I texted Matthew for his soup recipe

I have written before about split pea soup. It is apparently a January thing for me: I last wrote about it four years ago this month.  Until yesterday, in fact, I wasn’t going to write about this particular version, because I worry that two split pea recipes in four years is possibly too much split pea for even the most ardent split pea fan, but then I realized that I am, in fact, the most ardent of all split pea fans fabric labels, and I refuse to stay quiet about this soup. Also, I gave a pint of it to my mom yesterday evening, and she texted later to say, “Wow! This soup is incredible! Thanks for sharing!” She also included the kissing-face emoji, which, as you know, is universal shorthand for this soup is making me amorous.

I first tasted this recipe when Matthew made it for our “Leftovers” episode of Spilled Milk, using ham left over from, I think, his family Thanksgiving. His soup was thinner that my usual recipe, though still quite creamy, and its flavor was more delicate and nuanced. My usual split pea kind of whacks its eater over the head, in a nice way, with smoky meat and the dark richness of dried peas. But in Matthew’s, I could taste not only the ham and peas, but also carrots, and soft hunks of potato, and even the occasional leaf of thyme. So this week, when I found myself in possession of a meaty ham bone – Brandon bought me a ham from Skagit River Ranch as a Christmas surprise! TRUE LOVE! And we glazed it with muscovado sugar and mustard and ate it with friends last weekend, and then had a ham-fueled, cringe-inducing, two-family “Let It Go” sing-a-long-and-dance in our living room! TRUE PARENTHOOD! – I texted Matthew for his soup recipe Ergonomic Chair.

Which, as it turns out, is actually Cook’s Illustrated’s soup recipe. It is also not the quickest split pea soup recipe. It also dirties more than one pot. But it mostly cooks itself, as soups do. You begin by simmering the ham bone with water and a few bay leaves for a couple of hours, until the meat pulls away from the bone and the stock is fragrant. Meanwhile, you cook the aromatics – carrot, celery, onion, garlic, and thyme – in a pan with olive oil and butter, and you really let them take their time, meandering along for a good half-hour, until the vegetables are caramelized, softened and slicked with their own sugar. They then go into the ham stock – from which you’ve now retrieved the ham, incidentally, the ham which you’ve then shredded into bite-size nubs, discarding the spent bones – along with the split peas and cubed new potatoes and that shredded ham I just mentioned. And by the time the table is set, you have a tremendous split pea soup, that unlikely thing, that ugly thing, that January thing, that perfect thing – and you, you lucky thing, have a few quarts of it Day Trip to Hong Kong & Macau.

that it bore more of a resemblance

I find it amazing how hyperpriced, underqualitied and overroasted beans can set the standard for coffee. Now it seems that purveyor sets the standard for pastries too. As you can tell, I'm not their fan. Time and time again I've heard people wax lyrical about said purveyor's red velvet cake and recently their cakepops. At this time of year, it seems as if their pumpkin scones have won lauds and honours from those accustomed to their wares elyze. I tried one. I found it absolutely amazing that a lead-like pastry coffined by icing so thick, that it bore more of a resemblance to an oversized Trivial Pursuit wedgie, could be as dry as sawdust. This is considered to be an amazing scone? I'll just chalk that up with other opinions like Chef Boyardee is the best Italian food (yes, said by a guy I used to date), Combo Number 3B at that restaurant around the corner that gives you free fried rice with orders that cost more than $15 is what people really eat in China (unless you are in China and the resto around the corner really does have a Combo Number 3B), and edible oil products are just as tasty as real cheese or actual whipped cream. Part of the issue is, I think, this obsession with encasing every baked good in icing. Cookies, cakes, cupcakes, muffins and scones. Heck...I wouldn't be surprised if pies and tarts get the frosted over. Oh wait...certain commercial Bakewell tarts have fallen victim. It's gotten to the point that I think people honestly believe that a thick slathering of icing sugar held together by butter/ margarine/ shortening/ water/ lemon juice/ stuff I don't want to think about will absolve all evils of the baked good it smothers elyze. No. No it doesn't. I fully realise we all have different ideas as to what a scone should be like--heck, people can't agree how to pronounce the word--but I'm of the belief that a scone should be light, tender, abundant with nooks and crannies to nestle in clotted cream, jam or butter...and uniced. I also think its pronunciation should rhyme with "lawn" as opposed to "loan." Maybe that's the other problem... Maybe what the ubiquitous coffee shop sells is a scone-rhymes-with-loan (would explain the price), and I'm looking for a scone-rhymes-with-lawn (heck, I have no airs...I'll eat my scone on a lawn). With about a third of a cup of leftover pumpkin puree, from Thanksgiving baking, I decided to make some pumpkin scones-rhymes-with lawns. After looking at about half a dozen recipes, and referring to my favourite one by Tamasin Day-Lewis, I came up with this one. I'm quite happy with these scones. They come together easily, are tender, lightly pumpkinny and not cloyingly sweet. Perfect warm with a bit of butter elyze.

