Meal: Corn and Potato Chowder, homemade bread
Cost: about $4.00 for the batch
Time: 45 minutes (bread made previously)
Leftovers: enough for lunch for the two of us
Local ingredients: flour, potatoes, corn, milk, ham
Organic ingredients: spices, olive oil, “chicken” broth, garlic

My corn and potato soup is mostly cribbed from How to Cook Everything’s recipe for fish chowder.

1. Fry a couple pieces of country ham [or bacon] in a half a tablespoon or so of olive oil (if the pan is not non-stick). When done, remove the ham [bacon] and set aside. [This could easily be made vegetarian by skipping the meat and using a little bit more olive oil, or some butter.]
2. Chop up 4 or 5 medium sized potatoes into bite sized pieces. Fry in the oil/butter/drippings until the potatoes are starting to brown and soften. [A couple of onions, if you like cooked onions, is not a bad addition. Dried onion flakes work too.]
3. Chop up a couple [or more] cloves of garlic. Add in to the potato mixture and stir around. Sprinkle in some onion powder (if you didn’t use onions already) and salt and pepper. Add in a couple tablespoons of flour and some dried thyme; stir. Add in 1 cups of broth [chicken or vegetable; we use powdered vegetarian “chicken” broth from our local co-op] and cook until the potatoes are as tender as you would like them to be.
4. Slice the corn off of 4 or so ears, and chop up the reserved ham [bacon]. When the potatoes are tender to taste, add in 1.5 cups of milk, the corn, and the ham. Stir around and heat gently until warmed through. Serve up in deep bowls, sprinkling a little extra sharp cheddar on top if you want to gild the lily. :)

I served this up with some homemade bread - “Cuban bread” from a bread book I got out of the library. It was decent-not-great; the book said that it was a cousin of French bread, but it was much more dense. We were going to make some tossed salad, too, but didn’t after all. :)