Chowdah Weather

As a New Englander, I think of one thing when I see the snow flakes start to fall- my grandmother’s chowders.  She loved chowders and when I was a little girl she would cook up a pot for our family quite frequently.   Clam chowder, fish chowder and then there was her corn chowder.   It wasn’t my favorite dinner as a child but as an adult I enjoy trying seafood chowders at different restaurants.  As the snow started to fall this afternoon I decided to make myself a bowl of seafood chowder for lunch.

Last fall I called my mom and asked her how she and her mother used to make chowders.  Turns out it is so easy to do.  I’ve made it a few times now and I think I’ve come up with a method that works for me.  I’ve taken Gram’s ideas and my mom’s and brother’s and created my chowder.

I finely diced an onion and sautéed in a large saucepan with olive oil and some butter.  Yes, real butter.  I cut back fat elsewhere.   I seasoned with a bit of sea salt, fresh pepper and a dash of Old Bay.  Gram would have added a bit of finely diced salt pork to the pot.  I tried adding some bacon one time but I didn’t like the taste – too strong.  So I skip that ingredient.

While onions hang out in pan I peeled and diced up 2 to 3 small potatoes.   I tossed them into pan and stirred around.   Next I added about a cup of water.  You want to cover the potatoes but the goal is to have the right amount of water later on-  you do not want too much at this point.  If necessary you could add more later.  Cover pot with lid.

When the potatoes were about halfway cooked I took a piece of frozen white fish and stuck it into the liquid.  I added about a cup each of frozen baby scallops and baby shrimp [peeled and prepped kind].   Cover pot and let that hang out until the white fish was thawed and cooked halfway through.   Then I added some fat-free half and half.   Pour and stir till it looks like the consistency you want.  Put cover back on and gently warm through and finish cooking fish.    Duly noted of course that Gram used cream.    I added a couple dashes of worcestershire sauce as my brother suggested.  Not too much – balanced flavors is the key.

In her chowders it was canned clams or fresh haddock pieces.  She used cream style corn for the corn chowders.  The basic process remains the same.   And naturally you should be topping your bowl of chowder with some oyster crackers. 

This chowder makes 3 good servings – with lots of fish in each bowl.  Nothing is worse than seafood chowder that is all potatoes in your bowl.  Which is why I finally learned how to make my own.  Enjoy!

That Easy Bake Oven

I was relaxing with a television program the other night.  Some sitcom that happened to be on.  Well, two of the characters were middle-aged women who found an old Easy Bake Oven and some mixes in a closet.  They began oohing and ahhing over the thrill of making a cake with a light bulb.  I burst out laughing.   There is a story running through my life about that old easy bake oven. 

When I was a little girl I desperately wanted one of those easy bake ovens.  The commercials made it seem so enticing.  But my parents held firm to their believe that if I wanted to make a cake I could learn how to use the oven in our kitchen.  Don’t get me wrong – I was hardly deprived.  I had MANY other toys.  But that Easy Bake Oven was the one that got away. 

So at age nine my grandmother took me into the kitchen and taught me how to make a cake from scratch.  I was a bit naïve as to what that meant.  It all seemed glamorous at the start.  Until I started beating the batter in that giant bowl for 800 – 1,000 strokes with a wooden spoon.  Just when it became apparent that my little arm may actually fall off my Gram took over the beating process.  But after it was mixed she quickly gave full control back over to me.

It’s funny that I remember spending that time in the kitchen with my grandmother.  I remember how we greased the pans with Crisco, lined the pan with cut out circles of wax paper and finally tapped flour all around inside.   I remember learning how to scrape the batter out with a rubber spatula so none was wasted.  And later scooping up leftover icing from the bowl with our fingers.  But I can’t recall what the finished cake looked like.  Nor serving it to the family or what it tasted like.  It was all about the process and spending time with my Gram.

Many years later my brother-in-law and sister found an Easy Bake Oven at a yard sale and gift-wrapped it at Christmas time as a little joke gift.  When I opened it my inner child was initially excited and asked if it really worked?  Alas, no.  Just a joke.  Hmmm   then it’s less exciting.   A few years after that my sister decided that my niece was old enough for an Easy Bake Oven.   I was so excited to purchase one and make a pan of brownies with her one Christmas.  But they had changed the toy by that point and I didn’t feel it worked as well as ‘the one that got away.’

Then last year, after my husband died, I was making toast one morning and the toaster just stopped working.  Seriously?  Now I’ve got to buy a new one.   I had fond memories of my husband and I picking out that toaster.  It was one of the first things we bought together to use up at our getaway cottage.  It was one of the first things we packed to bring to our new home when we sold the cottage.   After some research I replaced it with a small toaster oven.  As the months went on I found myself using that toaster oven all the time.  I rarely turned on the brand new gas oven across the room.   The little pans were the perfect size for meals for one. 

One day I realized that I had my easy bake oven after all.  It just took a few extra decades to arrive.   I think that God usually provides the things we want.  It just may not be when or how we expected them.   And in the meantime, while waiting, I had some really special moments all surrounding that easy bake oven or the lack thereof.   Moments I wouldn’t trade.  I think perhaps that oven arrived at the perfect time.