Shortcut Senate Bean Soup and Mary Poppins Visits Bountiful
I like bean soup. Here is my personal recipe. Begin post now…
~giggles~ Just kidding. Y’all know I can’t bring you a recipe without talking your ear off first! Senate Bean soup is a big old tradition in D.C. that has been served in the Senate restaurant every day. By the way, where IS the Senate restaurant and how do I get to eat there on my next trip to D.C.?
So anyway, the recipe is all over the place and several restaurants proudly serve Senate bean soup on their menu. It’ s a famous soup that is flavorful, filling, and comforting. But in my mind, it needed to be made a bit more accessible for folks who don’t have all day to cook their beans or forget to soak them the night before (my most common problem). So I developed my own shortcut recipe and sent it to the ultimate judge: Mama.
Mama loved it. Grandmama loved it. Daddy loved it, and I Loved it. That about sums it up so here we go… (my tangent appears on down in this post)
Normally the recipe calls for dried beans, cooked from scratch. While I’m a huge fan of dried beans, I wanted to re-do this soup so that someone could work all day and then come home and be able to whip it up for supper, so I used canned beans.
You’ll need: 4 cans Navy beans, minced garlic, one onion, stick of butter or margarine, four chicken bullion cubes, 3 stalks celery, and some ham hocks*.
You can use any leftover ham you have, though. I like the smoky flavor the ham hocks give this soup but if I’d had leftover ham I would have used it instead. I love using up leftovers!
*Ham Hocks may be purchased near the hams. They are usually two or three dollars for a couple of them.
You’re also going to need instant mashed potatoes.
Now y’all know my take on these. I didn’t even know such a thing existed until I was sixteen. I was invited to dinner at a friend’s house and her mom sent me into the pantry to get the potatoes. I went in there and looked all over the place trying to find the bag of potatoes and came out empty handed. She walked right in there and came out with a box. A box? I had to have that one explained to me and then went home and explained it to Mama! I love pretty much anything that makes life easier but reserve instant potatoes for use as soup thickeners.
Don’t get me wrong, if instant potatoes are your thing then fly your flag high and I’ll salute it.
Long as no one tries to get me to eat seafood I can easily live in peace with instant potatoes and folks who put sugar in their cornbread.
Whatever cranks yer tractor.
Okie dokie so here’s what I did. I put my ham hocks (which are already smoked) in some water, added my bullion cubes, and turned the eye on to let them simmer and soften up a bit so I can cut the meat off of them.
The ham hocks are also going to add that yummy smoky flavor to the water which will make it richer along with the bullion cubes.
I tend to use bullion cubes a lot because they are so much cheaper than broth. I buy a big old thang of ‘em at Sam’s Club when I have a membership (which I do right now) and when I don’t I just go and stand outside the door of Sam’s in a trench coat and fedora and wait until some young and trusting college student comes by and give ‘em a whistle “Psst. Hey kid…” ~pulls out a crisp ten dollar bill and waves it enticingly~ “look kid, I need somethin’…reckon you could help a gal out?” This is the part where I either smile sweetly or squint my eyes in a threatening fashion … depending on their response thus far.
I have a bit too vivid of an imagination, I know. So if I need bullion cubes and don’t have a membership at the time, I just ask Mama to get them for me. Sometimes I even break down and pay double at the grocery store. Still cheaper than broth.
So my point is the first thing you need to do is cook your hamhocks.
Put a lid on that pot and let them simmer while you do do everything else, preferably about thirty minutes or so.
Then melt a stick of butter or margarine in a skillet. I’m using real butter, shocking I know.
It was leftover from one of the photo shoots for the cookbook. Y’all aren’t going to believe this but..
~leans in and widens her eyes to tell a story she still can’t believe~
When I signed on for this cookbook deal, I thought I’d have to make every one of the dishes to be photographed. I talked to the photographer and she set shoot dates and such I was thinking “How am I going to make sixty or seventy things in two days and NOT look like death warmed over in these photographs taken on the same days?”. Me and Mama had a time trying to turn that one over and come up with a way because lets face it, at the end of the day when I put supper on the table, I’m not exactly looking my best.
Well guess what? I was introduced to the wonderful world of “food stylists”. ~blinks and nods~
Seriously, I had no idea what that was, either. I pictured my food wearing feather boas and sashaying down some runway amid camera flashes and reporters feverishly scribbling notes about how the gravy glistened but didn’t quite form itself to the biscuits like it did last year…
Okay so if y’all ever write a cookbook here’s what you need to know. A food stylist shows up at your house with boxes and boxes and boxes. Boxes of wonderful things. Plates, ingredients, and…food. Already cooked. Already prepared. It’s kind of like Mary Poppins (which is what we’ll call her as I’m unable to give her real name for fear she will be kidnapped once folks know about her magical powers). Remember when Mary put that bag on the table and then started pulling out lamps and furniture and all of these things out of it?
