Adventures in the Kitchen: Crockpot Corn Chowder

Hurray for Friday! After a long week, I just don't feel like cooking at times. Enter the amazing invention; the Crock Pot (or slow cooker, whatever term you prefer). Just throw some stuff in the pot, turn it on low while you are at work and you come home to a meal! Its brilliant and I want to shake the hand of the person who invented it!

I figured, after the chilly week we have had here in Florida (Yes, I was cold, don't judge me) I thought coming home to a crock pot filled with corn chowder would be a great idea!

The recipe I found was from crockingirls.com. This recipe had been sitting in my Pinterest space for a while. Very simple recipe, just adding the ingredients, letting it cook, adding a couple more and then it is done. I relative novice chef shouldn't mess that up!

First: the Ingredients: 

• 6-8 potatoes (peeled and diced)
• 1 Can cream corn 
• 1 Can whole kernel corn
• 2 Cups chicken broth
• 8 Ounces diced ham
• 1 Cups diced onions
• 1/4 Cups butter
• 2 Cups half and half

For the potatoes, I cut them up the night before. The ones I found were pretty large

so I only used 3 of them. In hindsight, I could have probably done with one more, but I was happy with my choice. Both varieties of corn were Del Monte as they were buy one, get one free at Publix. For the chicken broth, I actually used chicken stock as it is supposed to have more flavor than just regular broth. This seemed to work just as well for me. It was an all natural version called Kitchen Basics. The diced ham was also a natural version, no MSGs, by Cumberland Gap. They actually had a pre-diced version that was exactly 8 ounces, which made it very easy to just dump into the pot. The butter was Target brand and the half and half was from Organic Valley, a perfect pint size. 

The Directions: 

Adding the ingredients

1. Put the potatoes, both cans of corn, chicken broth, diced ham and onion into the crock pot. 

2. Cook on low for 7-8 hours

3. Mash the mixture to your desired consistency and then add the butter and half and half.

4. Cook for 30 minutes on high and then serve. 

After 9 hours cooking

When I woke up this morning, it took a total of 8 minutes to put the crock pot bag in the pot, open everything, pour it into the pot and turn it on low. It was great! I then left and forgot about it. As my day at work had to start a little earlier than usual, my chowder ended up being in the pot for almost 9 hours, but that did not seem to change anything about the recipe.

When I got home, the house smelled great! I went into the kitchen, stirred the contents and then mashed it up a bit. (I love my Farberware utensils, I have a Nylon Basting Spoon and masher from them and they work great!) I don't think this had to be done, but I cut my butter up into chunks and threw it in the pot with the cream. After a half hour on high, I poured some into a bowl and had probably the best dinner I had all week!

After adding the butter and Half and Half

I ate it just the way it came out of the crock pot, but some may want to add some salt and/or pepper to theirs, all depends on your taste. 

If you are interested in the calories, according to MyFitnessPal when I plugged it in with my ingredients, it said this dish would be 383 Calories for 6 servings.  After spooning it out and putting the rest of the chowder into containers, I am thinking that I may be getting 8 servings out of it, but we will see. 

Would I recommend this recipe? Absolutely!! I plan on saving it to my recipe book on my tablet and would definitely make this again!

What are your thoughts on my first Adventure in the Kitchen? Have you made this before? What would you have done differently? Please leave comments below and let me know your thoughts! 

Crockpot Corn Chowder

Servings 6-8

• 6-8 potatoes (peeled and diced)
• 1 Can cream corn 
• 1 Can whole kernel corn
• 2 Cups chicken broth
• 8 Ounces diced ham
• 1 Cups diced onions
• 1/4 Cups butter
• 2 Cups half and half

The Directions: 

1. Put the potatoes, both cans of corn, chicken broth, diced ham and onion into the crock pot. 

2. Cook on low for 7-8 hours

3. Mash the mixture to your desired consistency and then add the butter and half and half.

4. Cook for 30 minutes on high and then serve. 

Adventures in the Kitchen: Intro to my Kitchen

I have always loved cooking. When I was little, I found an basic pound cake recipe in one of my mothers cookbooks and after making it a couple times, decided that I could make it better. I tweaked the recipe to make a vanilla pound cake, a rainbow pound cake and a cinnamon pound cake.

My pride and joy :)

I took chef's classes in high school and loved every minute of it. I was even in the FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America) and competed in cake decorating and table setting (winning bronze and gold respectively).  In those classes, I first worked with a KitchenAid Mixer and fell in love. I kept telling my mother I wanted one and she told me when I got my first place she would buy me one. It took 8 years for that to finally become a reality.

The kitchen is just a happy place to be in my opinion and creating something delicious out of a bunch of  random ingredients is quite a fun science (and the closest I will get to being good at a real science)

So, why post about my little self's cooking past? Well, I figure that if I want you to read and take my cooking and ideas seriously, you should know my background and where I come from. I am no chef school graduate nor a food critic, I just enjoy cooking and want to share what I learn along the way.

Some facts about my kitchen:

• I like to try to cook healthy, but there will be no guarantee that every recipe that I make will be. 
• Desserts can be big in this house (especially when Mike is visiting), plus I just love to bake!
• I have been working towards trying to use organic products and products without MSGs, however,
• I am a poor teacher that lives on my own and organic can be expensive! I will be specific in my ingredients what I am using
• Also on the poor teacher route, there are few name brands or products that I am 100% loyal to (I tend to go store brand or what is on sale), I will label those as I come across them
• I love kitchen gadgets! If you know any good ones, comment away!
• Recipes that I make come from everywhere; cookbooks, Pinterest, friends and just the internet. 

I hope you enjoy the recipes that I will soon be posting and if you have any suggestions of things you would like to see please send me an email at jadisney12@gmail.com or leave a comment below!