Steve and Tim's Inaugural brew and some soup

I want to report on the tasting day festivities. I was a little nervous as Steve, Kathy, Teresa and I popped the top on our first Irish Red Ale. As the opener started to release the seal I saw bubbles on the edge of the bottle neck. That told us the carbonation phase was also a success.
We had placed 4 mugs in the freezer for the frosty mug effect and as Steve poured the first bottle in the mug it developed a nice head; very exciting! He handed the mug to me to taste and it was excellent! Total and complete success! We were thrilled! Our first attempt at brewing had turned out very well.
We went on to make some grilled burgers to go along with the new brew and it was a very nice evening of good food and good beer. We decided to allow the remainder of the bottles to sit for another 2 weeks to allow the carbonation to fully develop as it was a bit less than a commercial beer might have been. I just cracked the next one tonight after another week of sitting and it was very good. It has another week to go but it is well on the way to a total success. I think we'll wait another month or so to begin our next batch. We need to empty some of our bottles to allow for the next batch to be bottled and not have to buy more.
Next on the agenda tonight is a soup I just made using "refrigerator sweepings". I had some ham leftovers, some asparagus, some ham braising liquid in the freezer( I save all braising liquids, stocks and sauces for use in other dishes than they were originally intended).
I started with some onion, celery, garlic and shallot in about 3 T unsalted butter in an 8 qt stock pot. meanwhile I soaked 1 lb. of Great Northern beans in a saucepan with enough water to cover them by about 1 inch for about 6 hours.
I sweated the veggies for about 10 mins. in the butter and a little olive oil. Next, I added 4 cups water and the leftover braising liquid which was very concentrated, and the leftover ham bone. I added 4 cups of chicken stock and about 3/4 lb. of chopped asparagus. This simmered for 20 mins. and then I pureed the whole thing with a hand blender until it was very smooth. Next I added the ham chunks from the leftovers and 2 Cajun Smoked Sausages sliced into 1/4" slices and simmered these for a few minutes.
The beans were simmered for about 1 1/2 hours in a separate pot and then about 1/2 of them poured into the soup pot. Next, I pureed the remainder of the beans in the saucepan with the hand blender until they were very smooth and poured them into the soup. The seasoning was about right because of the saltiness of the ham, braising liquid, and bones but I added several grinds of pepper and tasted it. It was very nice.
I don't think I will ever duplicate this exactly again, but it does show the possibilities of using whatever is in the refrigerator at a particular time.
Sweep out the refrig and have some fun!
Tim