I Ham What I Ham and That's What I Ham

So I JUST did a post, but I have all this free time (well, at least I did... today is the last day of it for a little while) and I just want to share the fun things I've learn with cooking! In my previous post, I talked about cooking chicken ahead in the crock pot. I also wanted to tell you about the wonderful world of cooking ham ahead as well.

A couple years ago was when I REALLY started getting in cooking, not just baking. I was fairly fresh into the "real world" after graduating from college, and I actually wanted to learn things that actually interested me (crazy how that works out) in a non-classroom setting. Cooking has always been one of those things for me. Anyway, though I had a little more time than when I was in school, I didn't usually have time to cook still. So I made time!

Hanging out at my old apartment

Sundays were the only free day of the week to give me enough time to cook. I started with inviting a few friends over to eat what I would make, and it kind of grew to a family dinner time with my friends on campus. We would eat, play games, and chat the night away - I LOVED it!!

During these times, I began this relationship with the crock pot. She was so laid back, so caring to my food, and she didn't mind if I left food in her all day (and still is, by the way). Since dinners were growing to more people, I needed ideas on what to feed people. Two of the recipes I share today are from those times - so good and easy, I just keep coming back to them!

Easter Ham

(from cdkitchen.com)

Ingredients:

• 1 whole ham (that can fit in your crock pot)

• 1 20oz can crushed pineapple, undrained

• 1/3 cup maple syrup

If you want, start by lining your crock pot with aluminum foil - sometimes it helps with clean up. Put your ham in there, dump the pineapple and syrup on top, and cook on high for about 6 hours. 

Easy, right? And super good! I usually have us eat ham for dinner that night. One time I made homemade mashed butternut squash to go with it - Oh Mylanta, seriously SO GOOD!!!

After we have had our fill that night, I take the meat off the bone, stick it in a freezer baggie and freeze it for meals later. These are my favorites!

Potato Soup with Ham and Cheese

(from southernfood.about.com)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups red potatoes (which I usually use 3-5 potatoes, and not always red), peeled & cubed
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, chopped fine
• 3 tablespoons flour
• cayenne pepper (haven't used because I don't have any in the cupboard)
• black pepper
• 3 cups milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup cooked, cubed ham
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (at LEAST one cup - add more like 2 cups if you love cheese like I do!)
• fresh chopped parsley or chives for garnish, if desired (which I never have on hand, so I also haven't used yet)

Cook potatoes in boiling water until tender. Drain; reserve 1 cup of the boiled potato liquid for later. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add in your onion to cook, stirring, until tender. Stir in flour, then sprinkle pepper on it. Cook for about 3 more minutes, stirring. Add potatoes, reserved liquid, milk, and salt. Mix it good. Add ham chunks and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and let cool for about 5 minutes. Add cheese and stir until melted.

Ham Sandwiches

(from allrecipes.com)

I've tweaked this one a lot, so here is what I would say for ingredients:

• Ham

• Mustard

• Brown Sugar

• Some sort of roll or bread

• Maybe cheese - like provolone slices

Here is what I did: I defrosted enough ham that would fit in my Little Dipper (a mini crock pot - kind of cute in a kitchen appliance sort of way, and this was my first time using it so I was excited). 

How cute!!

I started with 2 tablespoons of honey dijon mustard and 2 tablespoons brown sugar and let it cook for a while. I would keep coming back to it to taste and add mustard and brown sugar enough to thoroughly cover the meat enough. I had a hard time keep away! I kept eating pieces of the meat all afternoon!

I had it in the crock pot for about 4 hours, but you can do less than that. Everything is already cooked, so it's simply a matter of warming it all up and making the flavors blend together. The original recipe can give you a full crock pot of this you need to make it for a lot of people and don't have a whole ham already cooked up. But the Little Dipper size was PERFECT for feeding just Malcolm and I!

Pre-melted cheese on the sandwiches

Anyway, after it was all done, and Malcolm came home from climbing, I heated the oven to about 300º or so (doesn't really matter, it was just to melt cheese) and toasted slices of bread. I situated the bread on a cookie sheet, piled on the ham goodness, and added a slice of provolone cheese to each pile of ham. I bake them in the oven just so the cheese would melt, and then gobbled those piggies up! These are definitely up for tweaking to your delight, but a great recipe to use that ham up!

