Category: RECIPES

Slow Cooking Thursday ~ Cran Beef Stew


Hosted by Sandra at the Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

This recipe is a great fall recipe with all the fruit aromas while it cooks and nice beefy rice gravy taste that warms your tummy! The meat melts in your mouth and the fruit flavors meld with the rice creating a thick gravy texture.
2-2 1/2 pound chuck roast*
kosher salt & white pepper
1 bag cranberries
1 lemon, juiced
1 apple, chopped
8 ounce can crushed pineapple
2 cups orange juice**
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup long grain rice
optional – 1 potato

  • Coat beef in kosher salt and white pepper.
  • Wash cranberries and place in bottom of slow cooker.
  • Pour pineapple and juice in on top of cranberries.
  • Chop onion and apple and add to slow cooker.
  • Chop the optional potato into small bite sized pieces and add to the slow cooker.
  • Chop the roast into bite sized pieces and add to slow cooker.
  • Pour lemon juice over top.
  • Cook on low 6-7 hours.
  • Add rice and eat an hour later. Be sure to check after 30 minutes. The rice will absorb most of the excess moisture.

*today I used a thick cut top sirloin I found on sale at a big savings (I miss shopping on base!!)
**I also used 2 cans of orange pineapple juice just because it’s what I had

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The Need to Knead Bread Recipe Round Up Day is FINALLY here!!

It’s here – FINALLY!


Don’t forget to sign Mr. Linky and put your recipe in parenthesis.
Visit everyone you can for scrumptious recipes for the upcoming holiday season.
Joy at Joy of Desserts is co-hosting this with me so be sure and check out her recipes too.

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My recipe is for my favorite ‘toast’ bread.

OAT SUNFLOWER BREAD or SESAME OAT BREAD

3/4 cup old fashioned oats (DO NOT USE INSTANT)
1 1/4 cups very hot water, but not boiling
1/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon yeast
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
3+ cups bread flour
1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds or toasted sesame seeds

  • Using your mixer with dough hook combine the oats and hot water. Allow to stand until soft, 5 or so minutes.
  • While these are cooling whisk together the warm water and yeast.
  • Add the honey, oil and salt to the oats until well blended.
  • Add the yeast and blend together.
  • Add the wheat flour until well blended.
  • Add 2 1/2 cups of the wheat flour and blend well.
  • Add last 1/2 cup as needed until dough forms a smooth mass.
  • Add sunflower seeds until just mixed.
  • Place dough in a an oiled bowl and cover with a light cloth and allow to rise 2 hours or until double in size in a warm spot of your kitchen away from drafts.
  • Punch the dough down and fold dough into itself.
  • Place dough onto a lightly floured work surface . Lightly sprinkle flour over dough.
  • Knead dough until all the air is worked out and you have a nice smooth mass.
  • Split into two loaves.
  • Cover them for 10 minutes.
  • Form loaves into rectangles by folding dough into itself and eliminating excess air.
  • You can either free form these or use 9×5 loaf pans. Seam side down place loaves into pans. Recover with towel.
  • Set aside and let rise another hour until dough rises above the edge of the pan.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Make diagonal cut across the top of each loaf (these allow the steam to escape).
  • Bake on the center shelf in the center for 45 minutes or until golden.
  • Cool completely on a wire rack.
  • Enjoy!

Here are a few of my other bread recipes to entice you.

 

WooHoo the long awaited Bread Round-Up is FINALLY here!!

I’ve been collecting recipes for all my life it seems. When I decided to do this bread round up I scoured my files for every recipe that had been handed down from family or given to me by a co-worker or one that has become one of our family favorites. Ironically I found 4 different recipes for Buttermilk Biscuits. The recipes stem from really easy to more involved and are all slightly different in taste and texture.

