Salmon Chowder

I had the opportunity to help my school's booster club make some salmon chowder recently.  I had never had it before, but man oh man.  I am a salmon chowder fan now!  My goal, after helping put it together, was to come home and perfect the recipe and write it down!  So, first step was to go to the grocery store and get all the ingredients. 

I then set to work, washing and chopping. 

After everything was chopped, cooked and ready to go, I started on the liquid portion of the soup. 

Once it was warmed up and started thickening up, I added the potato/celery/onion/garlic, bacon, and salmon.  I let it simmer for several hours to further thicken up and let the flavors mix together.  (It smelled WONDERFUL in the house!!)  We then dished it up and enjoyed!  I have to say, one of my children NEVER eats any seafood of any sort, loves this chowder. 

Here is the recipe:

 

Salmon Chowder

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Salmon
• 2 ½ lbs red potatoes
• 1 lb bacon
• ½ stalk of celery
• ½ onion
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 2-3 pats of butter
• ½ gallon milk (2% or whole)
• ½ gallon of half and half
• chicken base
• dried dill
• cornstarch (for thickening)

Directions:

Salmon:  Prep the salmon by putting 2-3 pats of butter, 2 cloves of minced garlic and sprinkling dried dill on top.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes

Bacon:  Cut into small pieces and cook until crisp.  Reserve the bacon grease.

Vegetables:  Dice up the celery and onion.  Mince the 4 remaining cloves of garlic.   Wash and cut up the red potatoes into bite size pieces.  (Leave the skin on)

Cook the potatoes, celery, onion and garlic in the reserved bacon grease until el dente.

In a large pot, put in 2 tablespoons of the chicken base with 2 cups of water.  Add ½ gallon of milk and ½ gallon half and half.  Bring up to a simmer and then thicken with cornstarch mixture.  (I used about a cup of cornstarch, add water until all stirred together) Add the cooked vegetables, bacon and salmon.  Add salt, pepper and dill to taste.  Simmer for 1-3 hours.

Christmas Wishes

This time of year I always get philosophical and think about some of my greatest wishes and desires. There is the usual; wish to do some things on my bucket list, go on some grand vacation, visit with family I have never met, go exploring, etc etc...
What is on your bucket list?? I call my list Twenty Wishes, which I got from a Debbie Macomber book I read. Do you realize how hard it was finding 20 things to put down on a list? The first 15, 16 were pretty easy, it's the last couple I really had to think on for WEEKS!
I have yet to do anything on my list. Number 7 on my list is to help someone in need. So, my goal that I want to set into motion for next year is to bless at least one family, have a dinner for friends/strangers, whoever. I want to spread some Christmas joy!

Here is my Twenty Wishes:

1. Learn how to ballroom dance
2. Take dressage lessons
3. Road trip to ghost towns around the U.S.
4. Safari in Africa
5. Enlarge and frame my pictures
6. Get together with old friends
7. Help someone in need
8. Do a dude ranch experience
9. Go to a Parelli workshop in Colorado
10. Go back to school
11. Buy a vehicle I want
12. Get another tattoo
13. Not care what anyone thinks about me
14. Volunteer at an animal resue
15. Volunteer at the kid's school
16. Learn how to line dance
17. Drive a Dodge Viper
18. Go to a national horse show
19. Meet someone famous
20. Have my dream home

Ugh, 4 year olds...

My youngest child's favorite words lately are "stupid head" and "I hate you". I don't get special treatment, he says this to everyone in the family. Why do they choose those words?? Why couldn't he choose maybe the simple, "NO" or maybe "I don't want to". Marcus and I had forgotten that all the kids went through this faze....and we must have had selective memories, to have 4 kids. :) He has his sweet moments. Out of the blue he will come up to me and give me a hug, a kiss, and say, "I wuv you mommy." That just makes my heart melt.

A New Chapter

It was a bitter sweet day today. This morning we went over to our neighbors house to help them load their moving van up. Shortly after that they pulled out and honked their horns as they were leaving. They were some of the best neighbors anyone could ask for, they were there when we moved in 9 years ago. Of course I got teary eyed as we saw them leaving. That was the bitter part of the day, the sweet part is the new neighbors have a girl that is the same grade as Adrianna. She is really excited to meet her and make friends. We have met them, they seemed really nice. How many people hug you out of genuine friendliness when you first meet them???? Our new nieghbors did. So, we are all eagerly waiting for a different moving van to pull up next door. What's to come after that??? Time will tell.

Improvements?

Okay, we have been working on home improvements...but here's the thing.....it's a pain in the tooshie. Sure, the end result will be worth it but man oh man does it make a mess. Right now we are in the process of ripping up the current flooring, we have almost all the linoleum up and have the carpet in the living room up. We just have to do the bedrooms....which are going to be the most difficult might I say! It wouldn't be so bad, but I am the one stuck with pulling up all the staples in the floor. Ughhh. We have so much to do, it's overwhelming. There are some days I just want to close my eyes and hope the fairies have come and finished it by the time I open my eyes back up. The really gross thing was looking at the carpet after we pulled it up...OMG, I can't believe we have been living on that!!! It stunk, it was stained.....yuck....the carpets were bad when we moved in and I don't think the kids helped matters when they went pee on it during potty training. Needless to say I am so happy to get it out of the house. I am looking forward to the house smelling a little nicer....I have never been a fan of carpet-holds in odors/stains/etc. Although I am starting to freak out about having laminate in the whole house. I have to look past that and think how much nicer it's going to be. My oldest child is having a hard time with all this change. She got so upset when we first started talking about redoing the floors. When we ripped out the fireplace she was in tears. I would never thought she would react that way. The other three kids have been excited about the changes.....who woulda thunk it. We just have to carry on, we are getting experience for down the road when we build our "dream home". I can dream can't I???

Faith

Who would have thought I would enter into the world of blogging. Good grief, will I ever find the time?? Four kids, a husband, and a managerie of animals keeps me pretty busy. I am a stay at home mother, which I love dearly, even though I don't get a chance to get out much. That is one thing I miss about working, the friendships with coworkers. My life is my family, but hopefully one day soon I will get back into the working world and "get a life".
I recieved a word from God about a month ago. It came back to my yesterday and I believe it's a very important word for everyone that is going through something/anything. Oh ye of little faith, I have great plans. No matter what is going on, just have faith in God, he knows what he is doing.