Earl Cooks A Ham Scram—an EGG-Speriment

I tried something somewhat new for me today. I diced up some of the last Thanksgiving glazed ham and added eggs to create what I am calling a 'Ham Scram'. It is basically a crust-less frittata with only 2 ingredients and it was just right for lunch.
Since it was an EGG-Speriment, I learned a couple of things NOT to do as well as what was good, which I will share...the good the bad and the ugly. Let me start with the ugly. This is not a great looking dish as I prepared it for the first time. It is uneven and dark in places because I let it sit too long on 1 side. I needed to turn the heat down and let it cook more slowly, but I was HUNGRY!
INGREDIENTS:
—Glazed Ham, 1Cup diced
—Eggs, large, 4 ea.
(Click below for instructions)

Earl Cooks Eggs Over Sweet Potatoes & Green Beans...WHAT?

There are just some things I never thought I would cook. As a child, if you had told me I would one day like green beans, I would have said "never", but I do. If you had told me I would have sweet potatoes more than once a year and without marshmallows most of the time, I would have said "no way"! Today I am going to tell you about what may be the best use of Thanksgiving leftovers I have tried this year, AND THAT INCLUDES A GRILLED HAM & CHEESE SANDWICH!
I may seem like I have lost my mind or run out of ideas, (but I have plenty of ideas). But if you read my blog to any extent, you will know I love breakfast. I made breakfast for my grandboys for many years before school. But I would make it for them...I didn't eat my own breakfasts. I wanted them to be more than fuel, I wanted them to be SPECIAL. So I would wait until I could eat breakfast out and enjoy having someone make it for ME! I am not a breakfast snob. It need not be exotic or hard to prepare it just needs to be 1)Tasty and B)Satisfying. No cereal, no pop-tarts, no pastry (okay, I like pastry, but only as PART of a better meal). I don't know who thought up a continental breakfast but there is a reason they are FREE!

Onward to breakfast...I had some leftovers from Thanksgiving, Sweet Potatoes "Turkey" made and green beans that I, yes I, made! The green beans had bacon & cheese, two breakfast stars and the Sweet Potatoes are sweet and potatoes are another breakfast star, so I thought "put them together and top them with steamed eggs and see what we have"! I started with a non-stick, heavy aluminum pan and let it heat up. I then placed a good helping of beans on one side of the pan and sweet potatoes on the other and let them heat through. The brown sugar from the potatoes should caramelize nicely. I didn't use any of the marshmallows. When heated through and caramelized, add 2 eggs, (making little divots in the potatoes and beans with a spoon). I had to add 3 eggs because I broke one. The moisture from the veggies will generate steam if you place a lid on top, and the eggs turn out GREAT! I always add pepper to my eggs, but no salt was needed.The yolks were runny and perfect and added a creaminess that brought the whole dish together. The caramelized sweet potatoes reminded me of syrup when you have pancakes and eggs or French toast Try it! If I liked it you will!

Earl Cooks Turkey for "Turkey" Alone with Many

I never find Thanksgiving leftovers to be a problem...until this year. We brought home our turkey leftovers and it was mostly DARK meat, which is fine for me...but not for "Turkey", my wife. She will eat only white meat on poultry. You can't cover it with enough cranberry jelly or gravy to get her to eat it. More for me right? Right and wrong. I can't be eating leftovers and have her starve to death now, can I? So when she suggested I buy a turkey breast and suggest she would like to have them regularly, I was thrilled. Turkey and Thanksgiving has special meaning for me because of my mom's love for both. She would buy a  breast and cook it up for herself and eat for a week. So when my "Turkey" wanted turkey, I thought I would do it a bit like my mom did and in commemoration of her, use the same roasting pan she used and make it a bit better, if not in spirit maybe in taste.

Earl Cooks Spiral Sliced, Honey Glazed Ham for Thanksgiving

I would like to say how difficult it is to prepare honey glazed ham, but the most difficult part of the process, aside from forking over the cash, is finding something big enough to heat and glaze 9 lbs of pork! My original plan was to do everything in the Crockpot, but that wouldn't work as big as it was...oh wait! I have a sous vide cooker that is SQUARE rather than oval! That will work, right...WRONG! This ham was still 2 inches too tall! No problem, rather than the lid I would just use foil. After covering I placed it in the oven at 350℉ for 1 hour to bring it up to temperature. Then using just the glaze provided by Hormel, and a pinch of ground clove, and a tablespoon of honey, I made the glaze. Taking it from the oven I brushed it all over the ham with a silicone pastry brush, turned the oven up to 425℉, and baked it for about 15-20 minutes, until the glaze set. You should try to get the glaze between the spiral slices, but I didn't. What seeped down on its own was fine for me, and the family raved about it. I then placed the slow-cooker liner in the base and kept it on high for about another hour, covered with foil. We were able to keep it warm with the slow-cooker, and it turned out great! Daughter #2 loved the ham liquid enough to use it as a sauce and the leftover are marvelous.

