I love to cook! 
In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport, said Julia Child.
It's true, we love traditional meals where you spend hours around the table enjoying an whole dinner cooked by our hostess from starters, appetizer, entree, salad & cheese, dessert and of course coffee.
Just for the record, entree means appetizer in french...Made me confuse at the beginning I was in USA.
One of the dishes I like most here are soups. They are completely different from ours. We made soup with vegetables more often. Soups here and I would say especially the ones we can have in the dinners are made with beans, chicken, ham, cheddar etc etc etc...And they are delicious!! 
So I decided to start cooking soups as you and yesterday I cooked a ham & bean soup, one of my favorites. I think I did pretty good (as my husband says . I had a bowl for lunch too, and I don't need anything else.
Here is the result on picture:

And the recipe:

Ham bean soup

Cook time:2 hours

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

8 cups water

1 pound Great Northern beans or navy beans

2 cups cubed ham

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 teaspoon pepper or to taste

1 bay leaf

1 carrot, chopped ( I put 2)

1 rib celery, chopped and sliced thinly ( I put 2)

1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce

1 cube chicken flavor bouillon (not in the original recipe, it is personal addition)

Preparation:

Bring water and beans to a boil; boil 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let stand 1 hour.

Stir in ham, pepper, bay leaf, carrot and celery. bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer until beans are tender( skim foam from top), about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. If soup is too thick, add a little water.

Add tomato sauce and salt; simmer about 15 minutes longer. Remove bay leaf.

Enjoy and let me know if you like it!!