Something New!

Hi!

This year, I'm trying out something new: my own domain. Find me at Home Grown Basil.

Hope to see you there!

Posting from my phone TEST

This is a test of the blogger app from my phone.

I can bold the text.

Or make it italic.

I could make a link.

Now if I could figure out picture posting, I'd update nearly every day *

*not a promise or guarantee if I do figure it out.

I think I figured out pictures! This was lunch at Lemonade LA the other day. 

Chowdah, Corn Chowdah

Let’s skip the awkward, “it’s been a while” talk.

Hi!

The hubby has been bugging me about making corn chowder for about a month now. Like, twice a day, every day, type of bugging. Here’s the thing…I don’t like chowder. I generally don’t make things that I don’t like/eat.

I don’t know what came over me, but I decided to google “easy corn chowder” and a ton of recipes appeared. I was pleasantly surprised to find that you could probably make chowder with items you already have in your pantry and fridge. After looking at about 10 recipes, I decided to create my own, despite not having a clue what I was doing. I liked the freshness of some recipes that included bell peppers and fresh corn, while I liked the ease of throwing in a can of cream of mushroom to create a thicker consistency.

Here went nothing.

Ingredients

Bacon – 6 slices

Celery – 2 stalks

Corn – 2 fresh, 1 15 oz can, drained

Bell Pepper – Half of a medium size

Onion – Half of a medium size

Potatoes – 4 medium size red

Cream of mushroom soup – 1 can

Chicken broth – 1 package, approx. 14 oz

Butter – 1 tbsp.

Salt and Pepper to taste

Water

Leftover Chicken (Optional)

Corn Starch (Optional)

I began by cutting 6 strips of bacon into small pieces. I threw them into my pot over medium heat, and as they cooked, I chopped up the onion, celery, and bell pepper into a small/medium dice. Remember to stir your bacon occasionally; you don’t want it to burn. I wanted the veggies small enough to cook quickly, but big enough so you could taste and see them in the chowder. Once the bacon was cooked, I removed them with a slotted spoon and placed the bits on a paper towel to drain excess oil.

I then added butter to the bacon fat, followed by the cut onion, celery and bell pepper. You’ll want to stir this occasionally to allow the veggies to cook and keep the stove on medium heat. Season with salt and pepper. While this is cooking, cut your potatoes. I chose a larger dice. I don’t know why. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Once your onions are translucent and the veggies appear soft, it’s time to add your chicken broth and water. [Note here: I added 4 cups of water, and my chowder remained a bit on the brothy side. In hindsight, I should have only added 2-3 cups to get a more thick, recognizable, chowder consistency] Add your potatoes, add some salt and pepper, and turn the heat to high. I wanted a low boil, to cook the potatoes half way quickly, since they’d sit in the pot for a while.

While the potatoes are cooking, cut your fresh corn. Reality is, you don’t need fresh corn, canned

corn on its own would have been fine. I thought some fresh corn would make the chowder….fresh.

Anyway, be careful when cutting corn off the cob. It will fly EVERYWHERE. Try one of those hacks with inverted bowls or a bundt pan. Otherwise, you’ll have corn all over the counter, floor, and yourself. After the potatoes have been low boiling for about 5 minutes, reduce the heat to medium/low, and add the fresh corn, canned corn, cream of mushroom soup, and half of your cooked bacon. Mix well. Taste. Add more salt and pepper if necessary. I left this on the stove on low heat for about 30 minutes. The potatoes were soft, some of the smaller pieces disintegrated, that’s ok.

Use leftover bacon to garnish the top of the soup.

Optional

 I found the consistency to be too brothy, so I made a corn starch slurry (equal parts corn starch and cold water in a bowl, stirred) and added it in and allowed it thicken up with the heat off for 10 minutes.

I had leftover chicken thighs from the previous night’s dinner, so I chopped up the meat and added it to the chowder when I added the corn and cream of mushroom soup.

End Result

I thought the flavor was good, and my husband loved it. Chowder still isn’t for me though.

This was easy enough to make, and fairly inexpensive. I estimate my total price (including chicken) to be $13, for roughly 8 huge servings. I would definitely make this again, for a chowder loving crowd.

Try it and let me know if you like it!

Your Mama’s Salsa

No really.

The salsa I’m making here is my go to recipe. It’s likely the same kind of salsa your mama made, if your mama made salsa. I think the success of this recipe lies in its simplicity. There’s a great depth of flavor thanks to the roasting of a few ingredients, and brightness due to the onion, lime, and cilantro. I get a lot of compliments on this recipe. It's super easy and great to take to potlucks.

Now that I've hyped this salsa up, let’s get to it.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Ingredients:

Tomatoes (5-6 Reg or 10-11 Roma)

2 Jalapenos

3 Garlic Cloves

1 medium yellow onion

1 bunch of cilantro

1 lime

Salt, to taste

Canola Oil (approx. ½ tbsp.)

Place tomatoes, jalapenos, and garlic in an oven safe dish. Toss with oil. I've estimated the oil here. Really, a little goes a long way. You want just enough to coat everything.

