Jewish Mother’s Split Pea Soup

This has been one of the more miserable falls that Virginia has had in a while.  We seem to be getting rain at least a couple of times a week.  A lot of us are beginning to wonder when Virginia got placed just outside the *other* Washington.

For most of October, my mood has matched the weather.  Adding a layer of stress over what is already my craziest month of the year and then throwing a ton of rain on top of that?  Yeah.  Depression was rearing its ugly head, only held at bay by a few really awesome runs.

It’s raining again today, but all is sunny in me.

I went for a lovely run in the rain in my new Skirt Sports skirt.  (Love!  Will review later) Nothing hurt!

I got final closure today with my primary physician that everyone agrees 100% that things are benign.  For good measure, she verified my pap smear was normal (I couldn’t remember actually getting the results.)  Then her nurse gave me a flu shot and a tetanus shot.  My doctor recommended doing pushups to make the soreness end faster.  Excellent!  My chiro has me doing squats and my dr. has me doing pushups.  I should be looking awesome soon.

Tonight for dinner, we are having my favorite soup.  When I was in college, my boyfriend was Jewish.  Once when I was visiting, his mom made split pea soup.  It was awesome.  Seriously, I could eat it every day for a week and not be tired of it (it also makes a ton, so there’s probably enough for a full week LOL).  I make it even better by throwing in ham.  (She is no longer with us, but she had an awesome sense of humor, so I’m sure she’d find the ham addition amusing.)

Hope all is well in your world too.

Split Pea Soup (’cause I know you want the recipe)

13 Cups Water
1 C split peas (I usually throw in a whole bag)
3 T lima beans/barley (I use only barley because I never have lima beans in the house)
1.5 T beef bouillon
1 t. celery salt
1 large diced onion
2 stalks celery, sliced
4 carrots, slices
1 T salt
noodles (about half a package of egg noodles, but I’ve used broken up spaghetti and fettuccine before)
(Optional: ham.  Whatever amount looks good. I like Black Forest Ham.)

Put water + split peas and barley in large pot.  Bring to a boil. Lower temp. Skim off any foam.  Cover and cook until split peas start to fall apart.  Add all other ingredients and cook for approximately a half hour until veggies are done.

Tastes even better as leftovers.