POOF there’s a cake! Poof! There’s caramel corn. POOF! There’s my grandmother’s chocolate pie! (Wait til I tell you what a Prop Stylist does!)
My eyes just about bugged right out of my head and I was trying to be all nonchalant – like people walked in my house everyday and produced perfectly presented pies and cakes and such right there in the middle of my kitchen.
Meanwhile my husband and kids kept coming in and whispering “Are we gonna get to eat that? Do you think they’ll let us have some?” Their eyes were every bit as big as mine but they hadn’t gotten the memo on how we were going to try to pretend we weren’t the Beverly Hillbillies and Mary Poppins hadn’t just unveiled our new cement pond.
And let me tell ya (by the way, on Southern Plate, it is perfectly acceptable to begin a sentence with “and”), when I say they were whispering, I want you to know that I have failed miserably in teaching a single person in my household the correct volume of a whisper. My husband has one of those voices that sounds to me like he is yelling all of the time and so as a result my kids inside voices SOUND LIKE THIS EVERY TIME THEY TALK.
~blinks~
I had a point here…
Oh yeah, Mary Poppins also brought all sorts of yummy ingredients in case she needed them during the course of the shoot. You know, sometimes you just wanna whip up a meringue or make a custard on a whim and while I truly believe (after what I’ve seen) that she could do so with just a snap of her fingers, she needed to have the proper ingredients to put on the counter so she could wiggle her nose and make them poof into whatever it was she desired at the moment.
Sidenote: Yes, my family did get to eat all of that food.
So…when she left, everything hopped back into her magic bag EXCEPT…
FOUR BOXES OF REAL BUTTER.
When I opened my fridge I was kind of surprised. You see, butter is expensive. It’s like…$3.00 a box! I almost turned tail and ran out into the road to call for her on the off chance that she wasn’t already halfway to Birmingham. But they had left long ago (by the way, on Southern Plate, it is perfectly acceptable to begin a sentence with “but” as well) and I knew it was too late.
So I closed the fridge. I left the kitchen. I thought about all of that butter.
I lasted all of one hour before pulling out two sticks and baking something.
I baked and baked and baked and baked. I even softened a stick and smeared some on Saltine crackers for me and the kids. My husband turned up his nose at the saltine but I explained to him “it’s real butter…you’ve got to try it.” and he ate it, not quite getting the significance but knowing it would shut me up – one of his primary motivations for doing most things, I think.
We ate butter, y’all. ~sighs~ and it was sublime.
And after a while, I only had one stick left.
And so I put it in this soup. For y’all. Because I love you and I want you to eat butter, too.
But you know..the thing that gets me is that…~sighs heavily and hangs her head~ Margarine is currently .60 a box and butter is about $3.00.
I know, I know, I know.
How about I compromise and buy butter on occasion? I just can’t bring myself to do it every day.
So chop your celery and onions and add that to your melted butter (or margarine) along with the minced garlic.
and cook it until it is browned a bit.
Then take your ham hocks out of the pot and let them cool a bit before cutting off the ham and chopping it into little bits.
This ham is gonna be a little tough still so you’ll have to use a sharp knife to cut it into bits with.
Now we’re gonna use those instant taters…
Add a cup of instant potatoes to the broth you cooked the ham hocks in.
Stir that up. This is going to give your soup lots of body.
Add your cans of beans, liquid included.
Stir that up, too.
Add your veggies, butter and all.
~lip quivers as she thinks on her last stick of butter~
Stirry stirry.
Add your ham.
(pretend you see a picture of me adding ham)
Add your salt.
Add your pepper.
Stir all of that up and simmer for about half an hour or so.
BUT if you want, you can just cook it until its heated all the way and then serve it.
Ain’t no food police here.
Serve with Jordan rolls.
This freezes VERY well. I took my leftovers and put them in a mason jar, leaving plenty of head space, and froze it to eat later.
“Later” ended up being the very next day but still…
Southern Plate Shortcut Senate Bean Soup
- 4 cans Navy Beans, undrained
- 3 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 bullion cubes
- 2-4 ham hocks (or leftover ham)
- 1 C instant mashed potato flakes
- Stick margarine or butter (1/2 C)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
Place bullion cubes in pot with six cups water. Add ham hocks or ham. Cover and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer thirty minutes.
