We carved our pumpkins Friday night (after bowls of butternut squash risotto — recipe coming later in the week) and some wine. It’s always fun to use knives after a bottle of wine! Yay!

Hollowing out the pumpkin is always my least favorite part. It’s very messy but a necessary step, I suppose.

jwa works on his pumpkin in a way that makes me concerned for his fingers. Spencer, (to the right, under the chair), remains uninterested.

I like the way mine turned out this year. Sharp, pointy teeth! Grrr!

jwa made a robot pumpkin. Eep.

Robot pumpkin in profile. Robot pumpkin hungry. Robot pumpkin eat stool. ::crunch:: ::munch:: ::crunch::

Pumpkin teeth cam! Huh, I hope the camera doesn’t smell like pumpkin now…

My pumpkin surveys the living room with his evil, glowy teeth of doom.

Guarding the door. Excellent. More candy for us.

These are one of my most favorite of all Fall treats! I first had pumpkin chocolate chip muffins at a coffee house in Muncie, IN, while I was in grad school. It was called the MT Cup. Christy, (who just happens to have a pumpkin pancake recipe up today), Cindy and I would go there a lot and they had pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. So, so good. I started making these when I still lived in Indiana and I try to make them a couple of times each Fall. I can’t believe I didn’t remember them this year until Christy mentioned them Monday.

What a fun week — starting with a pumpkin recipe and ending with one!

This recipe is from the old stand-by Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook (the early 90’s edition). Below, I just upped the pumpkin by a 1/4 of a cup, added chocolate chips and topped the muffins with pecans.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Dry:
1 3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch of cloves (1/8 tsp or less)

Wet:
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup of milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 - 1 cup chocolate chips (depending on how chocolatey you want them)
1/4 cup pecans

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, stir together dry ingredients and make a well in the center. Combine wet ingredients (egg, pumpkin, milk & oil). Add pumpkin mixture all at once to flour mixture. Add chocolate chips. Stir until just moistened. Spray muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray (or line with paper cups). Fill 2/3 of the way full. Sprinkle top of each muffin with pecans. Bake 20-25 minutes until golden. (You can also use a toothpick in the center to check for doneness). Remove from pan and serve warm.

In kitchen gadget news…
Yesterday, I was wandering around Linens n Things (because I like both “linens” and “things”) and I saw one of those deals that a right-minded person can hardly pass up. A two-piece Calphalon Knife Set with a Chef’s Knife and a Santoku Knife for $29.95.

They have the same deal going at Cooking.com if you’re not by a Linens n Things. Plus, I think Cooking.com is doing a flat rate shipping special right now.

This was an interesting recipe that caught my eye from Endangered Recipes, by Lari Robling. I like this cookbook because it has a lot of comfort food and recipes that perhaps your mom used to make but also, this exotic, out-of-the-ordinary, carrot pudding. I made it a couple of weeks ago and really liked it. It’s got a bright orange color and is a little spicy and creamy. When jwa first tried it he said the first bite reminded him of curry, but then it was a little sweet.

Because of the prep and cooking time (2.5 hours) this is probably best for a weekend cooking project. If you have the time, it’s nice to have a pot of this simmering away on the stove — it’s definitely worth giving a try!

Carrot Pudding (Gajraila from Pakistan)
1 quart milk (I used whole milk because we had some but 2 percent would probably work)
1/4 cup basmati rice
1 pound carrots, scrubbed and grated
1/2 cup sugar (or more, depending on taste)
3/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup shelled pistachios

Pour milk into a sauce pan and add rice — soak for 30 minutes.

Add carrots, sugar and cardamom to the milk and rice. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. Taste. Add more sugar if desired. An immersion blender can be used if you want a creamier texture. (Mine was pretty creamy just from the cooking). Finally, add the raisins and cook for 30 minutes longer.

When pudding is done, transfer to a serving dish or individual bowls. Garnish the top with the pistachios and more raisins. The recipe says to serve chilled, but I actually liked it a little warm. In fact, throughout the week, I would heat some up in the microwave for a minute or so before eating.

