Sunday, November 23, 2008

Simple Cooking



Tigger had a cooking lesson yesterday. She learned how to prepare a ham the same way that my mother taught me. She learned to trim the skin off and score the meat. I was out of whole cloves which surprised me; I then remembered grinding them up for a recipe and leaving them in the "whole" jar. We glaze our ham with an easy to make glaze. Take about a half of your smallest size mixing bowl about a cup, of dark brown sugar, add about a 1/2 c each of dark brown mustard and ketchup. Mix this with a fork until it's blended well. Baste the ham with it. If you score the ham it's very pretty to put a whole clove in each square. I baste the ham several times while baking and love this glaze. I usually buy a half a butt with the bone in. The bone makes the meat good and it's also great for making other dishes, beans or split pea soup later on. You can make a lot of meals out of a ham. It really isn't worth the price difference of nearly a dollar a pound to get the spiral cut and glaze. You got a knife, you can cut a ham. Another easy glaze that is good is just plain apricot jam right out of the jar.









Next we decided to make scalloped potatoes. You can watch Tigger learn this we got the camera out. Start by filling a sauce pot with milk and put on low heat to scald. Then scrub your russet potatoes clean. I don't see any reason to peel them the skins are good. Having a food processor is great for this because part of making scalloped potatoes is having the slices be the same size. I remember how much work this took my maother and I to do all of this by hand and we peeled the potatoes. My mom peeled with a paring knife and I used the peeler. I felt so grown up when I learned to use a paring knife too. Scalloped potatoes are easy to make, kind of time consuming but still they are simple. Place a layer of sliced potatoe sin the bottom of a deep baking dish. Then sprinkle with flour. Salt and pepper then add apply pats of butter. Repeat this until your dish is slightly more than half full. Pour the scaled milk over everything until almost covered but not. Au gratin potoatoes are made the same way but add grated cheddar cheese. I love sliced onion rings in each layer but my family does not like onions. They are crazy. cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for one hour covered and an additional half hour uncovered. make sure the pototatoes are soft. Sometimes it can take two hours. 400 degrees is the best but 350 will work.

Tigger had a guffaw belly laughing fit when I told her we would fix a dump cake for dessert. "DUMP CAKE!" she hollered. She almost fell out she was crackin up. Get out another oblong baking dish and pour a large can of sliced peaches into it with the syrup. Add a can of cherry pie filling. sprinkle the top with a pakage of butter cake mix and finely chopped walnuts. Either drizzle a melted stick of butter over the top or apply pats of butter, either way. you can use any knd of pie filling blueberry is good too. Bake for about 40 mins until golden brown. Everything fits in the oven together. Tigger wasn't laughing when we finished this, she was drooling.

There you go a feast for a king! With all the meals that can be made from this hunk of pork hiney paying $17. for a piece of meat is actually a good deal. We are going to have a lot to eat from 12 pounds of piggy.

12 comments:

farmlady said...

What a spread! Good thing you don't live next door. We'd be there for dinner.
We must all be thinking **FOOD**.I did a post on dessert. Mine was a bit more controlled than Dump Cake. I LOVE DUMP CAKE! but, alas, I'm on Weight Watchers.

Ham is the most for the money and delicious.

Angela said...

yum yum,,,it all looks so delicious. I like that Dump Cake too. I think I may try that..It sounds so simple (only way I bake, simple stuff,,lol. ). Yep, your family is crazy (no onions in the the scallops, my favorite girl). My family is CRAZIER though, they don't like scallop potatoes,,waa waa..I only get to eat them when my mother makes them and I'm over there for supper (like once a year,,lol). So much for an Italian family having meals at grandma's..oh well,,I look foward to having my children and their children, God willing one day!((hugs))
What's for supper here? Randy>>> whatcha cookin???lol. Thank God for hubby on weekends..lol

Angela said...

Can I come over for supper? Randy is making grilled cheese for supper...

Laura ~Peach~ said...

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM I grinned as I made the girls cook last night... Martha HATES to peel potatos so ... she peeled potatos as Shaniqua washed and breadded the pork chops... then Shaniqua mashed the potatos and martha made the veggies while I made gravy... it was delish and we all laughed at martha becuase her mantra the whole time was... WHEN I HAVE MY OWN PLACE IT WILL BE INSTANT TATERS ... oh well I wont eat there LOL. REAL, GOOD, food is just too easy and tastes too good...
I have made cake like that... but my favorite is cobblers... one cup flour one cup sugar one cup milk and a stick of butter a big can of what ever fruit you want... peach, blueberry, cherry, and cook till the batter rises and browns OH MY... break out the vanilla ice cream... DROOL ... maybe will make one for Thanksgiving... hummmm Peach cobbler... yUmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmY

Heidi said...

Cant you move up here so we can cook together? hhhhmmm PLEASE!!! LOL My granny does her ham that way, but I alas can not - Milk Man doesnt like that glaze *eye roll*. We are doing ham tonight for his birthday - just brown sugar baked on it... it self glazes..

Chris H said...

'simple cooking' is always the best cooking in my book! Well done. That ham looks devine.

Big Hair Envy said...

Is anyone else hungry???

I love to cook with my daughter. She has agreed to help me prepare our Thanksgiving meal this year. She even seems to be looking forward to it!!! I know I am:)

Karen said...

Licking the screen isn't quite the same. Wow, that looks good.

Grandma Tillie's Bakery said...

Comfort food at it's best--great job! I can smell it from here mmmm.......

My brother showed me how to make Dump Cake when we were in high school and I remember laughing my head off too when I heard the name.

Anonymous said...

Ummm I'll be there for some sandwiches! And yes dump cake is delicious!

Chesapeake Bay Woman said...

Oh dear...I'm getting drool on my keyboard. I made the chili today and it was fabulous. I'm making the cornbread tomorrow..thanks so much for the recipe. I say stick a few recipes up here each week and you'll have quite the following. You're an excellent cook.

Unknown said...

Thank you for the scalloped potatoes recipe. I never knew how to make them from scratch. The au gratin are my favorite, so I'm gonna try that recipe too.