Wednesday, April 15, 2009

home ec-y

We had ham for Easter dinner. While cutting the rest of the meat up to save for sandwiches the next day I discovered the bone. Now, this may seem obvious to you, but I decided I should make some kind of soup with it. It seemed very exciting and new. It also reminded me of that book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. At some point in the book the mom is making soup with the bone from a ham and she's used it to cook so many times there is hardly any taste left in it. At least that's what I remember. I could be thinking of something totally different. Anyway, the soup was divine. Tasty. I made the Challa bread from that book Tracy (and just about everyone I know) was talking about. I even braided it and put poppy seeds on it. Soup made from a left over ham bone and home made braided bread -- how's that for domestic! The house smelled so good all day long and when the bread was baking. . . mmmm. . . there was something comforting about it.

Here's the recipe to the soup I made. (Made in a crock pot)

-Ham bone left over from a yummy spiral ham dinner
-2 cups chopped potato
-2 cups chopped carrots
-1 chopped onion
-1/2 cup celery
-1 clove minced garlic
-1 can kidney beans
-1 can stewed (or diced) tomatoes
-4 cups water
-4-6 tsp (cubes) chicken bullion. It was a wee bit salty, but I'm not sure if cutting back here would make the difference.

I put it in the crock pot for 6 1/2 hours on medium heat. The bits of ham that was left on the bone was falling off. Wow! This soup was great!

... after dinner we took the bone to a neighbor's dog. Waste not want not, right!?



4 comments:

- Tracy said...

That looks so yummy! I love a good Ham bone.

ali said...

ok---must get that book!!

Silcox Stories said...

That sounds so delicious. We didn't get to have a "traditional" ham dinner for Easter so I am plannig to do one in the next week or 2; I love leftover Easter dinner. Now I can't wait to make this soup either. Looks like Calvin have get lucky again too.

Unknown said...

This recipe is seriously one of the best soups we've ever made... thanks!!

and, we just did our s.f. garden yesterday...you are a fountain of inspiration, liz!