Place butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and garlic. Saute until lightly browned.
Remove ham hocks from broth and dice up when cool. Add instant potatoes to broth and stir. Add onion mixture, beans, and diced ham. Stir in salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and reduce heat to simmer for thirty minutes before serving.
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Write your sorrows in sand and your your blessings in stone.
Submitted by Mary. Submit your quote here.
Posted by Christy Jordan
on Jan 28 2010. Filed under Soups and Stews.
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this reminds me of when my grandma would have been soup waiting for us when we came in running off the bus.
good memories and instant potatoes are amazing for quick soup fixes love it love it 
Ain’t nothin’ like a memory with your Grandma in it!
So,
I learned not only how to make another great soup, but (yep buts are allowed anywhere in a sentence) I learned you can put Mason Jars in the freezer. So (one of my favorites again) be gone all you aggravating plastic containers that are everywhere hiding in the nether regions of my home, and mostly without lids. And am writing that blessing in stone,Mason Jars can go in freezer (with plenty of head space allowed). Bless you too.
So you know, Kim, that you’re totally awesome, right????
Cook your corn on the cob as usual. Cut it off and freeze in Mason jars, any size. I use pints for myself. Like Christy said, leave headspace for expansion or it will break the jar! When you are ready to use, put in microwave on defrost until it comes out of the jar. Add butter and salt and pepper and heat for about 3 minutes until ready. Tastes like you just cut it off. Silver Queen corn does well with this. Sometimes I just put a dollop of butter on top and finish it off in the jars. No plastic taste!
Christy – Did you know that you can buy ham base, not in the cubes like beef bouillon,I don’t think, but we have it here in our local grocery store in this little town I live in. It’s in a paste form with other bouillon above the canned soups and it is pretty wonderful stuff!! I always make my bean soup from scratch with northern beans and it really doesn’t take that long to get done – maybe a couple of hours. I NEVER soak the beans either. Just takes more time…. What a wonderful meal for a cold day, like today,along with those yummy looking Jordan rolls!!! I’ve made many of your recipes and your email is the first one I look for every day!!! Marlene
Hi Marlene,
What a great tip to share!! I have the little glass jars of ham base, turkey base, ckn base…all in my refrigerator right now, ready to add full-bodied flavor to whatever dish needs a particular flavor. Until now, it WAS my secret weapon. Hugs to you, SP friend, for giving everyone a shot at Chef of the Year status. The world will be a better place because of you ~winks~. Thanks to Christy for a great soup recipe too.
I did not know that!!! Now I have to look! Thank you!
Watch out when you buy the bases… some have MSG in them which is very high in sodium. Some have to be refrigerated and some don’t. I love them but can’t handle MSG-monosodium glutamate. You will love them, Christy!
Here’s my trick for ham seasoning in soups and beans. I go to The Honeybaked Ham store and buy a ham-bone. They sell hambones with LOTS of meat left on them for about six dollars. I boil that bone in a big pot of water and I end up with enough ham and ham stock to season several pots of beans that I freeze. It’s my quick and easy way to have yummy seasoned soups, peas and greens.
I didn’t know you could do that, either!!!
How cool!
“By the way, where IS the Senate restaurant and how do I get to eat there on my next trip to D.C.?”
To answer your question above, the Senate restaurant is in the Capitol Building on the Senate side. I used to work on The Hill and ate in the House restaurant alot, which is where else? — on the House side of the Capitol. They serve the bean soup there as well. It’s been many years since I worked there, but I can tell you the soup is outstandingly delicious…..
So my next question would be…
When are we chartering a Southern Plate bus and calling it a Field Trip?
Dear Christy
Do we have to write an essay about it afterwards?…..lol
LOL! Someone has outed my soup/stew thickener secret. I learned it when I had too much liquid in a pot of soup. As they say, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” For my navy bean soup, I just take my trusty old potato masher and mash a few beans to thicken it. When I use ham hocks, I pressure cook them first. The meat becomes very tender and the broth is a wonderful addition to the soup. I am so excited about your upcoming cookbook and can hardly wait. You have to be on cloud 9.
Hey Jane, thats brilliant!
I’m kinda on cloud 1..because everyone else is on cloud 2-9 and I’m looking around blinking and wondering how I even made it to cloud one, while they are all waving and carrying on saying “come ‘ere! come ‘ere! Join us!!” and I’m still thinking “but I’m the one who gives baths, cleans out ears, and wipes rears…I don’t belong on the upper clouds!”
hehe
It hasn’t really sunk in and I’ve really tried to get it to sink in but I guess it won’t ever make sense to me.
