Pooh Day

Today is Pooh Day and its just that sort of day to make creamy chicken corn chowder. Recipe is featured below.

Alan Alexander Milne January 18, 1882- January 31, 1956

This day honors the birthday of the author Winnie-the-Pooh stories. Besides making the soup, you can also celebrate the day by reading his classic stories.

Milne was a noted writer and primarily a playwright before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.

In 1924 Milne published a book of children's poems entitled " When We Were Very Young" with drawings by one of his colleagues Ernest Shepard. This book included a poem about a teddy bear who however hard he tried grows tubby without exercise. That was Pooh's first unofficial appearance in Milne's writing. 

Milne is most famous for his two pooh books about a boy Christopher Robin named after his son and the various characters inspired by his son's stuffed animals most notably a bear named Winnie-the-Pooh. E.H Shepard illustrated the original Pooh books using his own son's teddy bear, Growler as the model. A little known fact is that Christopher Robin Milne's own toys are now under glass in the New York City Library.

Another little unknown fact is that for several years on my computer I have kept a running collection of A.A. Milne's quotes. You'd be surprised at the hundreds of quotes from his writings that can be found on GOOGLE :)

If ever there  is tomorrow when we're not together...there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart...I'll always be with you.

A.A.Milne

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Creamy Chicken Corn Chowder

Cook's notes: One  of the best parts of this recipe is you can sit back and relax while the soup cooks in a crock pot.

Recipe adapted from Fix It and Forget It Cookbook Slow Cooker by Dawn Ranck and Phyllis Pellman Goud

Serve with crusty bread or bread sticks

 Ingredients:

• 1 rotisserie cooked chicken from the deli (huge time saver) shredded
• 2 large diced carrots
• 2 celery ribs diced
• 2 medium potatoes peeled and diced (uncooked)
• 1 tsp. thyme and 1 tsp. basil or 2 tsp. herbes de Provence
• 1 small can cream style corn
• 1 small can regular corn drained
• 1 onion sliced and diced
• 1 small box white mushrooms
• 2 minced cloves of garlic
• ¼ cup fresh Italian parsley or 1 TB. dried parsley
• 1 bay leaf
• Swansons fat free and low sodium 2 cups chicken stock and 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/4 cup flour mixed with ¾ cup cream (half and half)

Optional cook 5 pieces of bacon drain on a paper towel, crumble. Serve on top of soup

Directions:

• Sauté in 2 TB. butter garlic, mushrooms, carrots, celery, and onion about 5-8 minutes
• Combine all other ingredients with sautéed mixture and place in crock-pot
• Cook chowder on high 4-5 hours till potatoes and carrots are tender
• Whisk together flour and cream
• Last 20 minutes of cooking add cream that has been mixed with flour-stir every 10 minutes till thick but not boiling

Note: Typically chowders share three common ingredients: dairy products like milk or cream, pork such as bacon or ham and potatoes