Tag Archives: Leftovers

Split Pea and Ham Soup

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Its after Christmas, you’re looking in the refrigerator wondering what you are going to do with all the holiday leftovers. There’s a ham, carrots, celery, some onions and you have no idea what to do? Make soup. Its easy, its good for you and it cleans out some of the fridge. Win! Bonus if its cold outside and you’re freezing too.


Split Pea and Ham Soup
 
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A quick hearty soup and easy way to use up some holiday leftovers.
Author:
Recipe type: Soup
Cuisine: American
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 2 Tablespoons of Butter
  • 2 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1 medium Onion diced
  • 2 Teaspoons of Salt
  • 2-3 cloves of Garlic minced
  • 8 Cups of Water
  • 1 Pound Spit Green Peas rinsed
  • 1 Ham bone
  • 2-3 cups Ham diced
  • 2 Bay leafs
  • 1 Teaspoon of Thyme
  • 2 stalks of Celery with leaved diced
  • 2 large Carrots peeled and diced
  • Pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Melt Butter and heat Olive Oil in pot over medium heat
  2. Add diced Onion and Salt and sweat for about 5 minutes until clear
  3. Add minced Garlic and cook 30 seconds until fragrant
  4. Add Water
  5. Add Rinsed Peas
  6. Add Ham Bone
  7. Add Diced Ham
  8. Add Bay Leaves
  9. Add Thyme
  10. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour
  11. After 1 hour, add diced Celery and Carrot
  12. Increase heat to medium and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes
  13. Reduce to desired thickness
  14. Add Pepper to taste.
  15. Eat

 

Back in Black Friday

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I keep lookin’ at the sky
’cause its getting me high 

By now we should have made it through another Thanksgiving meal and for those that chose to attempt it, the day after shopping on this Black Friday.

In the end I made up some sides and brought them to my folks to eat this year. Yeast rolls as you can see was one of the few things I made. They came out pretty good and I was surprised how easy they are to make. I also made some cranberry sauce and cornbread dressing. Between this and what my folks made we ate pretty damn good and gluttonous yesterday. I’ll put them all in the recipe section later. I am in the process of reformatting all the recipes into a standardized format thats easily printable so you guys can take them with you.

I didn’t bother with shopping today. Not that I ever would. Saw a few reports on TV of the idiots around the country looking for a deal. The mad rush and push to get a cheap flat panel tv or a video game in this country is beyond sad. I am all for getting a deal and times are tough on people, but its stupid to think the only time you can score these deals is the day after or more accurately this year, at nine pm on Thanksgiving night. Much like our national elections in this country, people are stupid.

Really? Over a phone, Xbox, waffle iron? Look closely at this video. These imbeciles VOTE, and make more imbeciles.

Folks, understand this right here right now. Mankind is officially on the downward leg, rapidly picking up speed to extinction. Do not fool yourselves for a second that it is not happening.

Other then that I don’t feel too strongly about the whole matter.

I hope that all the rest of you had a good time with your families and had the chance to sit down and relax with loved ones. Its got to be a little more important and gratifying then standing in some line at the crack ass of dawn and putting up with this nonsense. As a small child I loved Santa Clause and getting gifts at Christmas as much as the next kid, but with all honesty from those moments to this very one, none of that shit mattered more then being with family.

Let ‘er rip tater chip!

A Long Long Time Ago

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I can still remember how that music use to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance I could make those people dance.
And maybe they’d be happy for a while.

Is today black Friday? You’re freakin’-A right it is! Hostess Brands the iconic maker of such things as Twinkies, Zingers, Devil Dogs, and Wonder Bread is shutting down and gone.

The company has been in trouble for a couple of years now. When you really look at the numbers from an objective eye to business, this one is a shame. There was obvious management and leadership problems here. It wasn’t too late to fix those issues and the company and board of directors were trying. Want to know what killed this company? The damn unions! 18,000 plus workers get to go home without a job this holiday season and for the first time since 1930 we get to walk through a grocery store and not see a box of Twinkies or a loaf of Wonder Bread for sale.

Being a child of the seventies and eighties, I can tell you these foods were a normal part of life. I didn’t know there was anything other then white sandwich Wonder bread until I was probably twelve years old. In fact there was a loaf of it in my parents house last week. My father still eats it.

Twinkies and Devil Dog snack cakes have an indelible mark on my childhood. My grandmother used to have a dedicated drawer in her kitchen where at any time in history there was a box of Twinkies and or other snacks. Guaranteed! Not just when grandchildren were visiting either. My grandmother as sure as rain had on hand at ALL times Twinkies, Devil Dogs, and out in the refrigerator in the laundry room at least a case of Yoo-Hoo. In fact, I would bet my last dollar right this second that somewhere in Virginia in my grandmother’s kitchen at this very moment is a Twinkie, Ding Dong, Devil Dog, or other reasonable facsimile of a snack cake, junk food, or candy treat with roots to this iconic company. She may not remember it and it could very well be past its published shelf life (which is in and of itself not possible), but I’d bet I am right. If I was there right now, I’d eat that damn thing and sit and cherish fond memories of my grandparents and being a small boy without a care or problem in the world one last time.

It’s a cruel world out there today.

This week I re-visited my homemade pizza recipe and finally published it in the Recipe section of this blog. I have pontificated on New York style pizza and especially making it at home here on this blog in the past. I have come to the conclusion that pizza is pretty much the best food in the world. Getting the basics down and being able pull off a good pie at home is easier then one would think. I tested and retested the basic dough recipe, oven temperatures and cook times. Its a slam dunk. I am now going to move into making my own mozzarella and I have fresh basil growing. I will plant tomatoes this spring. By June of next year, with the exception of the yeast and flour, I fully intend to make a pizza from scratch with everything 100% home grown and or killed. Yes, I will kill a hog and make my own sausage.

Pizza made in the oven, pizza made on the grill, pizza made on the Big Green Egg, I am going to document it all right here. There is too much cheap shitty pizza out there, and I am going to prove we do not need to put up with that garbage.

It just occurred to me. How in the 7th level of hell can we as a country watch the maker of Twinkie and Wonder Bread cease to exist, yet that bullshit Domino’s, Papa Johns, and Pizza Hut can survive through a plague?

Well, not on my watch. YOU NEED ME ON THAT WALL! Can you handle the truth? They can have my pizza when they pry it from my cold dead hands. REMEMBER THE ALAMO and THE TWINKIE!

So that’s where we are on this Friday before Thanksgiving. I got a recipe for Turkey shepherds pie. Its a great way to get rid of leftovers. I’ll put it in the recipe section next week.

Be safe, have fun, love one another and enjoy the weekend.

Let ‘er rip, tater chip!