BUTTERMILK BISCUITS (most similar to the Colonel’s)
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup club soda
1 teaspoon salt
5 cups Bisquick baking mix

  • Preheat oven to 450 degrees
  • Combine all the ingredients
  • Lightly flour your hands
  • Knead the dough by hand until smooth
  • Pat the dough flat to 3/4 inches
  • Cut out biscuits
  • Place on cookie sheet about 2 inches apart
  • Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown
  • Makes about 18 biscuits

BUTTERMILK BISCUITS with MAPLE BUTTER (a little lighter and sweeter with the maple butter)
BISCUITS
1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon apple pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons Crisco
1 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 egg
BUTTER
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons brown sugar

  • Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
  • Spray an 8 inch cake pan with PURE.
  • Sift together the 1 cup of the flour, cake flour, salt, baking powder and soda.
  • With a pastry blender cut in butter and Crisco until mixture is coarse and crumbly
  • Stir in buttermilk.
  • In a mixing bowl add the remaining 1/2 cup flour.
  • Drop the dough 1/4 cup at a time into the flour.
  • Shape into balls.
  • Arrange all the balls in the pan.
  • Beat egg with water. Brush tops of dough.
  • Bake 15-18 minutes or until golden brown.
  • To make this ahead of time do all steps except the buttermilk, cover and refrigerate until needed.
  • Stir syrup into butter.
  • Transfer to wax paper.
  • Top with another sheet of wax paper.
  • Press into a 1/4 inch thickness and freeze for 10 minutes.
  • Using a rolling pin roll smooth.
  • Remove top sheet of wax paper and sprinkle with brown sugar.
  • Using small cutouts, cut butter into desired shapes.
  • These can be made ahead of time and frozen.

BUTTERMILK SPOON BREAD (more like a souffle – light and fluffy)
7 large eggs
1/2 cup whipping cream
4 cups water
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup butter, diced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cups yellow cornmeal

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Spray 9×13 baking dish with PURE.
  • In a large bowl whisk the eggs and whipping cream together until smooth. Set aside.
  • In a large sauce pan bring the buttermilk, water, salt, pepper and butter to a boil.
  • Gradually whisk in corn meal.
  • Reduce heat and and simmer until thick and smooth, stirring frequently.
  • Remove from heat and gradually whisk the cornmeal mixture into the egg mixture.
  • Transfer the batter to the baking dish.
  • Bake uncovered 30 minutes or until top is golden brown.
  • Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
  • Serve warm.
What makes biscuits rise?
Baking Powder and Baking Soda are both leaveners and when activated creat carbon dioxide which produces the rise. Baking Soda aka sodium bicarbonate has been commonly used for 200 years and works by simple chemistry. It’s reaction is immediate, but does not continue once the biscuits are in the oven. Ironically Baking Powder is the main ingredient in Baking Soda, but baking powder also includes an acid or two. Double acting baking powder is the perfect one for biscuits because it has the immediate acting acid as well as the heat activated acid. In order to use baking powder alone you have to use way too much and it dries out the dough. So finding the perfect combination of baking powder and baking soda is the key to tall and fluffy biscuits.

PERFECT TALL & FLUFFY BUTTERMILK BISCUITS
2 cups flour + 1 cup flour
1 tablespoon double acting baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons butter, diced
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/3 cups low-fat buttermilk

  • Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
  • Spray a 9 inch cake pan with PURE.
  • In a food processor pulse dry ingredients several times to combine.
  • Add butter pieces scattered over dry ingredients and pulse until crumbly.
  • Transfer to a medium bowl.
  • Stir in buttermilk. (Dough will be wet and lumpy).
  • Spray a 1/4 cup measure with PURE.
  • In a mixing bowl add the remaining 1 cup flour.
  • Drop the dough 1/4 cup at a time into the flour.
  • Shape into 12 balls. Shaking off excess flour.
  • Arrange balls (9 around the perimeter and 3 in the center) in the pan.
  • Brush tops of dough with melted butter.
  • Bake 5 minutes.
  • Reduce oven temperature to 450 degrees.
  • Bake another 15 minutes.
  • Cool 2 minutes.
  • Invert biscuits into a clean towel, turn right side up breakaing them apart and cool another 5 minutes.

