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Showing posts from August, 2016

Split Pea Soup

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Add caption Ingredients: 1 lb bag of green split peas 1 yellow onion 2-3 carrots 6-8 mushrooms (optional) 1 can/box of condensed cream of mushroom soup (Pacific organic is okay but nothing beats Campbells) 1 ham shank - not ham hocks.* 1/2 bay leaf salt and pepper   * If your market doesn't have the small ham shank (usually near other smoked ham products) use a ham butt portion. You can use the denser cuts of ham like black forest or other varieties of ham shaped into handy rounds but I think you miss out on some of the flavor provided by the ham bone. You can buy the ham shank butt portion (usually around $15.00) and cut it in half and freeze the left over portion for another round of soup (like Ham and Bean Soup) or to be cooked and eaten as...ham. Left over ham goes in the freezer for later So... to prepare the recipe: Rinse and sort the split peas. Take out any that are black, rinse and put the peas into the slow cooker. A pound of

Slow cooker 101

The youngest child now has her own slow cooker and she's wondering what magic she can create with it. Well ladies? What simple recipes would you suggest - that don't use red meat? I think slow cookers are great for things like split pea soup, ham and bean soup, chili (either beef or chicken), pulled bbq sandwiches, stews, chicken enchilada filling - what else? A couple suggestions - Everything that is added in the morning is going to get pretty mushy by the evening. This is fine for the meat, although chicken just doesn't need that long to shred. With chicken dishes, I tend to use my slow cooker on weekends when I can keep an eye on it for 4-5 hours (high). Beans need to soak overnight - even when they are going to be simmer in the slow cooker the whole next day. Just dump them in the crock pot and cover with hot water the night before. By morning, you can strain them or simply add the rest of the ingredients to the pot. Crockpots make usually more than you can ea