Split pea soup and Cornbread

Makes a big pot of stew and a pan of bread

 It’s a couple of days until payday, so I can’t grocery shop yet.  Plus it was cold and we had a fire going, so I wanted to make something “stick to the rib-ish”.  Time to be creative with what’s in the larder.  Yesterday’s foraging came up with a bag of split green peas, some potatoes, onions, carrots, half a pack of bacon, and ingredients for cornbread.  My kids love soup, and Vale loves “un puree de arvejas” (pureed peas).  So, a thick porridge of split peas with veggies was on the menu.  I made Miss Becky’s cornbread to go with it.  Mmm, so delicious.  In my childhood, my mom made a decent cornbread, but she’s resorted to using Jiffy mix in her old age.  One night my friend Valorae brought me a plate of food.  Rosemary chicken, something else and her mom’s recipe for cornbread.   That was the best cornbread that I’ve ever eaten, so now it’s my standard recipe.  It’s got alot of sugar in it (1 cup) so sometimes I cut the sugar back.  Last night I had a sweet craving to balance out the heaviness of the soup, and dumped in the whole cup of white death.  Zen ate three bowls of soup, and we slathered that cornbread up with lots of butter.  Yea, good eats.

1/2 pound of dry green or yellow split peas,

4 potatoes (I like Yukon Golds) peeled and cut into chunks

2 carrots, sliced

1 onion, peeled and sliced

1 large sprig thyme (or a pinch of dry)

1 large sprig oregano (or a pinch of dry)

6 pieces of bacon, fried

salt and pepper

Rinse and drain the split peas.  Add to a big soup pot with the potato chunks, carrot, thyme, oregano and enough water to cover plus 3″ of water.  Bring to a boil, skim the scunge off the top, and reduce heat to simmer.  Cook the bacon in a skillet until crispy.  Cook the sliced onions in the bacon grease until soft over medium heat.  Dump the onion into the soup.  Cook the soup for 45 minutes or until the  peas are tender.  Season with salt and pepper.  Crumble bacon into each bowl and top with the soup.

Sort of Miss Becky’s Cornbread

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup flour

¼ to 1 cup sugar (! use less since I don’t like too much sweetness)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup oil

1 egg

1 cup milk

Sift the dry stuff together.  Mix the wet stuff together.  Pour the wet into the dry and stir just until moist.* Bake at 350 in a skillet for 25 minutes.

*I used to overbeat my cornbread and it always came out flat and lumpy.

Photo Credits: "Cornbread Muffins" by Steve A Johnson is licensed under CC BY 2.0