Land of the Big Red Hog

I finally made a trip home to visit my family in Arkansas this weekend. I've been putting it off for a while because I've been working so much lately. So since this is the last long weekend that we're going to have for a while, I figured we'd just make it work. Needless to say, this has been one of the absolute worst weekends for traveling that there could be.

It started raining as soon as we hit the Alabama/Mississippi border and hasn't stopped yet. It was cold and the low-lying areas were filled with water. We had a decent hotel room with good amenities so we were pretty happy. I didn't stay at my mother's house, we stayed in a town a bit away. We got there at lunchtime on Saturday, and my mom and step-dad came to have dinner with us that night. The next day my mom and I went to visit my grandpa in the nursing home. It was pretty sad, because he isn't very mentally alert anymore, and it wasn't a good time to visit him.

We left out first thing this morning and it was still raining, though at least it didn't freeze. We were definately very glad to make it home, so much so that we didn't want to leave to go get groceries. So I decided to make a pot of soup that was inspired by watching Iron Chef this weekend, where the challenge ingredient was frozen green peas. So here is my recipe, that is a bit of a spicier take on their version. It is really easy to make, and cooked in about 15 minutes.

Green Pea Soup

1 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 c. onion, chopped
4 c. broth
1 (1 Lb) bag frozen peas
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
1/2 tsp. smoked spanish paprika
Salt and black pepper to taste

Heat oil in a medium saucepan. Saute onion for about 5 minutes, or until tender and just starting to brown at the edges. Add the remaining ingredients, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer 10 minutes. Either puree the soup with an immersion blender, or in a regular blender.
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My soup came out pretty brothy, it wasn't thick. If you like it thicker, you could either add some white sauce to make a cream of pea soup, or thicken it with more peas. I like it thinner myself, but it's personal taste. :)