Or what do we do with the leftover ham after Easter?
We had a really good ham for
Easter this year—flavorful but mild, the kind that doesn’t need mustard or
horseradish sauce or any disguise. But even with twelve people, we had a ton
left over. Jordan has been telling me she doesn’t like ham, which cuts me out
of ham dishes on our menus. But now, trying to avoid carbs, she and I are both
eating ham for lunch. Still a bunch leftover. I can make myself ham salad,
which I like a lot—it makes terrific sandwiches. And tonight I made a ham
cheeseball, which was pretty good. Online recipes sources are full of ways to
use that ham, but most just don’t intrigue me. Like mac and cheese with ham—I’m
just not a mac and cheese person. Scalloped potatoes with ham sounds a lot
better to me, but if Jordan wants a cleansing diet, she’s not going to eat
that. I will end up freezing some of my portion of the leftovers.
Another thing online recipes
sources are full of lately is pineapple. The controversy over pineapple topping
on pizza has been around for a while, but it seems to have taken on new life
lately. I’m not a pizza fan and definitely not a pineapple pizza fan. But the
recipe that most puzzles me is pineapple casserole, which is all over the place
this season. I cannot fathom it, so today I look at the Southern Living version,
because I really have confidence in that magazine’s recipes. What I found was basically
a white sauce made with pineapple juice instead of milk or cream, added sugar
(in case, heaven help us, the pineapple wasn’t sweet enough) and grated cheddar,
because according to the recipe the strength of cheddar will “hold up against”
the sweetness of the pineapple. I remain unconvinced. I do remember, with pleasure,
that my mom made a Jell-O salad—that scourge of the fifties—with pineapple, julienned
carrots, pineapple chunks, and orange Jell-O. It wasn’t half as bad as it
sounds. I also remember upside down cakes with pineapple that came out on the
top. Think I liked those. Mom also occasionally cooked a ham steak—a good
bargain I’ve learned these days—with a sauce of pineapple juice, brown sugar, and
maybe onion or bacon. It was pretty good, though I feel no urgency to try it
again.
I’m not sure what pickled pickles
have to do with Easter except that watermelon pickles seem common on some tables.
My mom used to fix a pickle/vegetable tray for big dinners—celery sticks,
carrots, etc.—but nine times out of ten she found it, after the meal, still in
the back porch cooler where she’d stashed it. But, pickles too have been all
over the internet. I recently started getting emails from a web site called Olive
My Pickle. They not only try to sell their products, they try to educate on the
benefits of fermented food. Apparently there was an article in Time Magazine
recently about fermented foods as probiotics. and this site was recommended.
They sell not only pickles but an array of olives, kimchi, etc. Fort Worth is
home to Best Maid Pickles, and that company has opened a retail store, the Best
Maid Pickle Emporium, on Vickery Boulevard where they sell pickles, pickle juice (supposedly great for
brining chicken), Bloody Mary mix, condiments and even T-shirts. I confess I
want to go there just to browse. I grew up thinking I didn’t like pickles—it
took marriage to a Jewish man and kosher dills to teach me how good they are.
My mom grew up hating sauerkraut—in a German household she had to eat it,
so I never tasted that either until I was grown. But now I love it. For some reason,
I’ve shied away from kimchi, though it is the kind of thing I usually like.
Have you tried it?
And perhaps the ultimate
pickle news: the Clausson folks, who make great pickles, have introduced a
pickle jelly bean. Where are you, Ronald Reagan?
The popularity of pineapple
and pickles is testimony to the power of social media. I’m quite sure we would not
pay inordinate attention to these two foods if we weren’t bombarded with them
on the net. Then again, maybe I’m just more aware because I’m a foodie and
spend time every day on food sites.
If you try a pineapple casserole,
please let me know about it.
