Simply Delicious Personal Chef Service

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with friends and family!  As usual, I cooked way too much food (a chef's worst nightmare is to run out of food) and now I have leftovers to deal with.  Fortunately Grandma taught me to not waste anything and how to get the most from my meals.  For example, I always buy the biggest roasting chicken I can find because I know I'll get multiple meals from it - my favorite Sunday Dinner, soup or broth from the carcass, and from the leftover meat I pick off the bones I make another meal like Chicken Lasgana or Tetrazzini.  Call me old fashioned or even thrifty, but it's healthier than eating processed foods.

Yesterday I made 16-Bean Soup with the leftover ham bone.  It's the simpliest thing in the world -

1. purchase a package of dried beans, the kind that comes with a seasoning packet
2. prepare the beans as directed on the package, by either soaking the beans over night or the quick boil method
3. put the prepared beans in a soup pot with the ham bone; add water
4. bring to a boil; reduce heat & simmer several hours until the little bits of ham easily come off the bone
5. remove the ham bone; add seasoning packet and other seasonings to taste
6. simmer 15 - 30 minutes more

It's that easy!

With the leftover ham, I'll make Scalloped Potatoes with Ham; look for that recipe in the Forum, it's a simple micro-wave dish.  There was leftover cauliflower too, so I'll make some Cheesey Cauliflower Soup.  More soup???  YEP!  It's winter and soup is perfect for those cold nights :)