Sunday, January 25, 2009

Christmas Poisoning and A Happy New Year!

It was great to have all the family this year for Christmas. Grandma Bette Loo wanted to have Clam Chowder for our Christmas Day lunch meal so I went all out and got all the fixin's for the big kettle I usually make. You don't realize until you are in the throws of the shopping spree just how expensive clam chowder is to make. Suffice it to say, the chowder turned out yummy as usual...or did it?

I made the kettle full on Christmas Adam (that is the day before Christmas Eve). We all tired a large bowl of it and it was great...especially with bacon bits and butter on top to stir in. I had to put a halt to the "testers" otherwise there wouldn't be enough for Christmas lunch.

I put the kettle in the fridge and there it waited patiently for our Christmas meal.

Lunch time arrived...late and I told everyone that they could help themselves to the chowder in the kitchen. Grandma Bette was served a big heaping bowl of it and ate every last spoonful. Matthew then sat in the big cushy chair with Jessica on his lap and proceeded to eat his bowl full. He asked me with a bit of a strange look on his face, "Mom, why did you add carbonation to the chowder?" I laughed and said he had weird taste buds and why would I ever add any carbonation to chowder. Jessica took a small taste and said, "Yeah it does taste carbonated".

YIKES! I went to the kitchen to find that the kettle of chowder had "risen" like a possessed kettle of witches brew! It smelled like someone had added yeast to it ... needless to say I dumped the ENTIRE kettle of chowder down the drain.

The next morning I began receiving phone calls from the kids asking if anyone had been sick in the night, being especially worried about Grandma Bette. Everyone had had stomach cramps and other not so polite ailments after having consumed the chowder. Even Kylee (not yet 1 year old) had eaten some of the soup part of the chowder (not the clams). Gratefully, neither Kylee nor Grandma Bette experienced the effects of the POISONING via Clam Chowder.

One of Lainee's friends told me the same thing had happened one time to a batch of her mom's chowder and they determined it was bad clams. I did recall that one large can of clams that I used was dented! Beware of the dented cans of fish products! LESSON LEARNED! And a very Happy New Year to you...Manny, Moe and Jack! (What movie?)

P.S. I redeemed my self on New Year's by making a not so "killer" yet extremely delicious batch of White Chili! No trail of bodies on the way to the bathroom with this batch!

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