Clam Chowder

Today I made some clam chowder loosely based on a Cook's Country recipe. I did not measure anything, and I used canned clams instead of using fresh and clam juice. This was totally incredible.

Dice about 3 bacon strips, sauté and mostly cooked but not super crispy. Remove bacon from pan, drain off fat and add 2 T butter. Sauté diced onion and celery (I had some celery leaves too) until softened. Add two canned clams with juice, heavy cream, some water, pepper, bay leaf, diced potato, crushed saltines and cook about 10 minutes until potatoes are softened. Add bacon back to the soup along with some dried or fresh parsley. This was totally incredible!