Corn and Crab Chowder

Since it's November and it's getting chilly out I'm starting to think about soups and stews! I tried an especially delicious recipe last night from the cook book "The complete best of bridges Cookbooks volume 1". I unfortunately forgot to buy the onion when i was making this and was really too lazy to go buy one after i had started the chowder so i imagine it would be even better with this addition but i have to say it was pretty darned good on it's own! Also since I seemed to be having a tough time getting the right ingredients I also managed to get garlic butter instead of the regular stuff. I love garlic though so I didn't mind :D

4 slices of bacon
1/4 cup butter
1 small onion, chopped
1/3 cup flour
3 cups milk
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced and set in cold water
1 small green pepper, seeded and chopped
1 stalk celery, diced
1 bay leaf
1 cup half and half cream
10 oz crab meat
1 can whole kernel corn (12 0z/341 ml)
salt and pepper to taste
1tbsp chopped parsley

fry bacon until crisp, cool and crumble. Set aside. In a large saucepan, melt butter and saute onion until soft, Add flour, stir and cook gently for 1 minute. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly until thickened. Drain potatoes and add to sauce with green pepper, celery, bay leaf and cream. Simmer 35-40 minutes. Add crab, corn and bacon; heat through, season with salt and pepper. garnish each bowl with parsley. Serves 6

I also decided to try and make some small buns to go with this (creamy soup without bread just isn't the same for me) and in the end i just ended up using the pillsbury crescent rolls dough instead. It's easy and delicious but before you know it you realize that you have eaten four crescents worth of bread. Dangerous! I think that this is a great soup for a cold winters night and with the buns it's really filling! Try it out and let me know what you think!