Ham Bone Soup

For Christmas Eve we served a ham because it was super easy. We also served baked potatoes that didn't cook long enough. Where do you get small russet potatoes anyway?

We had a lot of leftover ham even after giving away a few pounds so we decided to utilize the ham in many ways. We made a delicious quiche and then we used the bone to make our very own ham stock and soup.  The soup is pretty low calorie, delicious and something to add to our freezer stash of soup.

By the way, if you do freeze soup, we recommend putting it in gallon and quart sized bags. Leave space for expansion and then place them on a rimmed baking tray and freeze on the tray. Once frozen, transfer to the freezer alone. They lie flat and don't use all your extra tupperware! You can heat from frozen too, it just takes a bit longer.

Ham Bone Soup

Ingredients
1 ham bone, meat removed
Any meat scraps (anything with skin, fat, whatever)
1 onion, diced
1 russet potato, diced
2 large carrots, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Cup pinto beans
1 T fresh rosemary
1 T fresh thyme
salt
pepper
2 T olive oil
2 Cups diced leftover ham


Directions
1. In a large stock pot or dutch oven place the ham bone and ham scraps and cover with water.
2. Bring to a boil and turn down the heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes or until fragrant. *tip - step outside and back inside to see if it smells great yet*
3. Taste the broth and confirm it tastes like something other than water
4. Remove ham bone and skim out scraps
5. In a large skillet, heat olive oil
6. Add potato, carrot, onion and garlic. Saute until onion is translucent about 3 minutes
7. Add the onion mixture, ham, spices and beans to the broth
8. Bring to a boil
9. Lower heat and simmer at least 10 minutes or until dinner is served

Mine made at least 10 servings

Nutmeg Ice Cream

This holiday season, I wanted to make a unique ice cream flavor to go with our molten chocolate cakes. I decided on Nutmeg and then everyone stared at me skeptically. Well, it was fantastic! It had a smooth back of the mouth flavor that reminded me of Christmas and winter. It was almost warm! Great with anything or alone! It is a slightly subtle flavor so it could be hard in a sundae to detect it. 

Recipe from Savuer:


Ingredients
2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
2 cups half-and-half
1 whole nutmeg, cracked (use a nut cracker)
3⁄4 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream

Instructions

 Toast grated nutmeg in a skillet over medium heat, 1-2 minutes. Remove pan from heat; set aside. Heat half-and-half and cracked nutmeg in a 4-qt. saucepan until it just begins to simmer. Remove from heat; let steep for 10 minutes. In a bowl, whisk together sugar and yolks. While whisking, slowly pour in half-and-half mixture. Return mixture to pan; cook, stirring, until mixture thickens, 8-10 minutes. Pour through a fine strainer into a large bowl. Whisk in toasted nutmeg and cream; cover custard and chill. Freeze custard in an ice cream maker; transfer to an airtight container. Freeze until set before serving.

Overnight Baked Oatmeal

Oatmeal is a great stick-to-your-bones meal and this recipe makes it much tastier. You can vary the size for the people you need to serve,  Customize it however you like!

One-inch tall round casserole.  It served four.  If you wish, you can prepare it the night before (or even two nights before) and bake in the morning.  It's probably best to add the nuts on top just before baking.

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

3 cups old fashioned Quaker oats

6 cups skim milk

1/8 t. salt

 

Bring milk and salt to a boil.  Stir in oats.  Cook about 5 minutes over medium heat.  Stir occasionally.  (Cook until it looks good to eat.).  

 

Meanwhile, mix crumbled topping ingredients together with fork:

 

2 T. soft butter

4 T. flour

4 T. brown sugar

 

Put hot oatmeal in flat casserole or Pyrex dish.  Crumble topping over all.  Sprinkle a little more brown sugar where the topping didn't completely cover.

 

Put dried fruit and nuts on top in any combination and pattern you wish.  Suggestions:  apricots, cherries, prunes, almonds, walnuts.

YOU CAN STOP HERE AND REFRIGERATE OVERNIGHT. It may require slightly longer cooking but then you do all the legwork in advance!

