HoneyBaked Hambone Soup

We got a coupon in the mail for a Honeybaked Ham.  This is my favorite ham of all time.  You can debate country ham and regular ham, but you will never have a more tender or wonderful ham than a Honeybaked Ham.  There.  That is my unpaid advertisement.

On the other hand, there is a good possibility you will never buy a more expensive ham.  So I wait for a coupon.  And I freeze it in batches so it stays fresh.  Always get the ham with the bone in.  The other is not nearly as tender.  And you can cut all the slices off the bone to save and then use the bone for soup.  I like to make split pea soup with the bone,
http://shenandoahgatewayfarm.blogspot.com/2010/12/split-pea-soup.html  but this time I bought the soup mix they sell and made that.  It says it has 16 beans, but Lee says he only counted 15 in his bowl.  Please do not be amused.  It only encourages him.

 

Honeybaked Hambone Soup

1 HoneyBaked Ham bone
12 cups cold water
1 package HoneyBaked Ham Bone Soup Mix
1 28 oz. Can Whole Tomatoes
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced onions
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt

 

Place the hambone on a large stock pot.  Add 12 cups cold water and bring to a boil. 

 

If 12 cups don't fit, and it didn't in my pot, reserve it for when you remove the ham.

 

Add the beans from the box and the seasoning packet.  Return to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer for 2 hours.

Remove the ham bone and allow it to cool.  Add the reserved water at this time, if you were unable to fit it all in earlier.

 

Place the tomatoes, diced veggies, garlic and s&p in the pot and continue to cook for another hour, or until the beans are tender.  You may want to break up the tomatoes as they cook.

 

When the ham is cool enough, trim the meat off the bones ,remove the fat and dice it up.  Give the bones to your dog.  He will love you!  Do not expect to see them ever again.  He ate them in about 20 minutes.  Is this good for a dog?  I don't know, but he loves them.

Return the trimmed ham to the pot.

Serve with some of the bread from the deli with whole roasted garlic baked right in.  Yum.

 

This is a delicious soup, but it made a boatload.  We had one meal, then invited a friend over for another meal.  We sent a few bowls home with her and we will still be eating this for another dinner or two!  Make it when you are expecting company.  A lot of company.

Ham and Broccoli Bake

I have a Kroger card and they send me recipes and coupons from time to time.  I bought a Honeybaked Ham for Easter (another coupon!) and decided to use some of it in a casserole.  They are big, so I break them up into batches and freeze them for future use.  I made changes because they had way too many steps and pans.

 


Ham and Broccoli Bake

2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
3/4 cup diced onion, about 1/2 of a medium onion.
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 large broccoli crown, chopped into small bits
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 1/2 cups cooked grains  I used a mix of brown rice and wild rice
1 cup diced ham
1/3 cup slivered cilantro or basil  I used cilantro because I didn't have basil
3/4 cup shredded jack cheese, divided use


 

If you don't have any cooked rice, start that first.  It should be done when you need to add it to the dish before baking.  If not, sit down with a cup of tea and finish when it is done.

 

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Spray Pam in an 8 or 9 inch square baking dish. 

 

 

Heat the oil in a large fry pan.  Add the onions and cook until translucent.  Add the garlic, broccoli, salt and pepper. Cook and stir the broccoli over medium high heat until the broccoli starts to brown.  Set aside to cool a bit.

 

In a large bowl, whisk together the ricotta, sour cream and eggs.  Place the broccoli mix in the bowl and add the rice, ham and cilantro or basil.  Mix in 1/2 cup of the cheese. 

 

Spread the mixture into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.

 

Bake for 30 minutes.  If you are using rice from another meal and it is cold, you may need to bake a bit longer.  Everything has already been cooked, but you need to heat it through and melt the cheese.

 

Lee mentioned that it would be really good made with cauliflower.  But he thinks most things would improve with cauliflower.  Well, not dessert.

I will take it under advisement.

Better Than Grilled Cheese

I have been rather lax in getting my posts up, lately. Our computer died and I am using our very old (7 years?) laptop.  It has been acting up, also.  When that happens I save what I have and walk away.  No point in throwing it out the window.  So the following post was written a few days ago and has been waiting for me to finish it and add pictures.  Here's hoping!

   

It has been cold and snowy.  I decided on grilled cheese for dinner.  But not just any grilled cheese.  Special grilled cheese.  There is a tiny hole-in-the-wall diner in Roanoke called Pop's and they serve a plethora of yummy grilled cheese sandwiches.  If they can do it so can I.

