Basic New England Style Clam Chowder is extremely easy to make. Ingredients are Potatos ( Well boiled to the point of becoming mashable ) Clams Clam Juice Onions ( Chopped ) Milk or Cream or Sour Cream Black Pepper or Crushed Pepper Corns. Alternate or Additonal Ingredients ... Butter Mixed Veggies ( Peas, Carrots, Corn, Grean Beans ) Now let's get something down about the potatoes. You need to boil the heck out of them so that they start to break down into semi-mashable form, but leaving lumps of potato. You can probably get away with cutting up a couple spuds and boiling them and them supplementing the effort with instant mash potato flakes. It's ok to cheat. Cream is better than milk. Clam Chowder is meant to be a rich warming energy food, suitable for a cold night on the beach. Legend has it that its origins go back to clam diggers who tossed together chowder impromptu on the beach after digging their own clams. As far as spices go, black pepper is typically all and it is added at the table as preferred. But you are free to experiment with spices. To make California Gold chowder, things are somewhat similar. However, substitute cross-cut scallions, including some of the greens, for the onions. I like to use sour cream as it is thicker than cream. Not so Secret addititives ... Melt butter in a separate pot. Add lemon juice Add crushed garlic. Secret additive. Add crushed safflower, enough to yellow, not to orange or redden. When the basic New England Stuff is done cook'n and the butter, lemon juice, garlic, safflower stuff is done cook'n in a separate pot, mix the two parts together, folding the yellow stuff into the white stuff lightly so as to create and not to destroy the visual effect of rivulets or veins of Gold. If you do it right, the yellow stuff should rise and form rivulets that remain separate from the white potato/sour cream stuff ... a very pleasing visual effect and tasty too. The rivulets will ride distinctly upon the basic chowder and will have a rich golden color. Note that you can't preserve this effect by canning or bottling this mixture. You'll ruin it. To get the effect, you gotta do it at the instant. Safflower is a bit expensive, but you don't need much and it is added more for visual effect than flavor. Safflower flavor is very subtle. It's always nice to add a little crab meat or some chopped scallops to California Gold chowder. If you know how to make cheesy bread, it goes good with California Gold Chowder and you can use the secret additive to make a California Gold Cheesy Bread. Get a sour dough loaf and cut evenly top from bottom. Make up a second batch of the yellow mixture and butter the two halves with it. Top with shredded Mozzarella or White Cheddar. Broil until the cheese melts and slightly browns on Aluminum Foil or in a pyrex baking pan. Enjoy. If you have some secret sauce left over, saute' some prawns ( aka scampi or mediumor large shrimps ) in it to complete the meal. Guess what I've go in my cupboard and fridge at this very moment? :)

Yeah, clueless. Looks familiar. My sister and I carpool so this morning when the forecast came on the radio we paused to listen. After it was over there was a 3 second pause and I said, "You know what just passed through my mind? 3 below doesn't sound all that bad." And she said, "I was thinking exactly the same thing!" So we've lived in Iowa too long apparently, when 3 below sounds like something positive. And since it was "only snowing" and not blowing we stopped at the grocery store where I bought panko crumbs, golden raisins, farmer's cheese, 18# of cat chow, bananas & grapes for the parrots, day old bread for the chickens, sure jel (in case I finally get around to the elderberry jelly) and a bunch of other stuff I probably didn't need . Think I'm set until the feed semi comes on Monday. Yes. I get most of my critter stuff on a semi. Sigh. And I wonder where all my money goes.

When I had family at home and would bake at least 4 loaves at a time....one was always the "sacrifice"...to be ripped into while it was still too hot to touch..and the butter melted and dripped on your fingers...and it was delicious... I remember my grandmother saying...."now you just wait! You'll ruin the rest of the loaf if you cut it right now!!" And I resolved that the rest of the loaf was not as important as those first few wonderful hot slices.....and always give permission to dig right in! Last week I cooked for a church meeting....made a pot of corn chowder, broke up some greens, made a dressing and baked 4 loaves of basic food processor French bread....whisked them directly from the oven to the table and 6 people ate 2 3/4 loaves of fresh hot bread. And Ann....never have fresh hot rye nor whole wheat bread?? It's never better! Linda C

Not what you’re looking for, but this is a delicious carrot soup recipe. A friend served it at a luncheon and I asked for the recipe. She said she cut the amount of red pepper in half. I’m not sure if the 1/8 tsp. Is before or after she altered the amount but the soup still had a little kick to it and the sour cream toned it down. Szechuan Carrot Soup 1 medium onion, chopped 1 celery rib, chopped 1 garlic clove, minced 1 t. vegetable oil 1 pound carrots, cut into 1" pieces (I buy the baby ones and don't bother to cut them) a 3/4" piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and thinly sliced 1/8 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes (pretty spicy - can be reduced) 3 cups chicken broth 1 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce 1 1/2 tablespoon creamy peanut butter 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil 1 cup milk (I use skim - once I used half and half and the soup lost a lot of flavor) Garnish - sour cream Cook onion, celery and garlic over lowish heat, stirring until onion is softened. Add carrots, ginger root, red pepper and broth and simmer until carrots are tender - about 45 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients and puree in the blender in batches until smooth. Return to pan and heat - do not allow to boil.