Ham it Up: Leftover Ham Meats its Match!

I love ham. It`s one of my favorite cuts of meats. I`m not particularly fond of any sort of roasted bird so if I`m cooking for a holiday or family event its most likely going to be ham. It`s my go to big meal that is simple and easy and the leftovers are so easy to turn into other meals. You can`t say that about a Lasagna. Lasagna is wonderful but Lasagna leftovers are pretty much reheated lasagna. Leftover ham opens up a whole world of possibilities.

Recently I`ve had to change my glaze for ham. I`m still trying to find that flavor combination that shouts Me! I`ve always had to be careful with ham glazes. I`m allergic to cloves and cinnamon. That means most commercial glazes are out and I feel horrible when I have to ask a well meaning friend how they cook their ham before I visit. Even the smell of cloves can make me sick for days. I`m sure it tastes lovely or people wouldn`t do it but it is so very bad for me. Now my favorite ham glaze constisted of marachino cherries and juice, pineapple rings and juice, brown sugar, and mustard. It was magnificent. BUT my husband is allergic to citrus fruits especially pineapples. So I`m on the hunt again tno find a glaze that screams me.

In true tradition of What`s in the fridge cooking I attempted a new ham glaze on Tuesday night. I found some Light Cherry Pie Filling that was leftover from a Cherry Yogurt Cake I had made the week previously. And in the pantry is a mostly full 12 pack of generic cola that my husband didn`t like. I had heard about a Dr. Pepper ham glaze and thought to myself how about a cherry cola ham glaze instead. I put the two of them in a pot over med-high heat and let it simmer for a few minutes. The cola foams and it looks kinda of cool as it bubbles. Then I tasted to see what it needed. To me that cola had tasted as if it had sat in the can for far too long. It had this metallic aluminum taste so I slid in about 3 tbs of maple syrup and a pinch of salt and pepper. I let that simmer and cook down. I should have let it form like a syrup but I am the queen of impatience. About halfway there I was ready to coat my ham.

Now in a Ukranian Cookbook I found on my inlaw`s shelf it said for the best glazed ham I should COOK the ham mostly first. This allows the water in the meat to come out and make room for the glaze. Or some such thing. So I thought I`d give that a try. I made the glaze about an hour before I wanted to eat dinner. Then I poked holes in all the areas I could find meat and I poured the glaze all over it. Rolled it in the glaze and just kept it coated. About every 10 minutes I`d pull it out and recover it. Waht I found was 1. my glaze didn`t dry out or get that slightly charred taste. and 2. If doing it htat way definitely let your glaze get to a syrupy state before coating. Otherwise it is a little too runny. I do have to say that it was QUITE the yummy ham though.

While I waited for all of that to finish I made a quick and dirty version of mac and cheese. Cooked macaroni, a couple cans of cheddar cheese soup and chez whiz, a little salsa for flavoring, and some tomato sauce for creaminess. I added half an onion and baked it all in the oven. It was a creamy and quick mac and cheese.

At the end of the meal ther wasn`t that much in leftovers. That is ALWAYS a good thing in my book. Just a little bit of mac and cheese, some small fatty hunks of meat, the pork rind, and a slightly meaty hambone. So I saved it all and planned my leftover reincarnations for the week.

Yesterday: Lunch: Ham Macaroni Salad

I took the fatty pieces of ham, stripped off the fat and cut them up. I am still learning to adjust quantities from 2 to 4 people so sometimes as in the case of the macaroni I make too much. So the night before, I had tupperwared about a third of cooked macaroni and threw it in the fridge. Now i had cold noodles all ready for a cold salad. I took 1/2 an onion diced fine, 1 celery stalk diced, 3 small eggs hardboiled and cut up, and 1/4 of a red bell pepper. I put them in the with macaroni. I then added 2 tbs of miracle whip, a whole slew of mayo, 1 pkg of roasted garlic and sun dried tomato pasta salad seasoning, mustard, sugar, and the final dregs of a roasted red pepper and sweet onion dressing i found in the fridge. Mix well and serve. This was a huge hit. Even with my husband who hates peppers. He liked it so much that after dinner that night he ate the rest of the pasta salad. It was yummy.

Yesterday: Dinner: Pork Rinds

Oh Buddy! Can those cracklings Crackle!!! I have never really made pork rinds before last night. I've watched others do it and I've watched others eat them. In the case of one of my former coworkers I could listen to her praise all day her homemade cracklings. So not to be outdone I thought I'd give this a try. While cooking a quick supper, Candy, scraped the fat off the pork rind and cut them into chunks. Now from what I've read you want to make sure the oil in the pan is good and hot and you want to lay them down fat side up. That was the goal. What happened was I put them in the pan and they started jumping, popping and flipping. I was dodging and ducking. My husband was yelling for me to be careful and was scared when a drop of hot grease came flying at my head.

Now don't you worry. My typing this is proof that I survived. In fact the only casualty was a spot on my arm that I've burned so much that I didn't notice the minor grease burn until an hour later when it was still hot and itchy. In cases like this I find those little reusable odd shaped ice cubes and a sock with the toes cut out makes a great ice pack. The cracklings were a little burnt. (Ok a lot) and parts of them were still not cooked right but they sure were yummy. That coworker was right. There is no comparison between homemade cracklings and commercial pork rinds.

Today: Lunch: Roast Beef and Cheddar Pasta with veggies

I'm not the only one in the house that plays What's in the Fridge. My mother-in-law Candy is excellent at it. Today while I was chopping up and prepping things for dinner she picked out the things we'd have for lunch. In the freezer she had a container of roast beef meat that had been slowcooked to within an inch of its life. She had been saving it to add to something as a meat extra. She also had a package of Green Valley Giant Vegetables with Cheddar Pasta. Her idea was to combine the two of them and have lunch. So that's what I did! But remember that mac and cheese I made?? Well there was only about 1.5 servings leftover so I threw those in the pot too. Boy was that yummy!

Later today see what I did with that Hambone!