Corn and Crab Chowder

Tuesday July 22

On Saturday, we cooked up 13 ears of corn, and ate four. The other nine were taken from the cauldron and immediately thrown into a sinkful of cold water, and once they were cold we scraped the kernels off into a big bowl. This was put into the fridge for later uses, and one of those uses was today, when half of it went into a corn chowder. Chowder demands pork products and fishy things; fortunately we had bacon, a knob of Schad's ham, and a can of Trader Joe's claw crabmeat all ready, so little pre-preparation was needed.

We started by chopping up the bacon, sizzling it in a pan, and frying a chopped onion in its fragrant fat. Then a couple of diced Yukon Gold potatoes went into the pan, and after they were stirred around a bit, we added a little water and covered them, so they'd steam nicely. Thyme is of the essence. Then lots of milk and whatever cream you can spare.