You Capture: I Ate That

So, as you know, I occasionally participate in the You Capture photography carnival sponsored by the blog I Should Be Folding Laundry. Normally the carnival is held on Thursdays, but since it's a holiday, you're free to post and link up throughout the four-day weekend.

Now, this week's theme, "I Ate That," is obviously meant to tie in with Thanksgiving. But since I don't have any pictures of food that I actually ate on Thanksgiving, I'm going with this:


Split pea soup! The greenness! The gruel-like texture! The placemat!

And do you like how the green accents on the soda can pick up the color of the soup? That was totally intentional, and not at all because one member of my family always picks the Diet Coke with Lime, which another member of my family believes to taste like artificially-sweetened window cleaner.

There's a story behind the soup. Because doesn't everybody have a good split pea soup story?

In my native California, there is a famous pea soup establishment known as Pea Soup Andersen's. At one point I think there were multiple Andersen's establishments, but the only remaining one is in the town of Buellton, California, just north of where I went to college. Here's a picture of Bill eating at Andersen's in 2000:


He's having their famous Traveler's Special, a combo that includes all-you-can-eat soup, bread, and a beverage of your choice. It would appear that he chose a milkshake as his beverage. I probably chose Diet Coke, but not that vile lime version that I don't even think was invented back then.

Outside of Andersen's, you can stick your head in a photo-op thingy featuring their mascots, Hap-Pea and Pea-Wee. Again, this is Bill ten years ago:



What I like about Andersen's is that they make a good vegetarian split pea soup. Most split pea soup recipes rely on ham for flavor, and I don't really care for ham. But the vegetarian version of Andersen's is perfectly flavorful. They sold it in cans at my local grocery store growing up, and I used to bring a thermos of split pea soup for lunch every day in high school. It's a wonder I wasn't more popular.

Here in suburban Chicago, though, the grocery stores don't carry Andersen's soup in cans. So I was really excited when I checked out Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook from the library recently, and I realized they had an Andersen's copycat split pea soup. That combines two of my favorite things: Crock Pots and nostalgic soup recipes!

The result is the soup you see above in the first picture. I don't remember Andersen's well enough to know if the Not Your Mother's recipe is a reasonable facsimile, but it sure was good. It lasted several meals, the above picture being taken at its very last run.

I realize most people find pea soup kind of gross, perhaps because its color, "pea soup green," refers to the most hideous hue in the 70s-era color palate. So since this soup is not all that popular, I will not take the time to type out the recipe here. But if you want it, leave a message in the comments and I'll e-mail it to you.

And ... I can't help it ...

Have a soup-er day!