Ham

" Would you like something to drink? Perhaps some ham?" -FTT Cinderella

We had ham for Christmas dinner and it was delicious. I found this recipe on Food.com for a 

Brown Sugar Glaze. 

1 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp flour

1/2 tsp dijon mustard

1/8 tsp cinnamon

3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

3 Tbsp water

Mix everything together. Score the outside of the ham and rub the glaze all over it. If you have a spiral cut ham, you can put it in between the layers a bit. Bake until heated through, according to times and temp on the label. I had a bunch of glaze left over so I was able to pour it over the finished ham and dip it a bit.

After a big ham dinner, inevitably there is a lot of ham left over. One thing my mom would make with ham is:

Ham and Noodle Casserole

Brown cubed ham in butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Add a can of cream of chicken soup, a soup can of milk, 1 tsp. curry powder or to taste and parsley until it looks right. Mix it all together and heat until warm. Add a small carton of cottage cheese being sure to temper it. Warm through and serve over noodles. We would use egg noodles but you could also use shells or some such. 

Hoisin Beef

This recipe came from the Hilo newspaper and we've had it several times. It's yummy and quick with only a few ingredients that you will probably only have to buy once. I believe you can find everything in the Asian section of your grocery store.

Spicy Hoisin Beef with Ginger-Soy Noodles

For the noodles:

18 ounces fresh egg noodles (you can also use spaghetti but I like the squiggly quality of the fresh noodles better, they should be in the produce section near the tofu)

2 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp minced ginger

red bell pepper sliced into thin strips

3 scallions thinly sliced diagonally

3 Tbsp soy sauce

For the Beef:

3 Tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp five-spice powder

1 pound flank steak (or whatever kind of steak you want) cut into thin strips

1/4 c vegetable oil (I never use this much, I just eyeball what I think will look right for cooking)

1/4 c hoisin sauce

1/2 Tbsp chili-garlic sauce (The recipe calls for 2 Tbsp chili-garlic paste but I'm not totally sure what that is and when I used that much of the sauce it was way too spicy for us. You can always play with the amount to fit your family but there is some spiciness to the five-spice powder so don't overdo it.)

2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar (I use rice vinegar, I think it's the same thing)

To prepare noodles, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside. Return the saucepan to the stove. Add the sesame oil and heat over medium high. Add the ginger, bell pepper and scallions. Saute for 1 minute then add the noodles and soy sauce and toss well. Cover and set aside.

For the beef, mix the cornstarch and five-spice powder in a ziploc bag. Add the steak strips and toss to coat (this is my preferred method of coating meat). In a deep skillet over high, heat the oil. Saute the steak strips until crispy, browned and cooked through. Drain off any excess oil. Stir in the hoisin, chili-garlic sauce and rice vinegar.

Serve the beef over the noodles and garnish with sesame seeds if you want.

Homemade Hamburger Helper

This is a recipe from Jason's mom that she uses as a quick, go to recipe. The amounts are dependent on how many you need to feed.

Ground beef
Can Stewed tomatoes (provides the seasoning)
Tomato Sauce
Slices of American Cheese
Cooked elbow macaroni

Brown the ground beef in a skillet. Add the stewed tomatoes and tomato sauce. Stir in the pasta. Layer cheese on top in the pan and let it sit while you set the table then mix it in once it's melted.

Roasted vegetable lasagna

I was in the mood for lasagna yesterday. But we had recently had spaghetti with sausage (I always make my lasagna with sausage), so I wanted to try something meatless. I've never been a fan of vegetable lasagna because they often have white sauce instead of tomato sauce, but I found one on allrecipes.com that looked good. I made a few modifications, based on reviews and what we had in the house. For example it called for 3 small zucchini and 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, which we didn't have. But we did have asparagus and kale. I guess you can use any kind of veggies you want, but the eggplant is the most important one because it is SO GOOD roasted. This was the first time I've made lasagna without cooking the noodles first. I've always been leary, but it worked out just fine.

Ingredients
1 whole eggplant, sliced 1/4" thick and quartered
1 red bell pepper, cut in half and sliced
1/2 pound asparagus, cut into 1" pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
salt & pepper
1 bunch of kale

1 (15 ounce) container cottage cheese
1 egg
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 (26 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
10 no-boil lasagna noodles
2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss eggplant, red pepper and asparagus in a bowl with olive oil and garlic. Spread out on extra large cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake, uncovered for 15 minutes. Turn vegetables over. Bake 15 minutes longer.
Meanwhile, boil kale in a large pot about 5 minutes or until tender. Drain and thoroughly dry on paper towels, squeezing out excess water; remove stems, chop leaves and set aside. In a bowl, combine the cottage cheese, egg and parseley.

Reduce heat to 350 degrees. Spread about 1/3 cup spaghetti sauce in a 9x13 pan. Layer with 5 lasagna noodles, half of cottage cheese mixture, half of mozzarella cheese, half of roasted vegetables and kale, and half of remaining spaghetti sauce. Repeat layers. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Uncover; bake 5-10 minutes longer or until edges are bubbly. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting. Yum! Everyone loved it.

Corned beef -- tastes like ham

I know this is a bit delayed, but I wanted to mention the lovely corned beef we had for St. Patrick's Day. I may have had it once before, but I've certainly never made it. It got mixed reviews at our house. I absolutely loved it; Uchenna tried to pretend it didn't exist and only ate colcannon (the mashed potatoes-cabbage side dish).

