Potato and Ham Chowder

There's this personality test called Myers Briggs.  It shows you how you relate to the world around you.  Introvert/extrovert.  Do you recharge by having alone time or being with others?  Sensing/intuitive.  Do you do well figuring it out or are you better having everything in black and white?  Thinking/feeling.  Head vs heart.  And, judgment/perceptive.  How do you make decisions?  Do you work on consensus then waffle or do you look at the facts and make a decision and stick to it?  I'm absolutely an extrovert.  A party at our house finishes up and I'm dancing around fully charged because I've spent time with SO many people.  Connie has gone to his corner to plug in and recharge.  Please do not disturb.  When it comes to making decisions I do the normal female thing and talk it through with Connie and sometimes my friends.  He takes that to be the judgment side.  It isn't.  Because once I make a decision it's tough to budge me.  That's exactly what happened here.  I read Rebekah's index of soups and stews and knew immediately what I wanted to make.  No reading of other recipes.  No trolling her blog.  Just THE ONE.  Potato and ham chowder. 

I LOVE soup.  Connie, not so much.  Needless to say, I was thrilled to see the subject for this month's Blogger C.L.U.E. Society.  And, I was equally thrilled to see that my assigned blog was Rebekah's.  Let's start with the Albert Einstein quote on her home page:  "There are two ways to live your life.  One as though nothing is a miracle and the other as if everything is a miracle."  That tells me that Rebekah is one of those glass half full search for the good kind of folks. 

Now, I just had to take a peek at some of her recipes to see what else was there.  To give you some good ideas, you know...  Cinnamon pear muffins.   Six flavor bundt cake.  I know, they sound fabulous.  No clue here when I'll need to make a dessert again but the bundt cake will be in the running.  And, the muffins may just get made next week.  Unfortunately, I've cooked for the last time this week...  We've got three theatre dates, a wine education class with appetizers, a farewell party for one of our favorite chefs, a Super Bowl party and a late night for me at my Columbus office.  Grocery shopping for Connie was easy this week - lunch fixings!  Then, there's the cheeseburger potato bacon soup.  It looks a lot like my beloved cheeseburger soup from Scotty's Brewhouse.  I've never added bacon to that and will do so next time I make it.  But, I stuck to my guns and made the potato and ham chowder.  Here's a link to Rebekah's original recipe:  Potato and ham chowder.

I did make one change to the recipe.  Since I regularly save chicken bones to make my own stock, I used chicken stock instead of water and bouillon.  Saves a bunch of sodium too...

What did we think?  This was super flavorful and creamy.  Because Connie loves cheese, I added a bunch of shredded cheddar before serving the soup.  That did up the score for us!

Here's how you make the soup:

Potato and Ham Chowder

Ingredients:

3 1/2 c potatoes, peeled and diced

1/3 c celery, diced

1/3 c onion, finely diced

3/4 c cooked ham, diced

3 1/4 c chicken stock

1/2 t salt, or to taste

1 teaspoon ground pepper, or to taste

5 T butter

5 T all-purpose flour

2 c milk

 

Directions:

 

Add the potatoes, celery, onions, ham and stock to a stockpot.  Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.  In a small saucepan, melt the butter.  Add the flour and cook for about 5 minutes or until the roux is a very light golden brown.  Slowly whisk in the milk.  Once the cream sauce has thickened, pour it into the other mixture.  At this point, you can add herbs to taste.  Or cheese. 


Here are links to the other soups and stews for this month: 

 

• Sue from A Palatable Pastime
• Lauren from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Rebekah from Making Miracles
• Kathy from A Spoonful of Thyme
• Debra from Eliot's Eats
• Jean from Lemons and Anchovies
• Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Anna from annaDishes
• Lea Ann from Cooking on the Ranch
• Azmina from Lawyer Loves Lunch
• Christy from Confessions of a Culinary Diva
• Lisa from Authentic Suburban Gourmet
• Stacy from Food Lust People Love
• Heather from All Roads Lead to the Kitchen
• Christiane from Taking on Magazines
• Kate from Kate's Kitchen
• Karen from Lavender and Lovage
• Amy from Amy's Cooking Adventures