Yum!

What a productive morning and its only 9:30 AM. We had a turkey last night so I threw the carcass and any meat still clinging to it into a pot with the requisite carrots, onions, celery, bay leaves and pepper corns. It smells awesome and will be made into open faced turkey sandwiches later today. The remainder of the broth will be canned up later.

They had ham at the fire station this week. Rich asked for the ham bone and brought it home to me. They all thought he was nuts, but I love it! I had the white beans that Loni had given me and so we have free ham and bean soup!


Ham and Bean Soup

2 cups white beans
1 meaty ham bone
1 onion chopped
2 bay leaves
6 peppercorns
water to cover

Soak the beans the night before. The day of drain the beans and throw them in the pot with the remainder of the ingredients. Put enough water in to cover the beans by about 1 inch. Probably about 4 cups. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for about 2 hours. Pul out bay leaves and pepper corns as best you can. Pull meat off of bone and discard bone. Mash soup slightly with a potato masher. Yummy with crusty bread or corn bread.

Now on to the bread. I've been reading a lot about no knead bread and finally decided to try it. You combine all the ingredients with a spoon and let it sit for 12-18 hours. In the morning you fold it over once or twice and let it rest for 15 minutes. Then make it into a ball and place it on a floured dish towel and cover with another towel. Let it rise for 1-2 hours. Put a dutch oven in the oven and turn it on to 475. When hot turn the dough into the pan and cover it. Bake for 30 minutes then remove cover for 10-15 minutes. It looks awesome and I can't wait to eat it.

I'm also trying an experiment with the celery. I took the root end of the celery and put it in potting soil and put it in the window. I'm told it will grow more celery from the one root. Since we don't use much celery, this could last for quite a while.