Ahhhh, yes! Good ol' home made split pea soup, One of my all-time favorite 'comfort foods'. I've tried it in restaurants, soup & salad places, etc, But for some reason, It is just never very good. But I do love the home made! My 'recipe' is very simple, kind of like my mother made it. Just the split peas, the ham bone, some onion, a bit of white pepper, (I don't like 'fly-specks' in light colored foods) And a little carrot, grated on the largest grate of my grater, for some color. Oh, and water or chicken broth, of course. We do like it to be sort of thick. So glad you & your family tried it and liked it, Isn't it fun to try new things? And get a positive reaction from the family? Rusty

Here is my contributions to the soup party ideas. I made this on Monday for a family at our church. When I make it, I dont use the recipe, just throw things in the pot. The family asked for the recipe. They dont make things from scratch often, so forgive me if it sounds like its typed up for non-cookers! My soup is different every time I make it. Could make this soup vegetarian if you cut out the sausage. Appreciate all the other soup recipes posted. We are now thinking of doing a "Soup/Bonfire" party also. Gotta love those bonfires :) ITALIAN SAUSAGE SOUP 1 LB plain sausage or Itailian sausage browned and greased drained In soup pot mix together: and simmer at least 1.5 hr. or more is better. cooked sausage 2 qts water with 3 T. boullion chicken/beef or mix of both 1 large (around approx. 26 oz) can spaghetti sauce 1 large 16 oz or 26 oz can chopped tomatoes 2-3 T. Worcestershire sauce 1/2 -1 cup lentils 1/4- 1/2 cup barley (not instant) 2-3 medium carrots 2-3 stalks celery 1-2 cans green beans 2 bay leaves (remove when soup is done) 1 large onion 2 T. fennel seed (crush in your hand to release flavor) garlic powder to taste salt and pepper to taste Add: after soup has cooked at least 45 min. to one hr. add 1/2- 3/4 cup any pasta. Cook another 15 min. Opptional ideas to add: any vegetable, tomato juice for liquid, Black or any beans, Hot sauce, mushrooms, rice, white potatoes or sweet

Oh, Janet, that's a "souper" idea! (sorry....it's early) In fact it would be fun if a bunch of you cold come! The party is usually the weekend before Halloween, so if any of you would like to make a trip to MN in the fall of 2009 I'd be thrilled to have you! Claire, I'd be interested to see your recipe for KC SteakSoup. The recipe I had was from Midwest Living magazine and I tweaked the he!! out of it! LOL It used ground beef and frozen veggies. I used steak (duh...) and fresh veggies. In fact, I think I have to post my adaptation for David..... Linda

A friend of mine always has a few people over every year for the Super Bowl. Until this past year she lived in a very large home with 4 standard poodles, which are very large, bouncy, athletic dogs. Usually the group is small and everyone is a football fan, whether or not our team is playing. She's moved to a much smaller home but still has the 4 rambunctious dogs. This time there were 5 of us, all women, and 3 didn't know a thing about football. I had to explain the concept of downs and why sometimes penalties are declined. The louder the talk, the louder the tv, rinse, repeat. One of the intact male poodles wanted to get it on with me. I decided martinis are not for me.