I am awfully grateful though!!!!
And your comment just made me so hungry…
I should have clarified, I mash the beans right in the pot and I pressure cook the smoked ham hocks for about 15-20 minutes. Sorry.
You wouldn’t believe all of the stuff that Mary Poppins left at our restaurant when y’all did your last photo shoot! It was like Christmas in our refrigerator! ;0)
Oh Christy my dear butter is one of those small luxuries in life that we must give ourselves occasionally. I buy both but save the butter for baking and for smearing all over warm homemade bread and unfrosted warm yellow cake. Simply divine! Thank you so much for such a great site and yet another wonderful recipe!
My question is…when the book signings start are you going to give us in the Southern Plate family a pass to the front of the line for an autograph? LOL
Congrat on Mary Poppins — she sounds heavenly!! And that butter — we never have real butter either.
Get a red marker and mark the calendar!!! I am jumping up and down for you…..you used REAL BUTTER!!! Butter makes everything better, in my opinion, and I always laugh at your references about cheap ingredients. A box of butter in my grocery store sells for $1.69 all day, every day. I will happily pay the difference to get the taste and texture that my “soul craves in real butter tee hee. This soup looks AMAZING and I shall look for ham hocks upon my next trip out into the arctic tundra for groceries. Say hello to Mary Poppins for all of us. ~waves to Ricky as he eats a saltine w/ butter on it~
Oh my gosh, I just love the way you ‘speak’! You’ve got such a way of making me feel like I was right there with you! I’m right there with you about the price of butter, and am currently rejoicing that our Walmart has them on sale for $1.50 a box!! Can you believe it?! I’m going to be making a batch of shortbread today.
I am so looking forward to seeing your book when it comes out! Do you think I can mail my copy to you for an autograph, so I can say that I knew you before you were big and famous and had no time for us small people?
OK…I’m one of those SUPER literal people who can’t cook a THING without a recipe, so I just want to clarify, to be sure. The picture shows FOUR cans of Navy beans, and the recipe calls for 4, but the text under the pic says I need THREE cans. I’m using 4, right?? (unless you are expecting that I have a can waiting patiently in my pantry, for a chance to join the party, and I only need to PURCHASE 3?? HA!)
I don’t do math, Treva…you’re supposed to be reading my mind
I’ll go change it to four.
its four, honest.
ooh, i hate math, lol
Made this for dinner last night, and my husband LOVED it!! I did, too, so this will be a fantastic repeat in our household! Thanks!
That soup sounds wonderful, I will try it very, very soon. Other than the cost, my problem is that recipes calling for real butter don’t always tell you whether to buy salted or unsalted… I guess you could buy unsalted and then add salt if necessary. What do you recommend??
Hi Debbie. I don’t see that anyone answered your question, so I’ll start. I always use unsalted butter. Most recipes call for salt anyway, and this allows me to control the sodium and salt to our tastes. Hope that helps.
Mary is right on the money – great minds think alike (or whatever our minds are, Mary! lol).
I use unsalted when baking and cooking IF I am going to use butter because you can always add salt and most recipes already have it in there, but you can’t easily take the salt out.
Now if I were to buy butter specifically for crackers, I’d get salted…
hehe
Christy
Don’t you just love butter on saltine crackers. That is such a treat for me. I didn’t know anyone else did that.
This sounds wonderful! Thanks for the wonderful post and for the great quote. I stole it for my FB status.
There’s a restaurant in town that serves Senate Bean Soup as an appetizer or side item for the original price of 29 cents per bowl. They do require that you buy an entree with it or college students would be coming in and ordering 10 bowls and nothing else!
That’s so funny about Mary Poppins and the butter! I only use real butter. Julia Childs ate tons of it and she lived to be 92! I’m afraid of the chemicals in margarine. I don’t use a lot of it because I don’t bake much so I don’t know the price discrepancy between it and margarine. I have heard that margarine is supposedly better for the consistency some baked items because it’s less greasy.
I do the same Sonya… I read one time that margarine is only one molecule different from a form of plastic. I try to be somewhat careful about what I eat, but I am Southern (by the grace of God, of course) after all. I pay a tiny bit more for the real deal (STORE BRAND!) and save somewhere else.. its WORTH IT! lol
You ladies bring a lot of joy to a 60 yr. old SC boy stuck in New Jersey. “I’m stuck up here with Dixie on my mind” My wife is Italian and a great cook but trying to learn to cook Southern. She’s doing OK but loves this site. She still doesn’t have the Cornbread down the way I like it but I’ll give her an A for trying.
