Ham and Bean soup!

Tonight we kicked the ham that has been feeding us all week.  It was a 6-7lb bone in smoked butt that had some great flavor and turned into some yummy dishes.  Tonight we kicked the ham and will still have leftover soup for lunches this week!  Yeah for soup!

I had to call my Mom for how she did her soup to be sure that I didn't goof it up, nothing worse than bland soup, but this was anything but bland!  I started it about 12:30pm and we ate dinner at 5:30pm.

saute onion and celery in pot in olive oil until soft on the outside, yet still crunchy on the inside.  I guestimated the measurements that i used for the whole recipe, it all depends on how big your bone is.  I would guess that I had about 1 1/2 cups of both onion and celery.

Add your ham bone with meat still on it and one to one and a half bags of dried beans.  ( i mixed it up and used about 1/2 cup of three different kinds of dried beans) a bay leaf, coarse salt and ground pepper.  Cover with enough water to cover and bring to a boil.

Once boiling turn down to low and cover.  About one hour before eating, or about 4 hours later pull out ham bone with meat to a plate and let cool.  Once cool enough to handle tear meat from bone and add back to pot.

*Note, you may need to add more water to the pot as the beans absorb water.

It was good!