GIANT POT OF SOUPY GOODNESS, PART II

last night, i finished off making this week's giant pot o' soup. i'd started it the night before, quite optimistic that i'd get it done in one night (and especially since i'd gotten home early!), but alas, it was not to be. this one takes awhile, but most of it's time you can pretty much ignore it and do something else for, so it's really not so bad. it's a very simple recipe, and it's also quite healthy and very cheap---what could be better?

TIME REQUIRED: Either 1.5 hours or overnight for soaking the peas; your choice. The soup itself will take probably a good 2-3 hours to get to the nice creamy consistency you want, but again---you can ignore it while it simmers away peacefully; it only needs stirring once in awhile. Also, this recipe isn't kidding when it claims to be a giant pot of soup---it'll last the two of us a week, or thereabouts. Divide or multiply to obtain the amount you'd like.

INGREDIENTS

* 2 1 lb. bags of yellow split peas
* 1 large onion (sweet works well here)
* 3 or so stalks of celery
* as many carrots as you feel necessary
* 58 oz. (or thereabouts) of broth of your choice; for the one i made last night, i used beef broth. of the Swanson's 99% fat free/low sodium kind.)
* coarse kosher salt to taste
* a few bay leaves
* sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper

PREPARATION

If you've never worked with dried peas (or beans) before, don't worry---it's really not very difficult.

DEALING WITH THE PEAS
The first thing you want to do is sort through the peas, removing any small stones or anything else that doesn't look like it belongs.

Next, you've got two options for soaking the peas. Option one: Place them in a big pot, add a whole bunch of water (I'd say it's not possible to use too much, really; just make sure there's quite a bit more than is necessary to cover the peas), and bring to a boil. Let it boil for 2 minutes, then remove from heat and let sit undisturbed for an hour. Drain; sort again (if you'd like), rinse, place once more in pot for the actual soup-making.

Option two: Throw the sorted peas into a big pot of water and let soak overnight (or at least 3-4 hours). Drain; sort again (if you'd like), rince, and place once more in pot for the actual soup-making.

Chop the carrots, celery, and onion into smallish chunks and add to pot of peas. Add broth, kosher salt, and bay leaves; turn stove on to moderately high heat; lid pot. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Once it reaches a boil, turn heat down just enough so that danger of boiling over is averted; allow to simmer (still lidded), stirring occasionally, until the peas have softened and begun to disintegrate into proper pea-soupiness. If soup is not thick enough, sift in some corn starch and stir vigorously. This will probably take 2 to 3 hours.

Serve hot; enjoy! This goes well with really quick and easy buttermilk biscuits, which i'll give the recipe for below.

Seriously, this is yet another time where I find it difficult to believe prepackaged mixes for these things exist---this is hands down one of the easiest, quickest things I've made outside of standard chocolate chip cookies. The odds are that they'll turn out brilliantly the very first time you make them, and you'll thusly have the recipe permanently embedded in your brain after having experienced such a rush (ahem). And then you'll want to share with all your friends, etc, etc.

TIME REQUIRED: Approximately 25 minutes. You could very easily throw these together at a moment's notice, provided you've got the ingredients in your house.

INGREDIENTS

* 2 c. all-purpose or cake flour (cake flour will make them lighter and fluffier, but all-purpose works well, too)

* 1 tsp. baking soda

* 3 tsp. baking powder

* 4 tbsp. butter (you can use more or less as you like, but this is a pretty optimal amount)

* just under 1 c. buttermilk (you can easily find powdered buttermilk in the baking goods aisle of your local supermarket; this stuff is brilliant because you can keep it for nigh on forever in your fridge and mix up exactly the amount of buttermilk you need, whenever you need it!)

PREPARATION

Preheat your oven to 450ºF. Next, mix together all dry ingredients thoroughly. Cut butter into small pieces and add to dry ingredients; use your hands to work flour and butter in together until butter is thoroughly incorporated into flour mixture (this is similar to making a pie crust, actually).

Add buttermilk to mixture, stirring just until everything is mixed together pretty thoroughly. Form into a rough ball; the dough should be slightly sticky, but if it's too much so, add a tiny bit more flour. If it's too dry (which it won't be), add a tiny bit of water.

Plop that dough ball down on your chosen lightly-floured work surface (countertop, pastry board, etc.) and mush it down into a flat, semi-rectangular shape; do not handle more than is absolutely necessary so that biscuits will be light and fluffy. Stop when the dough reaches a thickness of approximately 3/4-1".

Use a biscuit cutter or handy drinking glass (or cookie cutter, if you'd like star-shapes, etc.) and cut out biscuits. Once you've gotten as many biscuits out of the dough as you can in its present shape, mush the remaining dough back together and continue cutting biscuits until there's no more dough left. Place biscuits on ungreased cookie sheet(s); there should be at least 10 of them, unless you've chosen to make them in a particularly gigantic shape.

Bake for 7-10 minutes (depending on your oven) , or until they've browned quite nicely. Serve and eat as soon as possible after baking for best taste; if you must store leftovers, I wouldn't advise refrigerating as they'll get quite hard.