These posts won't be in order...

Lots of catching up, or starting over with 2009.

But first:

It's not really a new year's resolution, but my crazy colleagues and I are determined to move beyond survival mode after our first semester together this fall, and try to thrive. One of the key issues for all of us (whether it be emotional, psychological, financial, etc), is FOOD. All three of us are single women living alone, and not long ago were bemoaning the issue of fresh veggies going bad before we can eat them solo.

So: this spring, we'll be cooking for each other. The idea is that one of us will cook a big meal a week, and the fourth week of the month we'll try out a new restaurant here in town--treat ourselves, after being economical for the month. We haven't really set a "start" date, but I'm expecting them for dinner tonight.

So I've made soup--or rather, potato/corn chowder.

It's a recipe I've adapted mightily, having had initial success with it after one of my "chill and grills" while living with J & K in Maryland. We had a TON of leftover grilled corn, and I didn't want it to go to waste, SO...

When I can, I make sure the corn and peppers are grilled or roasted, to give a fuller flavor to the soup. Unlike most versions of this chowder, mine's all-veggie--I have too many vegetarian friends, and really, I'm not a big fan of bacon-flavored veggies, anyway. So, here's the version of the soup I made tonight:

Roasted Corn Chowder

About 3-4 cups roasted corn (Trader Joe's has an excellent frozen roasted corn)
About 1/3 cup chopped celery
2 or 3 cloves are garlic, sliced
one red bell pepper
two small sweet orange peppers (these came from the UofA's hydroponic greenhouse--my stepdad hooks me up)
some olive oil
red, white and blue baby potatoes (I like the color variety, and with the baby ones you can leave the skin on and just wash them well)--cubed (I used two of each color)
1 can veggie broth
About 2 cups veggie bouillon
A little over a cup of milk
A tablespoon of flour
some salt
some pepper

Okay, so here's what I do with all that:
First, I cut the peppers in strips, toss them with a little olive oil, and throw them in the oven at about 400 degrees to soften them and give them a little extra flavor. I suppose you could do the same in the soup pot...but I didn't.

I did soften the garlic and celery in a little olive oil in the soup pan...I think doing them all together may cause a little more liquid to be produced than you want at that point.

Anyway, once the celery started getting translucent, I added the peppers (which by them I had removed from the oven, cooled a bit, and diced). Then I added the potatoes, and the broth and bouillon, brought it to a boil, and then simmered it for about ten minutes (while I made some guacamole). Then I added the corn, and let it simmer for another ten minutes or so.

Then I took the flour, milk, salt and pepper and combined it, and then added it to the soup to thicken it--stirred it for about a minute, went and checked my email, came back, and decided since I'd used 1 percent milk, it didn't "look" creamy-colored enough. So I added a splash of heavy cream I had to make some cheesecake later on.

That's it!

The girls should be here shortly, so we'll have the taste-test then. I'll let you know how it turns out.