Here's how you make it:

• Buy the ready-to-boil beef brisket that has already been brined.
• Rinse it, put it in a pot and barely cover it with water.
• Dump in the little spice-peppercorn packet that comes with it (is it called corned beef because of the peppercorns? I never could figure out what corn had to do with anything).
• Boil it for about two hours (just make sure the water doesn't completely boil away), and voila!

It's very greasy-fatty, just so you know. And red. I was a bit surprised that it was fully cooked but red. Actually it looked, smelled, and tasked somewhat like ham, but with a beefy texture. Yummy. Hmm, maybe that ham resemblance is what put Uchenna off.

When only one person eats the corned beef, you have to figure out what to do with the leftovers. I snuck them into a (also lovely) pasta dish and hoped he wouldn't notice. I think he noticed. He ate some, but not much, and went rummaging for snacks an hour later.

But for people who do like corned beef and/or ham, here is the pasta recipe:

• Cook and drain pasta (I used penne. Bowties or egg noodles would probably be just as good).
• Dice the left-over corned beef. Sauté with diced onions and sliced mushrooms (since the beef is fatty all on its own, don't add any extra oil) until the onions are soft, the mushrooms are browned, and the beef is warmed through and somewhat browned (this may take some tasting to make sure the beef really is hot all through--a cook's gotta do what a cook's gotta do).
• Add a little garlic and green beans and cook another minute or two (asparagus might work in place of the green beans, if you're into that sort of thing).
• Sprinkle the sautéed mixture with a tablespoon or so of flour and stir until everything is evenly coated.
• Add enough milk to make it all saucy (two cups or so, depending on how much you're making). Stir and simmer for a few minutes until the sauce cooks down and thickens up a little.
• Add the cooked and drained pasta to the sauce. Add green peas.
• Mix until the sauce and pasta are well combined. Turn off the heat (quick, before the peas start to lose their green, and get that awful cooked-peas color!). Taste and add salt and pepper as necessary.
• Serve immediately with a crisp salad.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Kale and Fontina

Every time we have this, I love it. I pick in it while it's on the stove, eat too much at dinner and am all over the left overs. Jason thinks it's nothing special and would prefer it only occasionally. We have it now and then. It's from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food.

4 slices of bacon (not pre-cooked)
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 bunch kale ( 1 pound) thick stems trimmed and chopped
salt and pepper
2 cups chicken broth (It says low sodium but then why add the salt? Last time I used salt and normal sodium broth and it was too salty. I'm thinking next time I'll not add the salt and use regular broth)
1 pound whole wheat spaghetti
1/2 cup grated fontina cheese

Cook bacon in a large skillet and set aside. Pour off most of the grease. It says to leave three tablespoons but I can never tell that so I just leave a little bit. Start the water for boiling the pasta. Cook garlic in the grease until golden. Add the kale in batches and cook until wilted (2 minutes). Add broth, cover and simmer 10 minutes (until kale is tender). Meanwhile, cook the pasta. The recipe recommends reserving some of the water to add later if you want but I don't usually do/need that. Toss the cooked pasta with the kale, fontina and bacon.

Pasta Primavera

We are working on eating less meat these days (India really got us out of the habit) so I try to make a meatless dish about three times a week. Here is one of the ones that I like to just put together (hence the lack of amounts, just kind of use what works for your group). This is also really quick and simple.

Pasta - usually something chunky like rotini or penne, I've been into whole wheat of late
Chopped Broccoli
Chopped Cauliflower
Sliced Carrots
Alfredo Sauce - I usually use a jar sauce but have made a simple Parmesan cheese sauce before

When the pasta is cooking and has about five minutes left, I add the vegetables. When I think about it, I add the broccoli later because it doesn't need as much cook time as the cauliflower and carrots. Then they are already mixed together and I just have to add the sauce. If you decide not to heat up the sauce before mixing it into the pasta, then you will probably need to keep it on the stove for a bit to heat up the sauce.

Spinach Cannelloni

This one came out of one of the local free newspapers so it is in metric. It is a bit time consuming but in spite of that, it's pretty good.

450 g cooked chopped spinach
250 g ricotta cheese
1 egg
60 g grated parmesan
ground nutmeg
16 cannelloni tubes, uncooked
600 ml bechamel sauce (I just used a jar of alfredo sauce, point is, something white)
For Napoli sauce:
1 T olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 celery stick, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
400g can chopped tomatoes
75 mL vegetable stock
basil leaves

Preheat oven to 190 C (I have no idea what this is in F, less than 400, maybe 350 or 375?) Put ricotta in bowl. Mix egg and half of parmesan (although it never says what to do with the other half so I guess you could use it all if you want. Add spinach and nutmeg, mix. Spoon filling into cannelloni (this will take a long time. The first time I did it, I used a spoon to get it in, the second time, just my fingers. I'm not sure which way went faster but the later was definately messier) and place in baking dish.

For Napoli sauce: fry onion in oil. Add celery and garlic. Cook 2 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and stock. Simmer 15 minutes (you can start filling the tubes while this is simmering but don't loose track of time as it will probably take longer than 15 min to fill all of the tubes). Add basil. Pour bechamel over cannelloni (I'm guessing this is where the other half of the cheese would go but it doesn't say). Spoon napoli sauce on top. Bake 35 minutes or until golden.