Howdy Lee! ~waves to you from Northeast Pennsylvania area~
I am a Georgia-born-and-raised-gal sitting here watching it snow outside and thinking….IF ONLY I were in Georgia right now! I would be more’n happy to fix you a big ol’ batch of my Dixie cornbread in my cast iron skillet and run it over if you need a cornbread “fix” and let you tell me about gorgeous South Carolina. Hang in there, SP friend, Spring is a’comin’. ~waves bye~
I have decided there are definitely some things in life that just can not be substituted. Toilet paper is one. The other is real butter for when I am baking. It really does make a difference. So I watch for them to run it on sale (yes, even then it is higher than margarine) and when they do I stock up my freezer. I used to buy the cheapest toilet paper and always margarine (whatever was on sale) but I decided rather than splurge on Starbucks or the daily newspaper (I can read the news online) I would stick to my name brand toilet paper and buy real butter! Makes life much nicer
~nods up and down in agreement~
Lee, I’m with ya! I’m a southern gal (from all OVER the south) stuck in 16 degree weather in Michigan. I truly DO feel your pain.
Christy, Honey, you say, “There’s my grandmother’s chocolate pie! (Wait til I tell you what a Prop Stylist does!)” Have I missed this recipe? One of my fondest memories as a kid was getting to go get chocolate pie at Aunt Hattie’s Restaurant in St. Petersburg, FL. I even had a bet with my dearest Daddy that my sister would be a sister and not a brother. Sadly, my Daddy never got to pay-off that bet. I sure would like to be able to bake myself a really good chocolate pie and sit there and eat it and cry for missing my Dad.
~Gives you a big warm hug and hands you a tissue in the Michigan weather~
Thanks for the hug! Right back atcha! I lived in Georgia for 23 years before I had to move to Michigan, so I absolutely LOVE your home state and bet I miss it almost as much as you do. I also went to FSU, and was glad that when Mark Richt had to leave that he went to coach the DAWGS! Couldn’t have stood it if he went to FLORIDA!!! Booo HISSSS! LOL
I think, right about now, that I juuuuust might BE your long-waited for “sister” ~grins~ Thanks Melissa for your wonderful comment to me. Now I am gonna need a tissue for my missing-GA-tears. If you are ever headed toward northeast PA, let Christy know or get me on SP’s fb…I will meet ya somewhere. buh bye now.
Hey Melissa!
Don’t worry, you haven’t missed it! I saved some really special recipes for the cookbook. The main thing I’ve tried to do is figure out what folks would expect from the cookbook and deliver. I knew y’all would want some special recipes that aren’t on Southern Plate as well as original stories and such. But I’ve also included some of the more popular recipes from the website and went back and put in a few stories I’d already published here that y’all said could bear repeating (thank goodness for the feedback on the Southern Plate Family Facebook Page!).
I just found out that I will likely have a preliminary copy of the cookbook as early as MAY!!! It should go on presale this summer, I’ll keep y’all posted!
Gratefully,
Christy
Oh, I can hardly WAIT! I actually will be in Alabama in May as my dear niece is graduating from High School. I know I’m echoing the sentiments of a whole lotta readers that this book just can’t GET here soon enough.
Refried beans with lard also makes a great thickener. My ‘food expert’ husband does not like crock pot beans (dried or canned) because they do not have that ‘gravy’ that soaked and stove top cooked beans usually do. Since I have been adding the refried beans, he no longer fusses.
I love how they make big fancy names for just plain old beans & ham! HAHA! My sister told me margarine is just one molecule off from being plastic…I don’t know where she heard THAT one, but I guess I will probably be a walking talking Barbie Doll one day..LOL I do buy butter on special occasions, but don’t splurge too often because I have 4 kids, and the extra dollar or two can buy a box of cereal when its on sale..(gotta count your pennies ya know?) Don’t splurge on name brand TP either, because it ALL gets the job done, also my kids like to throw it in the bath tub and soak it, just to get on my last nerve! HA!
I totally LOVE your site! You speak my kind of language! Country Girls are the BEST!!
Christy, you had me literally doing a LMAO while I read this!!! I don’t even know where to begin so I’ll just say it was a MOST enjoyable post!!! I loved all your little tangents. And (see, I’m learning because I started a sentence with “and”) you even made me sortof feel like I was inside your head somehow with the little tidbits like when you blinked trying to figure out where you were going with the story. hehehe
I’ve never actually had this though I have seen it on several menus. Now that I know how to make it I just may give it a shot! With butter of course because I’m a butter snob. It may cost more but the taste (and lack of nasty man-made heart poisons) more than makes up for its price.