These were very decadent and tasty. I recently came across a recipe on Food Network’s Web site that stuffed turkey burgers with blue cheese. “Huh, now that’s an interesting idea,” I thought. “Except, I’m not really crazy about blue cheese. Whatever should I do?” Thankfully, there are eight million other kinds of cheeses to pick from — whew! So, instead of blue cheese, I used Port Salut.

In addition, I added all kinds of yummy things to the burgers — caramelized onion, fresh thyme and sun-dried tomatoes are mixed with ground turkey. Then they’re stuffed with a cube of the cheese and grilled (in my beloved grill pan). Finally, they’re served on a seven-grain bun with kalamata olive mayonnaise, arugula and a tomato slice. See, turkey burgers don’t have to be boring!

Note: I used about a pound of turkey meat but since there are just two of us, I went ahead and made four burgers, but froze two without stuffing them with cheese.

Port Salut Stuffed Turkey Burgers with Kalamata Olive Mayonnaise:
1 lb ground turkey
1 small white onion
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp fresh thyme
1 tbsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes (use either tomatoes packed in oil or reconstitute dried ones in some boiling water first)
4 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch cubes of Port Salut cheese (any creamy or crumbly cheese would probably work well — Gorgonzola, blue, goat, feta, etc…)
olive oil & balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp chopped kalamata olives (or a mixed olive tapanade)
4 hamburger buns
Fresh arugula or other lettuce
1 tomato, sliced
Gadget: a meat thermometer is very handy here

Sauté onion in the olive oil over medium heat until dark in color, add fresh thyme and remove from heat. Set aside and let cool.

Meanwhile, mix kalamata olives together with mayonnaise. Set aside. Mix oil and vinegar together in a small bowl. Yeah, set that aside.

Add sun-dried tomatoes to onion mixture, then add turkey. Mix and combine into four burgers. Using your finger make an indentation in each patty. Insert cheese cube and push turkey around to cover so that each cube is hidden inside the burger.

Brush each burger with the oil and vinegar on one side. Then salt and pepper. Place oil and salt side down in a pre-heated grill pan. My burgers were very thick and probably took about eight to nine minutes per side — (I’m sure the cheese slowed them down a bit too). Before turning over on the second side, brush with the oil and vinegar and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Use a meat thermometer to make sure you’re around 160 - 165 degrees. When done, remove from the pan and let rest for a couple of minutes, covering with foil while you get the bun and fixin’s together.

Layer the kalamata mayonnaise, arugula and tomato on the bun.

Add a burger and eat. Mmm!

Fusion
4100 SE Division St.
Portland, OR 97202
(503) 233-6950

A Celebratory Dinner:
We recently went out for a celebratory dinner. I got a new job (yay!) and if that was not enough, my old company pretty much laid everyone off, starting with my department (Content Development) — on my last day there. Now, I don’t normally have bad luck but that is a crazy kind of lucky luck that typically doesn’t follow me around either. The occasion clearly called for a bottle of wine and tasty food!

We’ve been to Fusion a couple of times and I’ve really liked it each time. In fact, we’re going to take my mom there when she’s in town next month. I love the atmosphere. It’s comfortable, dark (but not too dark) and a little quirky, all with a varied menu. Oh, and there’s the housewares, glasses, and lamps for sale. Eating and shopping — what’s not to love?

Meal Choices:
We started the meal with a bottle of Tyee Pinot Noir and split some prawns in garlicky, lemony butter. This dish also came with bread to dip up all the buttery goodness after the shrimp were gone. Other small plates include yucca fries (very good), salmon cakes (haven’t had) and a few others. You could probably make a meal out of just cocktails and appetizers!

After our shrimp, it was on to the main entrees. It’s weird, normally when we go out, I see one or two things on the menu that I want and then I have a tough time deciding between the two. At Fusion, there were at least four items I couldn’t decide between: seared scallops on spinach with spaetzel, a lamb and wine stew, salmon with a cucumber bell pepper slaw and chicken marsala. There was also a chicken curry and an Asian prawn dish. Oh, and an ahi tuna special. Needless to say, my choice took awhile — I wanted to try them all! Finally, I went with the salmon and jwa went back and forth between a seared tuna special and the hamburger. In one of his trademark last minute switch decisions, he ended up going with something completely different — the lamb stew.

