Freezer challenge: bacon, corn, chipotle peppers, chicken stock!

Okay, it took us half an hour of looking at these photos and discussing things to figure out what on earth we had made with these ingredients. But then we finally remembered (and we only made it a week and a half ago!). Jeremy found a recipe for Cheddar Corn Chowder. It originally came from The Barefoot Contessa cookbook, was adapted by some blogger over at Pink Parsley, and then picked up by Saveur magazine (which is where Jeremy found it).

Jeremy of course adapted it yet again!

Cheddar Corn Chowder
(adapted from Pink Parsley, who adapted from Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa cookbook)

• 2 ounces bacon, chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon tumeric
• 2 1/4 cups chicken stock
• 2 1/2 cups creamed corn (or whole kernel corn)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/8 lb sharp white cheddar, grated
• 2-3 tbsp roasted chipotle/pablano pepper paste
• 1 tablespoon corn meal

Cook the bacon in a large stockpot over medium-high heat until crispy, about 5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon and transfer it to a paper-towel lined plate. Reduce the heat to medium and add the onions and butter to the fat. Cook until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes.

Stir in the flour, salt, pepper, and turmeric and cook for 3 minutes. Add the corn and cook, stirring frequently, 3-5 minutes.

Add the chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Add the heavy cream then use a blender or food processor to blend small batches of the chowder to break up the corn (only puree about half to 2/3 of the soup).

Allow to simmer 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the cheese, chipotle peppers, and cornmeal. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. If it is too spicy, add more heavy cream or chicken stock. Allow to cook an additional 5 minutes.

Serve hot with garnishes of bacon and extra cheddar.


The amounts are kind of funny because Jeremy halved the original recipe. In fact, he usually uses recipes as general guides and adds/deletes things as he feels led. So I'm not sure if you made this dish with these amounts that it would turn out the same way! But in any case it was very tasty. So much so, that we ate all of it before taking a picture of the final chowder!

And we were very proud of it because of how many freezer/pantry/refrigerator items it used: bacon, onions, chicken stock, corn, and those hot peppers. Even the cornmeal is stored in our fridge!

Freezer challenge: roasted red bell peppers

Okay, so the bell peppers were the only thing to come out of the freezer, but this dish also included kohlrabi which we found languishing in the back recesses of the fridge. So, it kind of counts.

This is based on the tofu scramble which Jeremy learned about when he worked at the Seward Cafe.

We had a half pound of tofu left over from another dish so Jeremy cubed that and marinated it in a mix of tamari, fish sauce, and sesame oil (for 2 or 3 hours). He peeled and sliced up the kohlrabi and steamed it till it was cooked. We don't have a wok so Jeremy did his best in our copper frying pan. He browned/cooked each of the vegetables in the frying pan on their own, then set them aside, and he did that with the tofu too. (Jeremy is now telling me that you don't want the vegetables & tofu in the pan at the same time because then the pan is cooled too much and there wouldn't be a good sear on everything. So, batches.)

Once everything was seared/browned/cooked, he threw it all into the pan to warm up for a minute and poured in the marinade to make a bit of a sauce. Then it was served over rice. Holy cow. This was very tasty!

Freezer challenge: strawberries

We have a lot of strawberries in our freezer. From 2008! We didn't get through them in 2009 (we didn't even freeze a new batch) and we're still eating them. In fact, our freezer kind of smells like strawberries.

I find that strawberries are better fresh, not frozen, and I don't really like them in most baked dishes. They just turn into giant, wet, slimy, blobs inside muffins or scones.

But, they make excellent and very tasty smoothies.



Jeremy makes our strawberry smoothies with strawberries, heavy cream, vanilla, maple syrup, and one egg (from our chickens of course). He kind of throws things in and blends until the consistency is right - so I don't have much of a recipe.

Mmmmm, tasty!

Freezer challenge: tomatoes, kale, bell peppers

What do tomatoes, bell peppers, and kale all have in common? They all live in our freezer!

For the next couple days I'll update everyone on our freezer challenge progress.

