Swedish Pea Soup

No postings in awhile. Today, I will focus on listing some of my favorite childhood recipes from Swedish neighbors who moved to US after WW1. Pete and Hannah were pseudo-grandparents who lived right next door. Pete passed away in his late 80s only weeks after I graduated high school. Hannah passed away at 105 back in the 90s. Pretty much anybody who grew up in Minnesota prior to the 90s have had these recipes due to the high Swedish/Norwegian population. If you didn't have it at home, you had it at a friend's or neighbors home. Virtually unheard of outside of areas of Swedish dominance, these recipes were things that folks just made; few ever wrote down. I'm sure many simple (and not so simple) recipes were lost during the 80s when so many women stopped cooking from scratch and turned to convenience foods. Growing up, the Swedish accent could be heard frequently in MN. Now, I rarely hear it as the original immigrants have mostly passed on.

Swedish Pea Soup

1 ham bone
3 quarts water
1 onion, cut up
1 1/2 cups celery (or carrots)
1 package whole or split yellow or green peas

Peas must be soaked overnight.
Drain and put all ingredients in a Soup Kettle.
Bring to a boil and cook at least 2 hours on low heat.

Note: I prefer to shred carrots and very finely chop celery. That way, you don't have to go through the extra step of putting this stuff through a blender after cooking.

Hannah Bloom's Chicken Hotdish

1 big Chicken (4-5 pounds)
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced potatoes
1 can peas
1 small onion
1 cup diced celery
salt and pepper to taste

Cook chicken until done; Bone and dice it.
Use broth to make gravy.
Put all in layers in hotdish casserole with a sprinkle of flour between layers. Add broth last and a little cream and bake (350 F). This is an old recipe so you can make changes and substitute other things.

Hotdish With Eggs

2 cups boiled spuds, cubed
1 cup peas
1 tablespoon cut pimiento
5 hard-cooked eggs, cut
1 tablespoon fine-sliced onion
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups white sauce (more if you like)

Place in buttered hotdish bowl and top with grated cheese. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees. You can add celery and other stuff if you want.

Glorified Hash

Leftover meat, potatoes, peas, onion, cut up finely
1 cup bread or cracker crumbs
Leftover gravy or milk
2 eggs
2 tsp. catsup

Mix these together and mold into balls or patties. Pan fry or bake in a moderate oven (350 F) for 45 minutes.

Spam Hotdish (from 1960s cookbook)

1 can spam, cubed
1 small can peas
1 small onion, chopped
1 can chow mein noodles
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 can mushroom soup
1 green pepper, chopped
Pepper; no salt

Cook celery; brown Spam, onion and green pepper.
Grease hotdish bowl.
Combine peas, celery, Spam, onion and green pepper. Alternate this with layers of noodles and mushroom soup that has been thinned with liquid from can of peas.
Bake at 350 degrees until it's done.

Creamed Peas on Toast

Used to make this for afterschool snacks.

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a pan. Stir in 2 level tablespoons of flour. Add 1 cup whole milk and bring to a boil. Add the cooked peas (about 1 cup). Salt and pepper to taste. If too thick, add more milk. Serve over toast.