ChowDUH

WOW, it's been a while. I've been working a lot lately. Late, lately. Lately? Ok, well, for quite some time now. Long enough that this is the first real cooking I've done since May. But today was a good day, got a lot done in the office. Worked 11 hours but still had a lot of good energy on my way home. So I stopped off at Trader Joe's for some coffee and milk that I knew I needed. Eh, and the usual salad supplies that I get every week, because lately salad is the only thing I've been motivated to make for myself in the past few months. Anyway, here I stand, suddenly, blankly staring into space in the isles of Trader Joes. . . surrounded.

By potatoes. . . . corn on the cob. . . . tomatoes of different sorts. . . . what do I have in the fridge? Not much at ALL, honestly. Some celery.. . . an onion... fresh garlic, hmmm...don't I have some chicken stock in the cupboard? And what about that new immersion blender that I've been dying to use. Could it be time for. . . SOOOOOOOUUP!

Yes that's right folks. Soup. Mid September soup (Summer? What summer.) How bout a little PoCoCho. Potato Corn Chowder. You say, "Chowder"? No! ChowDERE!! And Tuesday is exciting again.

No real idea how to do this, and for some reason I refused to look up a recipe. But this was the method of madness I devised in the produce isle at Trader Joe's: I'm thinking potatoes, corn, tomatoes - no, roasted tomatoes - stock, a base, a blend...

Roasted three large tomatoes off the vine - boiled for about 5 seconds, peeled off the skins, gutted 'em. They go face down on a roasting pan, salt, pepper, garlic, olive oil. 400 degrees for . . until their roasted. (about 25 mins, til there was some good brown roasted drippings around them).

Boiled about 2 pounds of small potatoes. Once they were cooked, shocked them in cold water bath, until cool enough to peel the skins off after cutting them in half.

Boiled 2-3 ears of corn on the cob. Cut the corn off the cob with a knife, once done.

Sauteed 4 stalks of chopped celery, half an onion, one full (small) bulb of garlic, in a bit of oil in the bottom of the soup pot.

Once sauteed, added about a pint of unsalted chicken stock, some water. Brought to a simmer.

Add the skinned potatoes, the corn and the roasted tomatoes. Simmered for a few minutes.

And now, more fun with kitchen gadgets! IMMERSED the handheld immersion blender in the soup and pureed up and down and all around to a chowdery consistency. Ladled into a bowl....perhaps some sriracha?!?! But of course!

And it was good.

Ok, so the pics look a little bland. I was definitely short on adding any more herbs that one could potentially add. . or any toppings or dressings that would make a picture of chowder look so good. Like bacon. Or ham. Or clams or, jeez five million other things that could make a chowder even more chowDERE-ous. But this was a 9th inning call to the bullpen for something, when I wasn't planning on doing anything, and really haven't had anything in my fridge beyond stale kimchee and 4-month-old parmesan for the past, well, 4 months. But what we ultimately have here is a sweet, savory base for a potato and corn chowder with endless possibilities - right on the cusp of the new Fall season and the new Primetime TV premieres - and like any good reality TV show, totally unscripted. Yet, like General Macarthur predicted (if he were a soup), It Shall Return