Split Pea Soup

(from Yahoo! assiatedcontent.com)

Ingredients:

• 1 package dried green split peas

• 1 large onion

• 2 tsp minced garlic

• 3 large carrots, diced (Can I be honest? I admit I don't exactly know what "diced" looked like. I just kind of chop them up to fit my fancy. Kuddos to you who actually know!)

• 3 celery stocks, diced

• 5 cups (40 oz) chicken broth - which you can make yourself!

• 1 or 2 potatoes peeled and cut into small cubes

• 1 package ham hocks OR use the ham hock/bone thing from the ham you cooked up for the meat

• salt and pepper

Put everything in your crock pot and cook on high for 6 hours or low for 11 hours - go until the peas are very soft and falling apart. Remove bone, but keep the meat in there. To be honest, I haven't quite got how long everything should cook for down yet. I usually cook it all too long or don't add enough liquid or something because it almost always has turned out kind of pasty. Don't get me wrong, it's still good!

This was one of my discovery recipes for family dinners. I still make it! What good memories! It brings me back to seeing a glimpse of what the early church was like in Acts 2:42- 47,

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." 

Did you notice how they devoted themselves to breaking bread (essentially sharing meals) together? That when they opened their homes to eat together as the body of Christ that they had glad and sincere heart, they praised God, and simply enjoyed one another? I think we all desire to have that kind of fellowship! I think, if we are honest with ourselves, we may not want to always be social or get outside of our comfort zones to let people into our homes (I know I'm not - I always put forward the excuse that my house it too tiny to have people over). But the reality is that, when we actually do let people come into our homes and into our lives for the purpose of sharing a meal and sharing our lives with one another, then our hearts actually expand to see the grander picture of Who God is, what He's doing, and actually be thankful for what He has given us!

Hebrews 10:25 says, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching." We need to be in a habit of coming together and encouraging one another - why?

Hebrews 3:13, "But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." The reason we need to keep coming together is to keep us from being jaded to sin in our own lives! Maybe that's why the Church that I've seen developing all of America is one of "self-feelgoods" and focus on all those other non-essentials other than the reality of Jesus and what He has done for us. Maybe to fight the urge of the American dream, we need to eat more meals together! Okay, maybe stretching it a little bit, but you do get my point? God created us to be social people in need of one another - whether we think so or not - so we can encourage one another to running after our ultimate need of God.

So, a small tangent, but one that I think is important. Last fall I did a study on fellowship, and it opened my eyes more to what it really is. I suggest studying for yourself what the Bible has to say about fellowship.  Ask HIM what your next step to developing fellowship is. And if it's sharing a meal with some brothers and sisters in Christ, you at least have some ideas from here on what to feed them!

Okay, this is what my split pea soup looks like. Like I said earlier, it tastes better than it looks!!

The Chicken Crossed the Road to Get to my Crock Pot

With going on campus, and even with being home in Durango more consistently & making meals for the Hubbers and I, I've been looking into making easy, affordable meals. I've discovered the best thing for cooking on a busy schedule - precooked meat! But not precooked in the store, precooked at home.

Malcolm and I on vacation - I don't think there is a better picture that captures the true us!

Today I wanted to tell you about cooking chicken. I buy a whole chicken, which is usually around or below $5. At home, I stick the whole shebang in the crock pot, sprinkle it with paprika, then let it cook on high (or low) until it's done - which I usually peel away at the chicken with a fork: if the meat peels away easily and I don't see any pink then I call 'er done.

After it's all cooked, then I pick away the meat and stick it in a freezer baggie. After that I stick the chicken in the freezer and take it out when I need it. When I do need chicken for something, I usually stick the bag in the microwave for 1 minute increments until it has thawed enough to loosen enough chicken that I need. Then I stick the rest of the chicken back in the freezer until I need it.  

The bones and everything else (I mean EVERYTHING that is not meat) in a bag to save for later. The reason I keep the leftover stuff is so I can make my own chicken stock - and it's not difficult AT ALL!! 

