We had a great Easter this year. The entire local family showed up, nephews, daughter, and we had assorted friends. It was a beautiful day and everyone had fun. Sean and Colin managed to fly the remote control bug that I got Rob for Christmas -- and has incidentally turned out to be one of the best presents I ever got him -- over to the lemon orchard. But they got it back. Kaia was delighted with her Easter egg hunt and made Rob find eggs that she hid. She also loved the musical jump rope Lindsay bought her. Kaia's been fixated on jump-ropes, and this one was perfect. even the dogs had a blast.
Our oven was broken, but I was able to use Lindsay's and she lives about 2 miles from here. I would have used Kim's but her oven is also broken. Despite the oven glitch, or maybe because it caused me to be more organized, everything came out on time and was tasty.
Because we're watching money these days, I've switched from the Honeybaked Ham, which I still love, to making my own because I can buy a 10-pound ham for $.77 a pound, and who can pass that up. I used a new method to make the ham and it came out great. I cooked the lamb on the grill. I've had problems with flare-ups and was running to get Dena from work, so I threw a big piece of aluminum foil on top of the grate under the lamb leg (which was on the top grate) and this solved all the flareup issues and the lamb cooked well.
I had made the scalloped potatoes a couple of days ahead and had Lindsay cook them ahead of time. Scalloped potatoes can be very hard to cook because they resist cooking through, especially if you make a big bunch, as I do. In warming them back up, they finished cooking and were at the perfect consistency. I got a bit carried away and bought too much asparagus, (which I served lightly cooked with melted butter and fresh-squeezed lemon) but I am having a great time eating all the leftover spears. I also served baby potatoes with butter, parsley and chopped scallions, which is a perennial favorite.
Gen brought garlic bread, which people devoured, and Kim brought a carrot cake from a local bakery. Lindsay also brought over an orange coffee cake she'd made that was quite delicious. In fact, it was what I broke my diet to eat.
I'm not sure why I had so much fun. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that -- for this moment in time -- we're all OK, we're together and we can enjoy each other's company. And as we've learned in the past few years, that's saying a lot.
Coke-baked ham
I had wanted to make ham with Coke for years because every Southerner swears by it. I bought a Mexican Coke -- made in Mexico and formulated with sugar, not high fructose corn syrup -- and poured that under the ham, which was placed big side down on a roasting rack in a roasting pan. I added about 1/2 cup of water, although looking back this probably wasn't necessary. I trimmed all the skin off the ham and cut the skin into diamonds. I studded the ham with whole cloves, stuck in at the intersections of the diamonds. The entire ham was covered with aluminum foil, which was extended to the pan edges forming a tight seal. I baked it in a 325 degree oven for about 20 minutes a pound or three hours for a 10-pound ham.
After the ham was done I glazed it with a brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, mustard glaze poured all over the ham and cooked uncovered for another hour.
One thing Rob always loved in Ohio was the Dorothy lane market Heavenly Ham(TM) salad. I have yet to see a ham salad in California that holds a candle to the DLM delicacy. So I have had to resort to making my own version. In fact, I've made two version. The first version is designed to taste as much like the DLM original as possible and the second one is designed to be low-carb, so it's made with dill pickle relish, not sweet relish.
Devilishly delicious ham salad
Leftover Coke-baked ham cut into 1/2 inch cubes
Mayonnaise, to taste
Yellow mustard, to taste
Sweet pickle relish
Place all of the ham in a food processors fitted with the big blade and chop fairly fine. Place all of the chopped ham in a bowl and add enough mayonnaise and mustard (I use about 2 tablespoons mustard to about a half cup of mayonnaise)to moisten. Add pickle relish to taste. I add about 3 to 4 tablespoons for two cups of ham salad. For the low-carb version, use dill pickle relish in place of the sweet relish.
No comments:
Post a Comment