Chowder

This is more of a nice winter meal. I always think of it as warm comfort food on a cold night, curled up in front of a fire eating a nice bowl of Chowder with some crusty bread.
Well, I decided to make it in July. I am attending a baby shower for a friend and they asked that instead of gifts you bring a meal that can be frozen. It is their second baby and they already have all of the baby gear that is needed. I think this is a great idea! No one has the energy to cook after having a baby.
So, I thought, what can I make that I can freeze and that we can eat today. In searching my freezer, I found a ham bone that I had packaged carefully and stuck in the freezer for a later date and that later date was today. I was going to make ham, corn, potato chowder and here is how I did it...
First I took the ham bone and put it in a rather large pot and covered it with water, placed it on a medium heat stove and let it boil there for about 2 hours. This makes a delicious stock and base for our chowder. I removed the bone and cut off any ham and added it to the broth. You could just use chicken broth if you don't have a ham bone, that certainly would be faster but might not be as tasty.
Saute 1 large chopped onion and 2 cloves of chopped garlic. Add onion mixture to broth and one can of corn with liquid or 6 ears of fresh corn cut off the cob (if you are going go with the cob, I would suggest that you cook it first and then cut the corn off). Cut about 10 small potatoes or 5 large potatoes into small cubes and add. Then let it all cook together until the potatoes are tender.
Now, you can leave it like this and call it a soup. It is just as yummy and probably a little healthier for you but if you want it to be more of a chowder then keep reading.
Place 2-3 tbs of butter in a small pan and melt then add 2-3 tbs of flour and mix until well combined. Ladel some of the hot soup into the butter and flour and mix. By doing this you will hopefully eliminate the possibility of lumps in your chowder. Add mixture to soup and mix well. Add some Rice milk (optional) and let it all thicken.
I actually don't like a super thick chowder and so I don't add too much of the flour mixture. If you like it thick, add more!
Salt & Pepper to taste and add some Tabasco Chipotle Sauce if you like a little heat.
It makes a lot so eat some now and freeze some for later, maybe for a cold fall night.