BUT I REALLY, REALLY WANT SOME PEA SOUP

Be warned . . .   if I offer you some home made soup say "NO".
It all started with Easter and the spiral ham. Sister in law "J" wanted to buy, cook and bring the ham.  Being ME I insisted I would take care of the whole dinner. (As it turned out it was a good thing because "J" got sick and didn't make it to dinner.) The ham was a little over cooked but still yummy. My wonderful kids K&B did all the clean up and it wasn't until later that night that I thought about that BIG juicy ham bone and some home made pea soup. Unfortunately the bone was in the garbage under a days worth of trash. So I'll make the soup without the bone. There were 2 big chunks of ham that would work perfectly.
Ger picked up a package of split peas for me on one of his frequent trips to the store and I was all set to find a quiet day to make some soup.
A year latter . . . . .     just kidding,  yesterday I decided it was time to make the soup. I had soaked the peas overnight, (actually I soaked the peas a day and a night because I forgot they were soaking and didn't remember until yesterday morning.) I figured peas can soak for a few extra hours without any problem. I washed the peas, added plenty of water and the ham stock from the ham, (that I did remember to save), added some onion and the ham. Set the crock pot on the counter, plugged it in and we were good to go. Ger and I ran around doing some errands, then came home, cleaned up for dinner with friends and in the middle of dinner I remembered I haD never turned ON the crock pot. How bad could it be? The ham was already cooked and cured. It was sitting in water . . . what the hey . . . the only people I am going to poison are Ger and myself . . . When we got back from dinner I turned ON the crock pot and the soup finally started to cook.  By the time we went to bed the smell of pea soup was filling the air and the pot was bubbling away. I figured it would not be good to leave the pot on HIGH for the night so I turned it to low and went to bed.  NOT A GOOD PLAN !  This morning I have a pot of solid muck. It is brown and tastes (yes I did take a taste of it!) very salty but it still smells like pea soup although we technically cannot call this stuff SOUP. It is more of a mush.
BUT I WILL NOT GIVE UP!  I WANT PEA "SOUP" !
In my quest for pea soup I have now transferred the muck to a plastic container, added a cut up potato to suck some of the saltiness out and put the mess in the fridge to chill. I figure I will add some water and MAYBE, just maybe, I will have pea soup for dinner tonight. I'll keep you posted on the results.

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