Dirty Corn Chowder

Saturday night, I started to make Corn Chowder for dinner. It looked easy enough, and a steamy bowl of homemade corn chowder sounded tasty for this chilly fall evening at home.

 

It was my first time to make this recipe from my Trader Joe's Cookbook.

 

I thought roasted corn sounded good to use in the soup. 

So I added it in to the soup. I had to chuckle. The roasted corn actually looked like dirty corn, as if I'd scraped the corn right off the pavement. I was glad I hadn't invited company over for dinner. Eww!

Just roasted and charred.

Well, it's nothing that can't be solved by chocolate, I guess. I'll serve brownies for dessert, in case the roasted corn looked nasty after all. A good plan, even though I knew the soup would turn out fine, even if did end up looking just a bit rustic.

Brownies ready and waiting to rescue if needed

Rustic is good in homemade food, right? Besides that, brownies are always a good finishing touch. So the brownies were on stand by to rescue the meal if needed. 

The final ingredients to complete the soup included salt, pepper, and thyme. I love popping leaves off thyme stems. Just slide my thumb and pointing finger down the stem and the leaves come right off. A fun little task. Then it just takes a little chopping and they are ready to toss in the soup.

Thyme stems and thyme leaves ready to chop

The fresh thyme, chopped, and added to the salt and pepper.

 With that, the soup was finished and ready to serve. It was delicious, and I'll definitely make it again.

Now, just one more thing. I had so much of the fresh herb left over. This guy wondered if we can put it in a bottle, but the question still remains.

Seriously. I need to know. Can you freeze thyme? [Insert wink.]