Michael
Hi – One time I found pork boullion cubes. I bought and used them in my beans. Now I look in every grocery I’m in to try to find them again, but never have. I, too, am put off by the high cost of butter – but nothing beats it. I stock up when it’s on sale and freeze it. It does freeze well. Love this site and these family style recipes.
Yummy! Canned beans are a staple in my pantry.
Seriously Christy. Pinch those pennies elsewhere and start using REAL butter for pete’s sake!!! It’s natural ya know unlike margarine and much better for you and your family, AND you can catch it on sale and freeze it ya know.
Hey Christy,
I’m a DC native and still live in the area. Dang girl…the “public” can’t eat at the Senate restaurant at the Capitol. I suspect if you contact your senator, they’d probably make an exception for you.
Used to be that you could tour the Capitol at your own pace. Now there is a Capitol Visitor Center (built underground) and you have to arrange in advance to have the tour (and you will be “screened” before you go).
Let me know if you plan to visit DC. I’d love to show you around.
P.S. One of my Mama’s favorite things in this world (next to chicken and dumplins and nana puddin’) is bean soup and corn bread…she’s from Andalusia, AL.
A food stylist! I now know what I wanna do for the rest of my life. *puts a tiny dress on a potato and rolls it across the carpet while yelling “Work iiit! Work iiit!”
Dad will love the beans for sure. Will have to make cornbread though. I’ll get a beating if I don’t.
Love ya Kiddo!
Bill…I can’t get that potato “model” out of my mind! You are sooo funny!
LOL!!!
Hey there,
I am a lifelong southern girl, first half in Alabama (Roll Tide Roll) and the second half in South Carolina (GO Gamecocks!!), I’m not sure where I should spend the last part of my life, but I am certain that the good Lord will see that it is in the South!!
I just wanted to share with you that I was happy to see you using Bush’s beans in your recipe for Senate bean soup. I am sure that you used them because you always have an eye to price. But I was happy for another reason, that is they are truly a Southern bean. I work in engineering and went to the bean “plant” one time for a job. It is nestled in the valley between some small rolling hills in Tennessee and is very much a family business. The home (small mill house) where momma Bush first started canning her vegtables is still there. She actually started canning on the back porch!! How southern is that!! The bean plant with all of it’s buildings and such grew up around the home. There is a small cafeteria that makes home style food and sometimes you see the Bush bean son that does the t.v. commercials. No dog though.
I’m sure that momma Bush would be proud that you used the family bean in your soup, and that you have grown a business around your family just like she did.
Love you girl! I’ll blow a kiss your way the next time I cruise into B’ham, momma an’ ‘em still live there, near Hoover and the Galleria.
Jan, you should spend it in upstate SC and pull for Clemson. I’m foriginally from Anderson, SC
Lawd da mercy that looks good!!!!! With some unsweet cornbread…yes mam!!!!
Had to laugh at that one, DJ!
You would not BELIEVE what they do to cornbread in Michigan. It’s downright criminal – or corncakinal.
Ok, I guess I need to know what a “Prop” stylist does now…lol… I would have loved to have seen your family’s eyes when Miss Poppins started to unload her favors. Did you happen to ask her how long it took her to make all that stuff?… This is a wonderful soup, and I will have it soon as my DH comes home.. its a southern comfort food for me. I didnt know about the potatoes, but from now on, Im keeping some on hand. BTW, did I ever tell you that “BUTTER” is what my husband hauls?…. hehehehe. And we have about 300 lbs of the stuff in 2 extra fridges on our back porch!!!… We give it to the local food banks sometimes when he gets it… and I still have that much.. Oh well. I digress..
Okay, I’m not usually one to leave comments, but I just have to tell you that you are just positively precious! I grew up in the “UCLA” of Florida (Upper Corner of Lower Alabama), yes it’s in Florida but just minutes from the Alabama border. My husband is a youth pastor, and God plopped us in the middle of central Florida. On a map, it’s the south (lowercase s), but it is NOT the South. It’s so refreshing to get a bit of “home” in my inbox every week. God bless you & your sweet family!
