Super Pea Soup

A cold, overcast day calls for a pot of soup!  Pea soup is one of our favorites, and I like to use the big crock pot to make several quarts at once.

Super Pea Soup
8 cups of water
2  (450 gram) bags of green split peas
1 onion chopped
2 good sized carrots chopped
3 (mild) Italian sausages cut into rounds,
   and then the rounds are cut in half
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coarse ground pepper
1 large or 2 small bay leaves.

Pile all ingredients into crockpot.  Set on high.  After a few hours when it's really boiling, turn down to medium or low, whichever works on your crockpot.  Let it simmer for hours.  Have a bowl while you watch the evening news.  Feel warmed and filled.

A slice of homemade whole wheat bread rounds this out nicely.