First is Jeremy's take on vegetarian lasagna. Jeremy' isn't a big pasta fan so I think this only had two layers of lasagna noodles. He made his own red sauce with our frozen tomatoes and frozen roasted bell peppers, and some of our onions and garlic that have been stashed away. The green layer is a mix of ricotta and kale from the freezer, blended up in the food processor. Then of course lots of mozzarella sprinkled over the top.



Voila! Vegetarian Lasagna (obviously so good it didn't need a side).

Goal setting

When you're working on a big project like this house, it's helpful to set goals. You have to take things in smaller pieces and accomplish one thing at a time. Otherwise it is too overwhelming.

A week ago Jeremy started putting the wood paneling up on the ceilings. A week later, we've almost made our goal of getting the ceiling up by the end of the weekend. (There are only a couple more boards to put up to finish it.)

Of course, our other goals last week were to get the ceiling done by Friday. Then to get it done Saturday, then to get it done by the end of the weekend. So now I'm pretty sure it will get done today! Flexible goals are important.

So here's Jeremy finishing the ceiling on the bedroom side:



And then I painted the whole thing...


...while Jeremy got to work on the study side...


Then he finished that side and I painted it too


Back to the bedroom side, and Jeremy is just finishing up with that little ceiling part at the front of the house.


We got an idea from the wood guy about cutting an angle off the pieces of wood when we had to line them up. This makes it match more with the tongue-and-groove style. It's an extra cut to make, but it looks really good. Here's a detail shot - the horizontal groove is what the wood came looking like. The vertical groove is what Jeremy cut for where those two pieces of wood met.


Hopefully today Jeremy will start working on the west wall, but we've only got a couple days to work on that because we're heading to Oregon for Christmas with my family. When we get back next week there will only be a couple weeks before Jeremy gets started on mushrooms. And then we've got to start planting seeds for the garden. It's going to be even busier around here - if that's possible!

Going up!

The wood, that is. Jeremy put up some trim to start and yesterday he started putting up the wood. I'm so excited I can't stand it!

This somewhat bizarre shot is from the floor in the bedroom doorway, looking up to the ceiling. We're putting pine tongue-in-groove paneling on the walls and ceiling. We're going to be painting it white when it's done.



I didn't mention before where we got the wood from. I'm pretty sure Jeremy found this guy on Craigslist (not surprising). He lives here in Minnesota, about two hours north of us. He cuts the wood and mills it, dries it, does whatever needs to be done to turn out some fantastic wood products. We got wood ready for flooring, wood ready for the paneling, trim wood, and wood for new stairs. Jeremy and our wood guy had a conversation about supporting local business and small businesses as they were loading the wood onto the front porch.
One thing we've both really enjoyed about this wood is how real it is. Not that wood flooring/paneling from Home Depot or some such store isn't real. But it's too perfect and would never have an end that looks like this:





Our wood is beautiful and has a lot of character. It is going to mean an absolutely beautiful space to live in.

While I've got you here, just thought I'd include a couple photos of what it looks like outside. I'm so used to it, I forget other people are just getting rain or having temps in the 50s!


(good luck finding our raised beds under all that snow!)


(or any mushrooms for that matter!)

Another guessing game

It has been even longer since I talked about our quilt. I got the first two squares done in October as well as cutting out all the pieces. I think I sewed some of the triangles together but then other projects intervened. And, as any of you quilters know, a big quilt means a lot of monotony. Nothing like sewing 100 or so of the same pieces to each other, over and over and over - and then ironing, over and over and over. One must take breaks.

But I was inspired again after Christmas and took up the project again.





These were from last week and I've gotten farther along than that since then.

The big question now is, when will I finish it completely?

Jeremy is really hoping it will get done by the time we move upstairs (which could be as early as mid-February!) I'm not sure if that is possible, but I can quilt crazy-fast when the mood strikes.

My only goal is to get it done before August. If it turns out to look as cool as we're hoping, I'm thinking about entering it into the state fair.

So here's the guessing game: Everyone make a guess as to when you think I'll finish this thing. The person who comes closest to the date will get ... some sort of prize I'll think up later. =)