Split Pea with Hambone

Split Pea With Easter Hambone

About once every two weeks Mamacat and I discuss split pea with hambone. "Sissy," she says, "How do you make the split pea with ham soup again? I have a hambone in my freezer waiting!" And I keep reminding her. And she keeps forgetting. And that's ok! I made another batch last night so I thought I'd do her and myself a favor and record the recipe. Mamacat: Enjoy!


Split Pea with Easter Hambone Soup--for Mamacat

--1 hambone from Easter dinner (my original ham was an 8-pounder--we left about 1 pound of meat still on the bone)
--2 bunches carrots
--2 onions
--1 bunch celery
--1 head garlic
--6-8 red potatoes (Yukon golds are nice too--not Russet!)
--2 16 oz bags of split peas (you only need one and a half)
--2 large pots (or one large stockpot and one mixing bowl that can take boiling water poured into it!)

Toss the hambone into a large stockpot. I mean really large. I think I used about a 12 quart-er. Quarter one of the onions and toss in the pot along with the head of garlic, cut horizontally in half (I just toss the whole thing in, skin and all). Scrub one bunch of carrots, break into chunks, and add to the pot (I can't be bothered with peeling carrots for broth). Rinse celery and break the stalks and add to the pot.

Cover the entire concoction with water--I bring it up to about an inch and a half from the top of the pot.

Bring to a boil and then turn down to simmer for one hour until fragrant and the ham is falling off the bone.

Meanwhile, rinse and sort one and a half bags of peas (about 24 oz). Drain, toss in a metal pot or mixing bowl. If you have an electric teapot, cover the peas two times deep with boiling water from the kettle--or just pour cold water into a metal pot to cover the peas two times deep and bring to a boil and then turn off the heat. Either way works. Cover the contraption and let the peas steep for an hour.

Back to the hambone! With tongs and a large spoon, remove hambone and set aside. Scoop out vegetables with a slotted spoon or sieve--compost or toss. Save the broth! This is important! Break apart the meat on the hambone as much as you can with the tongs/spoon--it's hot and will be for a while.

Wash peel and chop the remaining bunch of carrots. I like carrot coins if the size works! Dice the remaining onion and toss into the 12 quart-er with the reserved stock. Add the soaked peas (they will have doubled in size). Bring back to a boil and then simmer for about 30 minutes. Scrub and chop the red potatoes into one and a half inch cubes. Add to the simmering liquid and cook for 20 minutes more. Watch the potatoes--don't let them overcook!

Finally, shred the delicious ham from the bone, picking out any fat, etc., and add to the pot.

Ladle out a bowl, put your feet up and enjoy a hearty meal. You deserve it.

Tastes better the next day and tastes really, really good with home made bread, as pictured above.

In the Kim Kitch

PS, for a tasty dessert that would go perfectly with this early spring dinner, pop over to TheKimKitch and check out her adventures with coconut cake and orange marmalady.

XOXO Terez

Friday Commute

Tulip Boom

Green Whorl

Devotion

Double Old Fashioned

Bird Bath

Whirly Whorls

HH: The Original Hipster

HH and Greta, circa 1975

My dad was into bespoke custom clothing before I was and he has the vintage Christmas card to prove it.

Sentence structure sound familiar? My friend Richard introduced me to a hilarious website: Dads: The Original Hipster. {Warning--I haven't dug too far back into the photo archives so there may be some NSFW photos or captions in there} After reviewing a few entries I could see that HH, Renaissance Man, was just as, if not hipper than these yahoos.

I remembered seeing this old holiday card from his bachelor days (pre-Mamacat and five kids) and lo and behold, I found it in my photo archive.

I showed it to a few friends and they all had the same response: "Awesome!" and immediately after: "what kind of material is that shirt?"

After the fourth query today I rang up HH on my lunch break.

ME: "Dad!?"

DAD: "Yeah-ess...?" <----HH has a funny way of drawing out his yesses that just cannot be replicated via the written word

ME: "I have an important question for you."

DAD: "What is it, kiddo?"

ME: "You know that holiday card? The one of you and your German Shepard, Greta?"

DAD: "Yeah-ess..?"

ME: "You know that shirt that you are wearing? With the long pointy collar--the brown one?"

DAD: "Yeah-ess...?"

ME: "What in the heck is it made out of?"

DAD: "Oh that one? It's pretty bad, I think it is fake leather, like vinyl."

ME: "What? Really?!"

DAD: "Yes. And you know what is even better?"

Wait for it--wait for it:

DAD: "I sewed it myself!"

Bam!

HH wins, hands down. HH, Renaissance Man, was at the sewing machine before it became all trendy and hip.

Like I said, my dad was into bespoke custom clothing before I was and he has the vintage Christmas card to prove it.

