Ham and bean soup

Hey there, how are both of you doing?

Im ok, STILL downing vitamin C and sudafed like its going out of style. Im so tired of being sick. Damn cold!

Well, hubby felt bad for me so he decided to make ham and bean soup with the leftover ham we got sent home with from christmas dinner. He substituted the ham and some bacon for the ham hock, but it came out really good. Mild and subtle, but definatly ham and bean

Here is the recipe, from www.alrecipes.com

Basic Ham and Bean Soup

1 pound dry great northern beans
8 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 ham hock (hubby used bacon)
1 cup chopped carrots
1/2 stalk celery, chopped
1 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon mustard powder (we used a teaspoon of regular yellow mustard)
2 bay leaves
2 cups chopped ham
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

Directions
1. Rinse the beans, sorting out any broken or discolored ones. In a large pot over high heat, bring the water to a boil. Add the salt and the beans and remove from heat. Let beans sit in the pot for at least 60 minutes
2. After the 60 minutes of soaking, return the pot to high heat and place the ham bone, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, mustard and bay leaves in the pot. Stir well, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 60 more minutes.
3. Remove ham bone and discard. Stir in the chopped ham and simmer for 30 more minutes. Season with ground wight pepper to taste.
makes 9 servings

This is a really good soup for those cold nights, like tonight (36 in Tucson! WTF!)
Hubby loves to cook, and I'm happy to let him be my "food bitch".

"don't worry, be happy!"
C