The old Dutch

Chicken corn chowder. Something I never even heard of until I moved to this particular part of Pennsylvania and even then, not until I was served some through an event at my children's school. I have not seen it elsewhere (not that I would have noticed if the truth be told) and I suspect it must somehow have some dutch/Amish roots perhaps to it as they have some historical influences in our area. I can't say that this is my favorite soup, far from it, but is one that is almost like a stew and well suited for this on going cold snap...if one can call this current period a 'snap' rather than just plain old wintertime. I like snow, I really do...you can readily see that from my other blog. I love it's quiet, sparkling decent from the sky, the way it lays on and decorates our trees and softly sculpts the ground so beautifully with rounded contours. That being said, I really am not that fond of the winter... meaning the bitter cold and the non-snow grays and browns that surround me when the earth is bare. I know those that are... those that are 'invigorated' by it and enjoy the icy blast into their nostrils, but I am definitively more of a summer person myself, preferring to be warm, and although I enjoy wearing a fun sweater, a good scarf and hat when necessary, I would rather be found sporting sandals and a short sleeved shirt.

Given my choice, I would have preferred to prepare what I call my "Savory Venison Stew", but not having the opportunity to hunt this year, I have no supply of deer and thus no stew. So... this soup was born out of what I happened to have on hand, was inexpensive, hearty and pretty tasty once I was done, which completed the mandate for a cold evening. In addition to the potatoes, bits of red pepper, corn, spices and grilled chicken, I added some asparagus for color and vitamins and because I love asparagus and because it was on sale. Sitting down to eat, in honor of our meal's imagined origins, we peppered our conversation with some local old time verbal flavorings, like ending a sentence with "don't ya know" or "as far as that goes". Doing so, I almost felt like changing my name to Amos... well... not really.

In it's pot bound infancy on it's way towards the bowl.