John has taken over my kitchen to make us dinner tonight, so I though I'd catch up on some things that I've made earlier this year and haven't posted. Actually I've been banished from the kitchen until he's done for making some comments on his recent grocery purchases. I looked on in horror as he pulled out sugar free pickles (have I mentioned I'm not a fan at all of fake sugars?), a package of spinach dip, crackers with half of the ingredients being preservatives, and the list goes on. The only things I couldn't cringe at him getting were the fresh meats, fruits and veggies. I remember now why I try to always go with him when he goes shopping, it's easier to just say no and put it back on the shelf while we are still in the store. He is making an attempt though so I'll cut him a little slack seeing how before me he used to almost always eat out and mainly at fast food restaurants.
Well back to the soups. My mother, the kind and loving woman that she is, gave me a frozen ham bone with a lot of meat on it that she threw in the freezer after Christmas. As soon as John heard about that he was asking me if I could make him some split pea soup. I love soups and have been known to buy a ham just so I can cook with the bone. Of course, my answer was a resounding yes. So I went to the store to buy the split peas and ended up with a pack of 16 bean soup as well. Why make one soup when you can make two, right?
I cut the majority of the meat off of the bone then threw the bone into my crock pot along with the bag of split peas, a chopped onion and 7 cups of water and turned the crock pot on high, then ignored it for about 8 hours.
I pulled the ham bone out of the crock pot and strained all the peas and onion out of the water and threw them into my blender. Because of the amount I had to blend I took 1/3 of the peas and some of the broth and threw it into the blender and repeated the process. It was a bit thick for my taste at that point so I added a bit more broth until it had my desired thickness. Then I attacked the ham bone, pulling off chunks of meat and chopping them up and tossing them into the crock pot with the pureed split peas. I kept it cooking for another hour on low heat until John came home from work and served him a big bowl along with some of the homemade bread I had made.
I opened the bag of the 16 bean soup later that night and placed the beans in a bowl of cold water and let them soak overnight. The flavor packet of artificial ham flavoring promptly got thrown in the garbage. The bag recommended soaking the bean overnight or 6 hours but I let it go a bit longer than that. Ok, I admit I let it soak not only overnight but the majority of the next day as well.
I pulled out my large pasta pot and tossed in the beans, 6 cups of water, the rest of the ham I had chopped up the night before and some spices. The spices I used were 1 teaspoon each of crushed red peppers, thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano and freshly ground black pepper. I put in on over medium heat and let it simmer for about an hour and a half. During which time I made some more fresh bread, this time into bread bowls as per request from John.
He loved both soups but I think that the bean soup being served in a bread bowl was what prompted his response of it being the best he had. Once again, I got a kiss and oodles of compliments on dinner and the knowledge of him eating healthy. It was a win-win situation all around. . I even managed to sneak off to the kitchen and put some away for lunch before he polished the rest off.
Until next time,
Jessa
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