When it comes to using up leftover Easter Ham, it doesn’t get much better, or much easier than Kitchen Sink Black Bean and Ham Soup. And I got to run down some of the odds and ends I’d stashed in my freezer. That’s not to say that this improvised cooking project didn’t require a little creativity and flexibility. In one of my previous lives, I was a high school English teacher, and I taught Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. To introduce the book, I’d always start with Robert Burns poem, To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough. I often quote from his beautiful poem, (from which Of Mice and Men takes its name) when things don’t work out as I’ve expected. In my terrible Scottish accent I say, “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft agley.” That phrase inspired a whole category of recipes I call “Gang aft agley” and it includes Beet Gnocchi, an amazing artichoke tale you can read all about before making Artichoke and Preserved Lemon Soup and to a lesser degree, this Kitchen Sink Black Bean and Ham Soup. I started in the crockpot, but I didn’t end … Continue reading →