 Chicken Stock:

(original recipe I found at simplyrecipes.com)

Ingredients

• Chicken "leftovers"

• Water

• Salt

• Pepper

• Bay Leaves (I've done both crushed and full leaves)

• Parsley

• Carrots

• Celery

• Onion

You can add or subtract whatever you want to, but the point is to infuse the water with flavor. (You can't subtract the chicken carcass, however. If you take that out, then you don't have chicken stock. :)

What I do is put everything in a pot, then fill it with enough water that it won't bubble over when you start boiling it it won't get all over your stove top. Once you get everything in the pot, set it on high and let it boil for a while (to be honest, I have no clue how long I let it simmer/boil, but for at least a few hours).

Once it's been cooking for at least 3 hours, then strain it out. I usually set a big bowl in the sink, then a colander on top of that. I dump the whole pot through the colander into the bowl, then I strain the liquid a couple times to eliminate any major bothersome chunkies.

Bowl of broth... in case you were confused.

Following that, I can it. I've done both water bath and pressure canning, and pressure canning is suppose to be the safer route. Some sites say to freeze, then other don't say anything. So I'm trying with this new batch not freezing (I lost a few jars to the freezer last time). If we die of some sort of food poisoning, you'll know what happened.

FAIL

Chicken stock has become one of those things I need to keep on hand because it is SO versatile in cooking. My FAVORITE easy recipe that needs chicken stock is....

20-Minute Noodle Bowls (for about 2 people)

(from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook 15th Edition - click here for a similar online recipe)

Ingredients:

• 14 oz chicken (or beef) broth

• 1/4 teriyaki sauce (the best is Veri Veri Teriyaki sauce)

• 1/4 water

• 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables

• 2 3oz packages ramen noodles (any flavor, cause you don't use the flavor packet)

Combine broth, water, and sauce in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Then add you veggies and your noodles. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 3 minutes. Then serve it up! That easy and they are really tasty too! 

I usually add chicken too. If raw, I let it marinate in a bowl with teriyaki sauce and a little apple cider vinegar for about an hour or so before I cook it up in a pan. I like to leave some of the marinade in the pan so it kind of does a boil/fry thing. Then, once the noodles and veggies are done and served up in bowls, I add the chicken on top. If precooked chicken, I douse the chicken in teriyaki sauce for a while, and then stick it in with the rest of the the noodles and veggies for the last minute of cooking (since the chicken is done, but usually not hot from coming out of the freezer - go figure).

With the rest of your already cooked chicken, you can make many a different meal. Our usuals around these here part are chicken enchiladas, homemade chicken and green chili mac n cheese, and this potato/chicken country gravy/ cheese thing (sounds weird, but tastes decent enough - and cheap). But you can replace it for various meals that need cooked chicken - like pot pies, pasta, etc.

Next time, I'll tell you about ham... oh so delicious! Sorry Israelites, you probably won't be able to eat those meals!

Joyfully Accepting Depression Cupcakes

Malcolm and I were away for 2 weeks traveling for support raising and Thanksgiving/family time, and we just got back on Sunday - just in time for Monday's couple's night!! I LOVE couple's night for multiple reasons, but one of them is that I get the chance to try out new recipes on a few guinea pigs.

Since we just arrived Sunday with not a ton of time to go shopping yet, I almost caved and didn't make my traditional cupcakes (I LOVE making cupcakes, which I can explain more of at a later time). But then I thought to myself,

"Hmmm.... maybe I shouldn't take this as defeat, but rather as a challenge...."

And, thus, I took the challenge!

If you haven't discovered allrecipes.com, you really, truly need to! Whenever I need to use up stuff in my fridge, or if I want to make something specific but don't have certain ingredients, I use this website. So I typed in for ingredients I didn't want: milk, eggs, sour cream, sugar. Ingredients I wanted: flour and brown sugar (I seriously pretty much had nothing). I wasn't expecting too many recipes to show up, but much to my surprise quite a few recipes popped up!

Quite a few recipes with "war" and "depression" in the title. During times where there were rations on food, or money was short  and what not, human ingenuity still thrived - if not greatly increased. Just because times were hard didn't mean that the sweet tooth stopped calling out, or that birthdays didn't happen. People truly used bleak times to still make delicious things.

Tuesday in my quiet time, I came across Matthew 9:27-31, and for some reason it made me think about how it's like making depression cupcakes. Two men cry out to Jesus to help them in with their blindness. I can only imagine their life to that point to be bleak indeed - stumbling around in darkness with no real way to take care of their needs. But in their despair, they had the sweetest thing of all. They had faith that Jesus, the Messiah, could heal them.

