Crock Pot Red Beans and Rice

From me! An experimental success!

Ingredients:

2-3 stalks celery, diced
2 bell peppers, diced
1 onion, diced
1 package smoked turkey sausage (or other smoked sausage), sliced
1 ish lbs ham (preferably a bone-in cut)
2 cups chicken broth
1 Tbsp Creole seasoning
2-3 bay leaves
1-2 cans red or kidney beans

Cooked rice

Method:

Put celery, peppers, onion, ham, ham bone, bay leaves and Creole seasoning. Add chicken broth. Cook on low for 6 ish hours.

Add sausage and 1 1/2 cans of the beans and cook for another 1-2 hours or as long as you have until you or your family are starving. If desired, mash up the remaining beans to thicken the broth and add a couple shakes of Tabasco sauce for flavor and spice. Serve over rice.

Notes from Jill's Kitchen: It was much too liquid-y this time (4/17), so next time I am going to cut the broth amount in half. I'll let you know how it goes!

Update 7/17: I did very little broth this time and it was SO salty! The only thing I can guess is that without liquid to dilute it, the drippings from the ham are very salty. Hm. I still don't quite know how to combat this and find a happy medium of not too liquid-y, but not too salty. Next time I will record exactly how much broth I use and what the results are. Wish me luck!

Update 10/17: 1 cup water, 1/2 cup reduced-sodium broth