Ham and so on

The whole family loves ham, and there is something about the smell of ham baking in the oven on a cold day that is magical.  Of course, it stays cool in Wisconsin a lot longer than in other places, and I fixed this a month or so ago - sorry again for the delay, it has been a crazy upside-down spring around here.  So, for the first night we had ham, baked potatoes, bread and salad.  I hardly ever take pictures of the salad, but we eat it almost every night.  We buy the big boxes of organic mixed greens at the grocery store when we can't get it locally, and we will start buying it locally again very soon!  Our local grocery stores don't carry it in the big boxes and the small bags are so expensive, but since my husband works in Madison, he stops at a grocery store that is right across from his office, and they carry it.  I have often noticed that I can buy bulk so much cheaper in bigger cities.  So - when you are taking an outing to a larger city - stock up!  I buy rice, olive oil, salad and sometimes cereal there.  Oh - and some really great specialty cheeses.  We have some great cheeses at the cheese house in town here, but they have some really great ones in Madison from all kinds of wonderful cheese makers from Wisconsin.  I highly recommend Crave Brothers (Petit Frere) and any of the Carr Valley cheddars.  Mmmm.  There are not cheese that you just eat.  They are cheeses that you savor in small amounts.  They are too expensive to do otherwise, but make a great (and healthy!) treat. 

I am very lazy about making hams.  I usually stick them in my dutch oven (still frozen if I haven't been organized enough to thaw them out in the fridge first).  Then I turn the oven on to 225 or 250 and let it go for a couple of hours or so.  About an hour and a half before I am ready to serve it,  I turn the oven up to 350 and stick in some potatoes.  I just scrub them, rub them with a bit of butter and stick them in.  Then everything can come out at once.   Easy peasy! This served four adults and two kids and there were still leftovers!

The next day we still had company and so I made fried ham sandwiches for lunch.  This was very easy too.  You slice the ham into 1/4 slices or so and put them into a dry frying pan.  You don't need any additional fat - there is enough on the ham.  Cook at medium heat until warmed through and beginning to brown.  While you are waiting for them to cook, you can slice the bread and toast it (if desired) spread bread with mayo and add some cheese slices - we like muenster or cheddar.  Put the ham slices on top of the cheese, top with some lettuce and you have got a wonderful simple sandwich.

We also fried up some potatoes in another pan.  This was simple too.  I just added some ham fat to the pan, then scooped the leftover baked potatoes out of their skins (and I am sure that you know by now that I made potato skins out of them!) and tossed them in too.  I cooked them until warmed through and starting to get crispy too, on medium-high heat.  This served eight adults and four children for lunch.  And we still had the bone and a little bit of meat left.  So what did I make?  All together now:  SOUP!

I made the U.S. Senate Bean Soup again, with only a couple of modifications.  I just used the ham bone (with attached meat) and trimmings instead of the hock/shank.  I still ended up with about a cup and a half of meat after picking everything apart after simmering it for a couple of hours.  We soon had more company, and this soup served four adults, plus the two kids, and then just the four us for two more meals.  I usually serve it with bread.  Enjoy!