Fun Food Friday- Split Pea Soup

It's still freezing over here (right now as I look out my window there's times all I can see is white swirling around, very glad I don't have anywhere to go), which means I'm still in a soup mood. :)  So this week I have for you Split Pea Soup.  Now I have to make a confession, for the first 22 years of my life I "hated" Split Pea Soup.  I thought it was the most disgusting soup there was.  My roommate in college would bring it frozen from home and I gave her such a hard time about what a disgusting thing that was that she was putting in our freezer.  And then one day when I was 22 I was out to dinner with my family at this place that did family style dinners and the soup that night was Split Pea Soup.  I voiced my disgust at the choice and then my dad asked me if I had ever in fact tried Split Pea Soup.  I thought about it and realized I actually had never even tried it, all my disgust for it was because of it's appearance :).  So he made me try it and what I discovered is despite the awful green look to the soup, it's absolutely delicious!  Now it's one of my favorite soups!  And the great thing is when I make a nice big pot of Split Pea Soup I get the whole thing to myself because my husband is like what I used to be, unwilling to even try it because of the looks. :)  So if you can get past the nasty green looks of this soup (yeah, not the greatest for a food blog where you take pictures of it but trust me, it tastes amazing), try this one out.  It's a great one to make after Christmas because it requires a ham bone and most people have ham at Christmas.  If you don't feel like making it right away, you can always freeze the ham bone until you're ready to use it.  And if you don't have a ham bone I think you can buy a ham hock or just throw some diced ham in at the end.  So if you're stuck in this horrible cold weather that doesn't seem to want to end, try warming up with some Split Pea Soup!

Ingredients: Dried Green Split Peas, Onion, Carrots, Ham Bone, Chicken Broth

(You can also put in celery but when I went to get my celery out of the refrigerator I realized I didn't have any in there :))

 

You need to rinse the peas so pour 2 cups into a strainer...

And rinse with water.  You want to move the peas around to make sure there's nothing in with the peas.

Pour the rinsed peas into a big pot...

And cover with 2 cups of water.  Let them soak for an hour

Then add your ham bone

2 cups of chicken broth and 2 more cups of water

Bring it to a boil

Then cover and let it simmer for an hour

 

Take out the ham bone

 

And cut the meat off the bone and dice into small pieces

Once the bone is out mash up the peas.  If the soup is a little thick (like mine is here) just add a little water.

Add the onions...

And carrots...

And the diced ham.  Let it cook for 20 more minutes.

Then just pour it in a bowl and go enjoy!

 

This soup freezes really well so it works great to put it in Dutch Tupperware (aka cool whip containers :))

Cover, label and put it in the freezer so that the next freezing cold day you can pull it out, heat in the microwave and enjoy a bowl of soup

Looks like I won't be getting the whole pot of soup to myself anymore :)

Split Pea Soup
2 cups dried split pea
4 cups water
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup onions, diced
1 cup carrots, diced
Ham Bone

Rinse the peas.  Pour into a large pot and cover with 2 cups of water.  Soak for 1 hour.  Add 2 cups of water and 2 cups of broth and the ham bone.  Bring to boil, turn down heat and simmer for 1 hour.  Remove the ham bone, cut the meat off the bone and dice.  Mash up the peas (if soup is too thick add some water).  Return the ham to the soup and add carrots and onions.  Heat for 20 more minutes.

Life With the Bussis'- 1.22.14

It has been a week of getting back into the swing of normal life after all the holidays and then my parents coming.  And I'm trying to cut out the twins' morning nap so that makes the morning pretty long.  But I have found if they take a morning nap they don't take as good of an afternoon nap, which is when Micah is napping, and I'd much prefer they all take a good long nap at the same time, so we'll see how it goes.  It's much easier the days that we have something in the morning. :)  The twins had their 15 month appointment this morning.  Here were their stats:
Jonathan- Ht: 31.5" (59%), Wt: 26lb 2.5oz (88%), HC: 47.5cm (67%)
David- Ht: 31.25" (51%), Wt: 24lb 7.5oz (71%), HC: 47.3cm (62%)
The doctor was very pleased with their growth and development, she said they are right where they should be which is awesome considering they were born premature.  She did say that they should start saying a few words over the next couple of month and if they aren't we should bring them in at 18 months just to make sure nothing else is going on, but she wasn't worried about it.  They do seem to be starting to mimic sounds more often.  I remember Micah at this age wasn't saying more than a couple of words either, and he talks just fine now. :)  So good report from the doctor.  And then of course they got to each have four shots and wonder why Mommy and Daddy would let that mean nurse do that to them :).  It's not fun, but I know it's for their own good.  And seriously, one minute later they were fine.  I am a little curious, the nurse we had today was a lady that goes to our church, so we'll see if they remember her and run away from her next time they see her. :)
Otherwise nothing too monumental happened this week.  Here's some random pictures for you:

Snuggle time after their naps.  As you can see they were still waking up :)

Micah loves his new rug

The boys love Mondays when Daddy gets to stay home and play with them

 After lunch on Monday we went over to church to play in the fellowship hall.  It's a great way to get some energy out during the cold winter months.