The salmon was very good, with a spicy crust on the bottom — the cool, crispy cucumbers and peppers provided a great contrast in textures and taste. jwa really liked his stew as well. In the end, our delicious meal was capped off with Spanish coffees and the chocolate hazelnut tart. Mmmm!

To Recap:
Atmosphere: Dark, candle-lit and a little bit funky. Twelve or so scatted tables about the room with a bar near the door. Shelves line the back wall, packed with antiques, vases, cups, saucers and other interesting knick-knacks for sale.

Food: Everything we’ve ever had here has been very good. Nice presentation, good use of spices, a lot of choices on the menu and a full bar. Excellent.

Service: Very friendly and attentive all of the times we’ve been there. Getting there around 7:30 pm on a Thursday, we were able to be seated right away. We stayed until a little after 9:15 (they close at 9:00) and we never felt rushed. When we left, there were still a couple of tables occupied, one sipping coffee and eating desserts, the other just finishing up their entrees.

Overall: Fusion is one of those places I wish we remembered to go to more often, because I really enjoy a meal there. I love the funky atmosphere, as well as the food and I like looking at all of the stuff for sale.

Fusion gets 3.5 candles out of four.

Today, at Slashfood it’s Pumpkin Day. Excellent. I love pumpkins and, well, the whole squash family, honestly. I think it’s part of my overall obsession with Fall.

Anyway, for this event I decided to combine my strong feelings for all of things pumpkin with my fondness for Mexican food and make tacos. This worked out well, as we generally have veggie tacos with refried beans holding all the vegetables in place. In this version, pureed, spiced-up pumpkin fills that role. I went ahead and used some canned, organic pumpkin from Wild Oats for this dish. If you have the time, by all means, roast a pumpkin and use that, but also know that you don’t have to if that’s not convenient.

I was also looking to make something with pumpkin that was savory rather than sweet. I think pumpkin (as well as butternut, acorn and other squash) too often gets pigeon-holed with just nutmeg and sugar. Bring on the garlic and peppers, I say!

Pumpkin Tacos:
1 can pureed pumpkin (or about 1 .5 cups roasted and pureed pumpkin)
1 tbsp + 1tsp cumin
1 tbsp + 1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt + a pinch
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 to 1 whole roasted, peeled, seeded & diced jalapeno
3 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, sliced
1 red or orange bell pepper, julienned
1 cup arugula leaves
1 can red kidney beans, rinsed
1/4 cup corn (frozen works well)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1 medium tomato, diced
8 corn tortillas, heated in a dry pan over med-high heat to blister a bit and kept warm in aluminum foil
Garnish: 1/2 cup roasted pumpkin seeds

Sauté the onion and bell pepper in the olive oil, with a pinch of salt. Add 1 tsp of the cumin and chili powder. Let cook until golden. Heat pumpkin puree up in a pan with remaining cumin, chili powder, orange zest, jalapeno and salt. Taste. Adjust seasonings to your liking. When veggies look a bit caramelized remove from pan and set aside. Use that pan to heat up red beans and corn. Right before assembling, stir cilantro into the pumpkin.

Assemblage:
Double up tortillas (to make 4 tacos) and spoon some pumpkin down the middle. Top with arugula, veggies, beans and corn, tomato and then cheese. Just a little of each — you want to be able to actually pick up the taco! Sprinkle with roasted pumpkin seeds. Mmm!

You’ll probably have leftover taco-making ingredients but, if you’re like me, you’ll find a way to put them to good use in other snacks and assorted tasties!

***
Je Mange la Ville has a new look! I am very excited. I (and when I say “I”, I mean “jwa”) played around with everything this weekend and then showed me how to change all the style sheets and assorted what-nots. I took some shots of cut rosemary from the front yard and changed some of the colors and now I am happy with the look. My intent is to change the title image and colors every few months or so. We’ll see if that happens.

