New Recipe

Dana offered me some delicious soup after our bike ride a couple of weeks ago. It was so good that I asked for the recipe and made it for dinner tonight. We're having the soup along with salad and three-cheese semolina bread loaf from the bakery.
Here's the recipe:

Cheddar-Corn Chowder
1 pound uncooked bacon, diced
1 large Spanish onion, peeled and diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 medium red bliss potatoes, diced into 3/4 inch cubes
6 cups chicken stock
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 cans (16 oz each) whole kernel corn, drained
2 cans (16 oz each) creamed corn
1 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated
2 cups heavy cream
4 dashes Worcestershire sauce
Kasher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 bunches of scallions, sliced

Heat the stockpot over medium-high heat and add the bacon. Cook the bacon until brown and crispy. Remove the bacon from the pot and set aside on paper towels to drain. Discard all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon drippings. Add the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic to the drippings and saute for 5 mintues. Add the potatoes, stock, cayenne pepper, and coriander. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 35 minutes. Add the whole kernel corn, creamed corn, cheese, and cream. Simmer an additional 7 minutes. Season with the Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Stir in the scallions and crispy bacon pieces.

Makes 10-12 servings. (I made a half-recipe tonight, left out the celery and scallions, and it still turned out great.)

Of course, you may be wondering how I had the time to make this on a school night. The fact is, I was feeling so overwhelmed with everything I had to do at school and home, and I was waking up every morning with a sore throat, that I decided to take a sick day today and have a little recovery time. I spent the day by sleeping in (7:30pm to 7:00am), running errands, cooking, and working on the computer while perched on the couch watching Hairspray. A much needed day to myself!