What to do with a left over ham bone.?

Yum- bean soup or split pea soup!

Throw it in a crockpot with water, celery, carrots, garlic, onion, and pepper to make the stock. After 8 hours or overnight, remove the bone, take any meat off it, and strain the broth.

Soak your beans or peas as recommended, then back in the crockpot with broth, chopped onion, celery, carrot and diced potato, & the meat. Cook another 8 hours, adding salt & pepper if needed.

Sounds sooo yummy, I might have to make a ham just for the bone!

Wow. Lots of bean answers and that is my favorite as well (and split pea) I recently tried a new recipe that had tomatoes, Dijon mustard, chili powder and Worcestershire in it. It was in no way tomatoe-y. The Best Bean and Ham Soup from allrecipes.com. (Someday I will figure out how to post a link. Sorry.) Very different from my bean soup and I pride myself on my creativity in the kitchen. Of course I didn't follow it exactly!

That being said, at the least make a hearty broth (throw in whatever, onions, garlic...) and freeze in portions. Use it when cooking rice or potatoes for a slightly richer flavor. Cabbage, green beans and poached eggs will all benefit from the added enhancement. And of course you can use it as a base for any soup. Make Clean out your refrigerator / freezer soup and use up those little bits of vege leftovers and add rice, lentils or barley for a delicious and nutritious soup. Good luck!

As for giving the dog a bone... cooked bones are not recommended by vets as they do splinter and may become lodged in the digestive tract. Raw bones are okay. However I have never had any problems with my own dogs.

Use it to season a big pot of pinto beans or black-eyed peas. Take dried beans & soak overnight. Rinse well & place in crock pot or large cooking pot. Add ham bone or ham-hock, a couple of cloves of garlic & 1 lg onion cut into cubes. Add enough water to cover, season well with Ms. Dash & cook on low all day long. Take ham bone out of crock pot, remove meat & put meat back into beans. I serve with coleslaw & homemade buttermilk cornbread.

bean soup, or red beans and rice...boil the ham bone with beans that have been soaked over night, add some vegetables and boil until tender....same with the red beans, add water to cover, add the ham bone and boil with celery, onions and serve over rice.

Split pea with ham soup. Please don't give the bone to your dog, cooked bones are dry and splinter easily and are not safe for dogs.

Stick it back in the fridge and let the ham grow back on it...it might take a while but ham is a reconstitutional meat...it regenerates itself...well it did for me.....

Give it to your doggie if you have one!!