DUTCH SPLIT PEA SOUP

This is a delicious soup, and my favorite when it comes to a split pea soup recipe ;-) I cook this soup all day long in my crock-pot (instruction at end of post) but I am posting the recipe as originally written in my cookbook.

Simmering this soup a long time is what gives it the rich flavor you will enjoy. The flavor also improves with age; if needed add more broth to it when reheating.

And it can be frozen.

DUTCH SPLIT PEA SOUP – 6 servings

1 pound dried green spit peas

6 cups water

4 cups (approximately) broth (chicken or beef)

¼ pound smoked pork or ham, diced

¼ cup celery, chopped with some leaves

2 leeks (white part only), thinly sliced and washed well

1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)

2-1/2 cups diced potatoes

1-1/2 cups diced carrots (2 large)

½ teaspoon salt, if desired

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Dash hot pepper sauce (Tabasco), or to taste

In a Dutch Oven pan, combine the peas and water. Bring the water to a boil, and cook the peas for 2 minutes. Remove the peas from the heat, cover the pan and let stand for 1 hour.

Add the broth, meat, celery, leeks, and onion. Bring the soup to a boil – reduce the heat, cover the pan, and simmer the soup for 1-1/2 hours.

Add the potatoes and carrots, and cook the soup for another 15 to 30 minutes (the peas should disintegrate). If the soup gets too thick, thin it with additional broth.

Season the soup with salt, pepper, and hot pepper sauce. Serve and enjoy! :-D

*CROCK-POT DIRECTIONS: Put ALL ingredients above into the crock-pot. Set to Low and simmer 6 – 8 hours. Stir occasionally while cooking.:

**IF USING FROZEN BROTH AND VEGGIES, set crock-pot to High and cook for 6 hours. Stir occasionally while cooking.

All of the ingredients - except for the split peas - was frozen so it looks like I overfilled the crock, but once it was plugged in and turned on, the ice melted and the ingredients were easy to push down into the broth.

After I got the soup underway, I was walking through the back livingroom past the sliding glass doors, and happened to catch a glimpse of a spot of light purple near my Patio Apple Trees at the far end of the back yard: CROCUSES! What a nice Shabbat surprise :-D And there were hyacinth leaves poking out of the past Fall’s flowerbed litter mulch too:

Early Crocuses in the back flower bed; it's still too wet to weed, but the that's okay ... the tiny flowers hide the weeds for now. LOL

Hyacinth leaves pushing through in the back flowerbed

Then I walked with anticipation to the front livingroom, looked out the window, and saw that the early crocuses had come up in the front flower bed too – what a sight for winter weary eyes! So I ran and got my boots on and stepped outside to see what else was making an appearance; my eyes are so hungry for color and I can’t wait for winter drabness to be over …

Early Crocuses poking up through the shiny dark purple Ajuga ground cover in the front flowerbed

Contrasting Tulip & Ajuga leaves highlighting brilliantly in the front flowerbed

Primroses showing in the front flowerbed; a little bedraggled around the edges due to the stormy rainfall, but otherwise bravely and boldly heralding Spring on the horizon ;-)

Wild Woodland Hyacinths and Tulips in the front flowerbed

UPDATED! MOD Ranitomeya Toddler Slippers

I finished these little slippers up last night around midnight:

MOD Ranitomeya Slippers – Toddler $10 PR

And they turned out okay ;-)

Getting a picture with orange yarn is always dicey for me – when I use a flash, I get flashback … but when I don’t use a flash I get a dark picture that is unusable. But I liked this color scheme so I chanced the orange ...

Crocheting the mouth line took a considerable amount of time; more than I would have thought necessary, but I am pleased with the final result:

The color yarn I used really is the same shade of the pictured frog face above, but the flashback makes it lighter.

UPDATE! The original eyes I designed for these slippers were closer to the pictures of the frog ... but they bothered me because I didn't think they looked "froggy" enough; so I broke with sticking to 'original' and went with gut feeling - and designed these new eyes for my frog slippers (updated pics below) and I think they look a LOT better, what do you think?

