I Still Have Ham

I'm still going over here on that ham. It is almost over. I am just about down to the bone. Finally. I won't be buying a ham again for a very long time. Maybe never. But, since I am trying to make the best of it and I don't want to waste food...I thought, now what. So it was pasta.

Simple. I sauteed some mushrooms, added some peas and spinach till it wilted down. Then I added some heavy cream ( I know ) and salt and pepper.Diced the HAM and added it in. Boiled up some pasta. Cooked it and added to the skillet along with a nice splash of cooking water. Then I just finished it off with some good parmesan. And it was good. But we are really tired of HAM. Wish I could mail some out.

What Was I Thinking ?

It seemed like a good idea at the time. I was trying to get out of my 5 week slump and into the Easter Spirit. So I bought a HUGE ham. Huge. And no one but me and John for Easter dinner. I thought it would be nice for leftovers. Easter was yesterday and I am already tired of ham. What am I going to do with all that ham? My sister-in-law and best friend, Julie made pasta with meat sauce for Easter. I wondered about that move at the time. In the morning light..it looks like it was a good way to go. I never really liked having to deal with an enormous amount of leftover holiday meat. On Thanksgiving, I am tired of turkey before the day is over. So here I am faced with a HUGE ham...and I don't really even like ham.

I am still in that "licking my wounds phase". So I got our Betty Crocker for some comfort. Ham crouquettes with white sauce. Huh? Really? Should I do it? I remember an episode on" All In The Family" where Edith made ham crouquettes...and it did not go over very good there with Archie either.Are they really that bad? Can't it be a case of " everything old is new again?"

So I made them. I don't know how they will be. I just Cusinarted (is that a word) some ham with parsley from my garden, a little pepper and dijon and an egg...formed them into little circles and dipped them in panko bread crumbs. It said to let them sit a couple of hours before frying. How can anything fried be bad? We'll see.

Teddy Update: Made our room reservations today for Tuesday, April 20th. John and I are driving to Riverside, Ca ( NOT a vacation destination)...going to dinner and spending the night. Then we will get up Wednesday morning and travel the rest of the hour and a half into the desert to a town called Anza...kinda by Palm Springs. We are a LONG way from home. We will get Teddy and make the 7 or 8 hour ride home. We are so excited. I'll keep you updated. 2 weeks to go !

Second To The Last

As I am sure you all know, after this weekend, only one more left in August. So to celebrate we made pancakes with fried ham this morning. I got the blackberries yesterday at Gopher Glen. Buddy was restless late in the afternoon so we rode up See Canyon, it was windy and leaves were blowing all over the road. We had big dark thunder clounds here and as we rounded the bend, I could smell "the smell." That first rain of the season smell. Buddy and I went into the little shed where the apples are for sale and then..we heard it. Rain on the rooftop. Everyone got so excited. We had the lady bag some Burgundy apples. They have such a short season and are one of my favorite apples. Skin so dark and a very tart apple. Great for baking. We got back in the car and searched for the windshield wipers. Swipe, swipe, swipe they went...wind blowing and skies rumbling. When we got home I gathered a few pieces of fire wood, lite my pumpkin spice candles, and John and I ran outside to watch the show. We smiled as we watched the woodsmoke curl around the top of our pine tree. And we smelled the air. Woodsmoke and rain. And we were happy.