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Lillie Catlin

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My favorite food is corn and cheese chowder, from a Moosewood cookbook. I think the spine of the book is broken where this recipe is. This soup is the perfect combination of corn, potatoes, spices, milk and cheese. It's best when you don't just use monterey jack, but you substitute part of it with spicy jack. It gives it the right amount of spicy, where it keeps your mouth warm but you don't need to interrupt your eating to get a drink of cold milk.

This soup reminds me of the fall and winter, and more specifically christmas eve. Christmas eve is my favorite holiday because of the tradition we have with this soup and having family friends over. At my Quaker meeting we have a christmas eve service, and afterwards, our (F)riends come over for soup and fellowship. My mom spends all day making three soups, in HUGE pots. Two are subject to change every year, but we always have corn and cheese chowder, and its always gone first. All of the adults stand in the cramped kitchen, drinking, talking loudly, and eating soup. All of the kids watch the same christmas special of Jackie Chan adventures that we have for 10 years, and eat soup. I know this isn't a crazy tradition or creative or cool like Bryn Mawr's, but its the strongest one my family has, and I absolutely love it. And I LOVE corn and cheese chowder.