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[bobf <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

The prefernce is probably geographical, Lynn.  I don't remember ever being 
served split pea soup as a youngster.  It was either Lima or navy bean, 
almost always one of those two.

I just finished what is difficult for a lot of people to do.  I just finished 
the base of a big shrimp and oyster gumbo.  I got the roux the color of dark 
, dark, swamp mud without any burns in the roux (one pretty bad burn on me 
thoug -- my stirring hand-- even though my roux pot has 11 inch high sides.)

When I starting throwing tyhe minced vegetables into the roiling, boiling, 
roux, it gave off steam like a valve pipe had disrupted. Once I had all of 
the vegetables in I could turn the pot of vegetables and roux with a wooden 
spoon like it was a live organism. I did all of that in just over an hour.  I 
'll put the crab boil in in a while after it simmers more; bought a bunch of 
U.S. wild gulf shrimp, 26 - 30 count, on sale before Christmas, and  3 jars 
of oysters.  

I only make gumbo about twice a year.  My wife doen't know how; my gumbo 
style is part Cajun and part Southern.  I was taught by Mama, southern roux 
making, and taught by girls in Loisiana, their way -- I combine.  

I can make a mean etouffe , also; but you can't get decent crawfish out here.

Anyway, it started rainy, it is still cool weather, and I have soup 'and' 
gumbo going.  

If I trusted them, I'd go eat half one of the jars of oysters , raw, out of 
the fridge.  You shouldn't trust any raw oysters, though.  My grandfather was 
almost killed by that bacteria that you hget from eating raw oysters; 'spent 
over a week in the hospital and was sick as h*ll for several weeks.

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--- On Sun, 1/4/09, Lynn Wigglesworth <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com> wrote:

> From: Lynn Wigglesworth <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Homestead] Lima bean soup weather
> To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Sunday, January 4, 2009, 10:21 AM
> Split pea soup is the traditional use for a ham bone in my
> family. In fact, 
> I had a ham over the holidays, and the ham is gone and the
> soup is already 
> gone, too, except one serving that I put in the freezer. I
> always try to put 
> at least one serving of any soup in the freezer so I can
> satiate my soup 
> cravings betwen pots of soup (I haven't been eating
> enough cuts of meat with 
> bones lately to make soup as often as I like, and long ago
> used all my 
> frozen stock).
> 
> Lynn Wigglesworth
> Tioga Co. PA