Corn Chowder for a Comfort Meal Anytime.

Corn chowder is another one of those feel good meals and is always good but especially when there is a chill in the air or if it is a cold rainy day....This recipe is supper easy and chocked full of vegetables.
It is a great meal when you are tired and busy and like me tonight have been cooking all day in preparation for a big Thanksgiving.
Here's all you need:

6-7 slices of bacon chopped
1 C. diced onion
1 C. diced celery
1 T. fresh or 1 t. dried parsley, optional
1 can of whole kernel corn drained
1 can of creamed corn
2 cans of condensed cream of potato soup
salt to taste
black pepper to taste
dash of celery salt
dash of dried red pepper flakes
1 1/2 C. milk

Fry the bacon in the bottom of a large heavy bottomed saucepan or kettle.  When it is half way to being done add the onion and celery and continue cooking until light brown.  Add all of the rest of the ingredients and stir together.  Heat and serve with fresh crisp saltines or hot rolls.

  In addition I want to say I have made this many times using a quart of left over potato soup or making a quart of fresh potato soup  so it is quite versatile.  I have also omitted the 2 cans of corn and the celery,  added a can of clams and the juice of 1/2 a lemon and it is a great calm chowder.

Green Tomato Pie

Green Tomato Pies

The Sisson's are apart of our family as one of my sisters married into the Sisson clan!  We have all know each other for a lifetime and I can truly say they are a wonderful, fun, and salt of the earth bunch!!!

This recipe comes from Great Great Grandma Sisson and that is as far back as I can trace this recipe.  It has long been a favorite and has been spoken about for as many years back as I can remember.  It is a great use of those green tomatoes hanging around on the vine before the hard freeze.  Or fix it anytime  green tomatoes are available.   Brian picked a bucket of green tomatoes when he took the garden apart last week.  Some have ripened but some are starting to go bad so I need to make these up today and get them to the freezer to enjoy this winter.

The pie looks a bit like mincemeat, is flavored similarly to pumpkin, and has more the consistency of a squash pie.  It's all good!!

Grandma Sisson ALWAYS made these in an 8" aluminum pie pan.  If they were to be frozen she baked them and wrapped them well in aluminum foil and froze them.  To serve the frozen version of this pie you place it frozen pie in a 350 degree oven and bake 45 minutes or until it has warmed throughout.

Here's the recipe:
2 C. chopped fine green tomatoes
1 1/2 C. sugar
2 rounded T. flour
1/2 t. Cinnamon
1/4 t. cloves
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. allspice
2 T. vinegar or lemon juice
2 T. butter
2 unbaked pie crusts

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
You may want to use an electric chopper to fine chop the green tomatoes.  Sprinkle them with 1/4 t. salt and let them sit while making the pie pastry.

Make your favorite pie pastry dough.  Form into two disks and roll the bottom crust and place it in the pie plate.  Set it aside and roll the second crust to be ready to top the pie.  After this is completed drain the tomatoes and salt by pressing the mixture into a colander and squeezing off most of the moisture.  Using a mixing bowl stir together the tomato, sugar, flour, and spices.  (My sister says she has used pumpkin pie spice as a substitute for the listed spices and it turns out well too.)  Add the vinegar or lemon juice and stir altogether well.   Spread the filling into the unbaked shell and dot with butter.  Cover the pie with a slotted second crust or lattice and bake at 375 degrees F for 45-50 minutes.

This pie tends to run over so I line a baking sheet with heavy duty foil for easy clean up.  Because I am using 8" foil pie pans and the are a little flimsy I also tear a additional piece of foil about 9" deep and 28" wide and center the unfilled bottom crust on it.  This acts as a sling to move the pie about, or remove it from the oven without breaking the crust edges or having it cave inward.   Today I have made 3 pies and this has been very useful.

Hope you enjoy the recipe.   We sure do and thanks to the Sisson's for sharing!!

Fried Fish, Fresh Caught Crappie from Kentucky Lake

Crappie draining from the fryer.

Most boys or men I guess I should say born and reared in southern Indiana get pretty excited at the thought of going fishing, catching fish, and/or eating good fresh caught fresh water fish.  The minds of most I have ever conversed with would call crappie one of the best!!  They are a medium sized silver white fish with a small and tender mouth.  You have to take care in landing them as not to jerk too hard and loose them, but rather smoothly with measured firmness.

To our great good fortune a friendly and long time customer of my husband gave him 3 pounds of crappie he has just caught and filleted at his retirement home at Kentucky Lake.   He had come here to bring a repair for Brian and treated us to his catch.  He said his freezer was full as it has been a great fall for crappie fishing.

This was to become Sunday dinner for our bunch along with the criss cross peanut butter cookies,  baked beans. roasted white potatoes and a fresh fruit platter in lieu of a vegetable salad for a change.

When I opened the plastic bag of fish I knew how fresh they really were when there was no smell of anything at all.  You would have never known I was holding a bag of fish in my sink had you walked in behind me!!

I rinsed them and set them to drain in a colander in the sink while I prepared the mixture to dredge them in and heated the oil to fry them.  Here is what you will need to fry fish for 6 people:

3 pounds fish fillets cut into serving size pieces
large skillet or shallow flat bottomed pan
pie plate for dredging mixture
tongs or forks to turn fish
paper toweling on a plate to drain the fried fish
optional,  preheat the oven to 175-200 degrees F to hold the fish if needed

Dredge mixture:
1 C. flour
1 C. cornmeal
3 T. paprika
1 1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1/2 t. lemon pepper
1/2 t. garlic powder

Frying fish

Heat enough peanut oil or other oil with a good heat tolerance for frying to make about 1 " in the bottom of the pan to 350 degrees F.  Fish fries very quickly so be prepared to stay right with it.

Dredge each piece and drop it into the hot oil.  Turn after 2-3 minutes and fry another 2 minutes or so.  You can tell when it is done because you will see the flakiness of the flesh upon bending a piece back a little.  Drain on paper towels and serve with fresh lemon wedges.