Split Pea and Ham Soup

So, you bought a big ham for Easter and have exhausted your recipes but still have a bunch of ham stuck to the bone. What to do? Throw it in the Crock Pot!



You'll need to rinse a bag of split peas, but because they will cook overnight in the pot, there is no need to soak them.



Just dump them right onto the ham...



Add 2 quarts of water, put on the top of the Crock Pot, set on Low, and go to bed. (Don't, however, do like I did and start the soup at 1am because you were waiting for some overnight cinnamon rolls to rise and they were being difficult. That leads to mistakes because you are tired, such as turning the Crock Pot to Warm instead of Low. Not a good thing.) In the morning you can either keep the soup in the Crock Pot or transfer it to a pot on the stove. If you put it on the stove: after adding all ingredients, bring to a boil, turn down heat to low, cover, stir often, and cook all day or at least 3 hours. If you keep it in the Crock Pot: after adding all ingredients, turn pot to high for one hour, then turn down to low, and cook for at least two more hours or all day.

I put it on the stove, but it really doesn't matter. You'll need an onion, carrots, celery, and a small potato. I put my carrots in my tiny food processor and chop them until they cry uncle.





Do the same thing with the onion and celery. OR you can just chop and add. I mutilate the poor veggies in order to fool my oldest daughter, a veggie-phobe, into thinking they aren't there. Chop the potato into tiny pieces and add. It will break down in the soup and help to thicken it. Now toss in a couple of bay leaves. I was going to take a picture of them, but I'm embarrassed by how old and desiccated my leaves look. :) Now here's my secret ingredient...don't tell anyone.



Cavender's. It's a greek seasoning, but I use it in everything, especially on turkey at Thanksgiving. In fact, since I grew up using it, I don't like to eat turkey without it! But, if you don't have access to Cavender's, it is basically a blend of salt, pepper, garlic, oregano, onion powder, and parsley. I would suggest using salt and pepper to taste, a couple of shakes of garlic powder, onion powder, and celery salt, and maybe a few parsley flakes. Then taste and see what you think. Here's the finished soup:



Split Pea and Ham Soup

ham
1 16oz bag of split peas
2 qts water
1 medium onion
1 medium potato
1 cup celery
2 cups carrots
2 bay leaves
Cavender's (to taste)


I usually make buttermilk biscuits to go with this soup. But cornbread is great, too.

Enjoy!!

my recipe card:

Product Tip

I frequently lament the fact that I have no dishwasher. One of the worst problems I face, that can't be remedied by soaking in a white vinegar/water mixture, is coffee stains in our mugs. I can scrub them with soap as long as I want, but they don't come out. There are a couple of chemical products that work, but I dislike using them on surfaces that touch our food. So, here's the fix: Mr. Clean Magic Clean Eraser. You wet it, squeeze out the excess water, and rub it on the inside of the cup. No scrubbing, no elbow grease. The coffee stains literally wipe right off.
from this:



to this:



If you have a dishwasher that does this for you, I hate you just a little bit. :)

Alton Brown's The Chewy

Oh, how I love Alton Brown. What could be better than a little science mixed in with baking? (I'm a sci-fi junkie, so maybe this appeals more to me than to you. :) I watch Good Eats all the time and loved his show on chocolate chip cookies. He made three batches: The Chewy, The Thin, and The Puffy. I really only like chewy chocolate chip cookies, so I watched him, then read through his recipe, then "fixed" it to my tastes. I think the milk he adds is unnecessary if you decrease the butter and flour a bit. Plus, I always bake cookies at 325 degrees. It just works the best, I've found. So here's my recipe:
2 cups King Arthur (yes, it has to be King Arthur) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup butter (1.5 Smart Balance sticks)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 T vanilla
1 egg
1 egg yolk (makes a big difference, I promise)
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (brand doesn't matter)

The Usual Suspects:



Cream butter and sugars until it looks like this:



About adding the egg yolk instead of the full egg...Alton Brown explained the reasons, but I just know it works. Seriously. Since we get our eggs from our sweet girls out back, I don't have the heart to throw away the extra white so I put it in a small baggie and save if for omlettes or something. (The larger egg on the left is courtesy of our Jersey Giant, Eragon.) Throw in the vanilla with the eggs and stir until fully incorporated.