XO Terez

Hamtastic

Brookline Bunny

After yesterday's gloom this morning's sunshine was a welcome visitor, even if the stay was brief. The Easter Bunny was busy visiting my little flock on the West Coast so I took the opportunity to blow the two rolls of quarters burning a hole in my pocket and to clean things up around here with a visit to the laundry mat:

Laundry Bar

Living in a turn-of-the-century apartment is charming; one is seduced by crown moldings and wainscotting and big windows and built-ins until one realizes that washers and dryers were not in the design plan for buildings erected in the early 1900s. And one lives on the third floor. On the top of a hill.

Granny Cart Three Bags Full

I've lived in Boston nearly eight years and I haven't had laundry in my apartment or building for seven of them. My secret to staying sane? A six week supply of underwear, socks, t-shirts, dishtowels, one granny cart and three LL Bean Large Boat and Totes to haul it all with.

Other Mother's Dishtowels

I can usually tell how long it's been since I've done all the washing by how tall the dishtowel pile is when I'm done folding. The Other Mother has been embroidering days-of-the-week towels for me for a few years and I use a new one every day or two. What's the point in having fantastic linens made by a dear friend if you don't use them? Exactly.

Swirl, Suds and Swoosh

All of that washing and folding and hauling and putting away-ing helped me build up quite the appetite for my Easter Dinner with Grandma Rue's family (Carando Ham supplied by Chez Terez). Combine that dining experience with my KimKitch family visit (Taylor Ham supplied by Chez Terez) the day  before and you can chalk up this weekend to being ham-tastic.

17 Dollars and 25 Cents Later

I'm pooped but in a happy-I'm-so-lucky way: when you live far, far away from your family it is priceless to have dear friends to celebrate the holidays with. And it's even better to have friends that will let you take the ham bone home (next post hint: homemade split pea soup with ham, yesss!)

XO Happy Easter, Terez

Morning Devotional

Morning Devotional

Erie--and beautiful--classroom window reflections Marathon Monday morning at the unusually empty Devotion School Playground. 

Window Treats

Living Room Flower and Flounce

It's a beautiful thing to live on the top floor of an apartment with a black tar roof and loads of full-sun windows...in the winter. In the summer it swelters and I've been on the lookout for some inexpensive but classy looking window treatment options. Luckily this weekend I hit the jackpot.

Powder Room Detail

Friday night I had a few guests over for dinner and I wanted to jazz up my blue dated bathroom before they descended. I can't do much about the faux wallpaper linoleum walls (don't ask, I'd never seen it before either) but there is a beautiful deep-silled window with elegant day-time light. I like to keep some sort of shade up in addition to the frosted glass for a bit more privacy.  I dug through my fabric stash and found the turquoise yard remnant and threw it over the tension rod. Pretty, but not enough substance. Then I remembered the beautiful tea towel from KimKitch and tossed it over the rod to layer and I kept adding and subtracting ric rack and star headed pins and freshly potted plants and a vintage cigar box until I had this:

Powder Room Privacy

The best part: I already had all of the elements so it cost me nothing.

(PS the "shade pull" is actual a single vintage clip on earring! It's a giant pink pearl and it matches the dress of the cigar box lady perfectly, yessss! I knew there was a reason I was hanging on to it!)

Saturday I was on the prowl, determined to put up the rest of the curtain rods that have been gathering dust and meant business about taking care of the sun problem in the sun-room/studio.

At TJMaxx I was scouring the isles for sheets, tablecloths, shower curtains--anything I could use to help cut the full-strength afternoon sun in the back room. I had a few dining room tablecloths in my arms but they just weren't quite it. On a last go-through I discovered a hidden stash of light-blocking curtain panels, and just my luck they were white and there were four of them and they were one quarter the original cost! The studio now looks like this in the afternoon sun:

Studio p.m. Sun: Full Strength

Hooray! I ironed the 84" long panels and threw them over the long curtain rod that spans the three windows that was left behind. The great thing about the panels is that because they are not attached through the loops I can pull on one end and either raise or lower them. Hooray! I can still bird-watch in the morning and be cooler in the afternoon.

With the studio taken care of I had three white fabric shower curtains left over from last year's attempt at blocking the afternoon studio sun. Even though the living room and bedroom windows have light-blocking roller shades, it was a bit stark...until I got smart and doubled the shower curtains, poking holes in the bottom hems and pushing the silver hooks through both the top and bottom slivers to give me a nice, puffed flounce:

Living Room Window Re-Treatments

With one white curtain left I made a bee-line for the bedroom. Even with the light-blocking shades the sun is so strong in the summer the temperature inside runs about 10 degrees hotter than whatever is happening outside. I pulled out the trusty power drill, put up the rod, put up the curtain and pulled the shade and came up with this:

Afternoon Dream

Just looking at it makes me want to curl up with a good book on a Sunday afternoon and slip into an easy sleep.