Pumpkin + Slashfood

First of all, thanks to Kitchen Chick for such a challenging pick for IMBB#20! I had never made a soufflé before a couple of weeks ago. That one was uh, broken or something. I think I filled the dish too high, as it kind of exploded out over the edge, looking a bit like Sideshow Bob’s hair. Plus, it didn’t seem done down inside. I’m not quite sure what happened but I did something very wrong.

Actually, I think I went into that first try a little cocky and that certainly didn’t help. Thinking, soufflé…schmoufflé! What’s the big deal? No problem for me! Except, oh — there was a problem. So, ahem, let’s just forget about that whole soufflé beta test, shall we? Excellent.

Second Time’s the Charm:
This time, I picked a recipe for individual soufflés, hoping that would help with my cooking doneness. In addition, I also approached it with a little humilty. This recipe was in the Oregonian a year or so ago, which in turn, they say was adapted from Fine Living Magazine. I clipped it out when it first appeared and thought, “I should try that sometime,” and then filed it away in a drawer. This seemed like a perfect occasion to dig it out.

As there are only two of us, I halved the recipe and used one cup ramekins and I was able to fill four of them. Below, I have given the full recipe but per my experience, it halves easily. I also added about a tablespoon of Port wine to the sautéed veggies for more flavor. I coated the buttered ramekins with Parmesan cheese — like I’m going to pass up an extra opportunity for more cheese? Uh, no. Conversely, I used half and half instead of heavy cream, because, we just had that cream-heavy chocolate tart for Sugar High Friday! In addition, I substituted cremini mushrooms for the chanterelles, as that’s what I had on hand. Hmmmm, I think that’s it for additions and substitutions.

Goat Cheese Soufflé With Red Peppers and Chanterelles:
Unsalted butter to grease souffle dishes, plus 3 tablespoons (divided)
Parmesan cheese
11/4 cups whipping cream (or half and half)
1 3-inch sprig of rosemary
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 medium red bell peppers, cored, seeded and finely chopped
1 medium shallot, finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped fresh chanterelle mushrooms or other fresh wild mushrooms (about 2 ounces)
2 tbsp port wine
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 egg yolks
1 cup fresh, soft goat cheese
6 egg whites

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter six 9- to 10-ounce soufflé dishes.

In a small saucepan, heat the cream with the rosemary sprig over medium heat just until it boils. Remove from the heat and let steep for 10 minutes. Discard the rosemary sprig.

Heat the olive oil in a 10- to 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the red peppers and shallot. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to soften, about 6 minutes. Add the mushrooms and continue to sauté, stirring frequently, until everything is tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the Port and let it cook until absorbed.

Season with salt and pepper; remove from the heat. Distribute the cooked vegetables evenly among the buttered dishes, covering the bottom of each dish.

Melt the 3 tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. When foamy, stir in the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 to 3 minutes. Whisk in the heated cream. Add 11/2 teaspoons salt (or to taste) and several grinds of pepper. Increase the heat to medium and whisk until the mixture bubbles and thickens. Remove from the heat. Temper the yolks by mixing a bit of the cream mixture in, then whisking the yolks into the cream. Stir in the cheese (the mixture needn’t be completely smooth).

With a mixer, beat the egg whites in a large bowl with a pinch of salt on high speed until medium-stiff peaks form; they should still be slightly droopy.

Stir a small amount of the beaten egg whites into the cheese mixture to lighten it and then gently fold the cheese mixture into the remaining egg whites with a rubber spatula (it’s fine to leave a few clumps of egg white). Divide the mixture evenly among the buttered dishes, covering the vegetables.

Lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Put the soufflés on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until golden and just slightly wobbly in the center, about 20 minutes. I garnished with a little chopped rosemary. Serve immediately.

These were pretty good — I’m really glad I gave soufflé-making another try! These ones still had a bit of the Sideshow Bobitis (I guess I was expecting everything to rise up as one big piece, not puff up in different sections), but they were light, fluffy and done inside. And quite tasty! Thank you Kitchen Chick and IMBB#20.

