"P" is for Pea Soup and Polar Bears!!

First, my pea soup.  Pea soup is a very old traditional Saturday meal in rural Newfoundland.  I remember being a kid and absolutely hating it!!  Now, I find it is one of my favorite "comfort foods".... Pea soup and green onion dumplings---Yuuummmie!!

I made a small pot last Saturday and I remembered to take a snap...here's how it looked:

Here's my recipe..

Pea Soup

1  cup salt beef (diced) -- or a ham bone
2  cups yellow split peas
1 cup each of onion, turnip and carrot--all chopped to desirable size for soup
1/2 cup diced celery
2-3 potatoes, chopped in large chunks
Pepper -- to taste

Soak salt beef and peas, separately in cold water overnight

Drain meat and place in pot, add 3 cups of cold water and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 40-50 minutes.  Add drained split peas and onion and pepper.  Simmer gently for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally, until peas start to get tender.  Add more water, to desired thickness.

Add turnip, carrot and celery, simmering for another 20 minutes.  Add chunks of potato and simmer on a very low heat for another 10 minutes before adding dumplings for last 15-20 minutes.

Dumplings
1 cup flour
1/2 cup margarine
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup finely chopped green onion

Mix, flour, baking powder and green onion together in a medium bowl, then cut in margarine until all margarine is no larger than pea size.  Add enough water to form a soft dough that is easy to shape into golf ball sized dumplings.  Drop the dumplings into the slowly simmering pot and cover.  Cook for remaining 15 minutes or so.  Remove cover, lift dumplings out with slotted spoon onto a large plate, serve up soup and place a dumpling on top.  Delicious.

You can experiment with the texture of your soup...some like it really thick, some not so thick.  This is controlled by you and the amount of water you add as it cooks.    

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"P" is for Polar Bears

In my husband's job, he sometimes is involved with relocating stray or wandering polar bears.  This usually happens around March and April.  These bears come down from Labrador on drift ice and sometimes find their way in to land in coastal communities.  There has been several incidents this spring so far.  The bear is usually tranquilized and brought back to it's natural habitat by helicopter, using a net/harness.

Here are a few photos of one such adventure.  Every precaution is taken to ensure the bear is not harmed during this process.

Approaching the bear by helicopter--the bear is shot from the air with an immobilizing dart.

He looks pretty cozy now--notice the tranquilizer dart in the bear's side.

Here, the bear has been prepped for his flight back home.  The covering over the eyes is for protection while in flight as well as to help reduce on the amount of stress, as they remain awake, but totally immobile during this exercise.

Fly, fly away!!!