Cheddar Corn Chowder

As I’ve said before, making soup has never been my thing. However, I’m working at it. I’ve had some good luck over the past 6 months with the few recipes I’ve chosen and with this recipe added to my soup repertoire, I feel like I’m on a streak! Yeah baby!

There’s no special story behind this recipe (don’t be sad!). Although, I should have taken a picture of Kyle pouring over my cookbooks Friday afternoon as we were making the menu for this week – it really was a cute sight. With all the snow we had on Friday (8 inches), I felt like another soup would be appropriate for the menu this week. I opened up Ina’s Barefoot Contessa at Home and flipped right to this recipe. Choose a soup…done!

Another Ina soup recipe…another great soup success! This one was great! I used frozen corn (which I think I would use in the summer too because it was so easy!) and the whole soup came together rather easily. It was the perfect consistency for both of us for a chowder and I didn’t feel like I need to add more cream than the recipe called for in order to thicken it up. It was just perfect. The bacon as a garnish was the perfect accompaniment to the soup. Before making this, I’m not sure I’d ever eaten a corn chowder that impressed me, but this one blew us both out of the water. I halved this recipe and it still made a ton! You must try it!!

[Side note: All of the ingredients that I used were organic (except the spices) and the bacon was all-natural. I must say that I’m just loving the fact that I can find such a wide variety of organic foods in my regular grocery store; it keeps the cost of eating organically way down and is just so convenient! I’m really looking forward to the farmer’s markets opening up in the coming months so we can incorporate more local foods into our meals.]

source: Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa at Home

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 40-45 minutes

Serves: 10-12