Split Pea Soup Recipe I made up (and it was the best ever)

Mom gave us some of her food storage because she's leaving on a mission, and the kids pulled out a bag of dried split peas the other day and left them on the counter. So I've been looking at them for a few days.

When Tim gets paid, we usually splurge on something. Used to be going to a Chinese buffet, but that was several children ago. This time, he really wanted an honest-to-goodness ham. They happened to be on sale, so we got ourselves an 11 lb ham and baked it for dinner.

Split peas sitting around, and now I had a ham bone....

So I made split pea soup. I glanced at a bunch of recipes, including lentil soup recipes, and made my own recipe up, and it was my favorite split pea soup ever. Tim loved it, too. In fact, we both liked it so much that we ended up only sharing a single bowlful with the kids and ate the rest ourselves.

So here's my recipe (as much so I don't forget it as because you need it):

Split Pea Soup

1 16 oz bag of dried green split peas, rinsed and picked over
1 ham bone with about 2 c meat left on
1 carrot, peeled and diced (think frozen mixed veggies size, in 1/4 inch cubes)
2 ribs of celery, peeled and cut the same size at the carrots
1 tbsp minced dried onion
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt (or less or more to taste, depending on the saltiness of the ham)
Pinch of red pepper flakes
Ground Black pepper to taste (but be generous!)
7 c water

Put it all in the crock pot and cook on high until the peas are as soft as you like them (I prefer mushy to the point of not being pea-shaped anymore, and that took about 5 hours). Remove the ham bone. Take the meat off, break or cut into bite-sized chunks, and return the meat to the soup. Remove the bay leaf if you can find it. Stir well and adjust the seasoning (I added more salt and pepper at this point). You can let it sit on low in the crock pot for another hour or so if you want, or serve it right away.  Stir well before serving.