While I was reading this, I thought, "Gosh! These guys could see more clearly than I can!" I get so wrapped up in myself, my circumstances, my issues - but I don't give them back over to the Lord. I don't see Jesus as healer and completer always. I have so much, but lack everything in those moments because I don't trust my Savior! Another thing that got me was how Jesus, after healing the men, told them not to tell anyone. But the men couldn't keep what happened to them to themselves! Jesus tells me to tell THE WORLD about Him, and yet I get scared and keep Him to myself. What the heck?!

So this is what I decided: I need depression cupcakes. I need to see every day that I can lose everything, barely have anything to live on, have my rights and liberties taken from me and I would still have the sweetest thing in the world - JESUS!! 

Mark 8:36 says, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" 

Lord, help me to continue to rely on you. Help me to realize daily my need for you, and that you are my sweetness in every situation and in every circumstance.

Depression Cupcakes

(from allrecipes.com Depression Cake II recipe)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 2 cups hot water
• 2 tablespoons bacon grease (I used butter since I haven't made bacon in a long time, but isn't that cool how resourceful they were in the day?? I love it!)
• 2 cups raisins (I have a thing about dried fruit, nor do I keep it on hand. So I didn't use it. I reading some comments on allrecipes that someone just added a bad of frozen fruit and it turned out good. May be worth experimenting to you adventurous folk.)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves (You may want to cut this down because you can definitely taste it. I didn't mind it really.)

Put your brown sugar, hot water, bacon grease (or substitute), and raisins (if using), over medium heat. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes, then set aside to cool. 

Either preheat your oven to 325º, or plug in your cupcake maker (since I use my cupcake maker, and I forget to count how many that makes... you're on your own). The website says this recipe can make two 8x4 loaf pans, and I also saw that someone would make this in a bundt  pan. The batter is a bit sticky, so much sure you use baking cups, or grease and flour your pans.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves. Add the ingredients from the saucepan and mix until well blended.

If you do this cake, it says it takes 45 to 50 minutes. Each set of cupcakes in my cupcake maker took about 10 minutes or a little less since it was a little thicker batter. What I liked about making these in the cupcake maker it that it made the edges a little crispier than a normal cupcake since I didn't use baking cups. I like spice cakes to be a little crispy.

While I was cooking up the cupcakes, I made this super easy caramel frosting. 

Okay, it may not be technical caramel, but it tastes like it and it doesn't include melting sugar (I tried to do the melt sugar way... I failed, needless to say) or boiling sweetened condensed milk for hours (which I wanted to try, but I'm usually so short notice on what I'm going to bake, so I never have time to try it).

Caramel Frosting

(From Yahoo Answers - yes, I'm one of those people who type in their question into Google instead of using key word searches. Hey! It works, and it gets the job done.)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup evaporated milk
3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

In a saucepan over low heat, heat butter and brown sugar, stirring until smooth.

Stir in evaporated milk.

Let it cool like Luke's hand. (Get it? Cool Hand Luke? BAHAHA! Alright, bad pun.)

Gradually, add powdered sugar and vanilla. If you have a sifter or some way to sift it, the frosting will turn out a lot smoother. I did it for the first time this last time make this frosting, and I must say it made quite a difference. I just used a wire strainer thing and it worked... I did get more powdered sugar on my stove top than usual though.

Beat till a soft spreading consistency. I think it spreads better after it gets to room temperature. But if you're last minute baking like I do, I usually just put it on top anyway and it tastes great. I'm not one who cares too much about how it looks. I care more if it tastes awful than looks funky. Anyway, it will just be drippy and not stay right on top of the cupcake.

The most joyful depression cupcakes you ever did make!

It All Started with an Apple Pie

Most teenage girls start their baking escapades with cookies, but I think many bakers first moving onto "bigger recipes" recipe is apple pie. I remember making it for the first time...

 This was my first baking frenzy in Durango, CO. Two of my three creations were a hit, one of them being the apple pie. 

And it stuck! From then one, I was known amongst my friends as the apple pie maker. I would try other things here and there, but the apple pie came easily and highly requested.

"Remember, remember the 5th of November" pie - I had just watched "V for Vendetta" and was a little excited for the actual 11/5.

