HERE at the Westemeier house, we head to church on Christmas Eve and we spend Christmas day lounging in our sweatpants. I hate missing any of the fun playing games, watching movies, and dancing to the playlist streaming on the speaker, so I designed our menu to keep me out of the kitchen. With three adult sons and a husband all over six feet tall, you better believe I need to set out a spread, and that’s where this favorite soup recipe saves the holiday!
Soup is good food, and it’s especially satisfying when eaten with friends and family. Slow Cooker Ham and Potato Soup is a wonderful way to use up leftover holiday ham without putting too much pressure on the kitchen staff (usually just me). Paired with a loaf of crusty bread and sliced apples, cheese (because HERE in Wisconsin, it’s a food group on its own) and Christmas cookies, Slow Cooker Ham and Potato Soup satisfies even the hungriest dinner guest. We can dip into the crock pot whenever hunger hits, and this recipe makes enough to serve any visitors who might come to our door.
Except for the potatoes, the soup’s ingredients can be prepped the night before, and it doesn’t take more than twenty minutes to produce this hearty main course. I love the options for cooking time, too. Best of all, nearly every ingredient in this recipe has a long shelf life, making the cook’s life even easier!
Just as my family gathers HERE for holidays, the residents at The Abbey: Senior Living in my Nun the Wiser Mysteries enjoy a communal meal together in the old sanctuary now appropriated as a dining room. The cooks prepare Slow Cooker Ham and Potato Soup for the residents to satisfy their hunger and warm them up on a cold day.
And after the party’s over, what’s cozier than a bowl of soup, a cup of cocoa, and a cozy murder mystery by any of these fine Tule authors while you’re snuggled up in your favorite chair? Sounds like the perfect ending to a holiday celebration!
Melissa Westemeier grew up around the edge of nerd culture, but marriage and motherhood with three sons immersed her in it. She’s fluent in Marvel, DC, Dr. Who, Star Wars, Godzilla, and more thanks to their influence. Her fiction work includes rom-com and a trilogy loosely based on her experience tending bar on the Wolf River in Wisconsin. She’s thrilled to realize her childhood dream of writing murder mysteries. Her books blend her humor and appreciation for nerd culture while tackling serious themes and unpacking the puzzle of whodunnit (and how and why!). In her spare time, Melissa needs to be outside or near a window. Her passions include hiking, swimming, biking, reading, and fantasizing about her next vacation destination.
