Today is our final morning at our family’s Vermont retreat.  Somehow time up here finds a beautiful way of standing still.  Maybe it’s the fact that there is no TV and we spend full days together, reading, playing games, laughing, and grazing.  Maybe it’s the fact that that there is no ‘agenda’ for several days in a row.  Maybe it’s the fact that we spend a good chunk of time outside each day – even when the temps are close to zero we do our best to breathe in fresh air as often as possible.  Whatever it it, it’s a special place that I truly treasure.

This year we enjoyed a White Christmas with several inches of fresh snow falling regularly throughout the weekend.  On Christmas morning itself it felt as though we were sitting inside of a snow globe with puffy white flakes falling in 360 degrees around us.  A hearty and cozy soup was clearly in order.

I first made split pea soup in December of 2015.  Actually, it was the 6th recipe/post that I ever wrote here on the blog!  It is fitting that at the end of a calendar year -a time for retrospection – I found myself reviewing a piece of my work from two years ago.  It’s striking how much I’ve grown in the kitchen and how much I’ve learned about blogging/photography in this short amount of time.  (Click here to see the picture I posted 2 years ago – impressive difference, eh?)

As for the soup, I decided to use a slower method of making the soup (partially because I had to run out to the store to buy a few extra veggies) inspired by this recipe.  First, I simmered the ham bone with the peas for about an hour and a half. Then, I removed the bone and picked off the meat.  Next, in went heaping servings of onions, celery, potatoes, and about 2 cups of leftover cubed ham.  An immersion blender wasn’t necessary this time because the peas fully cooked down in the first part of the process and then the veggies added a hearty chunk.  Also, I only used salt pepper and marjoram as compared to the previous recipe where I added garlic, bay leaves, thyme, and parsley.  While additional spices are always yummy this was a good reminder that simple can be all you need.

Ingredients:

• 8 cups of water
• 1 lb bag of split peas
• 2 medium onions
• 5 carrots
• 3 potatoes
• 3 celery stalks
• Apx 2 cups of leftover ham – cubed
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 2 pinches of marjoram

Steps and Notes:

1. Re-hydrate the beans overnight by covering them with a lot of water. In the morning drain and re-fill with fresh water for the soup.
2. Add the diced onions and ham bone to the soup pot as well as 1-2 pinches of marjoram and salt and pepper to taste. Bring the water to a boil and then down to a simmer for 1.5 hours.
3. After the initial cook remove the ham bone and cut off any extra ham meat. Throw this back into the soup and then throw away the bone.
4. Add the the diced carrots, celery, and potatoes into the soup along with the leftover cubed ham and cook uncovered for 30 minutes then serve warm.

Thoughts for Next Time:

• Keep using the great list I generated the first time