Thanksgiving Pies

I had made hand turkeys in a class (a college class, mind you), and it inspired me to put it on the pies.

I even made mini pies! I was so stoked!!

In my Sociology classes in college, began feeling like I had to have at least an average job in order to be a real woman - since we have equal rights, I should do it! But the truth was that I liked (and still like) being a girly woman who enjoys cooking and cleaning. I'm pretty sure I wrote at least 2 college papers on apple pie, and I made it a handful of times for class (hooray for potlucks)! Each time I would try to reiterate the need and goodness of the "household wife" in our world today. Thank you, apple pie!!

I soon came to the realization that baking was not only fun, but relaxing as well. Almost like therapy...

 

My first holiday not with family was a very emotional week, and ended up "baking my feelings". I'm pretty sure the above picture was just a portion of what I made for a Thanksgiving meal with friends.

After a year or two of baking only apple pie, I expanded

But the baking of pies developed into baking other delicious goodies, like thumbprint cookies, cobblers, and homemade cake.  

Rhubarb pie I made for girl's bible study.

Do you guys know how easy homemade cake it? I thought for the longest time that sense they have box mixes for cake that it meant cake was difficult. Not the case! I also thought that sense frosting is sold in the stores that it was difficult to make as well. Also not the case!

One of the first homemade cakes I ever made for Ashlie's 1st spiritual birthday

All the lies I believed for so long... to think I thought I had to be special, magnificent, and extraordinary in order to make anything amazing for the taste buds! I thought I had to be a cooking/baking "rock star" in order to be worth listening to, when, in reality, if I like it and took the time to learn it, it was possible. 

I thought this whole lattice thing on top of pie was suppose to be hard... and maybe it is. But if you really want the lattice, then a make-shift, non-pro one will do!

I'm starting to realize more and more that this whole baking journey is a lot like my journey with God showing me more of who I really am. I thought that I had to preform well, be good enough, prove my existence in order to prove I was a Christ-follower. But the reality is that I don't have to prove myself to God. He knows exactly who I am and what I was created for - which is to give glory to Him in everything I do! AND I have the Holy Spirit living in me to give me the ability to do what God has called me to do. 

I'm a big fan of aprons! I'm so messy when I cook and bake that my clothes wouldn't last long with out them. I also am a fan of cleaning my hands, and my aprons help double as a towel.

So when Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me", that's the truth and a promise! You can do all things through Christ, and you can be who Christ has made you can called you to be. In those truths there is so much freedom, and so much fun in store!

 So this blog isn't anything out of the ordinary, or suppose to be to show off my skills, and it probably won't be anything revolutionary or new cooking/baking recipe. It's just to share with you what I'm baking, share what God teaches me through it all, and to show you that, if you want to bake something, it's really possible to do it! (Golly, that sounded so cheesy, but I do mean it.) AND if you have any recipes to try, I would love this to also be a place of exchange - cause I LOVE new recipes!!

NOW (without further rambling on my part) my apple pie recipe! (This started off of recipes I found on cooks.com, and has morphed into my own thing since I kept forgetting which exact recipe I used the first time.)

I put the pumpkin next to the pie to make it look more festive/ Fall-ish, but this really is an apple pie. Look! I made a leaf out of pie crust!!

 Basic Crust Recipe (which I use for every pie pretty much):

2 cups flour

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup oil

Mix together. Roll out and place in pie plate. Makes enough for 1 pie.

(I sometimes make the crust and then put it in the fridge while I'm making the filling, and take it out and roll it right before I put the filling in.)

Filling:

6 to 9 Apples (cut them however you'd like)

2/3 cups sugar

3 Tbsp flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp butter, softened

Mix together (use your hands, makes you feel good) and put in pie crust.

Topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

 1 cup flour

 Mush together and crumble on top of pie filling. (I don't usually cut the extra pie crust off if it comes out of the pie pan. I crumble the topping on top, then fold the extra on top if I have any.)

Bake pie at 375º until the crust is a golden brown color and the filling is bubbling. It would be a wise decision to bake it with a cookie sheet underneath it. Sometimes it "runneth over" and burns to the bottom of your oven - doesn't smell too good later. Once it's done, allow a little time for the pie to rest from it's baking journey so you it cuts a bit more nice like, and you don't scald your mouth.