Last week I made “French Onion” soup. Um, sure. French. Or something.

Basically, I took the harvest of onions from the garden. (I CANNOT BELIEVE I NEGLECTED TO GET A PHOTOGRAPH!) and I put them in the crockpot for hours and hours and hours with a stick of butter and some salt. What else would I do with a savory batch of caramelized onions? SOUP TIME!

I used the oh-so-many-random-leftover-veggie stock I made from pumpkin and squash rinds, corn cobs, onions, carrots, celery, beans, garlic, a jar of pickled green tomatoes and some leftover tomato sauce. Yep. This is how I cook. And let me tell you, the broth was DELICIOUS. Very winter squashy as a base.

I took some of the broth and added sliced roast deli beef (seriously, what was that doing in the freezer and how long was it there?) and cooked it down in the crockpot until it basically melted together.

Onions + Veggie /Roast Beef Broth = Soup, which cannot be replicated.

No pictures though, boooooooooooo.

Last night, after harvesting and shelling some of our runner beans…

I had a craving for some Ham & Bean soup. While I went to work this afternoon, HWMMS went to the grocery store to pick up a few items. One being HAM HOCKS for the soup (and an extra package so I could give some to the good doggos.  I picked and shelled a few more beans and then went inside to start the base…and um, no ham hocks.

HWMMS: I’m here to verify the boneage.

 

Me: You bought a pound of thick bacon, salt pork and ham. No bones. I need the ham hocks for the stock.

 

HWMMS: I thought the ham hocks were for the dogs and I couldn’t find any.

 

Me: NO SOUP FOR YOU.

Ham Salt Pork Bacon

Ok, I lied. Of course there will be soup!

This threw me for a loop. I’m in a weird fog. I know how to create soup but I’m stuck on needing the ham hocks. I was going to soak my fresh from the garden shelled beans with the hocks for hours and smell up the entire kitchen and now…now? IMPROVISE. Which is honestly how most of my soups are created, but I was really hoping for a big ol’ hunk of ham salty ham hock.

My solution? I have the beans in the instant pot cooking with the remaining two jars of onion soup. And I added a ridiculous amount of dried thyme/oregano from the herb garden.

Next? I cut up a few fresh harvested from the garden potatoes. ASIDE OH MY GOSH WE HAVE SO MANY POTATOES we planted 50pds and I think harvested about 1/10th of the crop so far.

And added them to a pot of chicken and rice soup that my friend Colleen brought over that was still in the refrigerator. Gonna cook these babies down and cool off and blend the entire pot to make a nice thick potato based stock.

Next step? Chopping up the many pork options HWMMS purchased and roasting in the oven. Once completed, I will add the meat and beans to the potato stock and BAM! Ham & Bean Soup. (Without the Hock.)

And the finished product?

Good golly those are giant beans!