Monday, March 28, 2005
Ham. It’s What’s For Dinner For Days.
Speaking of food, I made us a big Easter dinner that was excellent, if I do say so myself.
I bought a spiral sliced half ham that was a hefty 12 lbs. That was yummy, but was nothing more than following cooking instructions.
With it we had potatoes, mashed by Deb, carrots, some especially tasty asparagus, and candied sweet potatoes. I saved out a hefty amount of plain sweet potato for Sadie, so we’ll see if she likes that as much as she did the baked version.
To make the candied sweet potatoes, I peeled a couple large specimens, cut them lengthwise, sliced them, boiled/steamed them in minimal water (we really could use another steamer or two, or a steam basket or two made for regular pans; everything but the asparagus got “boiled"), and when they were done put them into a deep frying pan where I had melted 1/3 stick or so of butter and mixed it with a couple big spoonfuls of brown suger. Heated, flipped, stirred, let it get all coated and gooey, and voila. It’s delicious, yet simple. It might have been improved by thicker slices, perhaps barely done when put in the sweet mix, rather than already falling apart done. There are recipes out there with all kinds of embellishments, but simple works and reminds me of what my mother made, rarely, when I was a kid.
My next project will be to make pea soup. I have the ham bone with a ton of meat still on it, and could possibly add some of the meat I carved off. Ended up with leftover ham in two of the gallon Ziploc bags, and the bone in a third pending my soup experiment. Any suggestions? Seems simple enough.