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Then Need to Knead is this wednesday

It’s almost here!! Don’t forget.

The need to knead is almost here. I thought maybe it was time to share with you some food for thought (Pun intended) with a few great resource sites for baking.

  • Recipe Curio has a lot of wonderful tips as well as many vintage recipes
  • Yeast Dough gets down to the basics of the ingredients and how to work with them.
  • Bread World is Fleischmann’s Yeast site for recipes and baking tips.
  • Bread Baking 101 is all encompassing site of information and recipes.
General Tips to remember:
  • Baking in a high place, a dry place or in a place that can have sudden changes in barometric pressure. All these factors can alter how yeast breads knead, rise and bake.
  • To determine if your yeast is still active, dissolve 1 tsp. sugar in 1/2 cup lukewarm water in a see-through measuring cup. Sprinkle 1 tbsp. yeast slowly over the water. Stir and let stand for 10 minutes. At the end of this time, the yeast should have foamed up to reach the 1 cup mark. Yeast that does not reach this mark in 10 minutes will not produce a good loaf and should be discarded.
  • Water can replace milk. The texture will change a little, but the bread will still be very tasty and good to eat.
  • White sugar, brown sugar, honey and molasses can be interchanged equally in bread dough. The sugar in bread dough supplies the tiny yeast plants with instant food and gets them off to a fast start. Artificial sweeteners are not recommended for yeast breads because they cannot be used by the yeast as natural sweeteners can.
  • Fats can be replaced with applesauce or prune puree. The texture of the bread will be more dense. A general rule of thumb is to substitute 1 1/2 tablespoons of applesauce/prune puree for every 3 tablespoons of fat.
  • Salt is added to yeast breads not only for flavor but also to keep the yeast fermentation in the bread dough under control. Too little salt will allow the yeast to push the dough so high that it may even collapse. Too much salt will keep the dough from rising enough.

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Scrumptious Sunday ~ National Apple Month ~ Baked Apples


Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks

LEMON APPLE CRISP

CRISP
2-3 large Granny Smith apples (4 Cups)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup apple juice

TOPPING
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup old fashioned oatmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 small box Cook & Serve Lemon Pudding (NOT instant)

Preheat oven to 350°.
In a large mixing bowl combine all CRISP ingredients and mix well. Pour into an un-greased stoneware pan.
In a mixing bowl combine the topping ingredients and mix until crumbly.
Sprinkle topping over apple mixture.
Bake 45-60 minutes or until apples are tender and topping is crisp and golden.
Serve warm with a scoop of French vanilla ice cream.


before & after

I usually change to a serving bowl as the baking bowl gets pretty sticky.

BAKED APPLES
per apple:
1/2 cup sugar
scant tablespoon small bead tapioca
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup apricot pineapple jam
1-2 tablespoons golden raisins

  • Wash and core apples (slice off bottom if need be so apple sits flat.
  • In a small saucepan combine other ingredients and bring to a boil.
  • Pour evenly over apples.
  • Bake 45 minutes or until fork tender.
  • Cool slightly.
  • Best served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Recipe Box Swap collides with Favorite Ingredient Friday ~ Sandwich Edition ~ Monte Cristo Sandwiches with Homemade Raspeberry Jam

You know how much I enjoy finding and trying new recipes. Imagine how happy I was when I found yet another meme for recipes. It is hosted by Randi @ I Have To Say. This month’s edition features Lunchtime Favorites.

