Whoa Nellie!!

How's your Friday night going? Mine was pretty spectacular! The power of mother nature is absolutely astonishing sometimes. You're probably starting to wonder what I'm talking about. Well, I'll fill ya in.  : )

Summer in Calgary is a bit predictably unpredictable. If we have a few days of nice, warm temperatures we know we'll pay for it in the form of a thunderstorm. Tonight we had the mother of all crazy a** storms!! It started first with some light rain, which turned to heavy rain and super wind, then came the lightening and thunder, and the hail. Crazy I say!! It was raining soo hard water started leaking in through the fan above our stove! (We don't have a hood fan. There's an exhaust fan in the ceiling.) There was water all over my stove and floor. 

Mr. CC, Miss A and I were all leaning over the back of the couch watching out the front window. You know, the way dogs do. haha  Our poor cat, Nellie, was outside and ran under the front steps to hide. We kept calling her, but she wouldn't run into the house. As we watched the water started steadily creeping up over the sidewalk and onto our grass. The neighbor's car was parked in front of our house. I was worried it was going to get flooded. Yep, it did! 

The water was rushing over our neighbor's yard, down our driveway and back to the playhouse that's BEHIND the garage. Once this started happening Mr. CC wanted to get out there and take some video. He put on some shorts and sandals and grabbed an umbrella. Now, keep in mind there was still some lightening from time to time. Men! (eyes rolling and a sigh) I should mention, he is usually Mr. Safety. For reals! Like a little too safety conscience. If it were up to him, Miss A would NEVER run anywhere. Anyway, getting off track. So he headed out and here's the video he brought back. The first part is of our neighbor's yard. Oh, and Mr. CC does swear a bit. If you'd rather not hear, please turn your speakers down. Enjoy!!  : )

**Click Here To Watch Video**

What did you think? Pretty crazy huh??? And minutes after it was over, it was sunny with blue skies. 

Remember how you couldn't even see the grass?

Look at all the debris stuck in the grill!

The dirt left on the street looked like giant worm tracks.

We had a couple friends who's basements were flooded. I heard one friend had cars FLOATING down his street! And a major street was washed away! CRAZY!

Well, that's it for my exciting Friday evening. I think I'm gonna put on Neflix and see what they've got for me tonight. Have a good one!  : ) 

** Oh, I'm quite pleased that I got a Catie's Corner YouTube page setup!! Now I just need to figure out how to play the video on my site, not there's. I'll get that all worked out another day.  

Potato Corn Chowder

Hi There! Today I'm gonna share a little chowder recipe I came up with a couple years ago when I had A LOT of leftover mashed potatoes. Usually I use them to make shepard's pie, but I was a little tired of that and wanted to try something new. I put my thinkin' cap on and voila`, potato chowder was born. Well, my version anyway.

This afternoon while looking through the fridge at what to make for lunch I spotted the potatoes and a cob of corn from last night. Hmm, wouldn't the corn be delicious in the potato chowder? Why yes, I think it would! So I started cooking. Of course, I didn't have "blog post" on the brain when I started, so I didn't take pictures at the beginning. Oops!  : )

Catie's Potato Corn Chowder  

3 cups mashed potatoes

1 cob of corn or about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of corn

1 large carrot or 10 baby carrots

1/2 onion

1 tsp minced garlic or 2 cloves minced

2 - 3 tbs butter

3 - 4 tsp soup stock mix

1 tsp parsley flakes

pepper to taste

3 cups water

1 cup milk

grated cheddar cheese, optional

(Blender or handheld immersion blender.)

1.  Chop carrots, onion and garlic. Add to pot with butter and saute until onion is tender. 

2.  While that's cooking, cut corn off of the cob and set aside. 

3.  Once onion is tender add the soup stock mix and water. 

4.  Stir in the mashed potatoes and corn. 

5.  Bring to a boil. Then turn down the heat and let simmer for about 20 - 25 minutes. Stirring occasionally. The liquid will reduce and the soup will thicken. 

6.  Add the parsley flakes, pepper and milk. Let simmer for an additional 5 minutes or so. 

7.  Blend 3/4 of the soup. If using a blender, add the soup back to the pot and mix. 

8. Serve and enjoy!! This is where I add the cheese.  : )

Mmmm!!

Easy and delicious! Give it a try. You can definitely play around with it and make it your own. I've stirred in cheese before for a cheesy potato soup. And like I said, this was the first time I added corn. Bacon on top with the cheese would be great too! Also, you can vary the ingredients to make more or less soup depending on how much mashed potatoes you have. 

What's your favorite use for leftover mashed potatoes? Please share! 

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