Nitty Gritty: Canning Christmas Leftovers

When my dad came down from Oregon for Christmas this last weekend he had this ingenious idea. Let's buy a ham. So off to Costco we went to get a ham... on Christmas Eve. Much to my surprise Costco was not nearly as busy as I thought it would be and much to my dad's surprise they were taste testing Patron. It was love at first sight for him... Arizona was my dad's new best friend. Because, really, a Costco that taste tests Patron? That's unusual. Ham in cart along with a bottle of white wine, wheat thins, and some Artichoke dip, we stood in line for a short time and made our way out to the car. We were in and out of Costco in a matter of 30 minutes... it must have been some kind of record. Now, I bring all this up because I was preparing Christmas dinner for three this weekend- two of which ate meat (me being the vegetarian in the family). That's a 9 pound ham for two people. Needless to say, we had a ton of ham leftovers and what better way to ensure those leftovers don't go to waste, but to can it in some soup? We had some packages of dried split peas and red lentils already in the "pantry," some carrots and celery leftover for Christmas dinner ingredients, and a bunch of yummy spices in the cabinet- perfect for making batches of Split Pea and Ham soup AND Lentil and Ham soup. Yum! I chopped up the ham and veggies and set the lentils and peas to boil in two separate pots. Then I added the veggies and ham and let the lot simmer. We were a little worried at first that we would run out of mason jars (oh what a dilemma!), but by the last batch we were safe and sound with some empty jars left on the shelf. I also made some Paste e Fagioli with Orzo for Christmas Eve dinner so I canned those leftovers as well. Nothing was to go to waste in our refrigerator!

In all we came up with:
2 pints of fagioli
8 1/2 pints split pea with ham soup
6 1/2 pints of lentil and ham soup

Yum Yum Yum!! (says the vegetarian)