Black Eyed Peas and Rice

This a favorite of my wife's and pretty much every one down south cooks black eyed peas but my spouse must have it over rice, the better to soak up the juice. And of course we have to use frozen where she grew up with the ones her mother put up every year. Now that is a story for another day how our eating habits are so different today in fact I'll write about it on my next post. Now back to today.
2 2/3 cups fresh or frozen black eyed peas
2-3 slices of bacon
1/2 large onion chopped(yellow)
stalk celery diced
3 cloves garlic
4 cups chicken broth
pinch of salt and pepper to taste
In a dutch oven cook bacon until crisp, set aside on paper towel to drain
Cook onion,celery,garlic in bacon drippings until tender, add broth,salt,pepper and peas.
Bring to a boil and skim top if necessary
Lower to simmer add bacon and cook 30 min to 1 hour till peas are tender
Serve over rice or as side.

Swiss Ham and Potato Soup

Well we were in the deep freeze last week and we fixed several soups this is one that turned out good. For us here in the south to get down to 15 at night with the wind blowing is not very common and looking at the news of other areas I just can not imagine living in an area with the temp below 0. So I hope every one was warm. we were worried for outside cats we rescued and feed so the wife got up several times in the night to turn on the dryer so they would get some warm air for a while. The vent blower was under the house.
2 med potatoes peeled and diced. (we used red potatoes.)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 yellow onion or one small
2 to 3 cups milk
4 slices Swiss cheese
2 cups cooked ham
salt and pepper to taste
can add garlic
and we used crumbled bacon for garnish
Cook diced potatoes when tender drain and save liquid. and set aside
in separate pan saute onion and garlic and set aside.
In large sauce pan add flour to butter till incorporated keep stirring to golden brown (this is known as a roux)
Now add 2 cups of milk and 1 cup potato liquid and whisk until smooth and no lumps
Bring to a boil .
Add ham,cooked onion and Swiss cheese stir till cheese is melted
Add salt and pepper
if soup is too thick can add the other cup of milk.
garnish with bacon.
Be sure too have some bread to go with it. Ummm Good.

Have posted this before.

Grilled Cornish Hens with brown sugar, orange,cloves and other good stuff

We love Cornish hens and are always cooking some. We did this for our Thanksgiving dinner it is just to cold to grill out now. Of course my wife is loving it she still thinks its hot at night and we have the heat turned down. I'm freezing and have my side of the electric blanket cranked up and she has her fan on and it was 15 degrees last night!!!!! Oh well back to cooking. Again from Zaar.

1 piece fresh ginger grated about 1 inch.

4 green onions minced

4 garlic cloves minced

1 orange-zest and

juice of 1/2 orange

2 limes zest and juice

1 Tablespoon packed brown sugar

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

3/4 ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

3 Tablespoons canola oil

Basting instructions:

In a large plastic bag mix ginger,onions,garlic,orange zest and juice, lime zest and juice,sugar,soy sauce,salt and pepper, cinnamon and cloves and oil. place hens in bag (cut hens in half). place in frig and turn every now and then . Can to this at least 2 hours to 24. (we reserved about 1/4 cup to use later after hens were cooked.)

Fire up the grill and cook covered over low to medium heat until golden brown. Turn as needed to prevent burning basting with marinade. Once golden brown place away from direct heat and finish cooking with indirect heat until no longer pink at the bone. About 40 to 45 minutes. Basting every 10 minutes(this is a little time consuming but it taste good) minutes before you take off the grill stop using the marinade and discard. This is were having a little in reserve comes in handy. Along with this we had wild rice, sweet potatoes dressing and cabbage.