EBTKS Soup - Scrumptious

That soup taunted me all night long. This morning, I had to run some errands and I was out for a couple hours between 6:30 and 8:30. I had turned off the crock pot before I left; it was already "finished" and had set itself to "warm" and I wanted it ready to be handled when I got home. I did take out the meaty ham bone before I left and I added some water. It was already thick and rich and smelled so, SO good.

When I got home, I grabbed a bunch of little plastic containers (go-packs, for mini-cookies - I end up with a ton of these and they hold about 1 cup liquid measure). I used a 1/3 cup scoop and divvied it up and I ended up with 11 1-cup containers. Two will stay down for today and tomorrow; the rest go into the freezer tonight after I label them.

I did not even put any of the ham back into the soup. I de-boned it and put the pieces into a container in the fridge to use off and on for a week, in this and that. When I tasted it, the barley had made it all velvety and rich and thick; the yellow zucchini slices, very thin from my mandoline, had more or less disintegrated and the slivers of rind sort of look like pasta strings - the whole thing had texture and flavor and eye-appeal.

Oh, and I've named this after my early-1940s years - the EBTKS soup- that's Everything But The Kitchen Sink soup.

I will be making this off and on from here on in, clearing out veggies, leftovers, etc. but I will always include a meat-piece (chicken quarter or two, meaty ham bone, beef soup bone, or even tiny ground turkey meatballs), 1 can diced tomatoes, and 1 cup barley (or maybe brown rice).

When I looked into that pot this morning, it looked great and I had to take a photo. I don't think the photo does it justice but I gave it a good try.

I am in foodie-heaven and the good part is that it is all pretty healthy and comforting and satisfying.