Keeping the Peas....

An "Amish Wedding Supper" (without the actual wedding) was served Friday night at the community building in Marshall Township, Highland County, Ohio.   I will write a lot more about the event tomorrow and post a lot of neat photos and videos. But for now, the focus is on the peas:)   I found myself ignoring the tiny green globes on my tray and almost didn't even eat them, ignoring the childhood admonishment of every parent to "eat my peas."  But then I thought, what the heck, I'll try some...I can't very well report back to all of you on the menu unless I try everything, the good and the bad.   And, wow, were these peas A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  I could have eaten a whole tray of just peas.  So I tracked down Amish cook/baker extraordinaire, Betty Schrock, to ask her what she did to make those peas so ap-pea-ling:)    Betty was the one who prepared the peas that you see in the photo here and she was nice enough to take a few minutes to share her secret.  She said the key is to cook the peas in a saucepan just until they boil.  Then add sugar, salt, and pepper. She didn't say how much of each, so you are going to have to play with the proportions, but I have a feeling  the sugar is the key to these peas amazing taste.  Then in a separate pan you bring butter and flour to a boil, remove from heat and add the peas and then bring the peas to a boil again.  Add 1 tablespoon of baking soda for each six pounds of peas to keep the nice green color intact.  Betty said the peas total time spent boiling is about 8 minutes.  Remove from the heat, drain and, wow, these are good.