Jonathan prefers climbing on the chair to running around I guess :)

We spend a lot of time hanging out on the couch:

 

Last night Micah helped me make cookies and decided he had to also take pictures of it. 

Future food blogger? :)

 Here are the pictures he took:

 

He likes to get up close and personal :)

These boys crack me up, all the toys we have in our house and what do they all want to play with, the plastic bowl...

And then somehow it always ends this way :)  Oh, life with 3 boys

The twins seem to more and more like to play together.  Steve preached at his old church on Sunday night as part of a Classis exchange and when I went to pick the boys up from the nursery afterwards one of the ladies in there commented on how they just kind of followed each other around the whole time (except when Jonathan was going after his cousin's pacifier :)).  But it is so cute to watch them play together (which most of the time involved either chasing each other or tackling each other):

 

And finally, this past Sunday we had Sanctity of Life Sunday at our church.  I was playing for the service and when deciding what to play for the offertory I decided I wanted to play "Jesus Loves the Little Children" and "Onward Christian Soldiers"  I had this really cool but kind of eerie version of "Onward Christian Soldiers" and I felt it fit perfect because it's such a sad battle we're fighting against abortion.  So I thought I'd share my offertory with you.  I don't know that's I've ever been so moved while playing a piece before.  The only way I could figure out to play it on here was to make it into a video and it needed a picture, so sorry you have to stare at my children for the 3 minutes :).  And I know it's not perfect, if I kept trying till I got it perfect I'd still be trying :).  But it's a piece I played from my heart and wanted to share with you.  May we never give up the fight!



Fun Food Friday- Baked Potato Soup

It is definitely soup season here (although I really love soup any time of the year :)).  This is one of my favorite soups and it's very easy to make and is a great soup to bring to someone else (every time I send this soup along with Steve when he visits someone who's sick or had surgery or a baby, they always say Potato is their favorite soup).  I have also made it with left over mashed potatoes or even cheesy hash brown casserole and it tastes wonderful with those too.  Another great thing about this soup is it's easy to make a little or a lot, depending on how much you need (when I made this batch of soup I made a lot- some for us, some for a family that just had a baby- which is why there are a lot of potatoes and butter and ... :), but for the recipe below I'll put a more scaled down version :)).  So if you have a hankering for some soup tonight, I definitely recommend this one!  Enjoy!

Ingredients: Baked Potatoes, Butter, Milk, Flour, Sour Cream, Bacon, Cheese, Green Onion, Salt & Pepper

For this soup you use baked potatoes (scrub the potatoes, spear them and then bake at 400 degrees for an hour).  Let the potatoes cool for a few minutes so you can easily handled them.  Then just split them in half...

And dig out the inside (I find it easiest to use a cookie scoop to get it out)

Smash up the potatoes

In a big pot melt butter...

When butter is melted sprinkle in some flour

Mix together and boil for 1 minute

Add milk.  Stir constantly until it comes to a boil

In the meantime dices up some green onion...

And bacon

Once the milk comes to a boil it will thicken up

Then you add in the smashed potatoes

And mash them into the milk mixture

Add some salt...

And pepper...

And sour cream...

And shredded cheese (I used Colby Jack but you can use whatever you prefer)

Mix it all around until the cheese melts and is blended in

Then add the green onion and bacon

Mix together and allow to heat for a few more minutes

 

And there you have it, delicious, creamy potato soup

Micah is a hug fan of baked potato soup :)

Baked Potato Soup
4 baked potatoes
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
3 cups milk
salt & pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (I use Colby Jack but you can use whatever you prefer)
8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
3 green onions, chopped and divided
1 cup sour cream

Cut potatoes in half and scoop out pulp, mash the pulp together.  In a large pot melt butter over low heat.  Add flour, stir and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Gradually add milk, cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and bubbly.  Stir in potatoes and mash together with milk mixture.  Add salt, pepper, sour cream and cheese, mix until cheese is melted.  Add bacon and onion, stir to combine.  Heat for a few more minutes.  Enjoy!