After the dog walk and a nap at home, I wanted to make something. Specifically, I wanted some soup. With shrimp in it. After a little bit of searching on FoodTV.com, I found this “Shrimp, Corn, and Potato Soup”. I had most of the ingredients (with a few substitutions) and proceeded to make it. It was really quite good! It’s defintely something I’ll want to make again.

Shrimp, Corn and Potato Soup

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 medium onions, finely diced
• 2 tablespoons fire roasted chiles
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 can whole tomatoes, peeled and chopped (drain juice)
• 1 can chicken broth
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 medium yukon gold potatoes
• 3 cups milk
• 1 cup corn kernels, fresh or thawed frozen
• 1 cup creamed corn
• 1 pound medium raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

In a large heavy saucepan, heat the butter and oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, until slightly golden. Add the chiles and the garlic and cook for 2 minutes more, until the aroma of the garlic is released. Add the tomatoes, broth and bay leaf. Increase the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil. Add the potatoes, bring back to the boil, and decrease the heat so the mixture is simmering. Cover the pan and simmer the soup for 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender but not falling apart. Stir in the milk and simmer for 5 minutes more, then add the corn, shrimp, salt and pepper and simmer for an additional 4 minutes. Taste for seasoning and serve.

Maya and I had fun on the walk this morning! There were a ton of pups there with their owners and lots of booths to browse through after the walk. We scored and got a ton of free samples of stuff. It was a fun day! See the photos!

The Paws in the Park walk will be this Sunday! With the help of my friends, family and colleagues, I managed to raise $157! yay! I’ll write about the Walk this weekend. Thanks to everyone who sponsored me.

i joined a recipe card swap which called for you to make 10 recipe cards and then create one of the recipes. totally cool! i like recipes and food! but then i found out my partner was in another country! uh-oh. i had a little trouble with this swap and have been bad since it was due to send out on monday and i haven’t sent it yet. poo on me. but hopefully it will fly away tomorrow. in the mean time, you can check out some of the cards i made. they’re not really fancy or anything, or even the same size, but i thought they were nice and colorful.

The names of my recipes were (in case you are curious):
– Elise’s Sesame Noodles
– Creamy Squash Soup
– Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
– Eggplant Caviar
– Mushroom Risotto
– Orange Scented Stir-Fry
– Fettuccine with Shiitake Mushrooms and Basil
– Bake Sale Lemon Bars
– Apple Cinnamon Muffins
– Cowboy Cookies

i discovered today that when i say “buddha” just right, maya will howl. i find it terribly amusing.

Ohhh, I finally got by BBM4 package in the mail today! I was worried that it got lost or wasn’t coming, but it was worth the wait! My package came from Philadelphia, filled with sweet Pennslyvania treats from Stella. My roommate in college was from PA, so I was familiar with one of the items she send, the Tastykakes! Stella also sent me a lovely assortment of them (pies, cakes, pretzels and more), along with some Herr potato chips, Hershey’s chocolate bars, Pennslyvania Dutch Birch Beer, Pennslyvania pretzels, Irish Soda Bread Mix, and Parmesan Flavored Dill Dip Mix! I ate some Tastykakes already, but resisted until I could grab the photo above. Stella also made me an awesome mix cd (since it was a musical themed swap), including music from Snow Patrol, Mama Cass Elliott, Travis and Franz Ferdinand. She called it, “Music to Cook By”, though I listened to it this music while getting some web work done. Thanks a bunch, Stella! I can’t wait for the next BBM now!