I promise this isn’t going to turn into a food blog. Not because I don’t like food blogs, but because if I blogged as frequently as I cooked, this site would only be updated a few times a year. I enjoy cooking. I enjoy baking even more. But I don’t have enough energy to cook frequently, let alone blog about it afterward.

Quarantine has changed our food routines for a few reasons, though. But that’s not what I want to blog about right now. What I want to tell you about today is my friend Jen, her wonderful blog, and her Piquante Chicken Corn Chowder recipe. This soup is sooooooo good. I had been meaning to try making it since she first posted the recipe back in January. (So naturally I didn’t get to it until three months later!)

Today was a great day for soup. After a couple of days with warmer-than-spring-like temperatures, a storm rolled into Urbana yesterday evening. When the winds subsided and the stormed pushed eastward, it had taken about forty degrees with it. Today was cold and windy, and my prematurely aged body wasted no time developing all the aches and pains. Nothing sounded better for dinner tonight than a warm bowl of soup.

Visit Relijen.com for the recipe.

There were some things I didn’t have on hand, grocery shopping being what it is these days—creamed corn, a magnum pepper, or a carton of chicken stock. So I left out the creamed corn, swapped the magnum pepper for a can of green chiles I had in the pantry, and melted a bunch of turkey stock cubes, which had been waiting in the freezer for their moment to shine, in place of the chicken stock.

And that’s what I love about soup. Use what you’ve got; you can’t really screw it up. It was delicious, and there is plenty left over so that we’ve got another no-fuss meal or two waiting in the wings.

When Jen and her husband Darren made the long trek from Winnipeg to Key West in February, they made a special stop in Urbana just to see us! We did a little catching up at Bob Evans and then posed outside for this selfie, which I freaking LOVE. Darren says it looks like an album cover for our new indie band: Steak, Eggs & Balls.

LMAO! So it does.

Anyway, that was the last opportunity I had to meet up with anyone that wasn’t a doctor or a mammogram tech before the Qua-rona-tine hit. And I am so grateful we had the opportunity. If you have a chance, check out Jen’s website and give her a subscribe. She is, as they say, good people. And we could all stand to hear from more good people these days.