Yellow Split Pea Soup

 Zachary made this project for his 100th day of school.  Each of the 10 characters has 10 of a different type of dried bean or pea, so that when you count by 10's they add up to 100.  We went to the bulk bins at Winco to get a small sample of each type of bean.  Most of them I have eaten before, but I'd never tried yellow split peas, so we bought extra and I made some soup.  (The yellow peas are on the 2nd '0'.)  The resulting soup had such a mild and yummy flavor.  I've made it several times since.  I didn't take a picture, though, as it looks like a bowl of yellow sludgy soup, and I'd rather look at that cute little face any time!

2 Tbl butter
1 onion, sliced
3 stalks celery, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp turmeric
8 cups chicken stock (Make your own!)
2 cups dried yellow split peas
1 ham hock (Instead I bought a bone-in ham steak.  I cut off all the meat for another meal, and used the bone and the rough edge around the steak.).

Melt the butter over medium heat in a large pot.  Cook onion, celery, carrots, and S+P until onion is soft, about 7-10 minutes.  Add the turmeric, stock, peas, potatoes and pork.  Bring to a boil.  Simmer, covered, about 1 hour, or until peas are soft.  Remove the pork pieces.  Puree.  (I have an immersion blender that works perfectly, but you could also do it in batches in the blender.)  Adjust S+P to taste.