Split Pea and Ham Soup

This was my first try on this one and it came out really good. Yippie!

Two bags of dried split peas.
One block of cream cheese or One Pint of half and half
Goya Ham Boullion - 6 packets
2 cups diced ham bits
2 tbsp Lemon juice
Pepper to taste

Soak peas overnight.
Cover with water and boil until soft.
Add 6 ham boullion packets while starting to boil.

Once peas are soft, blend soup in food processor or use immersion blender to make smooth. Pour back into soup pot. If you use a food processor, you're gonna have to do it in batches.

Add cream cheese by teaspoons and stir until they have melted and disappeared. You'll have to turn the pot back on to low or medium to keep an even heat in your soup to melt the cream cheese.

OR

Add half and half and stir.

Add lemon juice and chunked ham and let cook for another 15 minutes or so. Don't let it stick to the bottom of the pot.

Taste it. Does it need more ham flavor? More salt? More pepper? More sour? Add what you need to make it taste right. Is it too thick? Add water to get it to a consistency you like. Taste it again after any addition.

If you overdo the sour, add some sugar to fix it.
Sour will fix a too salty problem.
Salt will fix a too sweet problem.
(General rules of thumb