Weekend Recipe Review - Summer Corn Chowder

As soon as I saw the recipe for Corn Chowder from Baked Bree (one of my favorite bloggers!), I knew I had to try it.  It looked so good, even in the middle of a heat wave.  I got especially lucky that corn was available finally at the community market Saturday, and our heat wave broke this week.  It was "only" in the lower 80's the day I made this.

How perfectly smokey and creamy and slightly sweet with just the tiniest bit of heat from the chipolte powder!  Actually I used chili powder.  I cut the bacon to 4 slices, partly because bacon is expensive and partly because I only needed to garnish two dishes.  There was still enough bacon fat with four slices to saute the vegetables.  Those were really two changes I made to the recipe.

Bree warns to use the freshest corn possible and I will agree.  I misread the recipe or couldn't see the teeny tiny numbers 12 point font or something (my eyesight is getting really bad) and didn't buy enough corn at the market.  One ear of corn basically equals one cup of corn.  The recipe calls for 5 cups, but I thought it was 3 cups.  So last minute I bought a couple ears at the grocery store.  The sign said it was local corn, but it was so different and not really fresh compared to what I'd bought at the market.  Use farmers market corn and make sure it's fresh and local for this recipe.  Don't skimp and use frozen or canned for sure!


While I think the bacon adds a nice smokiness to this soup, I think I could sub out half a teaspoon or so of liquid smoke and some veggie bacon for my vegetarian friends.  This soup is in serious contention to be the meal I make on our annual multi-family camping trip in August.

Be sure to check out the recipe on Baked Bree's site!