 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until topping is melted and slightly hardened but be careful not to burn fruit.

 

Serve with milk.

Mug Brownie with Salted Caramel Ice Cream and Chocolate Espresso Drizzle

Sometimes you just want a brownie but you don't want to eat the entire pan and you want it in 3 minutes or less. THIS is your brownie!

I used No. 2 Pencil's recipe but since I used chocolate chips I didn't get the chocolate chunks they had.

I used this ice cream.

I used some of our 'chocolate espresso ripple' from our tiramisu ice cream. It is fantastic! We have been keeping it in one of those condiment containers so it comes out easily in a drizzle. Makes it look pretty fancy!

Hungry?

Herb Oil Rubbed Pork Roast with Carrots and Potatoes

We decided that we needed to cook tonight, so we went to the store to see what was on sale. This is part of a 3 1/2 lb bone-in sirloin pork loin roast. It was only $13. Meat sales are really the best.  This took about 20 minutes of prep and 2 hours to cook. It is tender and juicy and flavorful.  The potatoes and carrots were also amazing - likely because they were soaked in the herb oil rub and crispy on the bottom.  We all loved this and so did Hazel!

This dish uses a cutting board (with a wash in between) and one dish and a few knives. Pretty easy clean-up too!

Ingredients:
1 bone-in pork loin sirloin roast
1/4 C olive oil
1 T butter, melted
1 T herbs de Provence
1/2 T thyme
1/2 T rosemary
salt
pepper
6 cloves garlic (I used 3 of the largest garlic slices ever), minced
1/2 onion, sliced
3 white potatoes, medium dice
3 carrots, medium dice

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375. Place the onion slices on a rimmed baking sheet to hold the pork up from the bottom.
2. Prepare the herb butter by combining oil, melted butter, garlic and all the herbs. Stir.
3. Place the pork on the onion slices and rub all over with salt and pepper. Rub the herb-oil onto the pork and let it drip onto the tray
4. Tent the pork with foil and put it into the oven for one hour
5. After an hour, add the potatoes and carrots along the edges and sprinkle them with salt
6. When the pork reaches 145 degrees, remove it from the oven and set it on a cutting board to rest.
7. Increase the oven temperature to 400 and cook the potatoes and carrots 15 minutes longer.
8. Slice the pork and serve with carrots and potatoes. The onions on the bottom are also pretty delicious.

Pioneer Woman's Meatballs

We bought ground beef this week with the intent of making Hamburger Helper when we had no time. Instead, we decided to make meatballs. They took two hours to prepare!! We served them with store-bought mashed potatoes but in hindsight a green vegetable or salad would have been a nice addition.

Ingredients:

Meatballs:

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

3/4 cup quick oats

1 cup milk

3 tablespoons very finely minced onion (about a quarter cup)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper

4 tablespoons canola oil

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Sauce:

1 cup ketchup

4 to 6 tablespoons minced onion

3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Dash of hot sauce, such as Tapatio

1.Combine all ingredients through black pepper in a large bowl and stir together with spoon or hands.

2. Roll meatballs into Tablespoon sized balls (try to get them all even) and place on a tray. Refrigerate for 45 minutes

3. Meanwhile, make the sauce by combining all the ingredients in a pitcher

5. Heat canola oil in a large frying pan. Dredge meatballs in flour. Fry in the pan the meatballs until lightly browned. Do batches if you need them.

6. Place the meatballs in a rectangular baking dish. Drizzle sauce over the top. Then, bake until bubbly about 45 minutes.

These were good and we have more for another day! Ours were a little too wet because we only had a pound of beef and failed to reduce the amount of liquid. But, they still worked! 

Coconut Oatmeal

Recently I've been really into oatmeal. Today I tried a different recipe and it was delicious! No sugar added!  To make it healthier, look for lowfat coconut milk.

serves 1
Ingredients:
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup milk (1%)
1 banana, sliced

1. Boil milk and coconut milk
2. Add oats once boiling and reduce heat to medium
3. Stir occasionally for 5 minutes
4. Pour into a bowl and top with banana slices.  Oatmeal will be very hot.

I hope this is really filling!