Wondering about the stained glass curtain from a few months ago? It's been refashioned into a kitchen valance:

Stained Glass Redux

And there you go. Everything was under $100 total.

I'm off to bake so I'll have something sweet to eat while I watch Upstairs Downstairs on WGBH.

XO Terez

Sunrise at Hall's Pond

Watching

Here it Comes!

Morning Constitutional

Breakfast Forage

Morning News Swap

Rest Your Weary Wings

Friday morning, Opening Day at Fenway, found me wide awake at 4 a.m. Local news coverage of the Sox and Fenway Park started at 5 and by 5:30 I gave up all hope of going back to sleep and was in my Sox gear, just waiting and watching all of the updates on the revamped park, including a sushi bar (?!) and three giant flat screens where the Jumbotron used to be. We're nearing the start of my eighth year in Beantown. I have the amazing opportunity to do work on a few charity collaborations with the Sox and I work within spitting distance of the park, so I suppose the transition from transplant into mega fan was just a matter of time.

At 6:45 I was too excited to stay home, so I headed out and picked up an extra-large french vanilla, regular, from Dunkin', and paid a visit to my feathered friends at Hall's Pond. I only intended to stroll by but the birds were going crazy at 7:15, urging the sun to rise with their pips and chirps and caws. I decided the Sox can wait, the office will still be there at 8 a.m. and when nature is putting on such a to-do you don't dismiss it. I parked it on the beautiful stone bench and watched the birds watch the sun and then waddle around hunting for their breakfast in the grass. A terrific start to a beautiful day that ended with the first Sox win of the season, thank goodness.

Oh yeah, and I got my first hot dog of the season!

CC and Terez at the Sausage King, Landsdowne Street

Let's go Red Sox!
XO Terez

We've Got a Long Road Ahead of Us

Kenmore 01/15/11

Home opener is tomorrow!

I still believe.

Sidebar: if you haven't seen my friend Derek's awesomely-spectacular SawxBlog, do yourself a favor and check it out. By the fan, for the fans.

XO Terez

Walk to Work Wednesday

Morning Perch

Yellow Cascade

We're Getting There

Sun Salutation

Sidewalk Spiral

Rear View Window II

April 5, 2011 Sunset Over Brighton

The dishes can wait. Dinner won't burn. Let the phone ring. The instant message indicator will still blink.

A sunset like this can't wait.

When you are blessed with such a view, pause, and marvel.

Windy, rainy walks home are worth clouds like these.

XO Terez

Chez Terez 101

Good New Bears

Good News! 

I can hardly believe this myself, but we've reached the

~* ~*101st post of *~*~
~* ~* Chez Terez *~*~

{!!}

I wasn't keeping watch for it myself, the milestone sort of snuck up on my when I was reviewing the stats for the LollyCake Ladies write-up. Not only is the LollyCake Ladies my number one most read post of all time, it happened to be post number 100!

Floss Box

For those who have been with me for the splendiferous ride: thank you. For those who are new to the color-wonder-creative-blogspot that is Cherz Terez, I bring you a 101 course, and encourage you to scroll through back posts. As my friend Marielle said, it is a wondrous thing when you come across a new-to-you blog and can spend the day browsing old musings.

Chez Terez is my blog, myself being the one Miss Teresa Marie, a jewelry/embroidery/stitching/knitting/baking/apartment gardening/cooking/hostessing/birding extraordinaire.

Windowsill Horticulturist

I love things green and growing, feathery and flying, colorful and sparkling and I love to make things in my little studio and to see things on my rambling walks and share them.

Spring Wire Work

Writing this blog has blessed me beyond measure. It has helped me to slow down. It has taught me to take the time to take a look at what is around me and see the shapes and color. It has shown me the beauty of taking a detour to explore the insides of buildings so I can see the sun shine through colored glass.

Architectual Detail

This blog has given the opportunity to collaborate cross-country with my dear parents, Mamacat and HH, and to share with dear friends including The Norwegian Knitter, The Singer, The KimKitch, Grandma Rue, The Other Mother Quilter, The Chicken Lady, Angela-Girl, and others.  It helps me stay in touch with my dear creative sisters-in-law and their little flock of my beloved nephews and niece.

Fabric for Fussy Cut

I love a little bit of trivia so here are some fun facts:

The top five most popular Chez Terez posts of all time are:

1. LollyCake Ladies
2. Re-Upholstery
3. Last Day of February
4. High Tea at the Heathman with Mamacat
5. HH: Renaissance Man

Easter Earrings

Chez Terez has welcomed readers from across the U.S. and from the UK, Japan, Canada, Malaysia, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia and France.  Unbelievably, yesterday, I had my 4,000th hit!

Mamacat Cross-Country Collaboration

So welcome, bienvenidos, willkomen, bienvenue, tak! I'm so glad you are here. And thank you.

XO TEREZ