Chicken Corn Chowder

Do you ever have a meal that came about simply by combining leftovers to form something different? Okay, so a lot of us have those. Here’s another.
I make a damn good creamed corn. Seriously, it is fantastic. It is one of those things that if I didn’t make this side dish with pork chops and homemade chunky applesauce, the meal just would not be complete. Of course, it goes great with just about any meat, but has a certain affinity to pork and chicken. This creamed corn is the base for my Chicken Corn Chowder, however, it is not necessary in order to produce a delicious soup.

Baked chicken thighs form the other main ingredient, and I almost always have leftovers of those. But, much like the creamed corn, if you only have fresh or frozen chicken, that will work too. The thing about soups is that they are easily adaptable to whatever ingredients you have on hand, whether they be leftovers or frozen.

If you happen to have leftover creamed corn and baked chicken thighs, simply fry up a couple slices of bacon, chopped into smaller pieces, drain out most of the fat, toss in some diced onion into the bacon grease and cook for a few minutes until the onions translucent and glossy. Next, chop a potato or two into bite size or smaller pieces, same with the chicken, dump it all into the soup pot with enough milk, half and half or cream to cover everything and cook until the potatoes are tender. But, if you don’t have leftovers, don’t fret! This soup tastes great just about any way you make it, and the following recipe will show you how to make it with fresh or frozen ingredients.


Chicken Corn Chowder


4 slices bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 pound bag frozen corn, or 4-6 fresh ears
1½ pounds chicken thighs, chopped into bite size pieces
2 potatoes, diced
4-6 cups milk, half and half, cream or combination
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the chopped bacon in a 6 to 8 quart stock pot over medium until it is crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain all but 1 tablespoon fat, and cook the onions until translucent and glossy, about five minutes. Add bell pepper, celery, and corn and cook for a few minutes more. Next, add the chicken and potatoes, then add the milk until it covers everything, you may not use it all, or you may need more, so don’t bother measuring this part. Add salt, pepper and thyme and stir to incorporate everything. Put four tablespoons butter, in four pats, on top of the soup and bring to a low boil, then turn the heat down to low to medium low and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the chicken is cooked through and the potatoes are tender. Check the seasoning, and add more salt and pepper if needed before serving.

See, even without leftovers, this is a pretty simple and satisfying lunch or supper. But the best part is that it contains all the major food groups, and is quite filling by itself. But I find fresh, homemade buttermilk biscuits and a simple salad make this meal complete.

Starting Vegetables from Seed Indoors

While there are a lot of veggies that you can simply put the seeds directly into the ground and they’ll grow well, some require a few weeks indoors to really perform their best. How does one start seeds indoors? Read on.

Last year, I invested in a Jiffy “greenhouse” kit… okay, I invested in three of them, but because of my laziness, I left them all outside during the entire season and then over winter and now it is spring and only one of them didn’t crack and become utterly useless. These kits came with peat moss pods covered in a white mesh to contain the plant while it grows. Simply add water to the tray, let the peat pods absorb, put your seed into the middle, put the clear plastic lid on and stick the tray under a fluorescent light. This year wasn’t so easy.

First off, it helps if you realize these particular pods come in various sizes, of which, I was not aware until I brought home the pods I had purchased and they were a tad too big for the tray. So what did I do? Well, I do not return stuff. I hate it. So, I overfilled the tray to allow the pods to absorb as much water as possible, which this part can take an hour or two, and dumped out the excess once they were filled. Then I pinched the bottoms of the pods to fit into the smaller sections in the tray so they stay put, and are able to suck in water to help the starts grow.

The next step I do is use popsicle sticks to label the pod rows, as this will help identify the various tomatoes I plan on growing, but also for the other items as well, even though their stems will be obviously different. With a chopstick, I poke a small hole in the top of the peat pod and put a seed in it, covering it slightly afterwards. Once they are all filled, and the popsicle stick labels are securely attached with duct tape, it is time to go into the garage.

