So what with Thanksgiving last week, and then throwing my first holiday party of the season right after, I had lots of leftovers sitting around. Most of my cooked leftovers went fast, what with the visitors and hangers-on who lingered over the weekend. One big leftover I had was 2/3 of an inexpensive but tasty smoked ham that I got on sale for $7.00, what would normally be $23. You have got to love holiday sales. The rest of my leftovers were half used bundles of vegetables and herbs. Soups are great for clearing up the loose ends lounging around in the bottom of your fridge so I started slicing and dicing to feed the hungry crowd.
Soup #1- 16 Bean, Veggie, and Ham Soup
I stripped the best of the ham off the bone and reserved it, some for sandwiches and the rest for a soup. The bone and messy parts I put aside to use for making demi-glace later. In a soup pot I put the uncooked, leftover veggies like celery, onions, rutabaga, butternut squash, and carrots. To this I added a package of 16 bean mix that I had thoughtfully picked up during the holiday sale for $1.69 at the market. All the trimmings from the veggies went into the pile with the ham ends for later. I filled the pot with water and brought it to a boil, I then lowered to a covered simmer. After cooking for awhile the beans were starting to get soft, so I added the cut up chunks of the reserved ham and simmered it for another half hour. I ended up with a tasty, filling, and nutritious 16 bean, veggie, and ham soup that fed the last of the visiting masses (or horde of locusts as I started to think of them.)

Soup #2- Creamy Squash, Veggie, and Fruit Soup
Today I was cleaning out the last ends from my fridge and ran across some excessively ripe pears and apples that I had thrown in there to chill to stop their ripening. I also found ½ of a rutabaga, ½ a butternut squash, ½ a bag of cranberries, and an enormous sweet onion. I peeled and chopped them up roughly and threw them into a soup pot with some salt, pepper, Then I added a splash of soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and a squeeze of the chefs secret weapon, ketchup. All these I use in almost all my soups for the umami factor; and then I threw in a little chicken demi-glace from my freezer and a few ounces of maple syrup to mellow out the cranberries. The chicken demi-glace was from leftovers of several store bought rotisserie chicken dinners from a few weeks ago. I brought the whole mess to a boil and simmered it, covered, until very tender. I then whipped out my trusty immersion blender, threw in a nice fat blob of Irish butter, and made the fruit and veggie concoction into a delicious, sweet and tangy, creamy soup; with all the flavors of Thanksgiving and the holidays.