MONTE CRISTO SANDWICH
2-3 tablespoons butter
powdered sugar
for each sandwich you will need:
2 slices thick Potato bread
1 slice roasted turkey
1 slice swiss cheese
1 slice smoked or baked ham
BATTER (enough for 2 sandwiches)
1/2 cup milk
1 JUMBO egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup self rising flour

  • Assemble sandwiches with the cheese between the 2 pieces of meat.
  • Cut into halves or quarters.
  • Whisk together the milk and egg. Add the seasonings. Add the flour last.
  • Melt butter on griddle.
  • Dip each sandwich piece in batter coating well.
  • Fry each sandwich until crisp. Make sure to turn onto each side and edge to grill batter well.
  • Cool on paper towels.
  • Dust with powdered sugar.
  • Serve with fresh raspberry jam.
Half the battle of making this sandwich is finding a good quality and tasty turkey and ham. The other half is actually using your fingers to dip the sandwich pieces in the batter.

RASPBERRY JAM

8 cups raspberries
6 cups sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon orange peel
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 package unflavored gelatin

  • Combine fruit, sugar, lemon juice, nutmeg, cinnamon and orange peel in a stock pot.
  • Bring to a full rolling boil – stirring constantly. Let boil 1 full minute.
  • Remove from heat and stir in gelatin.
  • Skim any foam.
  • Pour into sterilized jars.
  • Water bath process 15 minutes.
I do the memes: Menu Plan Monday hosted by Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie, Favorite Ingredient Friday hosted by Kathryn at Overwhelmed with Joy, Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks, and Slow Cooking Thursday hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. Doing them all make great additions to help keeping me on track and finding so new recipes!

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Apple Dapple Chicken & Apples with Orange Banana Nut Bread or Lemon Banana Nut Bread

APPLE DAPPLE CHICKEN & APPLES
4 chicken breasts cut in half longways
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small bunch green onions, sliced
1/4 cup Apple Dapple Schnapps
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
3/4 cup orange pineapple juice
2 small Granny Smith Apples, cored, sliced and re-sliced
3/4 cup heavy cream

  • In a large skillet, melt together the butter and olive oil over a medium high heat.
  • Brown chicken on both sides. Move chicken to the edges of the pan and add green onions to the center. Saute’ a few minutes until onions are tender.
  • Pour Apple Dapple Schnapps over the tops of all the chicken pieces.
  • Carefully ignite and allow to burn down.
  • Pour orange pineapple juice over chicken pieces and then sprinkle all the seasonings over chicken tops. Bring to a boil. Cover.
  • Lower heat and simmer 15 minutes.
  • Add slice apples over chicken and recover. Simmer 10 minutes more.
  • During this time be warming a serving dish in the oven.
  • With a slotted spoon remove chicken and apples to serving dish. Keep warm.
  • Add heavy cream to the skillet. Bring to a boil.
  • Lower heat, stirring constantly until sauce thickens and is reduced by half.
  • Spoon sauce over chicken and apples.
  • Serve immediately.

ORANGE BANANA NUT BREAD or LEMON BANANA NUT BREAD
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup crushed walnuts
1/3 cup shredded coconut
2 medium or 3 small RIPE bananas
2 eggs
6 oz. can unsweetened orange juice concentrate*
1 tablespoon butter, melted

  • Sift together the dry ingredients.
  • In a large mixing bowl blend together the orange juice concentrate, bananas and eggs.
  • Blend in nuts, coconut and raisins.
  • Add flour mixture until well mixed.
  • Pour into greased loaf pan.
  • Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
  • Immediately top with melted butter.
*I use a large can as the small cans are getting hard to find, but using a large serrated knife, cut it in half and then make juice out of the other half. This recipe is also good if you substitute lemonade for the orange juice.

Hubby gives both recipes 2 thumbs up.

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The Knead to Need is almost here!

The need to knead is almost here. I thought maybe it was time to share with you some food for thought (Pun intended) with a few great resource sites for baking.