Now, from raising chicks, we have a heat lamp, which I put a 100 watt equivalent compact fluorescent light bulb in to simulate sunlight. If you have an actual grower light, or want to invest in one, that is great. But really, any desk lamp will work. Once in place and centered, I put the clear plastic lid on it and wait for the seed starts to grow.

When the seedlings are about an inch long, prop open the lid a little, turning it at an angle so the four sides of the lid are resting on the top of the tray. This will allow for more airflow, while still retaining a lot of the humidity. If you don’t do this, your seedlings will mold, and then they are useless to everyone but the compost bin. When they start to touch the lid, it is time to remove it, and simply let the light shine directly onto your vegetable starts until it is time to plant them in their respective areas in the vegetable garden.

So, what should be started indoors? Tomatoes are the obvious choice, as they should be started eight to ten weeks before planting in the ground so they can be planted as soon as the ground is warm enough and all danger of frost is out of the picture. This year, I started five different tomatoes, utilizing the seeds I leftover from last year, and if they work, great! But if they don’t and I end up having to buy starts at the local farmer’s market, I’m okay with that too. I’m only out a dime per pod, and I planted three seeds of each variety. I also started basil, which should be started about four weeks before planting outdoors because it is not cold tolerant. Eggplant is the same, requiring four to six weeks to ensure a healthy plant with the earliest fruit.

While there are a lot of different plants I could have started, we don’t have a whole lot of space to work with, and really, pumpkins and beans do just fine directly in the ground, which will probably be the last things we plant for the garden. Of course, I still have to build a box for a strawberry patch, as I really want to have strawberries this year!

Taking Pictures… With a Real Camera

More often than not, life’s moments pass us by and are rather quickly forgotten. Unless, of course, you remember to bring a camera along to document even the mundane.

Growing up in the age of film cameras, there were a surprising amount of pictures taken by my parents. We didn’t have a lot of money, and by that, hardly any, but they always remembered to take pictures. In this day and age of digital cameras, where one can take virtually limitless pictures with very little cost involved, there shouldn’t be an excuse, but there is.

Many people find it cumbersome to lug around a small camera as they go about their vacations and birthday parties, but these same people couldn’t function without their cell phones, many of which are the same size as a digital camera. Why take a camera, or for that matter, even have one, when a cell phone can take a perfectly low quality image instead? Ignore how many megapixels the phone camera has, simply compare the images side by side with the same resolution digital camera and you can see the obvious differences, such as color, depth and sharpness. This isn’t to say not to use your cell phone’s built-in camera, just remember what it is there for… picture messages, on another cell phone. Some take okay pictures outside, but inside in low light situations is a different story, as even the ones with a flash look horrid.

Now compare their lenses. Notice how even a camera the same size has a bigger lens? That means it can let in more light, resulting in crisper, brighter, more true-to-life color images. The same thing is true for megapixels. You can compare a 5 megapixel camera with a small lens to a 2 megapixel camera with a larger lens, and more times than not, the 2 megapixel pictures will look better.

Crap, I’ve gone off topic, again!

Okay, so basically what I am trying to get across is that cell phone cameras are great for taking pictures of small things you want to show someone later or send as a picture message or use as inspiration for a project while at a craft show. But nothing beats the quality of the images you can get from a real camera. Unless you are a professional or semi-pro or have dreams of going pro one day, you don’t need to shell out thousands of dollars for an SLR (single lens reflex) camera that you’ll probably need lessons to figure out how to take a picture. With film developers switching strictly to digital printing, it is becoming increasingly difficult to develop 35mm film, but there are places that will develop it, it just won’t be in your local drug store. And it probably won’t be going anywhere for a while, even though it has been around since 1892, mostly because it is still the format used by a majority of film makers worldwide. Of course, this is 35mm film stock, as opposed to 35mm photographic stock, but they are still relatively similar. If you like your film camera and it isn’t too much of a hassle to get the film processed and pictures developed, that is great. But for most of us, a digital camera is a more convenient option. Just remember to take lots of pictures and bring it with you wherever you go. A small one that will fit into your pocket is easy to carry, but a larger one you can always just slip into a fanny pack, or use the shoulder strap of the camera bag around your waist to act as a fanny pack, which is what I do.

