Split Pea Soup

It's that time of the year where the ground is covered in snow, and I can see the trees shivering from the cold. And the only weapon I have in my arsenal against the bitter cold of Chicago is to make soup. Lots and lots of soup.

So often we think of soup in the big, grandiose, boil a chicken carcass all day to make broth way. But soup can be easy, hearty, and healthy, and a great way to make a meal on a weekday night.

My split pea soup is a great weekday night recipe because the prep is minimal and you let it cook on its own, unsupervised. Also, it doesn't begin with a whole ham hock!

Weekday Split Pea Soup

1 bag (1 pound) dried split peas
2 stalks celery, diced
2 carrots, sliced
2 14.5 oz cans chicken broth
3-4 cups water (depending on if you prefer thick or medium soup)
Fresh ground pepper
Optional: ham

Put everything in a pot. Bring to a boil. Put top on, reduce to simmer. Cook for 1-2 hours until the peas have become pleasantly mushy. That's it!

I rarely have cubed ham just lying around, but to make this a meal, it needs a little more than just the soup. So since I usually have ham lunchmeat handy, I warm some up in a pan and place a little on top of the soup. If you cook the lunchmeat in the soup, it won't hold up to the 2 hours of cooking, so it's necessary to wait to add it. Then toast up some bread to dip in, and you've got a tasty, hot and hearty meal to get you through the week!

Easy Stocking Stuffer: Bottlecap Magnets

Before I get into the project, I just have to take a moment to say...

This is my 100th post!!!

Woo!

Ok, mini party over. Now on to the craft project!

This is a cute little stocking stuffer that is so easy to make, and so fun to get. If you have any beer lovers in your life, they make a great gift!

Items you'll need:

Bottle caps
Small magnets
Cardboard
Glue Gun


Start with some bottle caps. If you're like me, you've saved every bottle cap for years and years with the thought that someday you'd find a use for them.



Pick out ones you know your recipient will love. Maybe it's their favorite beer, maybe it's from a brewery in their hometown, whatever they might have a particular love for. For these recipients, I chose all Sam Adams bottle caps, since they love Sam Adams beer and live in Boston.

Since my magnets I bought were pretty thin, I needed to cut out two small circles of cardboard to fill in the bottle cap. I hot glued each layer together and to the inside of the bottle cap, and then hot glued the magnet to the cardboard.



Your circles don't have to be perfect because once they're on the fridge, no one will see the inside!

Then, in the time it takes for hot glue to cool, you have cute fridge magnets!





A fun, cheap, and still personal stocking stuffer!

uVinyl Winner!

Thanks everyone for entering the uVinyl $25 gift certificate giveaway!

Now turning to our random number generator for the lucky number...



#19, Rich and Mallory!!

Rich and Mallory said:

"I would love to make a custom "R" decal to put amongst my photos in my Picture Frame cluster on my wall."

Congrats!! Savannah from uVinyl will be contacting you shortly!

Kitchen Experimenting: Sweet Potato Crocks

After Thanksgiving, I had a lone sweet potato living in the fridge, dying to be eaten. But after plenty of mashed sweet potatoes and baked sweet potato fries, I was looking for something a little different. And frankly, I was feeling creative!

I love scalloped potatoes in individual crocks, so I decided to do a sweet potato play on that. And instead of using cream and cheese, I used butter and spices!

Individual Sweet Potato Crocks

Sweet potato
Butter
Brown Sugar
Smoked Paprika
Chipotle Powder
Ancho Chile Powder
Salt

First of all, you'll notice that I have no measurements listed above. Well, there's a refined reason for that, and a not so refined reason.

Refined reason: this recipe should be built to your tastes, so if you like more sweet than smoky, add more brown sugar, less smoked paprika, etc.
Less refined reason: I was making this up as I went, I have no idea how much I used.

So here we go!

Grab your sweet potato, and using a mandoline, slice it into even circles.



Melt some butter (I used about 1.5 tbsp), pour over the sweet potatoes, and add the brown sugar, smoked paprika, chipotle powder, ancho chile powder, and a pinch of salt. A note on chipotle powder vs. ancho chile powder: chipotle is VERY spicy, and slightly smoky, where as ancho chile powder is more of a sweet spicy. Be careful with the chipotle powder if you don't like too much spice!

Toss it all together to get all the slices coated in the butter/spice mixture. Next, layer them in some individual sized corningware crocks, and sprinkle a little extra brown sugar on top.



Put them in the oven at 375 degrees for 1 to 1.5 hours, or until the layers are all fully cooked. I took them out after 45 minutes thinking they'd be done. They weren't.



Spicy, smoky, sweet, delicious!