Split Pea Soup Extraordinaire--By Request

I can say that, the extraordinaire part, because this is really not my recipe. When I was in Oregon about six weeks ago to visit my family, various members of said family made comments to me about my sister, Mary's split pea soup. Things like, "Have you ever had Mary's split pea soup?" or "You really have to have Mary's split pea soup sometime!" or "Mary makes the best split pea soup!" So I finally asked her exactly what the deal was with this raved-about split pea soup and she said the secret ingredients were potatoes and garlic. "Okay," I said, filing that away for future reference. Well, I had a ham bone in the freezer so last week, I decided to give it a try. Here's the exact recipe:

Boil a ham bone with lots of ham scraps still attached in about a gallon of water for a couple of hours. Remove bone and strip it of usable ham chunks cutting them into bite-sized pieces. Set ham chunks aside adding more of them, if necessary.

Add approximately four and a half cups of dried split peas to the ham broth and bring to a boil. Boil for two minutes; then remove from heat, cover and let stand one hour. Stir about one cup of chopped onion, two cloves of minced garlic, and salt and pepper as desired into peas. Cover and simmer until peas are tender, about one hour. Skim fat if necessary.

Add ham chunks, three medium carrots (sliced) and three medium potatoes cut into half inch cubes to soup. Heat to boiling, reduce heat. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 45 minutes.

Well, that split pea soup was everything it was cracked up to be! Andy loved it that night and I thought it was pretty darn good, myself! The next day, I was having tea with my dear friend, Kim, and I mentioned that the night before I had made the best split pea soup I ever made. Being the excellent cook that she is, Kim's ears perked up even though she is the only one in her family who likes the stuff. The next day I dropped some off for Kim's dining pleasure at lunch time and that is where the request part comes in. "You've got to post that recipe!" she said. So here is...with endorsements!