For those chilly nights...

New England Corn Chowder

1 cup chopped celery (2 stalks)
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
2 slices bacon, chopped
2 15-1/4 oz cans whole kernel corn, drained
2 14-3/4 oz cans cream-style corn
4 cups milk
3-1/2 cups chicken or turkey stock
1 cup whipping cream
3-4 dashes bottled hot pepper sauce
4 cups cubed potatoes (about 1-1/4 lb)
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup snipped fresh parsley
salt and ground black pepper

In a 6- to 8-quart Dutch oven cook celery, onion, and bacon over medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.

Add whole-kernel corn, cream-style corn, milk, stock, cream, and bottled hot sauce. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Add potatoes; return to boiling. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, about 15 minutes more or until potatoes are tender.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl stir together butter and flour until smooth. Add flour mixture to corn mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly; cook and stire 1 minute more. Stir in parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper.

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This soup is AMAZING!!!!!!!! Bacon repulses me right now, so I just cooked the veggies in olive oil. And I didn't have any bottled hot sauce, so I used some chili powder. We grated sharp cheddar cheese on top of ours, too. This will definitely be a new winter staple for the Baker household. It was cheap and very EASY to make. The only other thing is, I used my dutch oven and it overflowed, I had to split it between two pots. So if you have one of those huge soup pots, use that. Serve it with biscuits or homemade cheese bread!! =)

The recipe came from "Country Home" magazine. Oh and my picture doesn't do it justice so don't judge by that. LOL