Low Country Boil Chowder

As I told you in my last post, we had lots of leftovers from our Birthday "Stone Soup" seafood boil on Saturday. We figured the best way to finish them up is to create a giant soup that used all that we had left. As promised, here's the recipe!




Low Country Boil Chowder

6-7 slices bacon, cut in tiny pieces
1 med. onion, chopped
1 c. diced celery
4 c. diced potatoes, cooked
1 ½ c. seafood stock (see below)
3 c. milk, warmed
1 (16 oz.) can whole kernel corn, or 4-5 corn scraped from the cob
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper (or more to taste)
1 tbsp. butter
Clams, oysters, crawfish, mussels, shrimp left over from the boil (or fresh, cooked – as much as you want)

STOCK: Place all crab shells (or shrimp, oyster, clam, etc) in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 20 minutes or so. Strain broth through cheesecloth and discard shells.

In a large heavy saucepan fry bacon until crisp. Remove bacon and drain on paper towel. Pour off fat except for 2 tablespoons. Add onions to saucepan and saute until transparent, not brown. Add potatoes, celery and stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat. Cover pan and simmer for 10 minutes or until celery is tender. Add remaining ingredients and heat just to boiling. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for at least an hour. The longer it simmers, the better the flavors mix.

If you need to thicken the chowder, I mixed 2 tbsps butter and 2 tbsps flour, added stock until I had a thick mix, and added it to the soup. While cooking, it will thicken.

Enjoy!!

Happy Birthday Lucas!

Lucas had his 38th birthday yesterday. For weeks we couldn't decide how to celebrate it, changing the plans from going out, to just spending time on the beach, and maybe a cook out at home in the evening. Last week, we came up with the idea of inviting over all of our friends and doing a Stone Soup kind of dinner, only with seafood and potatoes and corn, in the style of a Low Country Boil. If you don't know the Stone Soup story, it goes like this:

The Story of Stone Soup

Once upon a time, there was a great famine in which people jealously hoarded whatever food they could find, hiding it even from their friends and neighbors. One day a wandering soldier came into a village and began asking questions as if he planned to stay for the night.

"There's not a bite to eat in the whole province," he was told. "Better keep moving on."

"Oh, I have everything I need," he said. "In fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you." He pulled an iron cauldron from his wagon, filled it with water, and built a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a velvet bag and dropped it into the water.

By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come to the square or watched from their windows. As the soldier sniffed the "broth" and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their skepticism.

"Ahh," the soldier said to himself rather loudly, "I do like a tasty stone soup. Of course, stone soup with cabbage -- that's hard to beat."

Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a cabbage he'd retrieved from its hiding place, and added it to the pot. "Capital!" cried the soldier. "You know, I once had stone soup with cabbage and a bit of salt beef as well, and it was fit for a king."

The village butcher managed to find some salt beef . . . and so it went, through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was indeed a delicious meal for all. The villagers offered the soldier a great deal of money for the magic stone, but he refused to sell and traveled on the next day. The moral is that by working together, with everyone contributing what they can, a greater good is achieved.

So we asked everyone to each bring a bit of the following: clams, oysters, crab legs, mussels, shrimp, potatoes, corn or sausage. We ended up with more food than we ever imagined! Luckily, one of our friends owned a huge steampot to cook it all in, and brought it along. She even brought the "stone" for the soup - a brick to set the steam basket on! Perfect!!



Yum!!!!!



It was fun watching the guys figure out how to dump the food once it was done!






We ate, drank and were VERY merry through the night, and had a great time with all of our friends. I count it as one of the best get-togethers we have EVER had!!

We had so much food leftover, that I needed to come up with something to do with it. The mystery was solved with a seafood chowder, and an afternoon of crabs and beer today! Around lunch time we covered our coffee table with newspaper and dug right in!




We made a seafood potato corn chowder for dinner, served with a fresh new loaf of the jalapeno bread. I will post the chowder recipe, but in a separate entry, as I don't have it all written out yet.

DOUBLE YUM!!



Another weekend ends with a great dinner, True Blood (SO GOOD TONIGHT!!) and situps - we did 90 tonight!!! Ouch!

The kids start school tomorrow, so I really should already be sleeping! I guess I just am not ready for the weekend to end!

Good night, all!

