Corn Chowder

Chowder at Its Corny Best That's the title of the article for the Vegetarian Corn Chowder recipe by J.M. Hirsch published in this week's Washington Post food section. I recreated the recipe and I agree this is the best corn chowder. It does not have bacon and has whole milk instead of heavy cream resulting in more intense corn flavor. And it's timely that today it's raining the whole day and the temperature is a very nice 60F (16C) outside, the best time to have this end of summer corn chowder.

Ingredients: 7 fresh ear corns, 4 cups whole milk, 2 TBS olive oil, 1 diced large yellow onion, 1 diced large russet potato, 1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves, 4 minced garlic cloves, salt and pepper. To prepare: in a large pot over medium-low heat, heat the milk until bubbles just begin to break the surface. Meanwhile cut the corn kernels, reserving the cobs, set the corn kernels aside. When the milk is warm add the cobs and cook for 10 minutes, this will flavor the milk. In a saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat, add the onions, potatoes and thyme and cook for 8 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for a further 1 minute. Remove the cobs from the milk and discard. Add the potato onion mixture to the milk, increase the heat to medium, then add the corn kernels and cook for 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy.

French Toast

Yesterday while at the checkout counter at the grocery the in-house baker came carrying a bunch of freshly baked Italian loaves/baguettes and plopped them right in front of me. The aroma and the warmth coming from the bread is irresistible, as if it was whispering to me "take me home". I was there to buy whole milk for the corn chowder I was going to make for dinner tonight and ended up also buying a large bread. I can't help it I love bread, I couldn't care less about carbs. So since it is large I made half of the loaf into French toast for today's breakfast. When my daughter came home yesterday I just finished frying and cooling them to put in the fridge. Of course she had to eat one right away, sprinkled icing sugar, drizzled store bought butterscotch sauce, and topped with Reddi wip whipped cream, it was fantastic. For my breakfast today I did the same minus the icing sugar, yummy. It sounds sinful but it actually is not, a tablespoon of Reddi wip has only half a gram each of saturated fat and sugar/carb, there is no trans fat. I drizzled maybe a TBS of sauce which is not that bad either, a tablespoon also has half a gm of sat fat and 4 grams of carbs.

One Excellent Book and One Lousy Movie

THE BLUE AFTERNOON by William Boyd 5 stars
I wouldn't call this book a mystery, it is more of fantastical adventure, crime, adultery and sort of romance set mostly in the early 1900s Philippines, written in flashbacks. The adventure starts from 1936 California when a 30 something female architect learns she is the daughter of a former surgeon, who is half Scottish, part Spanish and part Filipino, in the Philippines. He convinced her to go to Lisbon to find a woman in his past and during the journey narrated his story to the daughter. The love story is told with a man's perspective, not very common, being retold to the reader by his daughter. The fantastical part is the invention of the first flying machine by a Filipino ilustrado, also a doctor of medicine. The crime is a series of brutal murders which at the end was not resolved, you make your own conclusion, I have but won't tell you. The surgeon had an adulterous affair with an American married to a military man fighting the Filipino insurgents. You may consider the affair a love story, whatever. This is the first novel I have read by this author and I love his writing style. In fact I already reserved at the library his new novel coming out next month, Restless.

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 1 star
A Disney Channel movie about a math/science genius female transfer student from San Diego to Arizona, the reason for the transfer was not explained. It got several 4 and 5 stars at Netflix so I borrowed it. The dvd has an altenative sing along version. It is awful, so many moan inducing moments in the ENTIRE movie. The movie opens with the main characters forced to sing together by their friends in a karaoke teen hangout(?) during the winter school break. The boy, a high school basketball star, and the girl didn't know each other but of course they ended up in the same school, a rip off of the opening in the play/movie Grease. Both actors are mediocre singers and dancers and I cannot understand why they won the lead parts for the high school musical, the main story line. They are also very lousy actors, aarggh. The girl, played by a half Filipina (mother is Chinese/Filipino/Spanish-the usual and father is Irish/native American), I'm sorry to say has very little talent either in singing/dancing as well as acting. Her idea of acting is looking cute and pretty and making terrible facial expressions. Same with the male actor. Double aarrggh. This is what I get for borrowing a DISNEY movie!! I wanted to give it a goose egg rating but I'm feeling generous to the Pinay.

A Tart And A Pizza

From one pizza dough recipe I made a vegetable tart and a feta spinach pizza. I made the dough yesterday, let it sit in the fridge overnight then brought it out of the fridge 3 hours before I shaped them. Homemade dough is far superior to refrigerated ones from the grocery both in taste and texture, they're crunchy AND chewy, just the way I like it.

Vegetable Tart: 1 each julienned red, yellow and orange sweet bell peppers, 1 large seeded tomato and half a vidalia onion, 2 chopped spring onions, 1 smashed garlic clove, halved greek black olives, fresh rosemary, basil and thyme. In 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, saute the onions for 2 minutes or until soft and transparent, then add the garlic and peppers, cook for another 2 minutes, add ¼ teaspoon sea salt. Turn off the heat and add spring onions, tomatoes and herbs, transfer to a plate to cool. Shape the dough, drizzle 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, spread the filling evenly on the dough, top with olives cut side down.

Feta, Olive, and Baby Spinach Pizza: 2 cups fresh baby spinach, blanched and coarsely chopped, 1 cup reduced fat mozzarella, ½ cup crumbled feta, 2 chopped spring onions, halved Greek olives. Drizzle 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil on the shaped dough, spread mozzarella, top with chopped spinach and spring onions, add feta, then arrange olives evenly on top, cut side down.

Bake tart and pizza in a preheated 450°F oven for 15 -18 minutes.