IMBB # 20 + Soufflé

Be sure to check out all the amazing responses to SHF#13: The Dark Side in the wrap up.

I took a while figuring out what I was going to make for SHF#13: The Dark Side, (hosted by Kelli at Lovescool). I don’t do a lot of baking and to be honest, I haven’t made a lot of tasty things with dark chocolate before. (That will change!) I started my idea search at Epicurious and began perusing. What I ended up doing, was mixing and matching a crust from one tart, with a filling from another (that used lemon instead of orange) to create a dark, rich and creamy concoction — something I call: Double Chocolate & Orange Tart with Amaretto Whipped Cream. Mmmm!

Crust Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp good quality, unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Droste)
3/4 cup all purpose flour

Filling Ingredients:
1 cup chilled whipping cream (I bought a pint and used the leftover cream for the whipped cream garnish)
12 ounces dark, bittersweet (not unsweetened) chocolate, finely chopped (I used Scharffen Berger 70% bittersweet chocolate)
1 tbsp grated orange zest

Garnish:
Leftover whipping cream
2 tbsp Amaretto
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp orange zest

Making the Crust:
Using electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in large bowl until smooth.

Beat in cocoa powder. Add flour and beat until dough comes together in moist clumps.

Now, here is where the original crust recipe and I parted ways. It said to:

Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, at least 1 hour and up to 1 day. Roll out dough between sheets of waxed paper to 11-inch round. Peel off top sheet of paper. Invert dough over 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom; peel off paper. Gently press dough into pan.

I tried to do this. Have you ever tried to roll out a crumbly, dry rock? If you have, you know what my experience was like. It was impossible to roll. So, I let it sit out for about a half hour to get a bit softer, then I just pressed the crust dough into the tart pan (the kind with the removable bottom). This approach seemed to work fine. I then chilled the crust for about a half an hour to make up the half hour I had to let it sit around and soften up.

I would recommend doing it this way from the beginning. After mixing all the ingredients and the crust comes together, press it right into the pan, then refrigerate for an hour. Just skip the whole attempting-to-roll-out-a-chocolate-rock step and save yourself the frustration.

Bake the crust at 375 degrees for about 14 minutes, until the sides start to look a little dry and the bottom looks bubbly. Cool completely.

Filling:
Finely chop the dark chocolate. I just used a knife and shaved it into small pieces.

Next, bring 1 cup cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and whisk until smooth. Mix in 1 tbsp orange peel. Pour chocolate into cooled crust.

Refrigerate tart until filling is set, about 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and keep refrigerated.) When set, remove pan rim from bottom. A trick for this is to get a can of food, set the tart on the can and gently loosen the rim. Slide it down and the tart stays up on the can of food. Slice into wedges and serve.

For Optional Whipped Cream topping:
This I threw together out of what I had on hand, as there was whipping cream leftover just crying out to be whipped. I started that going in the mixer, then thought to myself, “huh, almonds go well with orange and chocolate…ohhhhh, I know, Amaretto!” So, combine the cream, Amaretto, sugar and orange zest in a mixing bowl. You could also use Frangelico — that would be good too, I bet. Whip until soft peaks form. This can be done with an electric mixer or a whisk. Spoon whipped cream on top of tart wedges. Garnish with extra orange twists, if desired.

This was really, really good. Amazingly good. I’m kind of embarrassed to say that two people (and uh, I was one of the guilty parties involved) devoured this whole tart in about two and a half days. Yay for dark chocolate! And, thank you Kelli, for picking such a great theme for SHF#13!

Tagged with: SHF 13

Today is a house post and is heavy on the visuals. It’s one of those this room used to look like this — but now it looks like this deals. I hope eventually, to do this for every room in the house that we’ve altered. I’ve already done the kitchen and the hallway posts, now I just have my office, the bedroom and the back porch to go!

The Dining Room:
When we first moved into the house, the dining room did not look like the above picture. It had a light, floral wallpaper and lacy curtains. Which, I’m sure some people really like. We, however, hated it. One of the main problems, besides the fugly wallpaper, was the fact that ivory, faint wallpaper next to off-white crown moulding provides no contrast. It seriously begs the question, what’s the point? If you have nice moulding and trim around doorways, windows and the ceiling, it’s nice to be able to see it. That way, people can go, “ooohhhh, crown moulding.”

