Northwest Fishing Reports

Cooler evenings and even colder mornings.This means pulling out the "Crockpot".I leave the house at 6:00 am and my dinner is being cooked,so when I get home I have the best smelling house around.Whether it be a bean soup or pea soup to a fat chuck or pot roast,Crockpotting it is the best.One of my favorites is Great Northern Bean Stew.
1 Smoked ham hock cut up.
2-4 cups dried great northern beans
6-8 cups water
Salt ,pepper,garlic ,hot pepper flakes (just a pinch)
toss it all together ,turn crockpot on high for an hour then on low for the rest of the day.Its that easy.When its done youve got a wonderful pot of thick creamy bean soup.Perfect for after fishing or just a quick warm up.

Mmm, sounds good. Now if only we had Emeril's "smell a vision" on the internet we could all enjoy those great house smells too. [lol]

As I type this I have pea soup going in one of my crock pots. Smoked ham hocks, a cut up carrot, coarse chopped onion, a couple cloves of garlic, split peas, water, salt, pepper, dash liquid smoke. Great stuff! Also I have to remember the Beano. Otherwise eating too many peas or beans makes me socially unacceptable

Great. I made a pea soup Sat morn.Same recipe as yours only I thrive best when I'm socially unacceptable.No Beano for me.

# places that I buy my hocks from. 1 is Western Meats in Tumwater. 2 is Owens Meats in Cle Elum or 3. is Stewarts in Mckenna Wa.A smoked hock make the soup very Gellatunous. To me a pot of pea or bean soup needs that conjelling hock in it.

Yup, without the gelatin from the hocks thickening the soup pea or bean soups are too runny and don't have the right texture. I spent a lot of time growing up around my grand parents farm ( I used to call it unpaid child slave labor ), and everything on the hog got eaten but the squeal. Never could handle the boiled head for head cheese.

i like to give my pea soup a couple "mashes" to thickin it up and a splash of cream at the end to make it yummy. other than that its like wolverines.... maybe a chunk of celery :chef:

Try substituting lentils for some or all of the peas/beans, they go great with hocks and provide a fair bit more protien than the peas/beans. A few taters and carrots always find their way into the mix when I whip up a batch of this type of soup and I usually throw in some leek as well. Serve with some fresh sourdough bread and you won't care what the weather is doing outside!

racfish your recipe sounds just like my Ham Bone soup recipe. Only difference is instead of ham hocks I use a ham bone.

sounds like a few soups I want to try out I am used to tossing a slab of roast in and come home for lunch toss some taters and vegies in and low for the rest of the day and come home to a house that has a smell thet you will not want to ever leave.

Thats one of the best parts Dicinu. I love comming home from work . Its dark and very cold. You open the front door and WAMMMMMMMM the finest aroma catches your senses.After eating the meal you say to yourself or your spouse."I'am gonna use the Crock more often".I usually give them on the holidays .

when I got one for a wedding gift long long ago 15yrs I didn't know what to do with it then my father got older and moved in with my family he used it lol ever since then I been using it mainly when it is cold out winter time for some reason lol but these are great meals and do not have to slave over the stove thats the best part about it. my crock pot is 15yrs and still works like a champ I think I will get a roast for sunday I have a chartered fishing trip planned with one of the sponsors on the site and to come home insert (wishes) with some fish sunday will be great

dicinu wrote:when I got one for a wedding gift long long ago 15yrs I didn't know what to do with it then my father got older and moved in with my family he used it lol ever since then I been using it mainly when it is cold out winter time for some reason lol but these are great meals and do not have to slave over the stove thats the best part about it. my crock pot is 15yrs and still works like a champ I think I will get a roast for sunday I have a chartered fishing trip planned with one of the sponsors on the site and to come home insert (wishes) with some fish sunday will be great

My crockpot was my grandmothers. She died in 1988. I just use mine for roasts. My daughter who died, loved crock pot roasts with carrots, onions, and celery.

Its Sunday morning Im heading to the Green.Before that I got the Crock going with Great Northern,Italian beans from Carpinitos,and butter beans in with my smoked hock. When I come home later My din -din will be almost all ready and my house will smell like Bliss.