Sure, you could sift your flour and baking soda into the mix. I don't sift. First, with King Arthur it is unnecessary. Second, my sifter broke...I think because I bought it at the dollar store. :) (Try King Arthur, really. It is so far superior that you will never, never go back to any old flour. You may need to add less flour if using a different brand. I've been using K.A. for a long time, but I seem to remember needing just a touch more of it when I first starting using it. It has a finer texture than most flours.) After adding the chocolate chips your end result will look like this:



Bake at 325 on a lightly greased cookie sheet (or use parchment paper) for 15-17 minutes. Don't wait until they are browning all over. Take them out at the first hint of slightly brown around the edges and let them set on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes and then remove to a rack to cool. Taking them out before they look done will give you a cookie that is crisp at the edges and chewy and soft in the middle. Plus they will stay chewy the next day. BTW, uniformity means nothing to me when baking cookies. I just use a soup spoon and plop them on the cookie sheet. Homemade cookies should look homemade, I think. As far as measurements, I used slightly less than a 1/4 cup of dough per cookie. Makes about two and a half dozen. They came out like this:




After setting and cooling:




Oh, boy! The kids need to get home from school NOW.

The Crazy Chickens

Here they are in all their glory. The black one is a Jersey Giant named Eragon. The tan one is a Rhode Island Red named Smores.

Whipped Cream

I hate Cool Whip. I'm pretty sure I can taste the chemicals in it and I know it leaves a metallic aftertaste. Yuck. I bet you can whip up some fresh cream to top your pies in the same amount of time it takes to get that plastic safety wrap off a carton of Chemical Whip. All you need is heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar.



I usually add about 2T of powdered sugar because I really like the flavor of the cream and most pies don't need much sweetener. But you can add more!



Now whip it! Whip it good! But not too much. If you keep whipping it you will get butter, but that's another post. Like meringue, you want it to peak, but unlike meringue you don't want the peaks too stiff.
Not ready yet...



Now it is...



Takes maybe two minutes. If that. And here's what it looks like on a slice of sweet potato pie.



Mmmmm.

Sweet Potato Pie

Yesterday I baked four sweet potatoes to go with some leftover ham from Easter, but once Bubba and the girls got home we decided we were in more of a breakfast mood. So we had pancakes. That left me with a Ziploc bag full of sweet potatoes in the fridge. What to do...what do do...PIE! It's been raining/storming all day here, very dreary. Just the right atmosphere for a heavy, sweet, comfort food pie.
You'll need:
4 medium sweet potatoes, baked
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp (+) cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 9-inch pie crust, unbaked
Start by scraping out the good stuff from your sweet potatoes. If you find any hard lumps (unbaked potato) don't use it. I suppose you could try cooking it in the microwave to soften it up, but definitely don't put it in the pie.



Put the potato and the butter in a mixer and whisk it for at least 5 minutes. Really, you can't beat it too long. Sweet Potato Pie tends to have a grainy texture when the potatoes aren't mashed into oblivion. (Sidebar: I always indicate "butter" in my recipes, but never use it myself. Well, only half butter anyway. I use Smart Balance baking sticks. They are half butter and half Smart Balance. I can't recommend them enough! I ran out one day and was at a drugstore where they only sold butter. I thought, just this once, and bought some to use in my chocolate chip cookies. DRY. I never, never use anything but SB sticks, but I always write "butter" in my recipes.)



Now add some milk and beat the hell out of the mixture again. Your choice on what type of milk you want to add. Evaporated, whole, 2%, half and half, or skim. I used skim this time. Always like to cut out fat where I can. Because I eat a lot of desserts...and I like to have more than one slice of pie. :)



Dig my new measuring cup in that picture! It has cups, milliliters, ounces, pints, with liquid measurements on one side and dry on the other. It's nowhere near as useful as I thought it would be, but I can't resist new kitchen gadgets and I had some store credit at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. :)

Time for the cup of brown sugar. Dark or light would work. If you don't have brown sugar you can make your own. I do that quite often, as I go through brown sugar like it was water. Add one tablespoon of molasses to one cup of white sugar for light brown sugar. Mix with a fork. If you don't have molasses...sorry. Just add white sugar and a bit more cinnamon.



