Standby Recipes: Ham & Bean Soup

Anytime there's an event with a ham involved, there will certainly be ham and bean soup to follow. And when I make it, I use my MASSIVE 20 qt. pot, so there is plenty to freeze. This time around, I'm making it to prep for Baby Chickpea's arrival in January and bringing some to a friend who just had a baby last week.

(Don't let the picture fool you. This is about 20 servings of soup!)


Ingredients:

• Mixed beans, soaked overnight (at least 1 lb but I tend to add more)
• 1 ham bone
• 1-2 onions, diced
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 5 carrots, diced
• 5 ribs of celery, diced
• Ham (however much you want to add), cubed
• Water (enough to cover everything)
• Seasonings (e.g., salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, paprika)
• Optional: 1 teas. liquid smoke
• Leftover juices from making the ham (not necessary but add a lot of flavor and gelatin from the original cooking)

Directions:

• Heat a bit of oil in the bottom of the pot and add your onions, celery and carrots, seasoning with salt and pepper. Once translucent, add garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes.
• Add to the pot your ham, beans and water and the seasonings of your choice. If you have the leftover juices from cooking the ham, add them now, too.
• Cook until it looks and tastes done. I usually cook for at least a couple hours to get the beans to become a bit mushy which makes the soup thicker.
• Cool on the stove and then the fridge.
• Pack into 1 gallon freezer bags, and freeze flat in your freezer (they store easiest this way)

I usually keep one meal's worth unfrozen to eat that night, and freeze the rest. Then when we want ham and bean soup you can either thaw an entire bag at a time, or if it's just you one night, you can sit it on the counter for a short bit and break off a corner of the frozen flat-pack. Then microwave or heat on the stove the portion for just you!

Updates:

• Keep in mind the soup will be different depending on how you roasted your ham in the first place. This one was really sweet and had mustard so the soup turned out sweet and had some mustard in the seasonings. Sometimes if the ham isn't as sweet to begin with, I'll add a bit of maple syrup or brown sugar (think about maple glazed or brown sugar glazed ham...same flavor idea).
• If you can avoid it, do not use the little packet that comes in the bean mix. It has a lot of chemicals and artificial flavors. If you use the ingredients I mentioned above, it should work out just fine without that packet!

Autumn Thursday: "Fondue" Mac & Cheese

Today, in trying to figure out what to make for lunch, I thought of my old standby, Mac & Cheese with the addition of a lot of broccoli. I figured I'd make homemade (simple white sauce with shredded cheddar), but then I got to thinking. In my Halloween post, I reinvented grilled cheese with traditional fondue flavors - garlic, gruyere, nutmeg, and apple. Why not reinvent Mac & Cheese in a fondue style!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 lb short pasta
• 1 Tbs butter or oil
• 1 clove garlic, grated or pressed
• 1 teas flour
• 1 Tbs white wine
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup shredded swiss cheese
• Dash nutmeg
• Dash garlic powder
• Dash powdered mustard
• Salt/pepper to taste
• 1 cup (or so) broccoli
• 1/2 cup peas
• 1 crisp apple, cubed

Directions:

1. Boil pasta according to directions. Save 1/4 cup of pasta water, then drain pasta and set aside.
2. In the pan, heat your butter and/or oil. Add the garlic once butter is melted. Then add the flour and stir until thoroughly combined.
3. Add the wine until it's bubbled off the alcohol.
4. Add in the milk a bit at a time, constantly stirring. You may need a bit more than 1/4 cup.
5. Incorporate the cheese. Add gruyere or gouda too if you have some for more nutty flavor, but regular swiss will melt best.
6. Add in the seasonings to taste.
7. Mix in the veggies and pasta, and lastly the apple.
8. If it needs more liquid, use the reserved pasta water.

Enjoy!

And please leave comments if you have any questions or thoughts! I'd love to hear what you think about this idea.

Happy Friday: Halloween and Grilled Cheese

Halloween didn't result in too many trick-or-treaters, unfortunately, but we had some great food and fun decorations!

On the door, we had a BOO sign. The idea came from Then She Made. Our's was white letters with deep orange ribbon, both purchased from Michael's.

We also created glowing eyes in the bushes! I got the idea from Thrifty Crafty Girl. Save toilet paper and paper towel cardboard, cut out eyes, and insert a glow stick (got ours at the Target dollar spot, where they had large foam light-saber-looking glow sticks). We hid them in the bushes near the front door!

For dinner we had winter squash soup and "fondue" grilled cheese.
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WINTER SQUASH SOUP
Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 2 acorn squash (about 2 lb each)
• 2 butternut squash (about 2 lb each)
• 8 Tbs unsalted butter
• 8 teas dark brown sugar
• 3 carrots, peeled and halved
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 10 cups chicken stock
• 3/4 teas ground mace
• 3/4 teas ground ginger
• pinch cayenne pepper
• salt to taste
• Creme fraiche for garnish
• Snipped fresh chives

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Cut the four squash in half lengthwise and scoop out and discard the seeds (or bake them!)
3. Place squash halves, skin side down, in a shallow roasting pan (make sure it isn't too shallow). Place 1 Tbs butter and 1 teas brown sugar in each squash half. Arrange carrots and onion around squash. Pour 2 cups of stock in pan, cover tightly with aluminum foil (do not forget to cover!), and bake for 2 hours.
4. Remove the pan from the oven, and allow vegetables to cool slightly. Scoop the squash pulp out of the skins and place it in a soup pot. Add the carrots, onions and cooking liquid.
5. Add remaining 8 cups of chicken stock an the mace, ginger, cayenne, and salt. Stir well and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
6. Puree the soup in batches in a blender (I use an immersion blender). Return to the pot, adjust the seasoning, and heat through. Serve each portion garnished with crème fraiche and chives.

Notes:

• Mace is like nutmeg (different parts of the same thing) so if you don't have mace, look up the equivalency for nutmeg.
• I don't normally do the crème fraiche or chives.
• I add small able in big chunks to add sweetness, and a bit of maple syrup for a smokey sweetness.
• If the soup doesn't taste quite right, I add in a bit of sage or poultry seasoning.

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"FONDUE" GRILLED CHEESE
Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 8 slices of bread
• Gruyere, grated
• Jarlsberg, grated
• Crisp Apple, thinly sliced
• Nutmeg
• Garlic / Garlic Powder
• Butter

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a large flat pan over low heat. If you like garlic, put some crushed garlic in the butter.
2. Place 4 slices of bread in the pan.
3. Top each slide with 1 layer of grated Gruyere, then a layer of apple (overlap a bit so you can fit more apple).
4. Sprinkle with garlic powder and a bit of nutmeg, and then the layer of grated Jarlsberg.
5. Top with the last slice of bread.
6. Turn up the heat to medium-low
7. Press the sandwiches, and flip once they start to melt.

Notes:

• You can pre-butter the slices of bread so the outside is fully covered.
• Change the temperature as needed so the sandwich is to your liking in terms of browning / crispiness.