Split Pea Soup (you did save that ham bone from Christmas, right?)

So our fridge has been on the fritz (new one coming tomorrow) and we don’t have much in there at the moment.  Luckily for us the remains of our Christmas ham were waiting when we got back yesterday.  We happily finished them off knowing there was one more dish coming from the celebratory ham…split pea soup.  One of Cheryl’s fav-o-rite soups.  She likes ham a lot, but sometimes I think she just wants me to make a ham so she gets the split pea soup.  Both are very high on her fav’s list.

After eating last night I took the not-quite-picked-over ham bone put it in a stock pot, covered it with water and set it uncovered in the oven overnight at 180°F (the oven stock method I’ve mentioned before).  Today in about 15 minutes I strained and degreased the stock, pulled the remainder of ham off the bone, sautéed some carrots, onion, and celery, and put them all in the pot with a bag of split peas.  An hour later: split pea soup and one very happy wife.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go clean out the broken fridge.

Split pea soup (makes 4-6 servings)

• 1 ham bone with some ham left on it
• 1 lb split peas (1 bag)
• 3 carrots, sliced
• 1 celery stalk, split and sliced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 Tbs butter
• Salt
• 1 Tbs vermouth/sherry
• Chopped parsley

Place ham bone in stock pot and cover with 8 C water.  Place pot in oven at 180°F and leave overnight.*

Remove ham bone, strain and degrease stock.  Put stock back in pot.  You should have about 8 C of stock.  If less, add enough water to make it 8 C.  Add salt to taste and bring to boil over med-high heat.  Pull the rest of the meat off of the bone and set aside.

Add the bag of split peas, allow to boil, then reduce heat to simmer.

Saute the carrots, celery, and onion in Tbs of butter and a couple pinches of salt until soft.  Add to split peas/stock.

Simmer for 45-60 minutes or until peas are softened to your liking.

Add the pulled/shredded ham.

Finish soup by mixing in vermouth/sherry and chopped parsley.

*  If not using the overnight oven stock method just simmer the ham bone in water for about an hour or until you can pull the rest of the ham off easily.