Tonight's Dinner- Pizza and Creole Corn Chowder

Nathaniel has been waiting for me to make pizza again for awhile now. Since I didn't get the roast cooking early enough, I decided why not try out a new pizza crust recipe that I had been eyeing for months now. It turned out great and it was simple with only 10 minutes sitting time to rise. The crust is a thin wheat crust, but it's not cracker-like as with some thin crusts. You won't be able to use lots of sauce or toppings since the crust is so thin, but that's good for the waist line. I added a little bit of tomato sauce with herbs and some fresh mozzarella. Perfect! Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

Since the pizza crust only made two pizzas (one for Nathaniel, half for me & Chris), I decided to make creole corn chowder. I have wanted to make this chowder for years now, but I never got around to it. Since we had gotten some ham in our meat CSA subscription, I had the perfect excuse to make it tonight. It's pretty thick, so if you might want to add more milk or cream to your pot of chowder. The chowder is also pretty spicy, so you might adjust the red pepper in the soup to your taste.

Creole Corn Chowder from Neiman-Marcus' No Jacket Required

serves 10 to 12

2 cups finely diced bacon

2 cups finely diced onion

2 cups finely diced green bell pepper

2 cups finely diced red bell pepper
2 cups finely diced ham

4 cups corn

3 cups diced tomatoes

1/2 cup tomato juice

1 teas oregano

1 teas basil

1 teas thyme

2 teas red pepper flakes

1 teas black pepper

2 cups milk

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup oil

2 cups cream

Saute bacon in heavy pan until crisp. Add onion and bell peppers, cook until limp. Add ham, corn, tomato juice and seasonings. Simmer 30 minutes. Bring milk to boil in a saucepan. Make a roux to corn mixture and mix well. Add milk. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes. When ready to serve, add cream and cook until hot. (This recipe can be cut in half, which is what I did)