of course, is to add cooked chicken instead of the bacon.
Since the stock pot was so full, I cooked the corn mixture in my crock pot.
A splatter screen covering the stock mixture. Next to tongs...this is now my favorite kitchen gadget because it reduces my mess!
Cheddar Corn Chowder (page 74)
For the parmesan croutons, I used dried parsley instead of basil and they were so yummy in the soup. I wouldn’t leave them in the oven for longer than 10 minutes at 400 degrees because they could end up being too hard (too hard even for croutons!)
The croutons, before...
...and after! Parmesan Croutons (page 87)
So far I have encountered many ingredients that I have never cooked with before and I have enjoyed learning about them: capers, turmeric, clam juice, white wine vinegar, and eggplant. There have been 2 ingredients that I didn’t even know what they were so I omitted them out of the recipes: fennel and pernod.
I have added an icon on the side of my blog that is a link to the cookbook club blog that I contribute to if you’d like to check it out.
