I love food history. I collect old cookbooks--not the real oldies, but the early 20th-century ones, which I love because you can ever-so-gradually see modern cooking taking shape in them. Today I adapted two great recipes from a surprisingly modern 1940s tome called the Women's Home Companion Cook Book. I also spent a bunch of time reading the book, especially the parts about creating menus and serving dinners. I really like the old-fashioned multicourse meal thing, and I wish we did more of it nowadays.

SPLIT-PEA SOUP
1 lb. green split peas
2 1/2 quarts water
a ham bone with some meat left on it
1 bay leaf
leaves from a few sprigs of thyme
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped carrot
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 Tbs. sugar

Bring the split peas, water, ham bone, bay leaf, and thyme to a boil in a large pot, then reduce to a simmer.
In a separate pan, heat the oil and sizzle the onion and carrot in it for 10 minutes, or until limp but not browned. Add the contents of this pan to the simmering pot of split peas.
Cover the pot and cook it on low heat for about an hour and a half.
Remove the ham bone and cube the meat. Mash the split peas and other vegetables coarsely with a masher (they should be falling apart by now anyway). Add the cubed ham back in. Taste and season with salt, pepper, and sugar.*
Cook 20 to 30 minutes uncovered, stirring occasionally, until reduced by about 1/4 to 1/3. Serve with crusty bread.

*At this stage, I added about half a cup of leftover mashed potatoes to the soup. If you have such a thing, you might want to do the same.


BAKED APPLES
4 medium apples (I used organic Galas)
brown sugar
raisins
1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
4 thin pats of butter
boiling water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Wash and core the apples. Place them in a dish that will hold them snugly, such as a small souffle dish. Stuff the insides of the apples tightly with brown sugar and raisins, sprinkle the apples with lemon juice, and place a pat of butter on each. Add just enough boiling water to cover the bottom of the pan.
Cover with foil and bake 30 to 40 minutes, until very soft and steamy.
Serve warm. (The cookbook suggests pouring the apple-y, brown-sugary juice into a separate pan and boiling it down into a syrup, which you then serve atop the apples. I was lazy and used the juice unboiled, and I thought it was very nice.)