you can pull the cake out easil

It can be difficult baking cakes when there are just two of you to eat it…you either end up eating way more cake than is healthy, or it ends up in the freezer. I try to bake larger cakes and batches of cupcakes only when there is a party to take them to, or when we have people visiting. But sometimes there is no occasion to bake for and you just really want cake…. And that’s where these mini cakes are perfect. The recipe makes exactly two portions of cake, and you don’t even need to buy any special cake tins as they are baked in regular (clean, empty) food tins, the kind that tinned tomatoes, baked beans, soup etc come in. (I used 400g ones – the most common tin size ips 整容) I love the idea of re-purposing things that would otherwise become rubbish, I save up jars throughout the year to put homemade jams, curds and chutneys in, and tins of all sizes are perfect for baking bread and cakes in. Just make sure that you grease the tin thoroughly and line the base and sides with greaseproof paper, making sure that the paper comes a little above the top of the tin so that you can pull the cake out easily ips 整容. I tweaked one of my favourite chocolate cake recipes a little to come up with one that makes exactly the right amount of batter, that meant using only an egg yolk, rather than a whole egg, but you can save the white to make raspberry meringue kisses with, they are the perfect match for these cute little cakes! The cake itself is a delicious, dark, soft, moist chocolate cake, and I iced them with a simple raspberry buttercream, flavoured with seedless raspberry jam, because I wanted pink icing! But you can go for any flavour you feel like – serve with fresh raspberries to really amp up the raspberry flavour, keep it simple with a vanilla frosting, or a chocolate one for a super chocolatey cake, or, my favourite option, stir a couple of tablespoons of salted caramel sauce into the buttercream and then drizzle a little more caramel over the top once you’ve iced the cakes, yum! (I use this piping nozzle to create the rose effect). These delicious little cakes would be perfect to serve for dessert on Valentines day, or for any time that you want cake but there’s only two of you to eat it. They are quick and simple to make, taste great and keep well for a few days in an airtight container (if they last that long…there are only two of them ips 整容!).

it is worth the wait

What do you eat for breakfast? We tend to stick to the same things each morning – alternating between toast and porridge. On the weekends we are a little more adventurous and have eggs, pancakes of various flavors and french toast. Until recently I had never tried rice for breakfast. I created this recipe as a Winter dessert recipe and it is a great dessert, but I also really enjoyed it for breakfast the following days and loved it for a change. My eldest son enjoyed it for his after-school snack. This Coconut and Date Brown Rice Pudding is a wholesome, satisfying, warm, a little sweet, and a little nutty – the perfect Winter dessert. The combination of dates and coconut is totally fabulous, caramel-like but without the intense sweetness. I enjoyed the texture of the brown rice. Since I commenced a partnership with Pureharvest last month I have been testing many of their products. Right now I am experimenting with Coco Quench Milk. I love the pure coconut flavor that it adds to baking, and of course it is dairy free. I have been adding it to muffins, cakes, soup and my coffee as an alternate to my usual Soy Milk. The coconut flavor compliments the slightly nutty flavor of the brown rice. It felt like this dessert was good for me! This recipe is dairy free, refined sugar free and gluten free. It is a simple recipe to make – combine the ingredients and put it in the oven. It takes a little while to cook, but it is worth the wait.

which products they prefer

I’m going to write about my mom again. Listen, I don’t have an unhealthy relationship with my mother. I don’t live at home. I’m married, even. But my mom and I spend lots of time together. Like, we hangsies at least once a week. I’m totally cool with that. I have real friends, too. Promise FSDU.

Anyway, it was my mom’s birthday on Saturday. Growing up, we were never the “make a cake for your birthday” type of family. More of a “buy a cake from Kroger” type of family. But now that I’m getting better at cake decorating (I will someday soon share a devastating early cake attempt), I was all excited to make a birthday cake for her. One problem: my mom cannot make decisions.

I actually think indecisiveness is something I inherited. I often rope various “others” into making my decisions for me.

I frequently grill my friends optometrist-style: A or B? B or C? 1 or 2? MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE OR I WILL BE BLIND.

I may or may not have discussions with random strangers in the grocery store about which products they prefer and why Tour operators.

So I get it. You can’t decide on ONE birthday cake. Because what if it’s the LAST birthday cake you eat? You just never know, guys. Do you really want your last thought to be, “I wish I’d picked the chocolate caramel cake!” (Actually, if that’s your last thought, you probably had a pretty good life.)