General Tips to remember:

  • Baking in a high place, a dry place or in a place that can have sudden changes in barometric pressure. All these factors can alter how yeast breads knead, rise and bake.
  • To determine if your yeast is still active, dissolve 1 tsp. sugar in 1/2 cup lukewarm water in a see-through measuring cup. Sprinkle 1 tbsp. yeast slowly over the water. Stir and let stand for 10 minutes. At the end of this time, the yeast should have foamed up to reach the 1 cup mark. Yeast that does not reach this mark in 10 minutes will not produce a good loaf and should be discarded.
  • Water can replace milk. The texture will change a little, but the bread will still be very tasty and good to eat.
  • White sugar, brown sugar, honey and molasses can be interchanged equally in bread dough. The sugar in bread dough supplies the tiny yeast plants with instant food and gets them off to a fast start. Artificial sweeteners are not recommended for yeast breads because they cannot be used by the yeast as natural sweeteners can.
  • Fats can be replaced with applesauce or prune puree. The texture of the bread will be more dense. A general rule of thumb is to substitute 1 1/2 tablespoons of applesauce/prune puree for every 3 tablespoons of fat.
  • Salt is added to yeast breads not only for flavor but also to keep the yeast fermentation in the bread dough under control. Too little salt will allow the yeast to push the dough so high that it may even collapse. Too much salt will keep the dough from rising enough.

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Scrumptious Sunday ~ Stew Edition ~ Beef Stew


Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks
BEEF STEW

2 pounds stew meat*
flour
3 medium carrots, cut into coins or strips
3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled & cubed
1 large bunch green onions, sliced
handful of green beans, cut into bite size pieces
2 tablespoons minced garlic, jar
1/2 cup red wine
1 tablespoon better than bouillon beef base
2 1/2 cups V8
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons tapioca beads
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon thyme

  • Coat meat pieces lightly in flour.
  • In a large dutch oven mix together the wine and V8. Dissolve the bouillon into it.
  • Add the brown sugar, tapioca, garlic & seasonings.
  • Bring to a slow boil.
  • Add meat and cook 15 minutes.
  • Add vegetables.
  • Cover and bake at 275 degrees for 5 hours.

*I try to watch for sales on a higher grade meat and cut it into my own stew meat for a better flavor and texture.

An alternate recipe that worked reallllllllly well when I was out of a few ingredients was:
1 can carrot coins with juice (I was out fresh carrots)
1 can tomato sauce
1 can stewed tomatoes (no tomato juice)
1/2 bag frozen broccoli florets
no potatoes

Scrumptious Sunday ~ Stew Edition~ Farm Style Chicken and Noodles

FARM STYLE CHICKEN & NOODLES
This is the recipe I told you about awhile back that has been handed down through the family from my great grandmother. As a kid dad would tell me that grandma would make her own noodles and then drape them all over the dining room to dry. I guess maybe it was a farm thing, but my family has always eaten this over mashed potatoes. I know, I know double starch, but oooooooooh what a cold winter night comfort food! I’ve made it for so many years without a recipe it took some work to get the correct proportions! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

4+ pound chicken or chicken pieces*
12 cups water + 4 more
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
2 tablespoons better than bouillon chicken base
5 stalks celery, chopped
1 small bag baby carrots, cut into thirds
1 medium Vidalia onion
3 tablespoons minced garlic, jar
2-4 cups Barilla Campagnelle egg noodles
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
6 medium Yukon potatoes
1/4 butter
1/3-1/2 cup buttermilk

  • In a large stock pot, bring chicken pieces, liquid smoke, bouillon & water to a boil. Boil until the meat is falling off the bone, about 45 minutes – 1 hour)
  • Remove the chicken pieces and let cool enough so you can cut the meat off the bone.
  • In the mean time add the carrots, celery, onion (4 cups total), seasonings and 4 cups more water to the stock pot and return to a slow boil for 45 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
  • Pull the chicken pieces off the bones-you’ll have about 4 cups of chicken pieces. Refrigerate the chicken pieces and discard the bones.
  • After the vegetables have cooked 45 minutes or until tender add the chicken pieces back in.
  • Make a roux out of the butter and flour. Add to stock pot and cook until desired thickness.
  • Add noodles to stock pot.
  • Cook until noodles are al dente’.
  • Adjust seasonings to taste.
  • Prepare mashed potatoes.
  • Serve stew over mashed potatoes.
*I used to use whole chickens, but have gone to using family size multi-packs of legs which work really well.

