Kathy's Easy Split Pea Soup with Ham

A friend I met in Blog World posted a blog about her Easy Split Pea Soup with Ham. I asked Kathy if I could use it as one of my posts for Lynn, What's for Dinner and she graciously granted me permission.

Head on over to Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy and get the juicy details of her soup (to go directly to the pea soup use link on Easy Split Pea Soup) and all the other delights of her blog. I haven't tried her recipe yet, but now that the weather decided to turn cool again, this seemed like a good day for some homemade soup!

Of course I have to tell some tales of my experience with homemade pea soup. I only hope no offense is taken.

The first time I remember having homemade pea soup was at my Aunt and Uncle's (on my dad's side). I'll leave the names out. My dad, and of course Ruthie (little sister) and I would go to different relatives for dinner when my mom was in the hospital—which by the way was extremely kind and as a little kid I'm sure I didn't appreciate the work involved—so a big thank you to them all.

I don't think kids are big fans of homemade soups, especially pea. Because I'm a eater of any kind of food, it didn't bother me too much, but I know my little sister was mortified to think she had to eat it. My aunt had a big smile on her face, "I made pea soup!" (Like that was going to thrill us.) My dad truly was thrilled. I ate it, but I felt bad for Ruthie because she didn't eat it and I wondered why a grown-up would serve something like that.

The next experience with pea soup involved Ruthie and me again. We had been living at our stepmother's home for a while—not really sure how long—but we noticed she kept things in the fridge for a LONG time. Like moldy long. We'd open up the door to see if there was anything good to eat and found dried up macaroni and cheese with fuzz growing on top or some other thing that was indescribable. She'd never cover anything with plastic wrap, so the food would take on all the flavors roaming around in the fridge and get hard and crusty.

Stepmother served pea soup. Not exactly thrilled but Dad boasted how she could make something delicious out of anything. It was evident as we spooned through the soup to find all the things that had been in the fridge—mold and all. Who'd know with the color of the pea soup.