Corn & Potato Chowdah!

Well, we are still dealing with damage from the power surges! We lost not only our washing machine but our dishwasher and stove as well. So, we have been eating with minimal preparation and washing everything by hand! I even did laundry at the laundromat in town, which is not an ideal way to wash clothes when you're a bit of a germ-a-phobe. It's been very frustrating to be without three major appliances. Not exactly what I was planning our last few weeks in this house to be like. We move in less than two weeks! I cannot wait to move into our BIG, new house! We went over today to get some measurements for curtains and furniture placement; I love it so much!

Luckily, part of the time without these appliances we were in Colorado! If I've never said it before...I love Colorado! We spent the first night in Denver and then drove out to Aspen. We will have to go back next fall because a lot of the aspen trees had already dropped their leaves. We got a few pictures of some bright yellow aspen trees, but not exactly what I was hoping for! We were able to hike in Aspen and in Rocky Mountain National Park, which is probably my favorite place to hike! While we were in Colorado, we also hit up a few breweries! Great Divide, J. Wells, Aspen Brewing, and Denver Beer Company specifically!

Maroon Bells, Aspen

Beautiful trees, Aspen

Continental Divide

Independence Pass, Continental Divide

Dream Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park

Last night, we went to our friends Halloween party (yes, I know it isn't until next weekend. We all are going to our friends wedding and won't be celebrating Halloween on its actual date!). It was a great time! Zach and I dressed up as Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler from The Big Bang Theory! Everyone that dressed up had great costumes! It was lots of fun!

Amy Farrah Fowler, a Native American and an engineer

Sheldon & Amy

For awhile, we were both fine with eating sandwiches and salads for dinner but...come to find out, we got bored of that! Go figure! So I decided to find a slow cooker recipe that used ONLY the slow cooker and no other pieces of equipment. Lo and behold: Corn & Potato Chowder. I have never made a chowder before, so I was a little hesitant to make it since I wasn't sure how it would turn out! This is restaurant quality my friends! We've already decided that next time we make it, we would add some fresh rosemary or sage, green onion and use real bacon instead of the microwave kind we had to use (remember, no oven or stove top!).

Corn & Potato Chowdah
Makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients
6 potatoes, diced
1 can (14.5 oz) cream style corn
1 can (15 oz) whole kernel corn
2 cups chicken broth
8 oz. bacon, cooked
1 onion, diced
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup butter
2 cups half & half

Directions
1. Place the first 8 ingredients into the slow cooker and mix well.
2. Cook on low for 7 hours, stirring occasionally.
3. After 7 hours, add the butter and half & half. Cook for an additional 30 minutes.
4. Enjoy! We topped ours with some sharp cheddar cheese!

In future makings of this, we decided we would use freshly grated cheese (we used pre-packaged because we're trying to empty our fridge), green onions and some additional crispy bacon to top off our bowls! We had slices of sesame seed Italian bread on the side to wipe up all the leftover drippings in the bowl!