For the last several weeks I have been making pot after pot of pea and ham soup, freezing it in little batches, or serving it to friends and family, but mainly eating it myself. I just can’t seem to get enough of it!
I take it into the nursing home and share it with Anthony often. He is a ruthless great food critic. Some of my experimental additions weren’t very successful; for example, the addition of chilli, mint, capsicums and curry powder didn’t work. I mean it was edible, but it just wasn’t pea and ham soup the way it’s supposed to be, you know?
Having run out of my last batch, I over-enthusiastically over-filled the slow cooker and had to transfer half of the ingredients to another big saucepan before the kitchen floor became a lake of pea and ham soup. So now I have two simmering pots filling the empty house with aroma.
The usual ingredients are split peas, chopped vegetables (onions, garlic, celery, but not capsicums) and, of course, a ham hock. But I do have one extra secret ingredient and I think this makes MY pea and ham soup superior, ha!
Tomorrow, the answer to this conundrum will be posted, as well as a photo shoot of the finished soup. I am hoping that, universally, kitchens, restaurants, food journalists, and people with nothing else to do, will clamour at my blog-door.
But that probably won’t happen because I’ll take a small batch of this big new batch of pea and ham soup into the nursing home and Anthony will taste it and just say, “Not bad” and then we will have the following argument:
Me: What do you mean ‘Not bad’? Why can’t you ever say it’s fantastic or wonderful?
Anthony: Because it’s, well ….
Me: What?
Anthony: Ordinary.
Almost every day, I go in and sit next to Ants, watch television, chill out, answer emails, wrestle with my iPad, for several hours – and he and I have these strange, fragmented, haphazard, conversations. Sometimes it seems really lazy to just sit there with him, always with my hand on his arm, watching Dr Phil then going back to our current series, West Wing.
He is sleepier and sleepier every day this week. I wonder what next week will be like apart from a surplus of pea and ham soup.
Next week will be ordinary, and ordinary is a joy.
jmgoyder 
Ordinary is wonderful. One of the turning points of my life was the day in 1980 that I turned to a friend and mentor and said, “I want to be ordinary.” I’ve been working at it ever since, and am enjoying the process. Someday, I will be indistinguisable from a pot of ham and pea soup.
I have had many issues with overflowing pots, everything’s fine until the bubbles and then panic lol. It seems that anyone and everyone is a food critic at times, as long as they eat it, they aren’t really complaining. 😀
Your post gave me a craving for that soup! It’s wonderful that you are filling your home with such a lovely aroma – beautiful. Ordinary sounds perfect to me. It’s “peas”ful.
you are so right, ordinary is joy. in an article i read, written by a hospice worker, she said that when asked, one of the most common responses from people who are soon to leave this world, when asked, ‘what do you wish for?’, was , “just an ordinary day.” p.s. i think you should make your overflowing pea soup story into a short book.
I, too, find great joy in ordinary, Jules …. it’s the best!
I love this (and you) and Split Pea Soup (as we call it here)! I think we should have a soup-off Jules ’cause I’ve been known to make a damned good pea soup. I too have a secret ingredient (or two) and am curious as a cat to know yours! If it’s not the same as mine, I’ll will share it with ya. xoxox
Ordinary is a joy — so true.
Lovely.
Can’t wait for the photos — and the secret ingredient! I think it’s love. 🙂
I love this post! Ordinary really can be such a joy.
I love just about any soup, homemade is the best. I am living on soups now because of teeth being pulled. I also like pea and ham soup
I adore pea and ham soup, when I first went to Australia in 1958 the mother of one of the girls that I taught made the greatest one I had ever tasted. I expect yours would be just as good.
I will be waiting for this post! And here’s to your ordinary joys. 🙂
Hard to beat pea and ham soup. Save some for me.
I love pea and ham soup, it has always been my favourite soup, just saying
I could smell the aroma of pea and ham soup superior! There was nothing ordinary about that. Will need to know the secret ingredient as my hubby just asked me yesterday for pea and ham soup…and it will need to be superior.
I have always loved ordinary! love c
So where do you live? are you close to melbourne at all? I will be out there in february
On Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 8:24 PM, Cecilia Gunther wrote:
> I have always loved ordinary! love c >
What? No carrots?tee hee..
Ordinary is good. Amen.
I’m sure it’s fantastic. Men don’t know how to compliment great food. Nothing like a pot of homemade soup!
Ordinary is wonderfully comforting and fulfilling.
ordinary is under rated my friend! i love that feeling of contentment. too many people are searching for some feeling to fill them up when making some ordinary soup and sharing it with your lovely mate.
sending you love and big warm hugs, i will be waiting breathlessly for the secret ingredient!
‘Ordinary is a joy’ resonated with me and you are wonderful!