We’ve got the end of the month budget blues. We keep to a fairly strict food budget. It’s not much of a problem for the first three weeks of the month. But during the last week of the month things can get a little tight. I scour the freezer looking under bags of frozen bread heals for a forgotten pound of hamburger. I look through the cupboard for any hidden cans of peas for the tuna noodle casserole. Do we still have macaroni or are we down to the weird pasta that has to boil for half an hour. (Who has time for that?)

This month we lucked out. As I was taking inventory and making our weekly menu I discovered that we had a frozen ham bone leftover from Easter. By chance we also have a bag of dried peas. Pea soup here we come! OK, the temperature is supposed to be 80 degrees on pea soup day and that’s not ideal. But it does save us from mystery casserole compiled from various cans in our cupboard. Bring on the pea soup! It beats pineapple/tuna/green bean casserole!