Happy New Year

Note to self: make this again next year!

The soup above was made with the black-eye peas that we were going to just eat out of a can with our BLTs for dinner. (We always have black-eye peas on New Year's Day, don't you?) Kenny mentioned he wanted soup, so I came up with this.

Black-Eye Pea Soup

1 tablespoon bacon grease or oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 medium carrot, chopped (I used 5 baby carrots)
1 15-oz. can black-eye peas, UNdrained
3 cups chicken broth
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon Spike seasoning
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup orzo

In a heavy saucepot, sauté the onion and carrot in the oil until onion is tender. Add black-eye peas, chicken broth, thyme, parsley, Spike, and black pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer for at least 30 minutes (the carrot needs to get tender). Add the orzo, and bring heat up to medium-high. Cook until orzo is tender, about 8-10 minutes. Serves 3.







This is the whole wheat and rye bread we had our BLTs on. I made it in the bread machine with mostly whole wheat flour. I chose to leave the caraway seeds out since we had a bit with our breakfast and I'm just not into caraway seeds for breakfast.

Whole Wheat and Rye Bread
Bread Machine Recipe - makes a 2-pound loaf

1 2/3 cups lukewarm water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup molasses
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons dry milk powder
1 1/2 cups rye flour
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast *

Place ingredients in bread machine pan in the order listed. Use "whole wheat" cycle.

* I live at 6,000', so I use only 3 teaspoons yeast. Otherwise I get a "bowling ball."








And what's this? It's the 30-year-old spatter screen that I retired on Christmas day, since Don got me a new one.