Ham Soup

The one and only thing I like about cold New England winters is the food. Soup is pretty much my favorite thing ever and you can't really enjoy soup in the summer the way you can in the winter.

I'll spare you the boring details about how my mom used to make this growing up, blah blah blah and just share this yummy recipe for ham soup. It's a little different than other recipes I've seen, but it's delicious.

Ingredients:
Broth:
1 leftover ham with bone
2 cloves garlic
1 medium onion, halved
1 bay leaf
4 chicken bouillon cubes (optional)
6 cups water

Soup:
2 medium carrots, sliced
2 celery stalks, sliced
1 small onion, diced
1 large green pepper, diced
1 can diced tomatoes with juice
1 medium potato, diced
1/4 cup small pasta or rice

Directions:
In a soup pot, combine all ingredients for the broth. Gently boil, covered, for 1 hour. Remove the bone from the broth and pick off all the meat. Remove the bay leaf and large pieces of onion (optional). Return the ham meat to the broth. Add all soup ingredients to the broth except for the pasta or rice, return to a boil and cook another 30 minutes to 1 hour, or until vegetables are tender. Once veggies are cooked, add pasta or rice and return to a boil until the pasta or rice is cooked through.

Note: Depending on the weather, you may need to add additional water to the ham bone to keep the level in the pan roughly the same throughout cooking. I usually check it after about 30 minutes and then add a cup or two of water and let it finish cooking.