Unearthing Chowder

Yum!

I originally wrote this blog back in the middle of March, trying to be proactive (ha ha right, I know *sigh*). Unfortunately, it’s in a notebook at home and I am here at the day job, with nothing to do. (I’ve written myself into a quandary in Unearthing Magic, perhaps more on that later.) So what better way to amuse myself than to recreate my blog post, since I have the pictures already taken and ready for uploading. So may I present to you:

Corn Chowder: From Simple to Fancy

I know some of my readers may be going off to university soon, which means living on your own and, heaven forbid, having to cook for yourself. Now a person can live on ramen or pasta and sauce. And  they work great for the University student’s budget, but let me add another dish to your repitour (how in the world do you spell that?); Corn Chowder. Easy to make, and easy to impress the boys (or girls) with (as I did).

my favorite brands



The simplest version is three cans:

• 1 can, Cream Style Corn (I tend to use white)
• 1 can, Whole Kernel Corn, drained (I like the Fiesta because it adds a dash of color)
• 1 can, Evaporated Milk (E-v-a-p-o-r-a-t-e-d... not to be confused with Condensed with will give you a very, very sweet chowder)

1. Open the three cans. Be sure to shake the Evaporated Milk and drain the whole kernel corn.
2. Dump all three cans into one smallish sized pot
3. Heat until it just starts to bubble.
4. Serve and Eat!

Now, say you’ve got a family to feed now, but still want to fall back on a simple meal (and you’re tired of spaghetti and sauce), you can still make this dish, but add a few extra things to make it go further and fill up rumbling bellies.
 

(ham, peppers and onions not shown, sorry)

Before heating add:

• 1 can, diced potatoes, drained
• 1 pkg, diced ham ~8 oz (found in the meat isle)
• 1 cup, frozen, chopped, peppers and onions

And now I’ve got the fanciest version, that I’ll feature here. Use the ingredients above but:

Substitute:

• 3 to 5 slices of cooked and crumbled bacon for the ham cubes
• Fresh chopped peppers and onions for the frozen

Add:

• Dash of dill and white pepper to taste added at anytime
• 1 cup of shredded cheese of your preference

1. Add these cheese at the end (when the soup bubbles), otherwise it will melt in clumps rather than adding a smooth cheesy flavor to the whole thing. The other key is to stir it well.
2. Serve the Chowder with rolls (Pillsbury buttermilk –American- biscuits are what I like to use).

Now if only Unearthing Magic would be as easy to edit. Instead it’s thinking about rearranging itself as I delve deeper into my Antagonist’s motivations. That and my added perspective, doesn’t seem to know what route it wants to take to get to the end. Hopefully my fellow writers aren’t having such issues. *grins*

 

:} Cathryn Leigh

P.S. Us New Englanders call this dish Cohn Chowdah. ;-}

In Light of my Sanity

I’m trying to keep it, or what left of it, and as such my blog is suffering from it. Even now I’m taking time from what I should be doing to write this post.

But my readers, whether you’re the ones I know and love, who have been with me from the beginning, or newly discovered friends, you deserve to know why.

• Why I’ve been silent.
• Why I’ve written posts and yet not gotten them up
• Why...

And yes I know this may sound like a whine, and I hate whining (especially when not served properly with chocolate and cheese), but this is how it is:

1. I am tired, with no real hope of catching up on sleep in the near future. And not just because I’m getting up early and staying up late to write for NaNo. (And try as I might for an earlier bed time I nearly always end up staying up till at least 11 and then suddenly it’s midnight *resigned sigh*)
2. As a mother, many things fall to my responsibility, cooking, laundry and dishes being the main two after the kids, and when Daddy isn’t in the house the Puppy as well.
3. I have become the sole person in my department as a result of my Boss departing and my coworker going on Maternity leave, right as we hit a big push to manufacture more 'widgets' than we ever have before.

It’s a short list, I suppose, but it’s got high impact and some days I just want to curl up into a ball and cry myself to sleep. But I can’t, I must forge forward and let those things I can slip. This blog happens to be one of them.

I’m still here.

I expect to be back.

You may see me on your blogs.

But for now...

 

 

 

:} Cathryn Leigh

I Hate Ranting But...

I’m feeling overwhelmed. There I admitted it. But I don’t know if it’s the time of year, or the point I’m at in my menstrual cycle (and right now we’re in the post stage, though I suppose you could call it pre-pre-pre stage) *sigh*

So what is making me feel overwhelmed?

Well the first thing that comes to mind is that – my boss is leaving. An opportunity came knocking and she’s taken it. This brings up many thoughts and questions in my mind:Am I doing the wrong thing by not looking/keeping my eyes peeled? Is my loyalty to the company that hires me an out dated thing? – It does seem old fashioned, but like a guy who is courteous and respectful to a woman, it doesn’t go out of style... right?

• I’m feeling a little betrayed that she’s leaving, but it’s not like she can say, why don’t you come with me.
• I’m feeling overwhelmed by the responsibilities I’m going to be taking over. Like sending out meeting minutes from management Review and making sure all the executive managers approve it.
• I’m worried I won’t make it. I’ll fail and the company will crumble.

Yes that last one is a bit of an exaggeration, but for 6 to 8 weeks I will be a department of 1, because my other coworker, who deals with a lot of the daily stuff, will be on Maternity leave. While she says she’s coming back, I have to prepare for the possibility that she might not. You never know... and suddenly I find myself thankful for the shortness of Maternity leave. If I lived and worked in the UK I could be a department for six months!

Wow did that make my mind boggle and put things in a little perspective.

 

So beyond that little stressing development I’ve piled onto my life:

• POD Formatting for hire - I’ve a contract with MWiDP, thanks to Anne R Allen and her worry about getting How to be a Writer in the E-Age out in time for her conference (my paperback just arrived *grins*). So along with formatting the 10 to 15 books mark’s got me listed for I’m also helping someone else with hers. (She’s even paid me.)
• Keeping up with spending time working on writing every day, be it word count or planning or world building. This is part of my retirement plan folks. I have to keep marching forward, so that when I’m ready I can start putting books out there one after another.
• Teaching Sunday school about every other week. So far I plan the morning before... I’d like to give it more fore though, but I never seem to.
• Making Halloween Costumes (I have a drafted post on that, that I’ve not gotten up) potentially in the next two weeks, ready for an event my kids will be going to.
• Keeping up with this blog. I’ve been horrible at it since I hit the one year mark in June. Kind of like my Diaries... only better, because those never had the weekly punctualness for a whole year.
• Making sure I read, not just books to my kids (but how can I not read “STAND BACK!” cried the Elephant “I”M GOING TO SNEEZE!” – okay I haven’t read it yet, but the title was too awesome not to pick up for 50 cents from the Library book sale.) but also books related to the genres I write in.
• And all the while not ignoring the kids, hubby, dog and visitors (the In-laws are in town right now), part of which means making sure there is food in the house (totally failing at that right now) and doing laundry (failed that two weekends ago, but caught up last weekend)

Yeah – if anyone ever tells  you, or you think to yourself, I can’t wait till I’m out of school I’ll have more time – think again.  Eventually we all have to get out of the house and live on our own. With age comes responsibility, until you get so old you need someone to care for you, then you just sleep a lot.

Responsibility is just a weight on your shoulder and right now it’s making me grimace more than smile. Maybe once I have those costumes done....

 

} Cathryn Leigh is sorry this is more of a rant than anything else. She hates to rant, to anyone, even herself, which means she probably bottles up way to many thing for her own good. So she thanks you for reading. {