I take pictures of everything: The first flowers in spring; birds in the bird feeder; the dog or cat sleeping; chickens scratching in the yard; nieces and nephews playing together. I really like to capture candid shots of people. Posed images are great, and have their purpose, but a candid shot really feels like you have actually captured the essence of what they are doing at that particular moment in time. Get creative with your camera! Get down on the ground and see what the world looks like at that level. Sometimes its fun to simply focus on an object, and have the people be part of the background. Don’t be afraid to get close, and I mean really close. So many people stand back so far, they leave an awful lot of empty space in the picture, which, unless it is a scenic shot, there simply is no excuse. I don’t know how many times I’ve been told to stand back, but I refuse because I know that getting that close will result in a much better picture. Play around with your camera when you first get it, taking pictures of random objects and people in various situations. No amount of reading in a manual will help you learn how to use your camera more than simply snapping away!

Spring Cleaning: The Garage

Throughout the year we acquire stuff, and a lot of that stuff either replaces other stuff, or just gets put somewhere and forgotten. More times than not, a garage is the catch-all for said stuff for a couple reasons; it is convenient, and it is out of the way… until you need it.

It never ceases to amaze me how right after cleaning out the garage, it looks so neat and organized, and somehow manages to become complete chaos within a month. The main reason is because the garage is usually the first thing we clean out, haul all the garbage to the dump and the donations to Goodwill, and then we clean out the inside of the house, transferring it all back into the recently cleaned and organized garage, thus, starting the vicious cycle all over.

For years, we have talked about either buying or building a shed in the backyard to store the yard tools in, which will free up quite a bit of space. Okay, in actuality, one entire wall in the garage is pegboard and all the lawn tools are hung from that, including the leaf blower and grass seed/fertilizer spreader thingie and the only item not hung is the lawn mower. But still, perhaps having the extra space will allow for a more productive garage that we can actually use. Maybe build a work bench for projects, move all the hand tools onto the pegboard to free up space in the pantry for, uh, pantry items instead of tools, screws and nails.

As luck would have it, my partner’s dad and stepmom are looking to get rid of their greenhouse/shed to make room for their fifth wheel, and because they don’t need it, and they have a two story shed twice the size of it only six feet away. Now, figuring out how to get an 8’x17’ shed from Camas to our backyard is going to be the fun part. I mean, we can easily back it into the backyard, as when we planned our fence we made sure it had two gates, a regular people sized one, and an eight and a half foot one for backing anything into the yard. The only issue is the incredibly tight space issue from the fact that our backyard has a rock wall in the middle of it, and a 10’x24’ deck attached to the house, which doesn’t leave room to maneuver. But, I’m sure if we want it bad enough, we’ll find a way to get it into the yard, and we do want it.

But, until then, we still have to clean out the garage. It seems every year we organize it better than the year before, one time adding two huge shelving units which cut down tremendously on the amount of stuff on the floor, like holiday decorations and camping gear. I do have to say, the best part of this lack of funds situation with me being out of work, is that our accumulation had dropped off dramatically. The only things we have replaced were things that actually broke, like the microwave. Ever seen an electrical arc form in one of those? It’s like it had a miniature Emperor Palpatine in it! However, the broken microwave still lives in the garage, on top of an old cat bed, inside the wheel barrel. Me thinks a trip to the dump is in order, and maybe a trip to Goodwill too.

Adventures in Guinea Sitting

From time to time when people go on vacation, they have people watch their pets, and this usually goes by without incident. This is not about those times.

We offered to watch my second cousins's, who are more like nieces to us, guinea pigs. They’re fairly easy to care for, just make sure they have food, water, and play with them for a bit. Easy. Piece of cake. No problem. And then the day the family leaves for a trip to Disneyland, one of them gets sick. So my partner is on the phone calling the mom, and then a small animal vet to make an appointment, which gets scheduled for the next day, fortunately with an online coupon for a free exam for first time visitors.