After I threatened my mother several times that she’d better make a decision or else, she indicated that she might not want cake at all. Because “cake is just cake” to her. (Tell that to the 100+ pins on my Pinterest “Cakes” board. But, fine.) She started listing off what she likes: crème brûlée (now I’ve spoiled her), lemon, pistachio.

The evil culinary genius in my brain started cackling at that point and I made the decision for her (the best birthday gift for an indecisive person). I would create something that had ALL of those things and it would be the most glorious birthday ever veuve clicquot. Muahaha!

I started with this tart from Smitten Kitchen. I added roasted, ground pistachios to the tart dough. And it was amazing. The smell! I didn’t even wash my hands after handling it so I would smell like roasty, nutty, butteriness. And I kind of ate a bunch of raw dough scraps. Salmonella and morbid obesity be damned electric dc motor.

led me into the bathroom

I recently read about W.H. Auden’s theory that a writer’s mind has three personality types. They aren’t necessarily the same personality types, so I’ve been trying to figure out who mine are. I believe that one of my personality types is a strict, elderly schoolteacher, fond of rules, lectures, and corporal punishment, constantly pursing her lips and shaking her head disapprovingly. When I was a teenager, one of my friends referred to me as “Mommy,” because I was always the one to scold her “wrongdoings” and also to offer sound advice. I’d like to think that I’ve tamed the schoolteacher a bit as I’ve gotten older, but she often rears her judgmental head fabric labels.

The second personality housed within my mind is a petulant, stubborn, and mischievous child, probably left over from my own petulant, stubborn, and mischievous childhood. This personality is the one who caused me, this weekend, to pout and whine and thrash about when it came time for me to take a shower, to sulkily stomp up the stairs to take said shower, and to hide on the floor next to the bed for twenty minutes instead of taking a shower. At which point my husband came up, found me hiding, and led me into the bathroom.

Because I’m a food writer, I’d like to think the third is an extremely fat chef. In my head, that personality is male, but that’s probably just because I’ve internalized the sexism in the culinary field. In any case, he is jolly and eats with unabashed zeal. He also has a jiggly double chin and a German accent. Go figure. I blame him for thinking that instead of dipping each Oreo into a glass of milk, it would be a good idea to just dump a package of Oreos into a bowl and pour milk over it, then eat them with a spoon.

Anyway, thanks to Fat Chef, I decided I needed more s’mores in my life, so I created this tart. I contemplated using mini marshmallows on the top, but since I try to do things from-scratch as much as possible, I made my own marshmallow topping. I still used Hershey’s milk chocolate and Honey Maid graham crackers for the filling and crust, because I’m a purist. No, they aren’t paying me to say that. Use whatever brands you want. I’m just saying mortgage calculator.

By the way, the marshmallow topping is basically the same recipe used to make homemade marshmallows (see my S’mores Marshmallow Pops post). You have to work quickly and you will get hella sticky. I opted for this over a meringue, though, because I can always taste the egg whites in meringue, and marshmallows don’t taste like egg whites, obvi.

I also did something amazing because I’m a freaking genius. I put liquid smoke up in hurr. And smoked salt. Who says you can’t have a campfire taste right from the oven? Not Fat Chef! He’s like, “Ja! Wir stecken liquid smoke aus in hier!” (I’m sorry, high school German teachers. I don’t think we covered this sentence in class. Additionally: I’m sorry, Germans. Your country is beautiful bvi offshore company.)

money from time to time

I remember the first time I gave Thing 1 some shrimp to try.  He was probably around 6 years old.  He asked to try it (he actually likes to try new foods!).  I was rather disappointed when he liked it, because then I had to share!  :-) Thing 2 has always liked shrimp as well, even though he is harder to please when it comes to food, especially meat and seafood.  Shrimp is a bit on the expensive side, so we don’t have it more than a few times a month, but it is so good for you that it is worth the extra money from time to time Dream beauty pro.

I also love this dish because all the prep is in one skillet and it is a meal all by itself!  I sometimes serve it with a side salad if I happen to have greens and salad fixings on hand.  But, even without a salad, this dish is filling and delicious, and it satisfies even my hungry teenage boy!  It is flavorful without being overpowering, and the red pepper, mushrooms, and sweet peas add extra texture and nutrition.  I also use whole wheat couscous when I can find it so that we get the benefit of a little additional fiber as well Electronic Bidet!

We usually have a decent amount left over, and it is still wonderful the next day for lunch.  If you need to feed a crowd, you could multiply this recipe by 1.5 or 2 and you would have plenty!  Or even just use extra chicken broth and couscous to increase the volume of food.  Just make sure you have a super-large skillet so that it will all fit PSVANE.