Creamy Corn Chowder

Sometime many years ago, probably ten or more, I made a corn chowder that I absolutely loved.  Being young and thoughtless, I never kept track of the recipe book I saw it in or what was in it and when the urge recently struck me to make it again, I couldn't find a single recipe that sounded similar.

So.  To the labratory.

This is a straight-from-the-lab, no recipe influence, "I just think it tastes right", SSwS recipe.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 small onion, diced (I prefer a finer dice to spread the flavor around better, but whatever works for you)
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken broth
3 cups (roughly) corn kernals, either stripped off the cob fresh or THAWED frozen corn.*  Purely a matter of how much work you want to put in.
6 springs of FRESH thyme**, plus more for decoration, if you like.
1/4 cup heavy cream
ground black pepper to taste

Directions:
Melt your butter over medium high heat and saute your onions until you can see through them (aka, transparent).  Stir in the flour until you can't see any lumps and the butter is all cooked into the flour BUT NOT BURNT.  If you have a gas stove, this may be tricky, so err on the side of underdone if need be.  The flour may stick to the bottom of the pan a bit: no worries.

Add in the chicken broth and stir well, dragging your spoon on the bottom of the pan to push up any flour that stuck.  Let everything simmer until it gets nice and thick like a thin gravy.  (This is, for the curious, a roux.)

Dump in your corn and your thyme.  Drop the heat to medium low and let simmer about ten minutes, stirring occasionally.

Fish out the pieces of thyme.  If a leaf or two escapes, don't worry, but you want to make sure you get the stems.  They don't taste good.

Stir in the heavy cream.

Season with black pepper to taste.

If you aren't serving immediately, drop to low.  The soup may form a skin on top, but just stir it back in before serving, it's better than having a burnt layer on the bottom.  You can keep it this way for about an hour.

Serve hot or cold, decorate with thyme sprigs if you like.


*Make sure you get a good brand.  I like to look for keywords like "sweet corn" or "niblets" (not sure what "niblets" have to do with anything, but they're sweet).  Bad corn makes bad chowder

**Leave it out rather than put in ground.  Ground thyme will make your chowder taste like floor polish.  Don't go there.

Enchiladas like a fat girl

I don't fix Enchiladas when I'm trying to be healthy, I just don't.  I know I'm going to eat more than I should, then eat it again for lunch the next day.  They freeze just fine but...so delicious!

The trick to making enchiladas that aren't rubbery is your sauce.  Not what's in it, but where you put it!  Make sure to have a nice thick layer on the bottom of your pan and another fairly thick layer on top.  Skimp at your own risk!

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef (or chuck, or whatever your beefy preference is)
Taco seasoning (I like Ortega Hot and Spicy)
3 small cans (or 1 large, 1 small) of your preference of enchilada sauce
10 burrito tortillas
1 can of good black bean refried beans (Again, I've got a preference for Ortega)
4 cups of shredded cheese (I like some mexican blend, but whatever you like works)

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 400

Brown your ground beef and fix with taco seasoning according to the package directions.  Set aside.

Coat the bottom of a LARGE, sheet pan sized, cake pan with about 1/4 inch of enchilada sauce.  DO NOT SKIMP.  I'm not kidding you here.  If you don't have enough, your enchiladas will be completely stuck to the bottom of the pan and everything will come out sort of rubbery.  It will not be good.

Pour the rest of your enchilada sauce into a large bowl.  Open your can of refried beans and put a spoon in it.  Put your cheese in a plate or a bowl.  Open up your tortillas.

What you're about to do is messy.  If you have help, great.  If not...well, I usually do it by myself and just clean off the counter afterwards.  Whichever!

Take a tortilla out of the bag and smother one side of it with enchilada sauce.  On the opposite side, put a thin layer of refried bean down the center, top with a handful of meat, then a handful of cheese.  Roll into a tube, then set seam side down in your cake pan, smooshing enchilada sauce between the tortilla and the pan.

Repeat until your pan is totally full, then top it off with the remaining sauce, meat, and cheese.  Make sure you get sauce on the edges of the tortillas unless you like crispy edges.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese bubbles.

(Just so you know, they're almost impossible to get out neatly.  Who really cares though?  So delicious!)