Split Pea Soup

I put together a couple of recipes and it turned out very tasty. Here's what I did-

1 c. chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tabs. olive oil
1/2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. salt (see note on ham hock)
1 tsp. pepper
2-3 chopped carrots
2-3 chopped celery
1 lb. dried green split peas
8 c water
ham hock (I had two in a package so I put them both in, the large one had lots of meat the small one didn't have any, so 1 large ham hock with some meat would be good. The ham hock added a lot of salt to the soup so you might want to wait to salt at the end)

In a 4 qt. pot saute onions and garlic with olive oil til onions translucent. Add carrots, celery, oregano, thyme, bay leaf, split peas, ham hock and water. Simmer on a low heat covered til ham hock done. Then take out and ham hock to cook enough to handle. If soup is too thin reduce, then put in blender, in batched. When ham hock is cool pull off meat and shred, add to soup. Taste for seasoning. Also we are planning to add some chopped ham when we serve. We wanted lots of meat in it.