Beans and Potatoes Cooked to Ham

I believe this is an old Schurz family favorite which we have enjoyed pretty regularly over the years.  The basic recipe is pretty simple:  cook beans (usually green) and potatoes in ham broth, preferably meaty; season to taste.

I had made a meaty ham broth from a couple of ham hocks and frozen it last week and undertook the conversion to final product today using red potatoes and wax beans from the garden.  I can't bear to see a soup coming along without thinking to add some onion, celery, carrot, etc, so out to the garden for fresh celery leaves and a carrot, complete with fresh carrot greens which have a nice spicy flavor, an orange bell pepper as long as I'm there, a bulb of garlic from our inadvertent garlic crop, sprigs of rosemary, sage, and marjoram from the herb garden, and about half of that little red pepper to give it some life.  Add a dash of mustard and a bay leaf from the spice cupboard.  Don't forget to touch it with some fresh ground black pepper.  Yup, I think we could feed this one to Grandpa.