Fresh Corn Chowder and Buttered Rosemary Skillet Rolls

The first day of Fall slipped quietly by. I barely noticed. The climate, where I live, usually brings warm and beautiful weather-- but, then it can change to be overcast and cool.  My garden is so confused.  So it my palate.

This is the time of year when I still want to grill summer veggies, and yet my yearning for home baked bread and soups starts to kick into gear.

I had an itch for Corn Chowder and home baked bread that needed to be scratched.  I've made Ina Garten's Cheddar Corn Chowder, but I wanted to try a different version.  I had bookmarked a version from Cook's Illustrated, a while ago, because it had many positive reviews.   Soup and bread is hard to resist, so I decided to make one of my husband's favorite bread recipes-- Buttered Rosemary Skillet Rolls.   The rolls are adapted from (gasp) "The Pioneer Woman".  Ree's original recipe uses frozen bread dough. I make my own, and these rolls are  one of the easiest-- and most faithful-- recipes you'll ever use. Just look at the pool of melted butter! Doesn't it make you swoon? (Paula Deen has nothing on me, with these rolls.)  I am not ashamed. 

I've lost count on how many times I've made these rolls. I use instant yeast, and it takes about 10 minutes for me to make the dough, using a stand mixer with a dough hook.  The dough rises, perfectly, in about 45 minutes.  Once shaped into rolls, the second rise takes about 20 minutes. TIP: I turn my oven to WARM, then turn it off.  This acts as an "incubator" for my dough, and speeds up the process of proofing the dough.
The rolls bake in about 25 minutes. (I bake them in my beloved cast iron skillet). You can use a cake pan, if you wish.

What's missing in this post? I'll tell you.  My typical step-by-step photos are!  I hadn't planned on blogging about the soup, nor the rolls.   I really just wanted to re-shoot the rolls, as the finished shots on my original post didn't turn out right.  (This is what happens when you don't check your lens, and you've smeared melted butter all over it.)   Fortunately, I automatically photograph most anything I eat. My friends are used to it, now.  I'm glad that I did, because the soup recipe is worth sharing with you.

VERDICT: I have to tell you that the Corn Chowder definitely scratched my itch.  I have to share it with you. I owe it to you.  It was creamy, and I did not miss adding cheese to it-- as Ina's recipe does.  Some of the corn kernels are reserved, and added towards the very end of the cooking time. This gives the soup a texture of creamy, with some crunchy al dente texture of fresh corn. I loved it. I didn't have salt pork, so I used regular bacon-- and that worked just fine. I did add some finely chopped red bell pepper, to the recipe.  I liked the color, and the flavor, that it contributed to the soup.  As for the bread...

...well, who can beat the smell of fresh baked bread? The rolls turned out, once again, to be very tender.

I love this recipe. There's something about sea salt & fresh rosemary that makes these rolls very addicting.

This meal represented the flavors of summer corn, and the promise of home-baked bread, with fall weather.  Both of these recipes will remain in my regular rotation file. They're both that good!  You can see step-by-step photos on how to make these rolls here. (Printable recipe cards are at the end of this post.)

Now... I have a hankering for pumpkin. Big time!