And the First Contender Is ....

Split Pea Soup with Andouille Sausage

When I was little, I would close to vomit when my parents tried to force me to eat canned peas. So I grew to avoid peas at all costs. But strangely enough, I love the pea soup at Pea Soup Andersons in California. When I was stationed in Monterey, my mom would drive down and pick me up and we'd head back up north to her house and always stopped there to partake in a pea soup fest. I credit Pea Soup Andersons for helping me to love peas. Although, canned peas still make me want to upchuck.

Anyway, I didn't follow the recipe completely. I threw all the ingredients in my slow cooker and cooked on low for 8 hours. I used the 1/2 lb of andouille sausage called for in the recipe but it was a bit spciy for my taste and I don't think many kids could handle it. I would recommend half andouille and half not spicy sausage if you're worried about it. I got an immersion blender for Christmas and this was the first thing that I made using it. I know the price is a huge turn off (I've been lusting over this for at least 5 years), but it has definitely been worth the money. But more on my love affair with the immersion blender later (in another post). It really made blending the soup so easy since I didn't have to move it out of the slow cooker pot. Of course, you could always use a food processor or blender.

Ok, so I know that some of you might not think pea soup sound so good, but I wanted to share this because I love the idea of using sausage instead of ham. And let me tell you, Shane totally loved this. What man wouldn't love soup with sausage all ground up in it?