After two months - bean soup

Bean soup - a body has to start somewhere. It's a bit like trying to catch up 38 years of scrapbooking gone bad - they always tell you to start where you are. It's been two months since I've been here, and pretty sketchy for months before that...

Today I'm making the 'once a year' bean soup. From the Christmas ham bone. Best soup of the year.

We hit our high temperature of 50-something this morning, and it went straight downhill from there. Right now it's in the nippy 30's, and I realize if you live 500 miles north of me, or 2100 miles north of me, 30's sounds balmy. But we retired to Texas for a reason.

We are D.O.N.E. with the cold. (For pete's sake, we bought a house with a swimming pool, and the water temperature, a chilly 76 when we moved in, is currently 46. Anyone need a place to do your Polar Bear Club jump?)

So I came home from church-visiting, put on my favorite grey fuzzy yoga pants and slippers, and pulled out my large crockpot.

Don't tell my Cub Sweetheart - that green stuff floating around on the top is kale. By the time supper rolls around it will have slunked to the bottom of the pot; he'll never know what hit him, and I'm not telling.

Here's the recipe I used: The Best Bean and Ham Soup.  You can access Allrecipes from my sidebar, and it never fails me, but a new favorite is also there - Mel's Kitchen Cafe.  She's some kind of wonderful and after introducing me to her, my daughter, Sarah convinced me I could live without 45 of my 60+ cookbooks. She was right.

I've updated my template (please tell me you think it's fun and cheery and bright - I do!). I've updated my sidebar (some of the links aren't currently blogging but I hold out faith they'll eventually come back). I've unloaded my camera card to the computer, all 50 gazillion photos that cover from August through Christmas, and will post my favorites soon.

In the meantime, make some bean soup - it's the perfect thing for these end of December days. And check out what I'm reading (on my sidebar, also updated.) Perfect for curling up on the sofa, or soaking in a hot bubblebath.  Back soon.