Roast for 20 minutes, until the skin begins to blister and peels off easily. If the skin hasn't begun to separate from the tomato, leave in the oven longer. Ideally you don't want to go longer than 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool. Once cooled, peel skin off of tomatoes and jalapenos. Add tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic, juice of the lime, and salt to a food processor. Blend until smooth. You may have to do this in 2 batches due to the capacity of your food processor. Make sure to taste once

blended, this is your opportunity to add more lime or salt, depending on your taste. You may also want to start with one jalapeno in your mixture and then taste for heat level. Some jalapenos are spicier than others and you never know what you're going to get. If you are anti-spicy, after you peel the skin off of the jalapeno, slice the jalapeno length wise, and remove all of the seeds and ribs before

blending in the food processor. The flip side is also true; feel free to add more jalapeno if you want it really spicy, but I find two works for most people. I like the flavor of the jalapeno, but serrano peppers work here too.

While you're waiting for everything to cool, it's best to dice your onion and cilantro. I prefer a finer dice. I use the entire onion and the full bunch of cilantro. Once diced, throw both into a bowl. Go for a medium to medium/large bowl. This makes a lot of salsa.

Once your tomato mix is blended, add to the onion and cilantro bowl. Mix. Done.

Eat with chips.

Add to anything and everything.

Tip: My grandmother has always told me that you only want to use wooden spoons when mixing or scooping your salsa, so it won't get watery. I don't know if it's true, but why chance it? Use a wooden spoon.

Tip 2: Keep covered, in the refrigerator. I'd say it lasts about a week, but I don't know since we've never had any left on day 7.

Enjoy!

I scream, you scream...for Lemon Basil Ice Cream

Hello Robyn's faithful blog readers!

My name is Inez and will be guest blogging today. A little about me: I'm your modern day homemaker, I love food, I talk a lot, and I watch lots of reality TV. 

Still with me? Awesome. 

A few weeks ago, I sent Robyn home with lemons and she made an amazing lemon sorbet. I was inspired by her blog post and knew I wanted something equally fabulous. 

So, there are some things that I always have an abundance of at home.

Complaining children.
Shows to watch on the DVR.
Dishes that need to be washed.
Lemons.
And Basil.

So I thought, hey, two birds one stone, make Lemon Basil Ice Cream. I googled. I found this site, and it seemed easy enough. I didn't have enough heavy cream, so I adjusted slightly to 1.5 cups of heavy cream and 1.5 cups of milk.

Before you start, make sure your ice cream maker base has been in the freezer at least 12 hours.

Ingredients

1.5 cups heavy cream
1.5 cups 2% milk
1.5 cups basil
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 pinch of salt
5 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar

I started by adding the cream, milk, basil, lemon zest, and salt to a medium sized pot. I turned the heat to medium low and stirred constantly. Two things here, 1) I wanted to get the mixture just to boiling then turn it off, and 2) I didn't want the bottom to burn. I was cautious with my heat setting and it took about 7 minutes to get to a boil. As soon as it boiled, I immediately turned off the heat and let the mixture infuse for 20 minutes.

While that mixture sat, I separated my eggs. This recipe, like most ice creams only calls for the yolks. That doesn't mean you should throw away your egg whites! There are so many things you can do with them. I chose to make some macaroons (see below) with mine.

Once separated, add sugar and whisk, whisk, whisk. The mixture becomes very creamy and will have a pretty light yellow color to it.

Set aside.

Put the mixture in a blender and blend.

The next step is the trickiest and could ruin the whole process. Temper your eggs. Add warm liquid to the sugary eggs a little at a time while whisking constantly. Adding too much too quick, not whisking, or having too hot liquid, will result in scrambled eggs. Which would be great if we weren't making ice cream. Once the eggs and cream mixture are fully whisked together, add the whole mixture back to the pot over low heat. Stir constantly. At this point, you're thickening the base. Stir constantly so it doesn't scorch the bottom. You'll know it's ready when you can coat the back of a spatula or spoon with the mixture. For added reassurance, run your finger through the mixture on the back of the spoon that you coated, and if the track you made stays, it's plenty thick.

Once it's ready, it's not ready. Let the mixture cool down. You don't want to add super hot liquid to your ice cream maker. I let the mixture sit for about 15 minutes. It was in that time I made the macaroons that I'll talk about soon.

Once cool, I added the mixture to the ice cream maker and let it churn away. I allowed the mixture to churn for about 45-50 minutes. The consistency should be somewhat thick and creamy. If it's runny, keep churning. Don't forget that the base should be in the freezer until about 1 minute before you need to use it. If it's not frozen and super cold, it won't make ice cream. Once it was done churning, I put the mixture into these containers that I love and use for everything. Make sure you allow at least 12 hours to freeze.

While that churned, I decided to give this Coconut Macaroon recipe a try with the leftover egg whites I had. The recipe was super simple, and only required a wooden spoon and some elbow grease. These were delicious and gone by that night.

This recipe can be made from start to finish (minus preheating the oven) in about 22 minutes.

This is a good, go-to, easy, delicious recipe to have on hand, and deserves it's own blog post! Soon, promise.



Back to the ice cream. Here it is in all of it's glory. I won't lie to you. I have mixed feelings about it. It's immediately sharp in taste, but creamy, and then you get a hint of sweet. It's not as sweet as you normally imagine ice cream to be. I think next time I would strain the mixture to not have itty bitty pieces of basil throughout and maybe some sweetened condensed milk just to make it a tad sweeter.

Enjoy!