Ham and Pea Soup and Quick Yeast Rolls

My crock pot is so special to me, I honestly should name it...

Seriously, I adore my little crock pot and have used it so much lately, I free it will soon break. 

Its perfect for nights you know you'll be rushed, days you need to smell something good when you walk in the door, and avoiding the "oh crap soccer's over at 6:30 and I can't make anything for my hungry kids in the 30 minute window we have before bath time" phenomena.

Last night was Saturday night, when as a family we make the trek to mass. Our church is honestly only six blocks from our house but with a 6, 4, and 2 year old its a trek nonetheless. An an exercise in patience for my husband and I who try to keep our trio of not so tidy gentlemen managed in a neat enough way so as not to get "the eye" from the old ladies surrounding us.

By the time we get home, everyone is hungry, and goofy. I cannot cook and wrangle after an hour of patience exercising. This is when I whip out the crock pot. Last night we had ham and pea soup made with homemade chicken stock and leftovers of our Easter ham (it was frozen, I promise no one ate mold.)

Here is how I managed to serve an all day dinner as soon as we came home:

Ham and Pea Soup in the Crock Pot

Mmmmmmmm. Peas.

A few disclaimers here. Part of getting the savory flavor of a well loved meal is prepping ahead. There were a few parts that needed done ahead of time. 

One is if you use dried split peas, as I did, you HAVE TO SOAK THEM in twice as much water as peas for 24 hours ahead of time or they will never cook right. 

Two is for the best tasting soup, using homemade chicken stock is a must, but you can used canned if you don't make stock. I make stock out of every chicken carcass we roast, one or two times a month, and then freeze it for later. Alice Waters chicken stock recipe is my favorite.

Ingredients:

6 cups chicken stock (home made or store bought)

2 cups dried split peas (make sure to soak them for 24 hours at least in 4 cups water, then drain off the water before adding)

2 cups cooked ham (I froze extras from Easter and then reused it last night, ham freezes amazingly well)

1 cup chopped celery

1 small yellow or white onion, chopped

3-4 chopped carrots

1 cup chopped green cabbage

1 bay leaf

Salt and Pepper to your taste

Here's how it goes:

STEP 1: Walk into the kitchen in your bathrobe, make coffee, drink coffee, check Facebook on your ipod touch. OK, you don't have to do this part, this is how I started off though.

REAL STEP 1: Get out your crock pot. Ours is not huge, actually pretty small. Chop, then add in your veggies, peas, bay leaf, ham, spice, and last put in your stock.

STEP 2: Set crock pot to  high for the first 4 hours, low for the next 4-6 hours. Give it a good stir when you remember, once or twice out to do it to mix things up a bit. 

To go with, I premade (baked in the afternoon then sealed in a container) some yummilicious rolls. Here is the recipe for those, they were a fabulous addition to our soup meal! Quick Yeast Rolls from All Recipes