Chowda!

We had seafood chowder tonight. So easy and so extravagant. This is Ben's specialty, and I love it.

You buy a tub of ready to serve frozen Boston Chowda's New England Clam Chowda ($6) from Giant or other good food store. While in the store buy a tub of Cozy Harbor frozen Maine Lobster ($16), a small tray of pre-cooked shrimp ($4), some good rolls or bread, and some pre-washed salad makings. Make sure you have a good bottle of white wine to go with the soup. The night before you plan to eat the chowder, defrost it and the lobster meat in the fridge. Let it stay there while you're at work. When you get home, warm up the chowder, add the seafood and heat it all up until very it's hot. Open the wine, slice the bread, and dress the salad. $26 dollars of luscious chowder ingredients serves two people two "American" portions each or four people one "European" portion each. The cost is way less than you'd pay at a restaurant, if you could even find one that served such an extravagant soup.

Ben has also used lobster bisque instead of the clam chowder, but that is so rich you might want to cook up some rice to serve it over and tone it down a bit.