Soup Kitchen

The sun is shining and the sky is blue.  Hard to believe that the hard frost of this morning will give way to a temperature close to 60.  

 This is why we moved South.  I can survive anything as long as I can get a little bit of sunshine in the Wintertime.

My to-do list for this weekend is developing with things like...
Give the dogs a bath
Clean the Carpet
Rake leaves...Stuff like that.

But most importantly, today is Soup Day here in my kitchen.  Yesterday I didn't cook a thing since we got together with Family for our Christmas Dinner.

Today, I cut up the half ham and froze most of it but kept some aside for fresh eating.  The bone is in the pot boiling down and in another pot I have carrots, onion and dried split peas cooking down.  I like a smooth Split Pea Soup so I tossed the cooked down veg and ham in the blender for a quick spin before serving.

In another stock pot, I've got a White Bean Soup developing.  This soup I like chunky...Go figure.

After everything had cooled off SM was the first to dig his spoon into the soups. 

"This White Bean is addictive."  SM declared after his second bowl.  I have to agree.  Split Pea is pretty basic stuff.  There's not much you can do with it.  But this White Bean Soup is elevated by the acid of the crushed tomato's.  Who knew?


I don't measure anything.  So if you'd like to try it...

Toss in a box of chicken stock or broth.
3 cans of navy beans (I was out of dry)
2 handfulls of baby carrots
1 (14oz) can of crushed tomatoes
Chunks of ham from the stewed down bone.

Bring it all to a boil and then simmer on low to reduce.  Your taste buds will tell you when it's ready.  I don't remember adding salt but I did add pepper.

Enjoy!