I Love Me Some Jon "Ham" (and bean) Soup...

I fell love in with Jon Hamm ever since I first saw him on 30 Rock as Liz Lemon's handsome, but dumb, boyfriend.  At the time, I have never seen an episode of Mad Men.  But a couple of months ago when Chris and I started to watch Mad Men, I was hooked.  And Jon Hamm became my new obsession.

I decided to dedicate this recipe to my beloved, John.  We had some leftover holiday ham in our freezer and since I've been meaning to cook up some ham and bean soup for awhile, I thought why not take this opportunity.

I started by dicing up some celery and potatoes.  Note how I left the skin on these starchy little monsters.  MOST of the nutrition is in the skin, so I urge you to wash them well and keep them on.  Texturally, it makes the soup more interesting.

Next came the ham.  I took whatever meat I could off of the spiral ham bone and diced them up into bite sized pieces.

Here's the spiral ham bone itself.  Save it!!!  It'll go into the soup mixture later.

I sauteed the veggies first in vegetable oil until the celery started to sweat a little, then added the ham.  Cook until the ham starts to brown a tiny bit.

Add chicken stock (or water), your choice of canned beans, and tomatoes into the veggies and ham (as well as the bone).  Then add the following seasonings to your liking: dried basil, bay leaf (3), cumin, parsley, cayene pepper (optional), and chipotle chili powder (also optional).

Cover and bring to boil.  Once boiling, bring to a slow simmer.  Simmer anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half.  The key to tomato based soups is to slow cook.  The longer you cook the soup base, the thicker and darker the tomatoes get...and the yummier as well.

And voila!  I decided to add some cheese to mine and it was great!  For my first time, I think the soup turned out great.  You can add pasta to this as well if you feel like you need more substance.  I would boil any pasta you want to add in a separate pot of water and add as you wish rather than cooking it in with the soup.  I like my pastas al dente...but that's just me.

And just because I can...I'm going to post this for your reading pleasure...

Oh Jon...I just want to eat you up!  You're such a Hamm!!! :)