My favorite part...the eggs! Add them one at a time and beat until incorporated. I used two Smores' eggs this time.





Add vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Use just the one tsp of vanilla, but you can play around with the nutmeg and cinnamon. I don't really like nutmeg, so I go easy on it. If you love it, add more! I rarely use just one tsp of cinnamon. I like to hold the spoon over the bowl and shake out the cinnamon, letting it fall all over the batter until the tsp is full. I'm sure I get almost 2 tsp in there, if not more.





Sprinkle a little flour into your pie pan to keep the crust from sticking. (That's a tip I got from my father-in-law. Thank you, John!) I used a refrigerated, rolled pie crust. They are as tasty, if not more tasty, than homemade and so ridiculously easy to use. Let it warm up a bit, though, or it will tear when you try to put it in the pan. But don't do like I did this time and leave it on the stove while going off to do laundry. It almost melted.



All that is left is to pour the pie mixture into the pie pan and bake. For a really long time. Loooooong time. I was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with my oven. I put the pie pan on a cookie sheet in case it spilled over (still have cherry pie in the bottom of my oven) but this pie doesn't bubble over. No need for a cookie sheet. I probably added a good 20 minutes to the baking time. Oh well. Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes...or 80 if you put it on a cookie sheet. It will brown slightly on top and go from this:



to this:





You'll know it is done when you stick a toothpick in the middle and it comes out clean. Enjoy!!

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

We're supposed to call them slow cookers now, but I own an actual Crock Pot and can't seem to call it anything else. But Crock Pot Pot Roast sounded ridiculous. :) I have a real love affair with my pot and try to use it at least once a week. It is all the more special to me because after 14 years my old pot died and when I complained about how much I missed it, a very dear friend got tired of my whining and sent me a new one. ;) Such a surprise and so very, very sweet!! I think about her every time I use it. (Thank you again!!)
This recipe is easy, as low fat as you're going to get with pot roast, and can be adapted to your tastes.
(First an apology...I forgot to take pictures of the meat in the Crock Pot.)
For this recipe you will need:
a bottom rump roast (any big loaf of meat will work--I just find that this cut, when trimmed, is leaner than an actual pot roast cut)
2 envelopes of Lipton onion soup
2 envelopes of brown gravy mix
water
carrots
potatoes
This first step is the easiest. Plug in your crock pot, trim off the fat from your rump roast, and toss it in the pot. Sprinkle both envelopes of Lipton on top and add 6-10 cups of water. You want the meat covered, but not swimming. Cover, turn on low, and leave overnight. In the morning, remove the roast and place it on a plate to cool (until you can touch it without burning your fingers). Pour the "soup" into a large pot. I use a 6 quart. When the meat is cool enough, shred it and toss it into the pot. It should just fall apart in your hands.




Chop up as many carrots as you would like. I use about three big handfuls of baby carrots. My youngest daughter loves carrots, so I always add extra. (Once I added too many and the post roast turned out orange.)




Now toss those babies into the pot with your meat.





Potatoes turn now. I use golden potatoes, but you could use Russet or even reds and leave on the skin. I have found that white potatoes, while cheap, turn to glue when cooked for a long time. Making mashed potatoes out of them is a nightmare.




You are going to have to salt the masses now. I know, salt. I blame the potatoes, but it has to be done. I use a teaspoon of Kosher salt. Table salt has an annoying habit of not tasting salty until it is oversalted. Feel free to add more, but you risk a bland pot roast if you try to add much less.




Time for the gravy. I pour two envelopes of gravy mix into a mixing cup and add just enough water to make a soupy paste. Don't follow the envelope directions, although do take a peek at the label and make sure you bought a brand with little or no fat. I buy generic and it has .5 grams of fat in each 1/4 serving. But we are diluting it massively, so you won't get that much in your serving.





