NAVY BEAN AND HAM POT PIE

Steps:

• 1. PREPARING THE BEANS: The night before rinse beans and remove any rocks. Place beans in pot and cover with water to soak overnight on the stove top. In the morning you will see bubbles on the water -- the beans are releasing some of their gas.
• 2. Discard the soaking water and cover the beans with water again and bring to a boil. After it comes to a boil, turn the heat off, let it cool a little, and then discard this water, too. (This removes a lot of the gas from the beans.)
• 3. COOKING THE BEANS AND SOUP: Fill a 6 qt pot with the beans and 4 quarts of fresh water.
• 4. Add the ham, onion, celery, and carrots (all cubed small) to the water and turn up the heat to bring it to a boil, again. Then turn the heat down and simmer for a few hours until the beans are cooked. (You can reduce the cooking time to about 30-45 minutes by using a pressure cooker.)
• 5. MAKING THE POT PIE DOUGH: 1.Combine flour, milk, egg, and salt. Mix well. If dough is too sticky just add a little more flour. 2.Roll dough out on flour covered area to about 1/4" inch thick. (Thickness should be about twice what you would use for actual pie crust.) Cut dough into 1 1/2" squares to make noodles.
• 6. Slowly drop individual squares into the bubbling finished soup and cook for 10 minutes on medium heat until noodles are done. You can tell they are done when they puff up a little and change to an even color. Serve immediately. Note 1: if you cook the dough too long they will slowly disintegrate into the soup. This is not bad, it won't ruin the soup, but you won't have any of the delicious pot pie to eat -- which is part of the pleasure.
• 7. Note 2: No need to add salt, the ham has plenty. If you add too much ham, the soup will be too salty.
• 8. Note 3: This could be made with a ham bone, rather than the ham steak. You can also make it with about 1/2 pkg of uncooked bacon cut in cubes.