November, 2015 | Easin' Along

Retirement Activities – Men of the Church Gathering

Posted on November 20, 2015November 20, 2015 by Easin' Along

After the first ninety days of being officially, finally, and (probably) forever retired, I find that I’m still adjusting to the pace. I mentioned a few weeks back I found my self staring at the walls for a few days at first as if I was waiting for a crisis call from work, or hit by the realization that I was late for some important meeting. Those feelings subsided after a bit, and while I still fight the notion that I need to be in a hurry for some unexplained reason, I’m growing more comfortable with the idea of just Easin’ Along. Nevertheless, I intend to be active, both in the community and online, while still reserving plenty of time to travel and visit with our family and friends.

There is a plethora of options out there for anyone who wants to be involved and active. A community the size of the one in which we live offers an abundance of activities which serve the sick, the needy, and our brave veterans. We’re fortunate also to live near a large university with some wonderful programs for study and personal growth. In the future posts we will explore some of those endeavors here.

We’re equally blessed to belong to a strong and vibrant church with an active congregation composed of individuals with diverse interests and backgrounds. We’re indeed fortunate that so many of them use their energy and creative skills in any number of ways to engage us collectively as we pursue our walk of faith as individuals. As a result, the opportunity for spiritual growth is greatly enhanced through fellowship with our members.

In the past we have participated in weekend retreats where, joined by other members, we were challenged by some very gifted church leaders to think in new ways about our own spiritual pursuits. We have had delightful experiences in our church supper clubs by becoming more closely acquainted with fellow members in a smaller, more casual setting. Other activities have included family camping trips, bus trips to regional attractions for seniors, youth outings, mission trips, and exercise classes just to name a few. One of my early experiences with the activities of our church was my participation in a group Bible study almost twenty five years ago when I was undergoing some personal challenges. The experience was profound and provided a great deal of comfort at a time when it was most needed.

This past week we held a gathering for the men of the church and I was “all in”. This is a gathering that had not been held in several years, and two of our members decided that it was time to make it happen once more. They obtained a small meeting room at a local hotel and arranged for a light buffet of delicious food in more than ample quantities. The gathering was scheduled for 5:30 to 7:00. I arrived around the announced starting time, and a number of men were already there. The buffet table was open and a few were eating. Yes, some adult beverages were served to a few and, I think it helped add to a relaxed and casual atmosphere.

As the event progressed it was great to see that our men were moving throughout the room to greet and talk to each other rather than to remain in the same small groups. The ages of the men ran the spectrum which was also good to see–it certainly was no obstacle as the conversations proved to be lively in all corners of the room.

Although the crowd size was somewhat modest, I would certainly proclaim it a success by every measure. As mentioned, our gathering was scheduled to end at 7:00, but it was long past that when we gathered for a group picture and discovered that no one had left. The evening was a great success, and I am certain there will be similar events in the future. One fellow remarked from one corner of the room that hosting a fish fry would be right down his alley. Sign me up!

The point of this post is to say that, while entry into a retirement lifestyle may be an adjustment in the early stages, there will be plenty of opportunities to pick up the pace. I’m eternally grateful to belong to a church that provides opportunities to be active.

Hopefully, I will come to a point in the future, where I realize that retirement is a journey, not a sprint. My nature is to hit the ground running…for now I’m just Easin’ Along.

Food

Active Retirement Includes Cookin’ the Good Stuff…Like Split-Pea Soup

Posted on November 13, 2015February 7, 2017 by Easin' Along

**Split pea soup with ham and vegetables**

When I began looking into all of the ingredients that can make up an active retirement, cooking up good food was very close to the top of the list. Full disclosure up front…I’m a guy who loves to cook. I’m not one of those creative types who can look at five items in the fridge and invent a new gourmet entrée, but I can read a recipe and instantly determine if it would be something to savor. This always astounds Helen, my wife. Here’s how that works…

We’re riding down the highway on a long road trip. As is her practice when she is not giving me directions, Helen is using the down time in the car to catch up on her two favorite magazines, Southern Living, and Better Homes and Gardens. At some point in the drive she’ll ask, “Does this sound good?”

I say, “Does what sound good?” She reads a recipe. I say “Not really.”