Hamilton Beach Professional Sous Vide/Slow Cooker

Earl Cooks Lentil and Leftover Ham Soup

The late fall weather just hit us today after letting us think we lived in a more mild clime. It was in the mid to high 60℉ range for the last few days but last night got down to the high 20s. The resorts are happy but we are a bit cold...which brings me to the quick soup I threw together when my wife got home and turned on the space heater. Soup is a great quick meal especially when you cheat by using a canned product. I don't buy a lot of different kinds of soup, but I do keep them on hand for occasions such as this. I also have some leftover ham from Thanksgiving which will make the soup even better. I start by removing any fat from the ham and cut it into bite-size pieces.

 Then I sauté the ham in the pot I am going to use for the sou to both warm and to give the roasted ham aroma to the house. I then take 1 can of Progresso lentil soup and add it to the heated through ham. I use Progresso because it is not condensed. Depending on my mood, I may add chopped onion, carrot, or celery to the pot when using a prepared product like this. When I do, I add those to the pot with the ham (or bacon or smoked sausage) to sauté until tender, adding the soup later. Finally, I add about a tablespoon of REAL butter for richness. This was a trick for soups and stews passed down from my dear mother to us. (Sour cream also works well). I then choose a great cracker...Keebler's Club Crackers are my favorite for soup and then I welcome the late autumn! This was good enough that my wife wanted the leftovers for lunch the next day!

One more note: Progresso is quite expensive compared with other brands, so watch for it on sale. I think you will find that for recipes like this, it beats condensed soups.-Earl

Earl Cooks Leftover Grilled Ham & Gruyère & Cheese

Leftovers can be a problem post-turkey day, but I glazed the ham to go along with our turkey, and there was a bit of it left, and "Turkey" made bread and there was some Gruyère cheese from the green bean casserole I made, perfect for a grilled Ham & Gruyère cheese sandwich. I simply fired-up the stove and using my cast iron pan had a special leftover sandwich by using cheese, ham, and a big chunk of European butter. Yes it was as good as it sounds and looks. Now I have to find a way to keep Gruyère around even though it is expensive!

Earl Giving Thanks for Thanksgivings

This is my 64th Thanksgiving, although for the 2 years I lived in Mexico, they passed unnoticed because the 4th Thursday in November is just another day. What I am giving thanks for here is all of the family, friends, and food that have marked this holiday for many of us. Thanksgiving is special because we come together with no expectations of gifts or doing anything but eat...and watch football, of course. but several stick-out in my memory:

• Thanksgiving, 1975. I had just met been on my first date with the woman that would become my fiancé and has been by my side for almost 42 years. She was many hours from her family and wouldn't be going home, so I invited her to join us. We were eating at my dad's new wife's parents house. I probably should have asked my step-mom in advance, but boy, had I fallen hard for this girl. Everything was fine with my step-grandparents and dinner was great. My dad had season tickets to the Utah Stars basketball team and they had a game on this Thanksgiving, but he gave his tickets to me to take my date. We got there, and it during the game they announced that the ABA (American Basketball Association) was folding, and that would be the last game the Stars would play.

Earl Cooks Steak & Baked & French Onion Haricots Verts (Green Beans)

I needed to try out a recipe for a green bean
casserole for the upcoming Thanksgiving Day feast hosted by my youngest and her hubby. I want to let you know here that I have never eaten a green bean casserole, let alone MADE one! This assignment was given to me by my daughter, and I felt I could create something tasty and better than the ones I haven't had. I knew my daughters and wife aren't crazy about mushroom soup, and my grandboys don't eat beans so this would be a tough one. After a bunch of soul searching and Google searching I found something I thought could just be great, but, my wife cautioned, I should make a test batch. This is not about the recipe, which I will post later, this is about what I served with my test batch...