Crabby Corn Chowder (GF)

Joy of Cooking defines chowder as a thick soup, to which milk, diced vegetables, and even bread and crackers may be added.

Today I decided I wanted corn chowder.  I've never made corn chowder before and have never even had corn chowder as far as I can recall, but I figured I could throw something together.  I did and it was great.  I served it with a slice of homemade rye.  This would also be good with those crackers I made yesterday.

Boil in water until soft: 

• 4 redskin potatoes (any potatoes will do, really, and you don't absolutely *need* 4)
• 2 stalks of celery
• 2 carrots
• 1 onion
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1/2-1 cup of corn

Then ladle out about half the liquid (save it to use as stock in another recipe) and do a half-assed job of pureeing the soup (I use an immersion blender, you can use whatever you like) so it is still a bit chunky.  Then add:

• soy milk (enough to replace the liquid taken out earlier) or another kind of milk/fake milk
• 1-1/2 - 2 cups of corn
• finely chopped zucchini
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• (bell pepper) 
• (chopped broccoli and/or cauliflower florets)
• (thyme)
• (paprika or smoked paprika)
• (dash of cayenne pepper)

Heat on low/med, stirring regularly (or else the potatoey broth goo will stick to the bottom of the pan), until the veggies you added after blending are cooked.

If you don't want to blend anything, throw all the ingredients in at once, but chop them into small pieces.  Then ladle out half the liquid, smoosh the veggies with a potato masher or something, add the soy milk, and it's ready to serve when the soy milk is warm.