Creamy Ham and Potato Soup

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The holidays are over. We apologize for our brief hiatus… between spending lots of time with family, catching up with sleep, and some technical difficulties, we haven’t managed to post for a bit. But you can bet now that the new year has officially started, you can expect two posts a week again!

During the holidays, I’m sure you’ve had your fill of ham. If you need something to use up the last of those leftovers, we have got the soup for you!

With plenty of hearty veggies and salty ham, this soup is a crowd pleaser for sure! And you can stretch your leftovers for another week while still mixing it up!

What is your favorite way to use holiday leftovers? Let us know in the comments!

Creamy Ham and Potato Soup

Comfort Foods, Dinner, Holiday, Meals for a Crowd, Meat, Pork, Potatoes, Soup, Vegetable

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
6 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 bunch celery, sliced
8 potatoes, diced
1 onion, diced
8 cups ham, diced
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup flour
6-7 cups water
3 TBS chicken base
6 cups milk
Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

In a large stock pot, combine carrots, celery, onion and butter. Cook over medium heat until butter is melted and onions become mostly translucent.
Add in potatoes and ham. Cook stirring often, until potatoes are just fork tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Gradually stir in flour until veggies and ham are coated.
In a small bowl, combine 6 cups of water and chicken base. Pour mixture into pot. Bring soup to a boil. Lower heat and add milk, stirring to combine. Add additional cup of water if you would like to thin down the soup.
Taste soup and season to taste.

October 21, 2019October 19, 2019

Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup

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Crisp leaves falling outside, temperatures dropping, sweaters being pulled out of the closet… Fall is absolutely the best!

One of the best parts of when the weather gets colder is you can finally pull out your favorite soup recipes! Sure, you can make soup during the summer, but you’ll heat up the house like crazy! And the best part of soup is eating it to warm up!

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This split pea soup is made in the slow cooker, so you can easily start it in the morning and come back to it after a fun romp in the brisk outdoors! So hearty and good, your family will beg to have it again and again!

Now you’re going to need a ham bone or something similar to make this recipe! We save our bones from when we buy pork shoulders to make pulled pork. I’ve seen others save the bones from their spiral hams or use smoked ham hocks. If you don’t have one saved in your freezer, you can likely find something at your local butcher’s.

This dump-and-go soup is one you’ll want to keep on hand all season long!

Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup

Comfort Foods, Dinner, Meals for a Crowd, Meat, Pork, Soup

Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup

Ingredients

1 ham bone
2 lbs cooked ham, chopped
16 oz bag dried green split peas
1 lb carrots, sliced
2 ribs of celery, sliced
1 sweet onion, chopped
1 tbs minced garlic
3 tbs dried parsley
1 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth

Instructions

Place the ham bone in the slow cooker.
Layer in the rest of the ingredients in listed order above, spreading through the entire crock pot. Pour over the chicken broth last, making sure broth covers everything in the pot.
Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Stir occasionally during cooking.
Once peas are tender, remove ham bone from the soup, allowing to cool for a few minutes. Tear off any ham on the bone and return to the soup.
Discard bone and bay leaf. Using a spoon, smash some of the peas against the side of the slow cooker and stir until desired consistency is reached.

Check out some of our other soups for chilly season! Tried any of them yet? Let us know in the comments!

October 7, 2019October 7, 2019

Creamy Oyster Stew

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Hey all! This week’s post doesn’t contain any pictures. We ate this stew so fast we didn’t get a chance to snag a pic!

Seriously, it is so good! We LOVE oysters in this house, but living where we do we don’t get them very often. Here they cost an arm and a leg and are canned. Though there’s nothing wrong with canned, you can’t beat fresh oysters.

We stock up on fresh seafood when we visit family in Oregon and freeze most of it for use during the next year. These oysters were the last of the ones from our last trip (yay for another trip in a few weeks!), and boy was it worth it to use them!

With soup season finally being here, this soup goes together fast and easy and is great paired with some fresh bread!

Creamy Oyster Stew

Comfort Foods, Dinner, Meals for a Crowd, Seafood, Soup, Splurge, Uncategorized

Ingredients

1 pint oysters in their liquid
2 1/2 tablespoons butter
1/2 sweet onion, minced
1 stalk of celery, minced
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
Garnishes (see below)

Instructions

Prepare the Oysters

Set a colander over a small bowl. Add the oysters into the colander, allowing the liquid to flow into the bowl.
Place a fine mesh sieve over another bowl and pass the liquid through it, filtering out sand, grit, and small pieces of broken shell from the liquid. Discard solids and set liquid aside for later.

Make the stew

In a stock pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the minced onion and celery, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until the vegetables are softened and translucent.
Turn the heat down to medium low. Add the oyster liquid, milk, cream, and thyme. Heat slowly, stirring occasionally, until the broth just reaches a simmer. Do not boil! Taste the broth and adjust the seasoning, adding salt and pepper to taste.
Add the oysters to the broth and simmer for 2-3 minutes. The oysters are done once the edges start to curl.
Serve hot with desired garnishes.

Notes

We didn’t garnish ours, but some garnishes we would suggest would be celery leaves, Old Bay seasoning, a dash of hot sauce, and/or slivers of butter.

Do you love oysters as much as we do?! Let us know in the comments if you want more oyster recipes!