Pour the gravy into the pot with everything else, mix well, and then turn your burner on high enough to get a boil. After it boils, turn it down and simmer until the potatoes are tender. I usually do all this in the morning and then simmer until dinner. I put the top on the pot, but not sealed--leaving one side open to prevent it from boiling all day.




You think that this looks more like beef stew, don't you? Not so! Notice we didn't add any oregano, basil, rosemary, garlic, or any of the other beef stews hangers-on. This recipe is pot roast on the stove...and Crock Pot. Best part, your house doesn't heat up from having the oven on for hours! Except for the 15 minutes it tastes to bake the buttermilk biscuits that go so well with this dish.

Homemade Chicken Fried Rice

If you are anything like me, you love Chinese take-out. Love it, could eat it every weekend, crave it during the week. But I don't love all the salt or all the grease and I especially don't love the next-day water retention. So, I created a recipe that uses a healthy oil and brown rice and that tastes even better than take-out, while not making me swell up like a puffer fish. The best part of this recipe is that you can add any vegetable you like, switch out the chicken for pork or beef, or leave out the meat entirely. It's all about finding recipes you like and making them your own. It's a rare occasion when I make a recipe exactly as written. For this recipe you will need:
pre-cooked brown rice, about a cup
oil (your choice: olive, canola, whatever)
carrots
onion
frozen peas
2 eggs
low-sodium soy sauce
skinless, boneless chicken breasts (one per person)


Start by chopping up enough onion and carrots to feed your brood. I use two handfuls of baby carrots and one large onion and chop them into tiny bits in my Handi Chopper. (Good tip for feeding vegetables to kids is to chop them so tiny that they go unnoticed in the food.) Add about 2T of olive or canola oil to a skillet (doesn't have to be electric) and cook your veggies until they are almost, but not quite, tender.



Clean and chop boneless, skinless chicken breasts (one for each person) and add to pan. I use kitchen shears to chop up my chicken. It is easier than using a knife and you don't have to fool with sterilizing a cutting board after using. Cook the chicken until no pink remains in the middle. I usually put a top on the skillet for a good 5-10 minutes to help the chicken hurry up. But don't leave it on too long or all of the moisture will leave your meat.



When your chicken is mostly done add 2T (or more to taste) of a low-sodium soy sauce. The low-sodium is key to avoid the next-day bloat. To be honest, I don't really measure anything in this recipe. I shake on the soy sauce until the chicken looks halfway covered, but it feels like about 2-3T.



I don't measure the frozen peas either-about 3 handfuls. And maybe an extra one. I love peas. You definitely don't want to add them with the rest of your vegetables or you will have pea mash. Not tasty. Add your peas with your already cooked brown rice. About a cup. I like to cook my brown rice with a couple of low sodium chicken bullion cubes and 1T of olive or canola oil. (Smart Balance has an amazing new oil that is a mix of olive, canola, and soy oils--for those of us who think olive oil has an aftertaste.)




Now the fun part. The eggs! Look at these cuties...straight from our chickens in the backyard. Thank you Smores and Eragon!





If you don't have backyard chickens, store bought eggs will do. :) I use two, but you can leave out this part, add more eggs, or just use one. Cook to your taste! Whisk the eggs and either push the food to one side and cook them in the same skillet or use a clean frying pan and scramble them. I use the same skillet...I think it gives the eggs extra veggie and soy sauce flavor.





Once the eggs are cooked, mix them into the rest of the food and serve. This homemade fried rice is not the same thing you get from fast food Chinese. It has a softer texture and a lot more moisture. But my family chooses this dish over take-out every time and I love that they are getting healthier ingredients. The brown rice in particular is amazing. You could definitely substitute white in the recipe, but brown rice adds a nutty, extra layer of flavor that stomps all over white rice.




The most important thing is to tailor this recipe to your taste. If I was making it just for me, I would add snow peas, cabbage, green peppers, and maybe even some zucchini. I get outvoted on those ingredients when making it for the family, though. Although next time...maybe I could sneak in the cabbage...if it was really small....


Enjoy!

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