Corn Chowder

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A late holiday recipe- we made this Christmas day, evening. After our huge brunch we decided just to do soups and sandwiches for dinner and it still ended up being a huge meal. Between calico beans, szechuan avocado salad, corned beef, turkey, butternut squash soup and this corn chowder we were well set for dinner. I think this is gluten free (my uncle who has celiac disease didn't have any trouble with it) but no guarantees.  It's also good for those picky people as it doesn't have any wacky ingredients.

Corn Chowder
Note: You could use fresh corn if making this in the summer, but as it was the dead of winter (we were literally snowed in), all I had was canned. I used red potatoes, b/c they were on hand, but any kind of potato will do here; you also don't HAVE to peel them, I was trying to please my audience. You can choose to use olive oil instead of reserving bacon grease, but this isn't a low fat recipe anyway and the grease adds more smoky, bacon-y flavor. It takes A LOT of salt to flavor this guy b/c of all the milk and potatoes, but add to your desired saltiness. Last but not least I like to crumble the bacon individually for each bowl to avoid sogginess, but you could do the whole pot (as above) too.

4 cans (12oz) sweet kernel corn
1 pkg (16oz?) bacon
2c. whole milk
1c heavy cream
1 small onion, diced
4-5 stalks celery, diced
2-3 small red potatoes, peeled and diced
4-6T salt
2t coarse black pepper
2T butter

Cook bacon until crispy in a large skillet.  Remove to paper towels to drain. Reserve 2T of grease in the skillet and transfer 2T of grease to a large soup pot. In pot, add celery, onions and potatoes. Cook over low heat stirring frequently to avoid sticking to bottom of pot, you want to have them crisp tender by when the corn mix is done. Add 1/2 the corn to skillet. Stir over medium heat for 5-10 min or until heated through. Add milk and cream and puree with an immersion blender. Add remaining (unpureed) corn to soup pot, followed by puree. Stir all together well and bring just to a simmer. Add butter and allow to melt. Season with salt and pepper. Serve topped with crumbled bacon.