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To try Regina's recipe for split pea soup with oven-smoked tomatoes, click here.
The new year often begins with those oh so hard to keep promises of the new weight loss plan—this year is not so different. To me the most difficult challenge to being true to those January promises is that the cold weather is calling out to me and begging that I cook hearty soups and stews and asking me to fill my kitchen with the smell of yeast breads. Another aspect of the new year is the cleaning and organizing—it often begins with my freezer, which produced several ham bones with ample meat attached.
I lost the battle, with my conscience telling me "waste not, want not." The stock began, then a quick trip to the store for dried beans and peas, and by early afternoon I had large pots of ham and white beans and the beginning of split pea soup. I had dinner in mind, but I felt I would have nice square containers of the finished product stacked in the now clean, organized, half-empty freezer. With the smell of ham stock permeating my toasty warm home, and as I was feeling "oh so domestic" and had a few visions of "mother of the year" dancing around my head, the smell lured my son Martin into the kitchen. Then he stopped me in my tracks. "You do remember that I don't eat red meat anymore."