Potato & Crab Chowder

I’m doing a good job making my little batches of soup. I’m learning that when you cut recipes down, you don’t have to use absolutely all the original ingredients.  This recipe is an amended version of Potato Seafood Chowder.  “Seafood” became just crabmeat. The original version had shrimp, oysters, crabmeat and scallops in it.  The original version also calls for seafood stock or a bottle of clam juice.  I substituted those flavors by adding a teaspoon of Ranch Dressing mix.  Different flavors, but I didn’t miss the seafood stock.  There are so many spice blends available now.  When I started cooking 45 years ago, we had to stock all kinds of dry herbs to make our own blends.  Cooking from scratch has become much easier and that’s a good thing.  Young families don’t have time to cook like at home moms of the 1960s did.  Use whatever makes your job easier.

I’ve been thinking a lot about a fall vacation my husband and I took years ago.  We had scheduled an October vacation to Myrtle Beach, SC months in advance.  Then Hurricane Ophelia started her way up the east coast.  We hesitated.  We cancelled.  We changed our minds when the hurricane just swirled off the cost, and we rescheduled.  Off we went and as soon as we reached Myrtle Beach we loaded up on fresh seafood and groceries.  We figured we would be ‘stranded’ in our corner suite for a few days.  That is exactly what happened.  We cooked, ate, and enjoyed watching the storm from our 6^th floor ... floor to ceiling windows.

This chowder is a simple reminder of that exciting vacation.  I enjoyed my chowder with a couple slices of orange infused beer bread.  I love the Pampered Chef beer bread mix.  I made it using orange LaCroix,  and a Tablespoon of orange infused olive oil.  I added 1/3 cup of Feta cheese chunks. I baked in three small bread pans so I could easily store portions. The truth is, I love it too much so I have to hide a portion for later.   So delicious and so easy.

Potato Crab Chowder

1 big Idaho potato, peeled and chopped

1 stalk of celery, chopped

1 ½ cups water

a sprinkle of onion powder

1 teaspoon Ranch Dressing Mix

½ teaspoon celery flakes

½ teaspoon parsley flakes

1 cup of frozen corn kernels

1 small can of crabmeat

1 ½ cups Half and Half

Thicken with instant mashed potato flakes

Combine the first 6 ingredients in a crock pot and cook on high until the potatoes are done.  Add the corn and 30 minutes later add the crabmeat and Half and Half.  Stir in instant mashed potatoes a Tablespoon at a time until the chowder reaches the desired thickness.  Add a generous sprinkle of black pepper and a little salt before serving.