Momma-Cooked Meals!

FOOD: This week we have a plan that everybody in the family is really excited about. Our new theme for this week is "Momma-Cooked meals!" NOT that I will cook all the meals. Inspired by thoughts of our moms, Derrick and I picked some meals that each of us remembers loving OUR mothers to cook for us. We came upon this idea inspired by a couple of occurrences over the past week: 1. the holidays always remind me of my mom. This year we ate dinner at Derrick's mom's house so we all got to enjoy an actual momma-cooked meal! But for me, the holidays are always bittersweet in that enjoy them so much and always miss my mom a lot too. Food is one way that her memory can be kept alive. Not just during the holidays. 2. I got a really, really bad chest cold. Somehow, after the boys recovered from their quick bout with the flu (or some such?) I got a week-long chest cold that had me feeling miserable. You know the NyQuil commercial...nighttime sniffling, sneezing, coughing...all that...I had it. And I'll admit, I'm a terrible sick person. When I'm sick, the only thing that could possibly make me feel better is my mommy. And since she's been gone for twelve years, I'm just out of luck. But a Momma-Cooked meal...that just might make everybody feel good. Including me.
Okay, so I jumped the gun and helped Zack to cook the first meal of the week on Sunday. And it was so good. Clam chowder. Reminded me a lot of my mom's recipe but with a bit of a Cap'n Flint's attitude. (For those of you who don't know, "Flint's" is the absolute best seafood dive on the planet. On North Harbor Drive in Fort Bragg, California. They serve fresh, mostly deep-fried seafood dishes with excellent tartar sauce for dipping and sides of french fries and coleslaw. Besides my mom's food, nothing makes me homesick like the thought of Flint's prawn's 'n' chips! Yum!)
For our chowder, we basically followed the Joy of Cooking recipe with a few minor changes: We used a very light brown roux to begin the dish to thicken the broth, boiled the potatoes in clam juice and mashed a few of them after they were cooked to thicken the broth a little more, and added a couple cups of frozen corn for color and texture and a bit of sweetness.
I was disappointed that I forgot to buy oyster crackers to sprinkle on top :( but we had bread and butter instead and it was a tasty alternative.

So the rest of the week's menus are: my mom's vegetarian lasagna and tuna casserole and Derrick's mom's beef tips. Ky wants to cook the lasagna tomorrow. Can't wait. I WON'T forget to bring home a loaf of sourdough tomorrow for garlic bread!