Cream of Ham Bone and Potato Soup

This recipe comes to you from my grandma, who used to make this every year when the weather would get cold and she'd pull out one of the hambones she's store up in the freezer to make soup with.  As grandma used to say, when it comes to this recipe, "Use what you have.  You have a hambone, use a hambone.  Don't have a hambone, use bacon.  Don't have fresh milk, use evaporated, half and half, cream...whatever you have that you need to use up.  Take what vegetables you have in the freezer in little baggies and add those in or use what you have in the fridge that needs to be used up.  Simple as simple can be."

I pull out this recipe, usually about the time the hambone from Easter or New Years has fallen on my foot at least five times and I get fed up and decide it is time to use it.  It makes a really flavorful soup and is wonderfully comforting.

Sure, it's roughly 80 bazillion degrees out in a lot of places, but hey, put this in your recipe file to try when the weather gets cold.  Trust me, it's worth it :).

Cream of Hambone Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 hambone, boiled and meat removed (reserve meat)
• 4 Cups diced potatoes (russets work best for this)
• 1 Medium onion, sliced thin.
• 1/2 bell pepper, diced (I usually freeze bell pepper already diced and just grab a handful to throw into this recipe)
• 1 to 2 stalks of celery, sliced
• 1 stick butter (yes, this is a lot, I know, but it really adds a ton of flavor to the dish!)
• 2 Cups milk (1/2 and 1/2, cream or evaporated can all be substituted or used in this recipe.  For this particular recipe I used 1 cup of cream that I had to use up from another recipe and 1 cup of UHT low fat milk).
• 2 cups water or chicken stock (you might need less, but I usually end up using the full 2 cups for this)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  Melt butter in a medium stockpot over medium heat.  Add vegetables and ham and sauté in the butter for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring often until most of the butter is absorbed into the vegetables and the vegetables are starting to cook.  My notes from grandma said you could use lard instead of butter and that it was tasty, but I've always used butter. 

2.  Add enough water (or chicken stock...I always use chicken bouillon added to the water to give the soup a real depth of flavor that way) to cover the vegetables (you might not use all of the liquid that is in the ingredient list) until they are submerged.  Lower heat and simmer soup until potatoes start to fall apart.  

3.  Add your milk (or milk mixture).  Stir well.  Bring mixture back up to a simmer and simmer until it is as thick as you like it (I like to add cream to it as it comes out really thick in the end, but that is up to you on how thin you like your soup).  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with crusty bread (grandma's instructions, not mine :).

I know this is kind of an odd "use what you have" type of recipe, but that's how it is meant to be.  Grandma said she got the recipe from her mom when she dictated it to me years ago, so it's definitely written in the era of, "Add water until enough.  Stir until done" types of instructions *laugh*.  I hope the recipe turns out for you as well as it does for me.  Enjoy!