I do the memes: Menu Plan Monday hosted by Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie, Favorite Ingredient Friday hosted by Kathryn at Overwhelmed with Joy, Freezer Food Friday hosted by MJ at mjpuzzlemom, Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks, and Slow Cooking Thursday hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. Doing them all make great additions to help keeping me on track and finding so new recipes!

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Favorite Ingredient Friday ~ Bread Edition ~ Bubble Bread

BUBBLE BREAD
BREAD
1 cup scalded milk
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1teaspoon salt
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup rum
1/2 cup minced walnuts
2 packages dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 Jumbo eggs, beaten
4 1/2 – 5 cups flour
TOPPING
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 stick butter, melted
OPTIONAL GLAZE
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup powdered sugar

  • Soften the yeast in the warm water.
  • Stir together the sugar and cinnamon and set aside.
  • Soak the raisins in the rum until needed. Drain before adding to the bread.
  • Combine the milk, shortening, sugar and salt. Cool to lukewarm.
  • Add yeast to milk mixture and then the eggs, the raisins and nuts.
  • Add the flour. Mix to a soft dough.
  • Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl. Turn over once, cover with a cheesecloth and let rise until double in size.
  • Punch down and let stand ten minutes.
  • Roll into many small balls about the size of golf balls.
  • Dip each one in the melted butter and then the cinnamon topping.
  • Grease a bundt cake pan.
  • Arrange the balls haphazardly in the cake pan.
  • Allow to rise until double in size (about 1 1/4-1 1/2 hours)
  • Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
  • Glaze if you choose.
  • Enjoy
For the updated & much quicker version visit Overwhelmed with Joy for her Monkey Bread Recipe.

Have you heard about the Need to Knead Bread Roundup? We will roundup all types of bread recipes. We already have a number of people signed up and it promises to be great. You are all invited to participate. We would love it if you would join us, and we would love it if you would help us spread the word by putting this button in your sidebars or even writing a short post about the roundup. Just come back here on October 15th & sign Mr. Linky. We’ll see you then.

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Split Pea Soup


SPLIT PEA SOUP

1 Honey Baked Ham Bone
2 cups ham pieces
3 quarts water
1 small bag baby carrots, chopped
5 large stalk celery, leaves included, chopped
1 large Vidalia onion, chopped
2 cups split green peas
2 cups split yellow peas
1/4 cup barley
1/4 teaspoon marjoram
1/4 teaspoon basil leaves
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper & white pepper mix
1 bottle beer – Mystery ingredient

  • In a large stock pot, bring ham bone* & water to a boil. Boil until the meat is falling off the bone, about 1 – 1 1/2 hours)
  • Remove the bone and let cool enough so you can cut the meat off the bone.
  • In the mean time add the carrots, celery, onion (4 cups total) and seasonings to the water and return to a slow boil for 45 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
  • While the vegetables are boiling, rinse the peas and pick out any bad ones.
  • Cut the ham pieces off the bone. Refrigerate the ham pieces and discard the bone.
  • After the vegetables have cooked 45 minutes or until tender, add the peas and barley. Cook for another 1 1/2 hours.
  • Add the beer and ham pieces back in and cook another 1 1/2 hours.
*I always save my honey baked ham bones after the meat is all cut off. I then freeze them and save them for future soups. I always get at least 2 cups of meat off when I boil the bone.

This makes a huge batch and I always freeze it in several batches (3-4) for future easy weeknight meals. In this case it will be a big batch when everyone is here at Christmas.

TODAY’S TRIVIA as heard by hubby on an old game show – Campbell’s soup used to fill the bottom of the bowl with marbles so the vegetables would be at the top giving the appearance of more vegetables in each bowl of soup. That trick was not done here – what you see is what you get.

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