“Why not? It sounds great to me” comes the retort.

“Well, I’ve never been a big fan of pickled tomatoes or coriander” is a typical response in this situation.

Five minutes later, I get “How ’bout this one?” as she immediately begins reading another recipe.

“Sounds pretty good, read it again”. After the repeat, I’ll confirm that it is probably worth a try and she’ll say “I can’t believe you think this one is better than the pickled tomato one”. And so it goes until we prepare the good one and it becomes one of the new favorites in the family cookbook.

To be sure, we’ve probably missed out on a lot of great recipes because they just didn’t hit me right, and I’m equally certain that a few really good ones disappeared into the “Black Hole” while on a road trip and never made it back out. Nevertheless, this ritual has produced some memorable meals including one we recently discovered for Split Pea Soup with Vegetables and Ham. It’s simple, but it’s soup season and I thought the recipe was good enough to share along with two cooking utensils that I recently discovered and now cannot live without.

The complete step by step soup recipe will be posted at the end of this post, and the pictures for the steps will appear in the Picture Gallery that follows . What I intend to do here is highlight a few of the steps we took in the preparation process.

I mentioned in a previous post about our now departed freezer, we love to make soups, stews, and sauces in large quantities and then store them in meal size containers for later use. For this recipe, we made it three times larger than the recipe called for, and could have made it even larger (read below). Tripling a soup recipe can, and usually does, require a lot of chopping. So…let’s bring out the vegetables…carrots, celery, and onions, and introduce my new best friend, The Chop Wizard.

I picked up this gem on the recommendation of a friend after mentioning that my recipes for Gourmet Meat Loaf and Southern Seafood Gumbo entail a great deal of chopping. She told me that I needed to go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and buy a Chop Wizard and simplify the process. This thing is so great and so simple to use, I wish I had invented it. It comes with two blades in a crisscross pattern, one for chopping and another for dicing, that are inserted into an elongated container. To chop, the user places the vegetables on a blade and then pulls down on the hinged lid. The vegetable is forced through the crossed blades, cut to size, and captured in the container. The container is marked on the side so that the user is able to read the quantity of food chopped by holding the container vertically. For this recipe, we used the larger, or chop, blade. The photograph below illustrates how the Chop Wizard is used.

The recipe called for the cooking to be done in a Dutch Oven, but we chose to use a large soup kettle since we are increasing the quantity. Into the soup kettle went the onions and celery where they simmered in melted butter and cooked until tender. At that point it was time to add the rest of the ingredients listed in the recipe, including the ham.

For the ham, I wanted something really good and flavorful, so I went to the Honey Baked Ham store and purchased a ham bone. The clerk asked if I wanted a large or medium bone. I went large. To my surprise, this thing was huge! It was loaded with meat and, before I placed it into the soup kettle, I was able to remove many slices and save for later use…like ham sandwiches. I’m certain that if we want to make our recipe five times larger, we would have had more than enough ham to do so.

We let the vegetables, the spices, and the ham simmer in chicken broth for about an hour until the split peas were good and tender. I used a large set of barbeque tongs to remove the ham and set it aside to cool. As the meat cooled and temperature for the soup mixture is reduced to low, I reached for my next new best friend…the Stick Blender.

This handy little item is something I picked up after a friend sent me a recipe for Brazilian Seafood Stew that called for the ingredients to be blended with a stick blender. I didn’t have one. Back to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to remedy the problem. This appliance is so much fun to use, I find that I’m always searching for new ways to put it to work. I truly believe that if more people make this discovery, this thing will make teeth obsolete! It’s that good! I have yet to make the Brazilian Stew, but I love it for making fruit smoothies in the morning using yogurt and packaged frozen fruit. I have used it for canned soup to smooth out the ingredients a little. I used it here to blend all of the peas and the vegetables to a smoother consistency.

The ham gets chopped by hand and added to the blended mixture. With everything back together, we add the milk called for in the recipe and everything is reheated for serving.

Bring out the soup bowls, ladle them full, add a big spoonful of chopped ham to the center of the bowl, and you’ve got a real treat. For bread, I prepared a batch of hoe cakes (fried cornbread) because they can be made quickly and is a family favorite alongside a great meal in a warm and cozy setting.