Chunky Potato-Crab Chowder

I wanted to get this post finished last night, but unfortunately the real job took precedence and grading had to be done. This recipe is worth the wait, and if you are a crab lover you should DEFINITELY make it. A few weeks ago while grocery shopping I made a luxury purchase of "Special Crab Meat". I wanted to wait until there was a "special" reason to use the crab meat, and Thursday was the day. Actually Wednesday should have been the day but I was shy a few key ingredients. Wednesday I picked up my FIRST box of spring veggies from our Spiral Path Farms CSA membership (more information here: http://www.spiralpathfarm.com/). This is our first year as CSA members and I had been anticipating the first pick-up since March, when we joined. In the box was a variety of early springs goodies; including a pile of freshly harvested new potatoes. As soon as I saw these red-skinned beauties I knew exactly what the crab had been waiting for: Chunky Potato-Crab Chowder:Adapted from My Recipes, Cooking Light, October 2003.

When I picked the screaming Child (I told you she would not want to come home to "mommy's house"-mommy's house sucks-she get's things like Kashi waffles and oatmeal for breakfast instead of marshmallows.) at our designated meeting point I also ran into the store and grabbed some 2% milk and a can of creamed corn. I detest creamed corn; it reminds me of old people teeth and factory made baby food. That is what the recipe listed though so I pushed the image of a elderly person sucking it through their teeth and made the purchase.

Once home I looked up the recipe on Cooking Light, prepped my ingredients and got to work.

I salvaged some really old celery from the fridge and some aging parsley, rinsed my new potatoes, smashed some garlic and then chopped everything up. First I sauteed my onions, garlic and celery in a little butter.

Then the potatoes went in; I sauteed a bit longer, and then sprinkled some flour and stirred that in (I followed the Cooking Light Recipe as a "guide"; I have a tendency to eyeball ingredients).

Once the flour was stirred in; the milk was added. It then simmered for 20 minutes with the lid OFF. The recipe said to leave the lid on, but even with the heat set at the lowest point it was still boiling when the lid was on.

Once the milk was added I diverted from the original recipe. A few changes were made. I left out the nutmeg and thyme; the Hubby is not a nutmeg fan and I did not have any fresh thyme. Instead I added a heaping spoon of Old Bay. My mom's family hails from Maryland and we are serious crab eaters. You do not have Blue Crab without Old Bay; it is like eating Oreos without milk.

The Child was REALLY excited about the Old Bay; she thought that when I opened it crabs were going to scuttle out. Two-year olds are so literal.

Once the chowder thickened I added the Special crab. If you can splurge Lump Crabmeat would be GREAT in this recipe. Special is what is leftover and kind of shredded up. It is still yummy though.

The final product was DELICIOUS!!! Make this chowder-it tastes SOOO decadent, but is actually good for you. The Spiral Path new potatoes were creamy and fresh, the crab was indeed "special" and you could not even tell that the celery had been slightly dehydrated. The creamed corn added a subtly sweet flavor, and blended with the other ingredients. I could only eat a little bit because our Tri-team swim was at 8:30 PM. After tasting I did add another healthy pour shake. Then the Hubby tasted it. Guess what he said? "More Old Bay." A man after my own heart :).

If your wondering what the Child was doing while I was creating this yummy concoction here is a picture of her project:




What does one do with a noodle necklace once you have it on? Eat it of course. Better than candy :).

Thank you Sweetie!

I will take any compliment she can get. Even if it comes from an old, hairy fat man in a sleeveless shirt leaning out of the driver's side window of his contractor's truck. I bet if I wasn't concentrating on not becoming roadkill and could have gotten a good look at what he was wearing it would been a Big Johnson t-shirt with the sleeves cut off (if you are too young to remember these, check them out here: http://www.bigjohnson.com/). This actually happened twice today, men leaning out of their windows to thank me for signaling and moving to the left in a merge area. Most women would be insulted, and while I am a feminist in spirit and often times action; it is still an ego-boost to hear nice words from strangers.

They made me feel good for two reasons:

1.) I am obviously learning proper bike etiquette because people are being courteous to me and NOT giving me the finger and yelling profanity combinations even my grandmother wouldn't use (or maybe she would-she has a sailor's mouth and has been known to flip the DOUBLE bird at family events).

2.) They obviously noticed the 6 pounds I have lost since I have really buckled down and focused on my tri-training. :)

In another post I will share my tri-training plan with you and go into detail about how I got started, who I train with, why I do it, etc. etc. Each of those deserve a post of their own and I don't want to digress from my training ride today. Hopefully I will figure out a way to load Google bike maps into the Blog and then will be able to show you the route I did.

Today the Child was at Nanny's house eating marshmallows for breakfast and being played with on demand and the server was down for work. Down-time (this happens rarely) seemed the perfect opportunity for a bike ride and to take advantage of the BEAUTIFUL weather we are having here in central PA. I wanted to keep it easy because we are doing a group swim tonight with my Tri team and I didn't want to wear myself out. It was about 15 miles and had some AWESOME hills. I had actually never done this route before; usually we stick to the main road but I wanted something a little different so I took a left around mile 7. The road (Potato Valley Road for those of you from the Harrisburg area) loops around and hooks back up to Fishing Creek Valley road. This is the thing about valleys-you need hills to have them. Holy mama did Potato Valley have some hills!!! I didn't see any potatoes though ;). The hills were great for training and my new bike made them much easier to tackle than the blue monster would have last year.

Well I am off to pick up the Child from Nanny's and listen to her scream the whole way home about not wanting to go back to "mommy's house". Have a great evening!

Mulit-tasking Mama

There have been days when the only opportunity I get to drink my coffee HOT is by taking it into the shower with me. I hide out in the bathroom, ignoring the sounds of the dogs trying to scratch their way in, the cat trying to scratch her way out, the two year-old screaming in the next room because her tall, tall tower keeps falling over...and suck down the liquid crack. Of course now that the Child has learned how to open all the doors in the house (what a great trick!) the game has changed slightly. Now it involves me, the shower, the cup of liquid crack, a rollicking round of shower curtain peek-a-boo (with the Child AND the dogs), and an awkward discussion on how big girl bodies are different from little girl bodies. It is no wonder that at least once a week I walk out of the house with hair that looks like it has not been washed in a week. These days route-memory processes like showering require actual thought, and it is hard to remember to rinse the conditioner out of your hair when you are trying to explain to a 2 year old why she is not furry "down there".