Clam Chowder ~ Yum

I LOVE WINTER!  Okay I think we all have heard enough of that.  But it's not that I love freezing weather in fact I don't really like it when it's -18... No... No ... I don't.  But I love soup and warm mittens and brown paper packages tied up with string... THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS!  Okay enough singing.  I truly love the warm foods, the wood burning in our fireplace, snuggling down with a good book and hot cocoa.  I love the very essence of winter!  Plus I love SOUP!  And soup just isn't good when it's 70 degrees outside.

CLAM CHOWDER was calling my name.  In all the eleven years I've been a wife..and mother for that matter, I've never once made clam chowder.  WHY?!  I have no clue, I simply love the stuff but it seemed just too difficult to make.  My mom gave me some canned clams a while back and I needed to use them... so I whipped out my trusty smart phone with my well used pinning app and searched up some 'easy clam chowder' because I thought that easy would be necessary cause it looked difficult :).  BINGO...WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER (or clam chowder).  I found a FABULOUS recipe that was OH SO YUMMY! Even HANK said "this is really good!"  Okay I give him a hard time (rightfully so, he's forever teasing me and I don't know that we've ever had a serious conversation our whole married life...or have we? no one will ever know ha!) but really he is easy to fee, he pretty much eats whatever I make just doesn't usually LOVE it very often.  So the moment he said it was "really good!" I had Jo make him put it in writing.  Yes, I have a piece of paper with his signature stating that the soup I made was "really good!" :) (insert proud wife face here).  I made it for our family cmas party at my parent's house too!  REALLY GOOD SOUP PEOPLE!!!!  So try it out.  I doubled it the first time (we fed 5 people with not very much left over) then I quadrupled it for our party and it was plenty. I adapted it a little as I did not have any bottled clam juice so I just used chicken stock (I did use the clam juice from the canned clams but didn't really count that as it wasn't much.) I also used a lot more cream than they suggest...really it's a very adaptable recipe and very forgiving you can make it as thick or thin as you want and you could add peas or other veggies to it as well.  Enjoy ~  Recipe courtesy of Chef Ron Lock @ chefronlock.com 

Ingredients

• 2 (6-1/2-ounce) cans minced clams, with their juices
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/4 stick)
• 1 cup small-dice yellow onion (about 1/2 medium onion)
• 1 slice thick-cut bacon, finely chopped
• 1 medium garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme or 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups bottled clam juice
• 1 pound russet potatoes (about 2 medium), peeled and cut into medium dice
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• Sea Salt to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Strain the clams over a bowl. Reserve Juice and set clams aside.
   
   
2. Over medium heat, melt the butter in a saucepan. Add in the onion and the bacon. Cook, stirring now and then until the fat from the bacon has rendered. 8-10 minutes.
   
   
3. Add the garlic and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Sprinkle in the flour and cook, stirring occasionally, 2-3 minutes but do not brown the flour.
   
   
4. Stirring constantly, slowly add the reserved strained clam juice and bottled clam juice. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally and making sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the pan. Reduce the heat to medium low, add the potatoes, and bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are knife tender, about 15 minutes.
   
   
5. Stir in the cream and reserved clams and return to a simmer. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.