So, the next morning rolls around, and as I make the rounds with the various animals during feeding time, I open up the pigs’s cage to put in some celery and oranges and fill up their food dish with fresh food and put some Timothy hay in for them as well, when I notice that while the healthy pig immediately starts devouring what looks like a dried carrot, the other doesn’t want to move from her “house.” Fear sets in. So I quickly pet her head and she moves a little and makes a wheezing noise and blinks. Whew! At least she is still alive, and her appointment is only in a few hours.

Now, in the mean time, my partner has made me some delicious blueberry waffles, from scratch no less, for my birthday, because it just so happened to be that day, and I ate them and they were delicious. After breakfast, I went in to check on them and noticed that the sick one still hadn’t moved from earlier. Reaching into the cage, I gently pet her forehead. Nothing. So I quickly lift up her “home” to pick her up and she feels hard as a rock, and I knew what that meant. I called my partner into the room to show him, and he called the mom to tell her and the vet to cancel the appointment.

As a pet sitter, what are our responsibilities to this animal once it passes into the next realm? And as a parent on vacation at Disneyland no less, do you tell your child that her beloved pet has passed away there, or wait until you get home to tell her the bad news? What makes this especially difficult is this family had just lost a grandmother a couple days before leaving for this vacation. So many things go through your mind and you wonder if you made the right decision even calling in the first place to tell them the pig was sick, but in the end, it seems that hiding that fact until after the vacation would spoil the whole event. However, they decided to tell her, and inform her that she would have passed whether she was home or not, and that Granny must have needed some pets in heaven, which was the best decision. My partner is much better at communicating than I am, and I couldn’t have handled the situation the way that he did, and for that I am eternally grateful.

Today, I am going to look for a plant to put above her “grave” and when they get back, maybe we will have a little service for the little guinea pig. But I’m sure the grief will be short-lived, because the other pig is a little lonely and misses her friend, so a new pig might be in the picture soon after!

Baby Blanket Part 4: Embroidery and Final Touches

Okay, so your appliqué is sewn on, your pieces all sewn together and your baby blanket is starting to look like just that. What’s left? The hard parts.

Before you can sew your blanket completely, attaching the backing and batting, you should decide what and where to put any embroidery you want to put onto your project. If you have opted not to put any on, you can proceed directly to the sewing together of the batting and backing onto the front. For the rest of you, either draw out a design on paper and trace it onto the fabric, or freehand it on, or for you adventurous folk, thread your embroidery needle and start embroidering!

 

I like to go in two motions when embroidering. First I go left to right in one direction, then go back over it from top to bottom in another. This produces a nice effect that only improves after its first washing. On this particular blanket, I also decided to embroider a tag on the collar on the front appliqué, rather than cut and sew that small piece on.

Once the embroidery work is complete, congratulate yourself if you didn’t poke your finger with the needle. But if you did, like I usually do, it just adds to the charm of a homemade baby blanket that you literally poured your blood, sweat and tears into!

 

The next step is to pin the batting, backing and front for the border sewing. Make sure the front and back are facing each other, and I find putting the batting on the top keeps my sewing machine from acting up as it seems to keep stray cotton fuzzies from entering the machine and causing chaos and turmoil and crying and all around frustration. When pinning, I try to line up the pin tops with the edge of the fabric underneath, which gives me a line to follow while sewing and prevents gaps as well that may have to be fixed afterwards.

I sew all around, starting a few inches from the center of the bottom, and work my way around until I am about six inches from where I started. This leaves an easily sewn gap from which to pull out the blanket right side out… after pulling out all the pins and inspecting for gaps and making sure none of your pins accidentally got trapped in the batting. Yes, I’ve had this happen before, and no, it was not fun to rip the stitch and fish it out.

After you have the blanket right side out and pulled the corners taut, sew up the six inch gap by stitching down through the front, batting and back, tying off every few stitches or so to make a nice locking stitch. This is confusing, and I don’t know the term, but basically stitch in a way that you won’t see it. Is that called a blind stitch? I don’t know.