So, without further introduction, here is the chronicle the dining room transformation from this:

To this:

Wallpaper Stripping is Evil:
The first step, sadly, was stripping the wallpaper. I’m not sure if you’ve done this before but it is a messy, long, tedious and boring experience. In addition, tall ceilings add nothing but more pain to the experience. I will be quite happy if I live the whole rest of my life and never have to strip wallpaper again. After asking several people for advice, we ended up using that spray on stripping gel. You spray it on a section, let it sit, then use this scrubbing tool to strip off the wet, gummy wallpaper. Fun! If you’re really lucky, you will also strip off parts of the wall like I did, as well as drip the stripping gel onto the wood floors.

As I had stripped chunks of plaster off of the walls, next came wall patching paste — dubbed miracle paste by me. Miricle paste became my best friend. I think I rebuilt whole sections of the wall surface with that stuff. Ha! And it is all still standing.

Taping & Painting:
When all of the wallpaper was gone and the wall surfaces were as uniform and smooth as they were going to get, I started the painting prep. Taping is by no means fun but by this point, I felt I was in the home stretch. Since the paint was a dark color, it took a couple of coats even after being primed. I’m sure, if you looked closely at the walls, there are even places now that could use a touch-up. Too bad, I say! One observation though, painting is nice in that it is instant gratification. Especially after all of the stripping and the wall-fixing and the assorted what-not that seemed to take forever. And, the dark red walls look great againt the white trim. Contrast!

I think the whole project probably took three or four weekends but was completely worth it.

Thus ends the saga of the comfy, dark red dining room.

Well, yeah, it’s just that type of weather. But, this soup was actually prompted by a really tasteless and bad can of split pea soup I recently purchased. No flavor or anything. I thought, wow, I have to be able to make better split pea soup than this and you know what? I totally could and did. You can too. This was very, very tasty and really hits the spot on a cold day. Give it a try!

Split Pea Soup:
1 tbsp bacon fat or 1 piece of bacon (or 1 tbsp olive oil will work too)
1 onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
12 ounces dried green or yellow split peas, picked over and rinsed
5 cups chicken broth
2-3 tsp fresh thyme leaves
salt & pepper

So, every year around the holidays, I buy bacon. It’s a kind of Christmas present. (Yes, I am getting to the recipe). Anyway, we enjoy the smoky pleasures of bacon from around Thanksgiving to Christmas. The rest of the year — no bacon. But, what I do, is save the bacon grease from each cooking session, let it cool and divide it into 1 tbsp single servings and freeze it. That way, if I need bacon grease for cooking something I have some and there is absolutely no excuse to buy bacon outside of the alloted holiday time period. So, if you have bacon grease, use a tablespoon (or a bit less) of it here. If not, cook a strip of bacon, remove said bacon and use that grease. You could also, of course, just use olive oil and lord your healthy and/or vegetarian habits over all of us.

Back to the soup. Warm up your grease/oil/lubricant of choice on medium heat and sauté the onion, garlic, carrot and celery. Add a pinch of salt and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes until soft. Add the bay leaf.

Now, add the peas, then the 5 cups of stock and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook 50-55 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want the peas to break down and thicken the soup. After this has happened, add the fresh thyme and taste. Add salt and pepper as needed and if you can find the bay leaf, remove it. Otherwise, just mention to your fellow soup eaters that there’s a rogue bay leaf in there somewhere and not to eat it.

Garnish with sour cream and fresh thyme and enjoy. Then maybe snuggle under an afghan and watch some Farscapes or something, ’cause it’s cold and rainy out.

***
Coming up:

• Friday is SHF#13! Mine has already been made, documented and devoured! I’m really looking forward to posting about it because it turned out really well.
• And, Saturday, my IMBB#20 soufflé post should be up. I’d give a hint as to how that (2nd attempt) turned out but, uh, that’s on the cooking schedule for Friday night.