Crockpot Corn Chowder

My mom used to make this awesome corn chowder when I was a kid. It started out with cooking some bacon up and then cooking a whole mess of onions in the bacon grease. How could you ever go wrong with a recipe like that? You can't. It is a scientific fact that cooking something in bacon grease will make it better. I'm pretty sure bacon grease could solve world peace if we let it.

But I digress. I found this recipe for corn chowder in the crockpot from Real Mom Kitchen when I was looking for recipes to make from the leftover ham from Easter. I didn't expect it to be exactly the same as my mom's because, well it has ham, not bacon. But bacon and ham are kissing cousins so I was positive it would be close.

So I'm crockpotting away and I give the soup a taste test to see how things were brewing. Hmmm. Something was horribly tragically wrong! This didn't taste anything like my mom's chowder. Then I had a hand smacking the forehead moment. Duh. It's because there aren't any onions in this recipe you goof.

Lickety split I chopped up two small onions and cooked them until they had just started to turn light brown. Then I tossed them in the slow cooker. I thought that the soup could use a bit more corn, so I added a few handfuls of frozen corn to the mix. And then, just for kicks, I shredded up a large carrot for a hint of sweetness. I let the mix continue to simmer in the crock pot for another hour or so until we got hungry.

Yeah. That was more like it. Almost nearly exactly like my mom's, but not. Cause, well, no bacon. But I have proclaimed it good, so there you go.

Crockpot Corn Chowder adapted from Real Mom Kitchen
2 (14.75 oz) cans creamed corn
1 (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of mushroom soup
2 1/2 cups skim milk
1 cup diced ham
2 cups frozen southern style hash browns (I used shredded because that's what I found in the back of my freezer)
2 Tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste
2 medium to small onions, sliced in thin half moons
2T oil or butter to saute onions in
1 large carrot, shredded
1 c frozen corn

Saute onions in butter.  Place creamed corn, cream of mushroom soup, and milk in a crock pot. Whisk until soup is well blended into the mixture. Add remaining ingredients to crock pot and stir well.
Cook on low for 4 to 5 hours, stirring occasionally. You can add more milk if needed when finished cooking to reach desired thickness. (you can add the onions, carrot and frozen corn later if you choose, or dump it all in at the beginning.)