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Crockpot Split Pea Soup with Ham

Our Christmas family gathering is not a small one.  I have five sibling, we are all married with kids only half of us showed up this year, but that still makes for good showing.  Deb brought the Turducken which was the star of the meal, with everyone searching for the duck and the stuffing.  Unfortunately, not everyone could handle the Turducken, and my sister Desiree came to the rescue. ( Diana, Desiree, Deb – notice the trend).  She brought a honey glazed ham with her.  Deb took the Turducken home, but the leftover ham wasn’t claimed and I found it in my cooler when I was packing to go home.  It happens that way, my mother unloads all the leftover treats, cookies, milk, etc into our cooler because we’re the last to leave. 

I put the bone in the freezer, and used some of the ham, but not all of it.  This morning before work, I decided to put all of the ingredients for Split Pea Soup with Ham into the Crockpot.  This is a great slow cooker meal especially great on a cold snowy day when you want something warm in your belly.  The honey glaze on the ham along with the carrots and celery give it a little sweetness, so if you like a little heat (my niece Sara) a touch of chipotle or cayenne might make it spicier. Maybe next time I’ll add a little kick, but it was delicious the way I made it.  I was sure my son wouldn’t like it and I was totally wrong, he ate a bowl and declared it good tasting.  I asked if he would eat it again and he said maybe.  I said – Maybe if I make it for dinner and that’s what we’re eating, and he said yes.  I think we can all roll our eyes.  His favorite meals don’t come with directions, they come on a plate made by someone else. My husband absolutely loved it.  He’s a soup man, he loves stews, and soups made with meat and veggies.

I served the soup with some crusty garlic bread. When we were done eating, I put the leftovers into freezer containers and stuck it into the freezer.  Some night when I don’t feel like cooking we’ll reheat and eat without much effort – bonus.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion – diced
• 2 celery stalks – diced
• 2 carrots – diced
• 1 bag dried split peas, rinsed
• 1 ham bone with some meat
• 8 cups water
• 1 bay leaf
• salt
• pepper
• thyme

Directions:

Put onion, celery, carrots, peas, and ham in crock pot, cover with water.  Throw in bay leaf.  Cook on medium or low for 6 hours.  Take about 3/4 ths of the peas and liquid and blend until smooth.  You can blend the whole thing, but I wanted bits of carrots, and onions, and peas still whole. I had some ham that I pulled off and put aside.  I added it back in at the end.  Add in salt and pepper to taste, then add in thyme.  I had dried thyme from my garden and it gave the soup such a nice flavor. 

Pea soup always reminds me of my dad.  When we were younger, we wouldn’t eat pea soup until one day he had the brilliant idea to add hot dogs.  It sounds weird, but we ate it and loved it.  Back then it was the canned soup glop in a can, dumped into a pot.  After my father decided to try out his chef’s hat and make his own, the butcher at the grocery store would save the ham bones for my dad.  One of his favorite things to make was pea soup, which he froze in batches to eat after work another day.  If my dad were alive, that bone wouldn’t have been in my cooler, but split pea soup always brings back great memories of growing up.

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