Once the blanket is all sewed up, the final step is to tie off. I prefer tying off to quilting because I don’t have a quilting long-arm, but if you want to quilt yours, go right ahead and do so. I start with the four corners, tying off with embroidery thread where the four fabrics meet, and double knotting the tie before cutting it down to about half an inch. Then, I tie the middle of the border where it meets the center fabric on all four sides. To figure out where to tie on the center appliqué portion, I fold the blanket into a triangle and then fold the corner tie off to the center tie off and mark where the end of the fold is, tying off that way for all four sides in the middle. The final tie I simply locate the exact center of the blanket and tie off there. If, like with this particular appliqué, the exact center is not a good place to tie off, simply find an area close to it. I found the collar was only half an inch from where I wanted to tie off, and I can live with that.

Congratulations! Now your baby blanket is complete! I usually lightly wash the blankets in borax and don’t use fabric softener before putting it into the dryer to dry on low to medium, just until it is dry. Promptly remove from the dryer, fold, and wrap or box it for the recipient!

Baby Blanket Part 3: Pinning & Sewing

With all of your pieces cut for the baby blanket, it is time to begin the process of pinning and sewing. The squares are easy, but the appliqué can be a little tricky.

I usually start with the border, and since the pieces are only 4½” wide, don’t bother pinning them as my hands can keep them in place for the half-a-second it takes to join two pieces this size together. It you feel this isn’t in the realm of possibility for you, go ahead and pin the pieces, right sides facing, at the top and bottom of the square. Sew the border into four parts with a ¼” to ½” seam; two shorter pieces with just the center and border adjacent squares, and two longer pieces with the border adjacent and border squares. After sewing these pieces together, set them aside and begin the center square which will have the appliqué on it.

The appliqué part of the process requires a little imagination, or a little logic, or maybe some of both. If you did a dry run, you should have a pretty good idea of what needs to be sewn on first; the pieces under the top pieces. To acknowledge a seam allowance will keep the stress level low. Simply move your pieces in about half an inch from where they are during the dry run and pin them into place. To help with figuring out the exact location, sometimes it is easier to start pinning a top piece into place, and fold back where the bottom pieces will need to be put. This is especially helpful when a top section will be surrounded by multiple bottom sections, such as the case with this particular blanket.

When sewing the appliqué pieces on, you can use a decorative border, such as a zig-zag or large cross-stitch, but I prefer just a straight stitch, between 6 to 10 per inch. Why? Because I do. You can stitch yours on any way you like. I know I should experiment with the multitude of stitches available to me on my 1963 Singer Touch & Sew Deluxe Zig-Zag Model 600 sewing machine, with all the extra stitch plates and built in stitches it has, but I like the look of a straight stitch with a little of the folded seam showing, as this is how I did my original baby blankets, albeit, those were done completely by hand. Sometimes a piece needs a little stuffing, like this one I didn’t like the look of the nose being flat, so just before it was completely sewn, I stuffed in some polyester fiberfill using a chopstick to get it into all the crevices.

After the appliqué is sewn on, it is time to start attaching the border pieces. I first sew on the shorter pieces, pinning them to the left and right sides of the center square. For this 26” piece, I usually use five pins, one in the center, one on each of the border adjacents, and one on either side of the center between the border adjacent and center pin. This is usually enough to keep the border together during sewing, however if you feel more comfortable pinning more on, go for it. Just make sure the right sides are facing each other and you sew the wrong sides with a ¼” to ½” seam. Using the same technique, sew the larger pieces with the corner squares onto the center after unfolding the side borders and try to match up where they meet. This may require sewing in the squares a little more to position everything just right. Or, you can always just not worry about it, as it will give it a more homemade look if the imperfections are not corrected. Once the top is all sewn together, it is time to begin the embroidery and final touches…

Come back tomorrow for Baby Blanket Part 4: Embroidery and Final Touches.