I literally grew up on beans of all kinds. They were a daily item on our family table because they were cheap, filling, and a good source of protein. I use the ham base if I don’t have any ham. I always freeze my ham bone when I reach the end of the good cutting off meat. I would crumble my cornbread right into the soup bowl and pour the soup over it. I like it almost like a porridge with a nice lump of butter and I top it with diced raw onion. A teaspoon or less of horseradish is good too. I buy butter and margarine and try to be discreet about which one I use and where. It has to be butter worthy. I did find butter on sale for 88 cents a pound as a loss leader during the holiday season. I bought ten packages as it freezes well. Just give it an overwrap to stop it from absorbing any odors.
CHRISTY
I MAKE A BEAN SOUP LIKE THIS ONE AND I PUT CARROTS IN MY SOUP AND I USE DRIED LIMA BEAN THE LITTLE ONES. WE CALL THEM DRIED BUTTERBEANS THOUGH. I USE BAKED LEFTOVER HAM AND IT IS SOO GOOD ON A COLD MISSISSIPPI NIGHT. I WILL TRY THIS. I HAVE THE TIME TO SOAK MY BEANS OVERNIGHT WHEN I REMEMBER LOL.
THERESA
I am so happy for you about your book. I can’t wait until I can get my own copy. Get off cloud 1 and go up where you belong.
I love my butter too but I have it all the time. In 1980 I had to have stomach surgery and for 3 VERY LONG years I lived almost only on soup. The first year was only broth. Then my stomach could handle easy to digest things like noodles, bread, and crackers. And then I found I could handle butter. Couldn’t handle veggies yet but I could enjoy noodle soup. So I would put butter on bread and saltines. I decided that if I could have so few things I would get the most flavorful. That’s when butter entered the picture. I don’t always cook with it unless you can really taste the difference. But, (and yes, I agree it is ok to start a sentence with) I love it on toast, rolls, and saltines. Still can’t eat many things but I can enjoy a lot more than in those first years.
By the way, I do still love soup even though I thought I would hate it forever.
Christy,I love this soup and your story as well! Think I’ll have to go borrow the Mary Poppins movie from the library…have not watched it in ages!
Have to say..love me some butter!
Bountiful Blessings!
LOVE THIS POST! And (heehee)I can’t wait to try this bean soup!The Jordan Rolls ingredients are on my grocery list…..get ready YEAST..i’ma comin’for ya!I ain’t skeered no more!
I thought I was the only one who ate crackers and butter. They gave me the girlish figure I have today…..lol.
You are a funny and amazing woman….Thank you for all you do!
It sounds delicious. I had it with my mom in the basement of the Senate when she took me and my sister to Washington D.C. I do have to say that “Ham Hocks” ingredient scares me.
Girrrrl, you gotta try beans with ham hocks cooked in ‘em!
The best best best best beans always have a hambone cooked in the water with them for flavor. ham hocks are an inexpensive way to get that smoky flavor in the broth and then have the bits of ham you can pull off of them.
yummmmm!
P.S. If you come to my house to eat this, I’ll just hide the ham hock bones before you get here and we’ll pretend I didn’t use them
I took part of my Christmas hambone (which I froze), threw it in the slow cooker with a bag o’ Navy beans (washed and picked out the bad ones, of course) and 2 teaspoons of salt. Turned the “low” and left for the day. Returned 8 hours later, made cornbread with bacon grease…sliced with a pat of real butter…all delicious and oh-so-easy. I did mash some beans to make it a tiny bit thicker.
I was reading the comments on a myrecipes.com recipe and someone wrote “You still use hydrogenated transfats (AKA shortening)? I only use butter.” Snooty. But I have to have real butter on my cornbread and toast. Buy it on sale and keep it in the freezer. (wink)
check out walmart brand butter- we’re only paying $1.50 a box- and it’s JUST FINE!!!
i grew up with butter for baking and cooking, and i’ll shortcut sometimes, but it does make a difference in some recipes!
This recipe sounds soooooo good…now hash up and pass me some of them beans…!
Which one of you southern gals has the recipe for panfried gravy, like Crackerbarrel makes? I love it. I don’t want any sausage drippings in it. In West Virginia, they made it with water, not milk. We don’t drink or use cow’s milk, but use rice milk. And can it be made with whole wheat flour instead of white? Have any of you experimented to get a good, healthy gravy? I eat meat, but don’t want it in my gravy. Can anyone help?
I’m afraid “healthy gravy” may be an oxymoron.
We drive old cars, buy store-brand of most products, eat out a couple of times a year, even buy some of our clothes at GoodWill, but I always use real butter. Some things are just required!
Made the bean soup tonight and it was absolutly de-vine……It made so much I’m sharing w/sis and her family and enough for me to eat it again…of course had to make cornbread and thats a meal..fit for a king or queen. Love you posts and share your recipes w/everyone…
LOL@ your husband who can’t whisper!! That is my husband to a “T”!
