For Amy Montgomery

Corn Chowder 2 T bacon fat
1/2 C butter
3 large chopped onions (HA! I use 1/2 C or so, maybe a little more)
1/4 C green pepper (I use all colors of bell peppers--makes it purtier! And I usually add extra)
8 medium potatoes, diced
4 C milk
2 C whipping cream
1/4 minced parsley
5 C fresh or frozen corn (canned is fine, too--just drain it)
3/4 t nutmeg
1 t salt (I actually almost triple that)
1/2 t pepper
1/4 C butter
6-8 slices bacon, fried crisp and crumbled

Boil potatoes until tender. Meanwhile, cut bacon into small pieces, fry crisp in large saucepan and set aside. Melt butter (in the pan with the bacon grease), then add onions and saute over medium heat until tender. Add green pepper and saute 2 to 3 minutes. Add milk and cream and heat slowly. When warm, add all other ingredients and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and let stand for at least 3 hours. Warm before serving and thin with milk, if desired.

Interesting you should ask for that recipe, Amy. I was thinking about it just the other day and getting sooooo excited that once we get home from our Assembly trip we'll be in full Fall gear and I'll be able to make all of my favorite soups and breads and such. It's been cool and rainy here the last few days and that really makes it feel like time! I figured I would post the recipe here instead of e-mailing it to you because it's just too good to not share. It is my all time favorite soup in the whole wide world. I'm glad to hear Brother Rob liked it well enough to remember it after all these years! Ha! That's crazy!

My other reason for posting the recipe here is because it's the Week of Fasting for the Church and I always like to do my part to make sure everybody in Blogland is truly giving an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord. ;-) Last year I changed my template to a whole bunch of pizzas. I looked for another good food template this year, but couldn't find one. So the chowder picture will just have to do. Although I don't think it's quite as pretty and yummy looking as my recipe usually turns out! :-)

Speaking of fasting, our kids gave it a shot today. We told them that "the General Overseer" (so hard for them to separate that from "Granddaddy!") had asked the Church to fast for the General Assembly and we asked them if they would be interested in joining us. We suggested that if they wanted to try it they could fast just one meal. They immediately agreed that it would NOT be breakfast because that's their favorite! Ha! And they really like dinner a whole lot too... lunch is probably the least favorite meal, so... Lunch it is! They did pretty well, I thought, for their first time. Only a few "I'm sooooo hungry" comments here and there. It's amazing how fasting affects you. It is SUCH a mental thing. We might get busy some days and miss a meal without even realizing it until the next mealtime comes around. But if you're FASTING you feel like you're just going to die! Ha! Anyway, we got together at noon today and had a good prayer for the Assembly. And the kids greatly enjoyed their dinners tonight. James had taken Katie & Sam to town with them and I think I heard they broke their fast at Wendy's. Joe stayed here (because he hadn't finished his school yet--what a shock!), but he was thrilled to make himself a pot of ramen noodles. :-) My fast is ending tomorrow and that corn chowder is sounding mighty good to me! But alas, it would be foolish to make it now just before we leave on a big trip. We need to eat whatever left-overs are already in the fridge and clean it out before we go.

The only other notable occurance of the day is that I started backing. Sorted through the kids clothes and mine and picked out Assembly outfits. It's always harder to pack for the Assembly than the rest of the trip, it seems, so I thought I'd start there. There's always so much THINKING to be done when I pack for this trip. I need our Assembly suitcase, our Pennsylvania suitcase, and our On-the-Way-to-Pennsylvania suitcase. The hanging clothes have to be sorted that way, too. The Stay-with-My-Folks-After-the-Assembly part of the trip gets no thought or organization. It consists of: wash whatever we wore in Pennsylvania and wear it all again! :-) We're also going to be doing some of our eating in the van on this trip, so we'll throw a cooler and contents into the mix as well. And we've got the commentaries we're taking to my Dad, whatever we happen to get him for his birthday (which is TODAY!), cameras and chargers and all the little odds and ends that I'm prone to forget. Really though, packing isn't nearly as stressful as it used to be. It's because (1) I no longer have babies to pack all of that crazy equipment for and (2) I've done it sooooo many times now that I think I'm just getting better at it!

Tomorrow I'll start packing for the non-Assembly parts of the trip. I actually kind of like packing. I like being able to organize it all or something. And it makes it sink in that you're really and truly going somewhere! And that almost always means that you're going to see PEOPLE!!! :-) And, of course, I'm excited about the Assembly itself. I'm particularly excited about a message by Luis Banuelos and the Annual Address. But then, I'm biased on both counts. ;-)

Look, Mom--I blogged two days in a row!!! How long's it been since I've done THAT?! Must be all those comments I got on the last post... ;-)