All in all this is a cute pair of toddler slippers and I am happy with the results :-D

CHICKEN –RICE CASSEROLE

I cut this recipe in half for just the 2 of us; but I will post it in its original measurements for families … for large families, bump the measurements up to accommodate your family size ;-)

CHICKEN-RICE CASSEROLE – 6 servings (about 1 cup EA)

¼ cup reduced-calorie margarine

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1-1/2 cups skim milk

1 cup chicken broth

2 cups cut –up COOKED chicken or turkey (about 10 ounces)

1-1/3 cups COOKED white rice or wild rice

1/3 cup chopped green bell pepper

¼ cup slivered almonds (I use a drop of almond extract because my body doesn’t handle nuts very well – and this works for me)

2 Tablespoons chopped pimento

1 can (4 ounces) mushroom pieces, drained

Heat oven to 350-degrees.

Heat margarine in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat; stir in flour, salt & pepper and cook. Stirring constantly, until bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in milk & broth and heat to boiling – stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Pour mixture into UNGREASED 2-quart casserole or square baking dish, 8 x 8 x 2 inches.

Bake UNCOVERED for 40 to 45 minutes … or until bubbly. Garnish with parsley if desired.

MOD Ranitomeya Slippers – Toddler

I like the color scheme of this little fella that packs a big punch ;-)

Orange and Jade Blessed poison frog (Ranitomeya benedicta)

This frog is one type of the poisoned dart frog species, and I am designing a pair of toddler slippers around this little guy:

MOD Ranitomeya Slippers

I hope to get the trims designed after Supper, and complete them tonight :-D

Tu BiShvat - New Year of the Trees

MOD Toddler Ranitomeya Slippers

This is the color scheme I am basing my next toddler’s slippers design on:

Orange and Jade Blessed poison dart frog (Ranitomeya benedicta)

I’m winding the yarn balls now while listening to John Haller … the actual designed slippers shouldn’t take too long to complete once I start on them.

Packwood Coffee Run

I have the most loving and lovable husband in the world … I don’t know of any other man that would agree to a 4-hour-round-trip-Coffee-Run-spur-of-the-moment-whim to satisfy his wife; do you?

He is a true gem and I am a lucky woman to be so blessed :-D

I woke up this morning, took one look at the lovely weather outside and thought, ‘this would be a good day to enjoy a drive’. And since I hadn’t poured my coffee yet, I thought that the considered (yet unspoken) day trip would even be better with a mug of Cowboy Coffee to top it off.

So I broached to topic to Hubs: “Hon, it’s a really nice day today – perfect for a drive”. That gets his attention ;-) “Where, and how far?” he asks. “Hmmm,” I hedge. “Where, and how far?” he repeats. “Well … it is a clear day outside; and I haven’t had my coffee yet …” I look at him hopefully. “Not Packwood!” Hubs finishes what I had not yet spoken out loud. “I did think Packwood; yes. A Cowboy Coffee sure would taste good.” And I smile at him. He’s hooked ;-) “That’s 4 hour drive,” he grouses.

An hour later we’re on the road enjoying a scenic drive to Packwood with my 3 beloved mountains surrounding us to the right, left, and straight ahead:

To our right is Mt. St. Helens. Jackson Hwy. cutoff.

To our left; and later down the road, straight ahead, is Mt. Rainier. Jackson Hwy. cutoff. Mt. Rainier is the mountain I will miss the most – I visited that mountain at least 2 … sometimes 3 times a year for the past 24 years and have gone over the 3 Passes on the backside of that mountain ever since 1970. This particular mountain takes up a huge part of my heart.

“There’s gold in them thar hills pardner …”; LOL”: Glenoma hills.

Seriously though, there is at least an ounce of gold up there that we know about, for a fact; Bob did lose his wedding ring up there in those hills when he was logging that big hill. He got seriously sick one winter with walking pneumonia and lost a lot of weight; the fell ring off his finger before he realized later that night that it was gone. When he called me I could tell in his voice how sick he was and it worried me. When he came home on the weekend I don’t even know how he got home without wrecking … he was so sick. The kids were so worried that they sat at his feet for hours after he sat down and passed out from the illness and the long drive home, crying that they wanted to give him his Christmas gifts “early in case he doesn’t make it”. Poor little dears.

But he did rally during the Christmas time-off from work … and when he drove back to Glenoma, which was a four hour drive 1-way from where we lived at that time, I started seriously studying to get my driver’s license, so if he was ever that sick again he wouldn’t be alone that far away from home, worrying about his family, about possibly dying, or about how to get safely home being so sick.

Snowy peak of Mt. Adams showing above the horizon just out of Packwood, on the right – in the faaaaaaar distance and to the east of Mt. St. Helens.

Ahhhh: tasty good coffee. We took our time driving back home because Hubs knows I enjoy seeing my beloved mountains, and he lovingly let me feast my eyes on them at leisure.