Foodie Friday: One of our past recipes =) Corn Chowder

*Sigh*

I love Fall weather. The landscapes turn beautiful colors. Sweaters are pulled out of the closet. The stove can be used to create wonderful concoctions without turning the kitchen into a sweat shop. Yes, I think I like Fall.

On the menu this week was Homemade Corn Chowder. I was excited to make soup, espcially today since it's been nice and gloomy. I also made homemade Bread Bowls. More so because I was lazy and forgot to buy some at the store, but I saved some money & some labor because I used my bread machine to make the dough. I found out that I could do any bread dough recipe, so of course I chose our favorite White/Wheat recipe.

The bread turned out perfect!

Corn Chowder

Printable Recipe found HERE:

First off, I diced up a whole onion & some sweet bell peppers.

Next, I sauteed the veggies in some EVOO & a little bit of S&P.

I let them get all soft, because I have a thing with raw onions & peppers. I don't like them that way. They must be cooked!

Next, I measured out 3 cups of frozen corn.

And then added them to the pot. I wanted this to be CORN chowder, so of course lots of the main star.

Now to get a more creamy soup, I added in 2 tbls of flour. After stirring everything together, make sure you let it cook for a couple of seconds.

I then measured out 4 cups of milk {I used Skim-because that's how I roll}, but I only used 3 cups. I slowly poured a little bit at a time, scraping the bottom & mixing everything together. I just watched the consistency. The ratio of "broth" to veggies was good to me at 3 cups, but if you want more broth, just add more milk.

Next, I turned the stove down, and stuck the lid on top, and let it all mingle together for 30 minutes {stirring every so often}.

If I haven't said it before, I love these dutch ovens. Every cook should have one in their arsenal.

After the 30 minutes, take a taste to test the seasonings. I thought it was good in general {meaning the younger kids}, but I did shake on some pepper on my individual serving.

And there you go. Yummy, comforting corn chowder. And the bread bowls worked perfectly.

The soup made the bottom of the bowls creamy and delicious!

This is such an easy & simple recipe to make. So if you make it, I hope you enjoy it!

You can find this awesome post linked up to the following Fantastic Parties:

DIY Thursday: Nursing Cover

Since we have a little girl on the way in December (I'm not as creative at announcing these things as Whitney is so I didn't do a cute announcement) I needed to replenish my stock of baby essentials.  One of these was  a nursing cover.  For some reason, once I was done nursing my little boy, I got rid of my nursing covers....even knowing that I still wanted at least one more kid.  I did this with a lot of things....I think it was my subconscious planning ahead so I would have a good excuse to buy more baby stuff.  Anywho....so one of the things on my list was a nursing cover.  I remember when I had my daughter and then my son, that all the nursing covers seem too short, the baby always kicked it off or it barely covered.  Also, it left my back open for all too see....which wasn't a pretty site because we all know how lovely our figures look after having a baby (and if you are one of the lucky ones that went home from the hospital in your pre-pregnancy clothes, I don't want to hear or I will hunt you down and force feed you Twinkies and ding dongs until you gain 50 pounds! =)  )  As i looked around at covers, they were expensive....$30 for a square piece of fabric?!  So I visited the lovely world of pinterest.  I found my solution!!!!  Here is the Original nursing cover tutorial.  I love how she calls it the "Bomb shelter."  It is pretty much a shawl.  It covers the front and back and you can make it as long as you want!!  Yay!!!  No more unsightly back shots!  And it covers enough that you could easily use it while nursing at a restaurant, park, mall, where ever, and not worry abut exposing yourself.  I would highly suggest going to the original sight because she explains it really well, but I will do my best to explain what I did too.  This is an easy project that beginners can make.

I went to my local craft store (Joann's) and found some cute fabric.  The original blog said 1.5 yards but I wanted to make sure mine would really cover, so I got 2 yards.  Of course I used a coupon so I think my total was $5-$6 (much better than $30!!!!)

Once I got my fabric, I pinned a hem around it.  I think I did somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2....I eye balled but if you are really particular, you can use one of those nifty hem measurement thingies

Then sew it.  I used a zig zag stitch.  I knew it would show through on the other side so I wanted a stitch that wouldn't be as noticeable since I don't sew the straightest.

Then I folded it in half, and measured half way to figure out where I wanted the neck hole.   I think I started out with making it around 10 inches wide, and then measured about 1 1/2 inches down. I made it small and then tried it on to see how I liked it, and then expanded it a bit.  If you make an oops and make it too big, you can easily pin and sew the corners so it isn't as wide.  It is very forgiving.  I then hemmed the hole.  Feel free to add decorative ribbon if you want, but I left mine plain since the fabric was busy enough. 

It kinda looked like a football.  If you are crafty or ambitious enough, you could add the plastic to make the collar stick out, but it always gets misshapen with me so I just avoid it. 

This is it laying down, the neck really isn't that wide.  If you really want, you could round the edges, but I wanted it simple as possible and didn't want to worry about that.

I laid it out so you could see.  Pretty much all you have to do with this is cut a hole in the middle of a square piece of fabric.  this is super easy to do!!!

Here is me kneeling down modeling it.  I think it will cover me plenty and cover the baby. =)  I'm sure my instructions aren't the clearest so please visit the link I put above to get much better instructions.  Have fun!  If I can do it, anyone can =)

You can find this awesome post linked up to the following Fantastic Parties:

Wild card Wednesday: Sock bun curls

Sock bun curls

I keep seeing all these soft curls on Pinterest so I thought that I would start trying them and see how they work. You will need a sock and cut off the toe. Put your hair in a high pony tail and get it damp. Take the sock and  you will roll it up in your hair and sleep in it and in the morning it should look something like this.

This is the video that I watched and It is so much easier to watch that then to explain it.

 This is me and our little girl. We are exited for her to come. She might already be here by the time this post goes up. Just thought I would share my last pregnancy picture with you.
Hope you enjoy your sock curls.

You can find this awesome post linked up to the following Fantastic Parties: