Split Pea Surprise

So one of my favorite meals growing up was lentil stew.  I always say that I can understand why Esau was willing to give up the birthright.  One day, I discovered split pea soup, also good.  Kinda gross looking, but tastes good.

Anyway, lately I have been craving soup.  So I bought some split peas at Target and made some good split pea soup, it was great.  Worked so well we bought some more for future soupage.

In the meantime, Audrey had bought some lentils to surprise me with lentil stew last week.  Surprise dinner came, I came home to smell a house full of sausagey odor and veggies….yum!  I was all excited for my lentil stew.

The dish was served… I didn’t see any lentils.  I dug to the bottom of the stew, and mush came up to the top.  Audrey said, “I don’t remember lentils being this green.”  I said, “They usually don’t break down like this, that must be why.”  Audrey, “Well, I did stew it all day.”  End of story. 

I take a bite of stew.  “Well, this tastes different.  Audrey says, “Oh shoot, I forgot the vinegar!!”  Adds vinegar.  In the meantime, I sneak into the kitchen pantry and find two full bags of lentils, unopened.  I laugh to myself and eat the rest of my “lentil” stew without saying a word. 

About 3 days later, after eating most of the left-overs, Audrey stumbles across the lentil bags.  Confused, she checks the “open bag basket” to find the bag of split peas.  Priceless.  She’s too cute.  She got really sad that she messed up a recipe.  But here’s what I don’t understand… I mess up a recipe and it’s completely unedible.  (I ran out of flour for cookies and substituted cornmeal.  Did you know that cornmeal absolutely will not rise in cookie recipes?)  Audrey messes up a recipe and it still tastes great.  Is that fair?  So whenever we experiment a little with our cooking we can always remember our “Split pea surprise” and know that even if we don’t use the main ingredient it can still turn out alright.  (As long as Audrey’s cooking at least.)