Monthly Archives: April 2013

Slow-cooked split pea and ham soup

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My husband’s favorite soup I make is split pea and ham soup. A funny thing happened  last week – my hairdresser and a close friend all started to rave about how they love split pea and ham soup. Next thing I know, I am making a batch of split pea and ham soup, and decided to try it in a slow-cooker. I got rave reviews and the other great thing it cost me $4 and it serves at least 8 people!!

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Ingredients

  • 1 bag of split peas (dried green peas ~450 g)
  • 2 Ham hocks (bacon hocks)
  • 1 onion (diced)
  • ~1-2 litres of water

Place all ingredients in the slow-cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours. The meat should be falling of the bone, take out the meat and bones. Pull the meat off the bones, shred and put back in the soup and stir. Throw the bones away. Place into containers and either store in the fridge and or the freezer.

When you reheat the soup, you may need to add water, also season with salt and pepper to your taste preference.

Weekend finishes + April goals

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Plum and June

On Friday, I was super excited as I received my copy of “Patchwork Please! – Colorful Zakka projects to stitch and give” by Ayumi Takahashi.

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Photo from: ayumills.blogspot.com – Pink Penguins, Ayumi Takahashi

I have signed up to the Zakka Along 2.0 :: Patchwork, Please Flickr Group to join others who are making things from the book. As you will see below one of my April goals is to make a pin cushion and travel sewing kit. I decided to give the pin cushion on the front cover a go.

Size: 4 x 4 in.
Materials: Osnaburg Fabric (instead of linen but I used Pellon Shape Flex Interfacing to add thickness and stability), and Sew Stitchy by Aneela Hoey for Moda. I did not have the fabric button so I just used buttons I had in stock.
Technique: Paper Piecing

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I also managed to finish up a custom order for a set of my pot holders. Order was for a green, taupe and wine colored set.

Size: 8.5 x 8.5 in.
Materials: I used Taupe Essex Linen, the wine fabric was from JoAnn, and a Japanese cotton fabric with Vegetables (from Etsy). I used insul-bright as the filler to protect from the heat.

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Onto setting my goals for April, this month I wanted to make sure I set realistic goals. Not that I have been going terribly, I just have a lot going on and I have a whole week away at the end of the month – I am off to San Francisco for work.

My Button

I think, I can accomplish:

  1. Focus on stock for my Etsy Store.
    • Chair Bags (x2 sets)
    • Oven Mitts (x1 set)
    • Coffee Cup Sleeves (x2)
    • Pouches/ Cases (x2)
    • Set of place mats (x1 Stretch goal)
  2. Make a Pin cushion (from Patchwork Please) and a travel sewing pouch
  3. Make a travel baby quilt for charity  (~30x20in.)
  4. Madrona Road Challenge – Mini Quilt

I plan on trying to continue the quilting of my first quilt but realistically will not have it finished this month – targeting that larger project for May.

My General goals continue:

  1. Try to eat and exercise to plan
  2. Blog regularly using my new schedule