Peas Please!

I never imagined I'd hear "more peas please" from any of my children let alone all of my children. Dinner was so delicious that my eldest son said "mom, you have got to write that down so my wife can make it for me!" Now that is pretty incredible.

So what was this meal that we devoured? Peas. Purple Hull Peas. We didn't even know what they were when our neighbor asked us if we would like to buy a bushel from the farmer. We probably should have asked what a bushel was before we said yes.

We shelled peas for 6 hours. It was quite fun, actually. We had a pea shelling race, who could shuck five peas the fastest. We had to add rules to the game, who could shuck five peas the fastest without shooting any across the table. There were peas all over the floor. We filled the freezer with these curious green and purple peas of which I had no idea what to do.

I am not one to follow recipes. I may read a recipe to get an idea, but I don't have time to run to the store for exact ingredients or to find a measuring cup to measure out exact ingredients. I rarely use a measuring cup. But since I didn't have any guess as to how to cook these peas, I read some recipes online for ideas. Then I made us some dinner.


I took my electric skillet outside because I wasn't about to cook inside with the air conditioner not working. I browned up some bacon and onions, added the peas and water to cover and cooked them for about 2 hours. I threw some thin pork chops on top and cooked until done. I used the broth from that to make gravy and served it all over mashed potatoes. YUM. A real southern style dish. We are calling it my "Mississippi Specialty." It will be a rare treat since we don't normally eat anything heavy like that, but it was so good I will definitely make it again.