Stick out your tongue on New Years Eve

I am a foodie, yes a gourmand, but a foodie too. To me a foodie is not snooty in what they eat, we are willing to try it and appreciate it for what it is. Yes I eat at taco bell - 2 tacos and a bean burrito please. Yes my favorite all time dish is Foie Gras and French Toast – you have heard about that before.

However my friends often say that I'm scary to cook for, how many of you have cooked for a trained and awarded chef? My mother in-law will tell you that I am a magnificent guest and will eat and enjoy anything that is cooked for me. The point is I didn’t have to cook it!

For New Years Eve we will be dining at a friends house. This friend on a number of occasions has pulled out an old fashioned southern cook book and tried many a recipe, but for this special evening we will be having a family classic. Smoked tongue smothered in split pea soup. In this day and age eating tongue is not that unusual with return of the nose to tail movement in eating. However she was doing it long before then. The process is to order a smoked tongue, then boil it as you would for a tongue that you were going to slice or pickle (my mother often pickled them). Then allow it to cool and peel the outer skin off. Finally, slice and cover with split pea soup. So by now you may be swaying in your seat, but just think of corned beef with split pea soup. It is unusually good.

Yes they are our best friends and the only ones they will share with.

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