Thick and Creamy New England Clam Chowder From ScratchIngredients:

1 pound clams, chopped (fresh or frozen; for this recipe, I only had a bag of frozen whole clams)

12 Tablespoons butter (it's a lot, but it's worth it; you can try cutting back if you want to)

6 cups whole milk

2 heaping Tablespoons white flour

2 large russet potatoes

Salt

Directions: 1. In a soup pot, make a roux* with 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 heaping

tablespoon of flour. (*Basically, melt the butter, add the flour, and stir until it all mixes together.)

2. Add 8 tablespoons of butter (a stick) to the pot and melt until bubbly.

3. Add the clams and cook for about 5 minutes. Mine were frozen, so I cooked them for 6 minutes until they thawed.

4. Wash, peel, and chop the potatoes into tiny cubes (the tinier they are, the faster they'll cook) then add them to the pot.

5. Add the milk and cook for another 5 minutes--it's OK to let it boil!

6. In a separate, smaller pan, melt the remaining butter and add a tablespoon of flour, and mix.

7. Add this mixture to the gently boiling chowder in the soup pot, and stir--that is what thickens it up REAL GOOD!

8. Add salt and pepper to taste and devour with saltines or chowder biscuits, which are next on my learn-to-make list.