Better Than Grilled Cheese

Bread  This should be obvious!
Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 Granny Smith Apple
Ham
Sweet, Hot Mustard
Butter, softened

My favorite ham is Honeybaked Ham.  We had some in the freezer left over from Christmas.   In a perfect world, I would  always use Honeybaked ham.  But it is expensive and a long trip into Roanoke, so I was thrilled to know it was there for the taking!  I trimmed all the fat and set it aside

   

Core, and peel the apple.  Slice it in 1/4 inch slices.  Slice the cheese.  Cut enough pieces to cover one slice of bread for each sandwich.  No.  You can't use American cheese wrapped in plastic.  You have to use REAL cheese.  Make sure it is the SHARP cheese.  You want to taste cheese in your grilled cheese sandwich, don't you?

   

Assemble your sandwich.  After I cut everything and started layering it, I wanted to add something extra and remembered the sweet, hot mustard.  Don't leave this out, either.  It really added some sweetness and a bit of punch, all at the same time.  I spread a thin layer on one slice of bread.

Heat a pan or griddle on medium, or use a panini. I am not a panini fan as I don't like smooshed sandwiches, but use what you like.  Butter the top side of the sandwich and place it butter side down on the pan.  Then butter the side facing you.

Heat until brown, about 2 minutes, and then carefully flip it over.  I do this using two spatulas, one on top and one on the bottom.

   

When the second side is nice and brown, remove to a cutting board and cut it.  Serve immediately with something healthy, like fruit or a salad.  Because this is not healthy.  But it is goooood.

Sheesh.  More computer problems.  Can't wait for the new one to get here!

Split Pea Soup

Split pea soup at Christmas time has become a tradition in our family. Actually anything we do once and like becomes a tradition. My sister had a friend named Art and he brought a Honeybaked Ham to my parents house for a meal. Instant heaven. Once you eat the delicious sweet ham, you can't just throw away the bone! You have to make soup. A Honeybaked ham bone makes the world's best soup.

One complication of this tradition is that Tara is a vegetarian. We can't have a meal that exists solely of soup and bread as she will be reduced to eating only bread and that isn't nice. On the other hand I don't want to have to make two different meals...that isn't nice. So I make a ham based soup and a veggie based soup at the same time in two different pans. Here is how that works. Now, you have to understand that I don't rely on a recipe, so I make it slightly different each time. Here is how I made it this year.

Split Pea Soup....with and without ham!

Chicken broth..whatever you have on hand. I use what I have and water if needed or just water.
Vegetable broth....two cans
2 bags split peas
onion
carrots
celery if you have some.
chopped garlic
Salt
Pepper
A wee bit of olive oil, or skip the saute step and dump the veggies in the pot.




I chopped up the left over onion from the night before. It was a big one so it make about 1 1/2 cups. Then I chopped up about 15 or 20 mini carrots and a couple of celery sticks. I have never used celery and thought it would be nice.

Pour a couple of tablespoons of EVOO in a large stock pot and a medium sized saucepan. I put about 1/4 of the chopped veggies in the small pan and the rest in the large pan reserving the garlic. Garlic will turn bitter pretty quick, so I sauteed the veggies a few minutes over medium and then added the garlic. I have also just dumped them in the pan without oil and I don't notice a real difference in taste.




After the garlic cooked for about a minute...OK, let's be honest here. I don't time it. After I dumped in the garlic I dumped the ham bone in the big pot.



I added one and one half of the split peas and then added the chicken stock (I had one can) and poured in about 3 cups of water. I didn't wait or time anything. This is a EASY recipe!!




Then I added the last of the split peas to the smaller pan and pored in the 2 cans of vegetable stock. I turned up the heat to medium high on both pans. While I was waiting for the pans to boil, I cleaned up the kitchen and then after they boiled I turned down the pans and went in to rest. WHEW!



OK. In reality I came in and stirred every 30 minutes or so and had to turn down the heat a bit and once I had to add water to the ham based version as it was getting too thick, but basically I had 2 hours of nothin'. Hey! It's Christmas! I had a lot of recuperating to do! The hardest part is remembering which is the spoon I stir the ham based soup with and which is for the veggie version.

After 2 hours or three, who's counting? I took out the ham bone. Now I don't like to eat meat with fat or gristle, so I painstakingly cut off the parts I don't like and returned the chopped up bits to the soup. I might even add an extra slice or two of the ham all chopped up as I like a lot of ham in my soup. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Guess what? You are done, now! You can keep it warm on the stove while you make some sort of interesting bread. We just toasted some we had leftover from another meal. This is the meal I make after all the fancy holiday meals and it is really EASY. And it is DELICIOUS!

When our kids were little, Split Pea Soup was hard to say (you say it three times fast!) One of the kids, who shall be nameless, not to protect their privacy or anything, but because I can't remember, called it Spit Sea Poop. I must admit that we still call it that. There is a chance that you will also call it that, because the tongue finds that easier for some reason. Just don't slip up and call it that in a restaurant. But if you do, please let me know!