Ham and Dumplings

I've made this soup a couple times recently and we all love it.  I had a ham bone a while back and was trying to figure out what to make with it and I was thinking about my chicken and dumpling soup and I thought....why not ham and dumplings?  Why not indeed!  I made this for my friends who had just returned from a trip.  I dropped it off with a loaf of my rye bread and some chocolate chip bars.  They were thrilled.

 The dumplings are so simple. Pour 1/2 C. of oil in a bowl with 1 tsp. pepper and 1 tsp. salt.  Add 3/4 C. water and 2 eggs and whisk this all together.  Add 3 C. of flour.  Mix this together and add some minced parsley.  It will be a lumpy dough.

 Sprinkle your counter with flour and dump the dough onto it.

 Roll it out to about 1/8th inch thick.

 Cut it into rectangles.

 Drop them with the attached flour into low boiling stock.

 To make the ham stock, cook a ham bone with carrots, onions, thyme, rosemary, celery, bay leaves and some peppercorns.  Let this simmer for hours.  Strain out the solids and taste for seasoning. Add salt if needed.  Cube any extra ham you have and add it to the stock.  Add the dumplings and let them simmer for about 10 minutes.  I dice more carrots and celery and add them too.

 We like this better than my chicken and dumpling soup and that is saying something!

 Winnie likes the smell of the soup.

She got a tiny taste of ham.  Guess what...she loved it!