He is so loud because he grew up living with his mamam and grandparents who were ALL hard of hearing. I tell him he doesn’t know how to whisper, but bless his heart, he is trying to learn!
And I love me some real butter too. I do still buy margarine – in a tub – but I only use it when I need butter to be SPREADABLE. So it gets used for grilled cheese or toast, but that’s pretty much it. I grew up on margarine, and didn’t think real butter was “all that” until I was grown. I always buy the store brand though, except the rare occassion when the name brand is on sale for cheaper. But I will heartily agree with you on the instant potato thing!
I’m eagerly awaiting your cookbook too! I’ve tried several of your recipes, but having a cookbook in hand to use, I’d probably try dang near every one of ‘em! Oh, and I added the cream of chicken soup to my chicken and dumplings last week, which I’d never done before, and I really did like the difference it made! Our recipes were pretty much identical except for that. Now, they will be the same!
I made this Sunday night, and had just enough for leftovers last night. It sure was good!
My oldest went on and on about it, and wanted me to make it again tonight. LOL!
I, too, wouldn’t mind adding some finely chopped carrots to this. And I love ham hocks in beans, but I wouldn’t be adverse to a hambone with a bit of meat left on it for the meat in here, and a couple of hocks just for flavor. ‘Cause you just can’t get much meat off of ‘em! I’ve always put them in my crock pot beans and the meat just falls off, but it was quite a lot of work to cut them up!
Thanks for another great recipe Christy!
Hey Christy, Got a easy recipe for you that, you will love instant mashed potato. Buy the kind that are flavored I find in a bag there are different flavors like four cheese and garlic flavor that I can think of. What you do is get pieces of chicken like drumsticks and thigh put on a baking sheet put a few spices and then sprinkle with the potato flakes I coat the chicken with the stuff. Then just bake till crispy and brown. It’s a favorite at our house. (*:
HI CHRISTY,
I HAVE BEEN LOOKING AT SOUTHERN PLATE NOW FOR SEVERAL MONTHS AND HAVE ENJOYED YOUR HUMOR AND RECIPES. I TRIED SENATE BEAN SOUP THIS WEEKEND, BUT WITH JUST A FEW CHANGES —I USED DRIED, BUT WELCOME THE CHANCE TO MAKE SENATE BEAN SOUP WITH CANNED BEANS- I ALSO JUST USED A HAM BONE THAT HAD A FAIR AMOUNT OF HAM STILL LEFT ON IT INSTEAD OF HAM HOCKS—IT WAS WONDERFUL.
MY WHOLE FAMILY LOVED IT. THANKS. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
BEST SOUP I EVER MADE!! Made some Mexican cornbread to go with it! Everyone loved it! It went especially wonderful with this past weekend’s cold weather. Thanks, keep those recipes coming! Can’t wait for the new cookbook. The back of my SP cookbook is full of recipes I have printed off my computer.
You’re so comical!! I love it! Thanks for the recipe…I plan on using it soon! By the way…crazy about your site.
Haven’t tried the bean soup yet, but it looks delish, and I will. I just wanted to tell you that I tell everyone I get a chance about your site and give them the address. Sometimes it is a complete stranger–well, several times–it makes me feel good to be able to share something I know is southern and wonderful. Thank you for the posts and the recipes. By the way, I made the Elvis Presley cake–didn’t have vanilla pudding mix so I used lemon flavored which I did have. Later I made one with vanilla pudding mix and found the lemon flavor made a big difference–much better.(my taste tester) Hope you have a great day.
Made the soup and my husband says it’s a keeper, very good and easy. I also added carrots, this time I used leftover carrots from a roast I had on Sunday night before serving so they’d get hot. I try not to waste leftovers. Kroger didn’t have any ham hocks, neither did Ingles, Publix did but they were pricey $8.79 for 4, wouldn’t go that route so I purchased a package of smoked cubed ham for $2.29 at Kroger’s (it was on the way home, 2 min.from Publix).I thought I was the only one that did the instant potato thing.haha
I’ve been cooking since I was 9, 57 years, but I still love learning new tricks and recipes. You have a multitude of talents and I always look forward to your emails. God bless you and your family!
[...] so really I’m using margarine. Y’all remember that extensive butter supply that Mary Poppins left at Bountiful? Well the gravy train done run dry and Christy has reverted back to her old ways of supreme [...]
Love the new makeover for SouthernPlate Christy *high five* and love the sound of this recipe I got so hungry just reading about it!