Fall Days
Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. Number one, it is my birthday in the fall, but it’s the change of the weather, the changing of the leaves and the changing in to warmer clothing, especially hoodies that makes it great.
Apple Picking
One of the things that I love to do with my family is apple picking. I think it is one of the best ways to kick off fall. Needless to say from the picture my family loves apples. By far my favorite apple is the Honeycrisp and judging by the 3 overflowing bags of the redder apples in the picture this is evident.. It was a great day, perfect temperatures , apple dumplings and apple cider doughnuts.
Chicken Corn Chowder
Chicken corn chowder is a newly discovered favorite in my family. I was able to cook it in a crockpot and it made so much we had it both days of the weekend
Full disclosure: I do not know the nutritional values of this recipe. I took a couple of different recipes from the internet and came up with my own recipe. When I cook, a lot of the time I go by instinct and what flavors I think will work together well.
Chicken Corn Chowder
Equipment
- Crockpot
Ingredients
- 4 ears of corn
- 2 large carrots
- 3 shallots
- 2 cans of cream corn
- 4-5 small red potatoes
- 1 lb chicken I used raw chicken strips, it may have been a little over a lb
- 4 cups of chicken broth
- 3 cloves smashed
- 1/2 tsp thyme
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- a pinch of cayenne pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- salt and fresh ground pepper to taste( I use a lot of pepper
- 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream mixed with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
- 1/2 lb of bacon cooked until crispy and crumbled
Instructions
- I cut all the corn from the cob, put it in a skillet with butter, add sliced shallots and the smashed garlic cloves. I cooked the corn until some of the corn was blackened, once cooked add to the crockpot.
- In the same skillet add more butter and seared the chicken strips, once seared add to the crock pot.
- Cube red potatoes( I do not skin the potatoes), peel and cut the carrots in to 1/2 inch pieces, add both to the crock pot.
- Add spices listed above
- Add both cans of cream corn and chicken broth
- Set crockpot to high for 2 hours, then turn to low for 4 hours.
- The last half hour shred the chicken and smash the potatoes as much as you can, add the heavy cream mixture stir well, I would add the pepper and salt at this point.
- Stir and serve garnish with bacon
Last day at the coast
Since I live in Maine I like to make a trek to the ocean at the very least once a year. For my birthday I went to Bailey’s Island which is a small peninsula that you can get to by way of Brunswick. At the very tip is a store called Lands End that has all the Maine trappings for tourists. It was near the end of the day which made this sunset absolutely beautiful. This picture of the lobster boats all home for the day gives me a sense of peace and happiness.
Bringing in the plants
Halloween
There have been a lot of changes this year due to Covid, one of them being facemasks. I say why not make it fun. I love making masks in general and for the different seasons and holidays it makes it more entertaining. I tend to get carried away because there are so many great fabrics to choose from,. Halloween just happens to be one of my favorite holidays because I love the creativity and the dressing up. I used to make all of my sons costumes when they were younger and I would dress up as well to go trick or treating. Now that they are too old to go trick or treating I am now doing themed Halloween parties. Soon we will be having small party for my co workers and of course it’s themed. We will be doing a haunted factory from the early 1900s. This is where being in the SCA or Scadian as we call ourselves comes in to play. You know you are a Scadian when you start researching your costume to make sure it’s historically correct.
Fall has so much to offer as each season does. I have always been sentimental about fall though. Growing up there was a fair we went to in Ohio that fell on my birthday week, that was special to me. To me going to a fair is the epitome of fall. Now that I live in Maine it just so happens there is a fair that falls on my birthday week as well. Both fairs are very similar indeed. Unfortunately this year due to Covid the fair here in Maine was cancelled. Hopefully next year things can get back to some semblance of normal. If you are in Ohio check out the Lancaster Fair as I called it when I was growing up, but it is actually the Fairfield County Fair and if you are in Maine check out the Fryeburg Fair. Both are great Agricultural fairs that have a lot to offer.
4 Comments
Marc
Great job. Congratulations on all you have accomplished.
Sara
Thank you very much.
Cindy Moore
Fall is my favorite time of year too! I love the cooler temps, the colors and the start of the holiday season that for me begins at the end of September and goes until my birthday on January 9,
Lisa, Casey, Barrett Dog
Thank you for sharing the Chicken Corn Chowder recipe! We will be trying that one!