As many of us are only too aware, yesterday was the first day of school in Michigan. And like many other moms, I wanted the dinner after the first day to be something I knew my son would enjoy, as well as something that would be healthy and filling.

Being a teacher, I know just how exhausting that first day can be, and comfort food at the end of it can be a blessing.

Connor is a carb boy, and when I saw this recipe in this month's Cooking Light, I knew it had his name on it.

The recipe, however, had some issues that don't work quite as well for my family. One, I knew Connor would like it much better if it had meat. The rest of the recipe seemed to be a great match for sausage, and Connor loves the chicken apple-gouda sausages by AmyLu. At only 110 calories and 5 grams of fat per link, it's a luxury I can afford (calorie-wise) as well, but I wanted to bring the calories down a bit to both add the sausages, and suit my own needs.

I removed the red pepper (which Connor only likes raw), cut back a bit on the onions (again, for Connor's tastes), cut back a bit on the butter and switched to 1% milk (which didn't hurt the consistency in the least). I also changed the proportions of the corn in terms of plain kernels to pureed kernels, and I added a bit of shredded cheddar to Connor's portion, since he's a huge fan of shredded cheddar. I also dispensed with the grilling and earlier Cooking Light recipe steps because a. I'm sure the taste is wonderful, but it was kind of fussy, and b. I wanted to get dinner on the table in a reasonable amount of time. The final product was rich and delicious, and we've all decided this one is a "keeper".

Serve it with a fresh salad and some bread, if you feel the need (Dave and Connor felt the need).

To make this vegetarian, just remove the sausage or use something like this - I don't think the recipe would suffer - the sausage just adds a nice, smokey flavor. Corn Potato Chowder with Sausage Ingredients

6 medium russet or 12 small (red or new or purple) potatoes (a variety of types works best here), cut into 2" - 3" inch chunks (roughly cut - size is just to get them to cook a bit more quickly) 1TBS butter kernels from 4 large ears of corn 4 chicken sausages, halved and sliced (I used apple-gouda sausages by Amy Lu) 1 medium onion, chopped fine 1 cup half and half 3 cups 1% milk sprigs of thyme (optional) or 1 tsp dried thyme salt and pepper to taste chopped chives (optional) shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Directions 1. Cook the potatoes in salted, boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water to cool them. 2. While potatoes are cooking, strip the kernels off the corn, process 2 cups of the kernels in a food processor until they are completely pureed. Chop onions and cut up the sausages. 3. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large soup pot. Saute the onions for a minute or so, and add the sausages. Cook another two minutes. Add the corn kernels. Add the 1/2 and 1/2, milk, corn puree, salt to taste and the thyme. Bring to a simmer. 4. While the soup is coming to a simmer, cut the potatoes into small pieces. Add them to the soup. 5. Simmer the soup for 20 minutes stirring from time to time so that it doesn't skim over. Remove the thyme sprigs when the chowder is finished. 6. Serve with lots of freshly ground pepper, and either the chopped chives, shredded cheddar, or both.

Serves 6 generously.

Nutrition Facts:

Amount Per Serving

Calories 370.0 Total Fat 14.3 g Saturated Fat 7.6 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.9 g Monounsaturated Fat 3.0 g Cholesterol 61.2 mg Sodium 478.2 mg Potassium 969.9 mg Total Carbohydrate 45.0 g Dietary Fiber 5.2 g Sugars 11.1 g Protein 19.1 g

As always, nutrition information supplied by the recipe calculator at sparkrecipes.com.

Photos: Corn Potato Chowder with Sausage. All photos by Jennifer Shikes Haines.

Please go to The Fairy Blogmother for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

I'm Jennifer Haines and my blog is a2eatwrite. Please contact me at: Jenshaines at gmail dot com. A2eatwrite will post a What's Cooking Wednesday piece each Wednesday in this space.