And back to your reguarly scheduled program

I haven't said anything the last couple days about our meals! The night before last Lucas took over, and we had some grilled shrimp-kebobs with shrimp, mushrooms, peppers, carrots and a side of grilled avacodo, topped off with some brown rice (my only contribution!) It was so tasty!




Last night we weren't sure what to do, but we came up with an on the spot creation. Pitas filled with chicken breast (left over from pot-pie night), red and green peppers, onions and jack cheese, with a side of oven fried potatoes. It was so good! No pictures though, sorry!

Tonight's meal was planned ahead of time. We had planned to have tilapia and zucchini cake, and while Lucas was at the store to get the zucchini, he found some huge ears of corn on sale, so he threw them on the grill with the fish, while I made the zucchini cakes. Recipe here

These were so tasty, we ate SEVEN of them. The plan had been to have that as the main dish, and the fish on the side, since we only had a very little bit of fish, and I'm glad they turned out as tasty as they were!


After dinner we made some fresh hummus. It was totally trial and error, and Lucas had to swoop in and save the day, as he has MUCH more patience than me and I was getting very frustrated. We made it from dried beans, rather than canned, and it just wasn't going the way I planned. In the end, we just kept throwing things in until the consistency was right, and it came out great. I can't wait to warm some pita and eat some, but I'm still stuffed from dinner! The basic recipe was: a pound of dried garbanzos, cooked; lemon juice; olive oil; water (to moisten the mixture); jalapenos; cumin; salt. No measurements available, as we just kept tossing more in as needed.

Ok, off to watch the rest of my shows for the night, then some Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets. Good night!

Not the cucumbers!!!!

Yes, we've been infiltrated. The bugs have crossed enemy lines and have killed off my cucumber. I was out there just yesterday and everything was fine! Tonight, the plants were covered with bugs and three large cucumbers had been drilled into and turned yellow. All overnight! I'm so disappointed! So, we doused everything with the organic pesticide and are hoping for the best. The peas are also already lost, but I had given up one them already. The cucumbers were thriving! So, I'm crossing my fingers and hoping the bugs wander into oblivion. On a good note, we FINALLY have tomatoes growing, and I can't wait to get a good harvest!! Also, we discovered that the jalapenos that were turning red aren't problematic, just mature. Apparently jalapenos are usually picked when they aren't quite ripe, and that's why we're used to seeing green. Anyway, the peppers are fine!

Today was a day for food! This morning I had my now regular microwaved scrambled eggs with tomato and a slice of wheat toast. Snack was some delicious banana chips. The boss took us to lunch at a Thai restaurant. I had sushi - a mexican roll and a california roll. I was so stuffed that I couldn't make dinner when I got home! Lucas had to suffer and wait, but while we waited, we watched a movie that I had caught wind of over on the Joe Hill message boards. See below:



I would have lived without watching it, but I've seen worse. Definitely different.

Finally, we got around to making dinner. Tonight was some clean-out-the-freezer stuff. We had two peices of flounder and about a cup of scallops. We grilled the flounder, and some broccoli, and a box of Uncle Bens wild rice with sun dried tomatoes. I sauteed the scallops and threw them in the rice, along with some bigger sundried tomatoes that we had bought for the pizzas the other night, but forgot about. Add a glass of Sam Adams Summer Ale, and you've got another great meal!


I'm probably calling it a night very soon. A little Harry Potter and then sleep!

What's for dinner tonight?

Tonight is Shrimp Tacos with Cilantro-Lime Sour Cream! So yummmy!! I added some diced cucumber and banana pepper straight out of tonight's harvest of the garden. The avacado we used wasn't super-ripe, but added a great texture to the dish, and the cucumber was a cool, softer touch. We doubled the recipe and used burrito shells rather than the fried corn tortillas. We also took the shortcut of using pre-cooked shrimp, so it didn't get to marinade in the spicy olive oil, but we cooked it for the five minutes and it was still delicious. My stomach is actually starting to growl again thinking about it!! The picture in the link is awesome - here's our version:



Here's what happens when you use too much cilantro lime sauce mixed with too much shrimp sauce from the pan:



I think dessert will be some Breyer's vanilla ice cream (ALL NATURAL!!) with some strawberries and banana added to it...yummmmm

Here's in interesting article to read about not being afraid of restaurants.

That's all I have for tonight! Going to get some ice cream now!!