Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Split Pea Stupor

What better way to usher in the long-awaited Spring season than a bottomless pot of bubbling green liquid? For my first Easter as a wife I decided to tackle the spiral-cut ham. And a big old ham bone calls for a batch of homemade split pea soup. Unfortunately, I had made a batch of soup the week before Easter and we had just finished it. But I didn't know what else to do with the aforementioned bone of ham, hence the soup. Contrary to popular belief, you can actually have too much of a good thing.

But enough about overdosing on the green stuff. The real fun was the Easter dinner. We had a motley crew of Easter decorations which consisted of a chocolate chick, a lindt dark chocolate bunny, two eggs decorated by our nieces and nephews, and my beloved stuffed bunny Theodore, who Tom allowed at the dinner table since it was his 22nd birthday.

Dinner was (duh) ham, along with sauteed cauliflower and roasted sweet potatoes. I cooked the ham way too long, so it was more like salty leather than anything resembling ham. Good thing the veggies were delish. Roasted sweet potatoes are our new favorite thing. Tom meticulously sliced the sweet potatoes into french fry size, and I threw them on a baking sheet with thinly-sliced red onions, drizzled with olive oil and house seasoning, and roasted until the onions were brown and almost burnt. The result was truly pleasant and hearty yet healthy.

For dessert we ate the ears off the bunny (the chocolate one, not the stuffed one.) And for the next two weeks we had split pea soup for every meal. Happy Spring!

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