What to do with your leftover ham

Ok, so I'll admit, Ben and I are doing things a little bit backwards this year. We ate ham for Thanksgiving and we are finally going to cook our turkey for Christmas Eve dinner. In trying to use up the leftover ham, I stumbled upon a delicious recipe for ham soup. Seriously, it gets five stars from me, I forgot how good the soup was in between each bite. Here it is:

Ham and Potato Soup

3 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes

1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup diced cooked ham
3 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon ground white or black pepper, or to taste
5 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk

1. Combine the potatoes, celery, onion, carrots, ham and water in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the chicken bouillon, salt and pepper.
2. In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour with a fork, and cook, stirring constantly until thick, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in milk as not to allow lumps to form until all of the milk has been added. Continue stirring over medium-low heat until thick, 4 to 5 minutes.
3. Stir the milk mixture into the stockpot, and cook soup until heated through. Serve immediately.

Tips:

• I recommend using the white pepper instead of the regular ground black pepper because it works so well with the other flavors in this soup. And although I typically use "Better Than Bouillon," I think the crushed bouillon granules work really well.
  
• Feel free to add other vegetables to the soup. I like adding carrots because they make the soup heartier and add color. You can even omit the meat, making this a creamy vegetable soup.
• Garnish with fresh herbs or grated cheese

Thanksgiving Caramels

I love Thanksgiving because it jumps off the holiday season. The holidays are such a fun time of year because of the traditions we share. One of my favorite traditions is making and delivering treats to our friends and neighbors. This tradition started when I was a little girl. I'd watch my mom hard at work in the kitchen., as she'd make caramels, fudge, rice crispy treats, cookies, and other goodies. We'd then form an assembly line and decorate, wrap, and plate the treats, making sure there were enough left over for us hungry kids. Finally, we'd get bundled up and deliver the treats, which were often accompanied by Christmas Carols.

Making caramels last Christmas with my sisters.

Check out Caitlan's cool Aussie apron

This year, I decided to jump start this tradition a little early. Ben and I are eating Thanksgiving dinner with some friends here in Utah. We have discovered that traveling in general becomes more difficult after having a baby, and with a short turn around in Ben's schedule, we put off our Idaho trip. I decided to make caramels as a host gift for our friends. The best part is that there are plenty left over to eat and share with our neighbors.



Here is my homemade caramel recipe:

Toasted Almond Caramels

1 teaspoon plus 1/4 cup butter, divided

2 cups sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped almonds, toasted

1. Line an 8-inch square dish with foil; butter the foil with 1 teaspoon butter. Set aside. In a heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and remaining butter. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium-low; boil gently without stirring for 4 minutes.

2. Remove from heat; slowly stir in cream. Return to the heat; cook, without stiriing, over medium-low heat until a candy thermometer reads 245 degrees (firm-ball stage). Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla and almonds.

3. Pour into prepared pan (do not scrape sides of saucepan). Cool completely. Using foil, lift the caramel out of pan. Discard foil; cut caramel into squares. Wrap individually in waxed paper or foil; twist ends.

Bubbling Caramel goodness

Caramel is in the pan and almost all cooled

All plated up

Looks tasty

TIPS:

• Make sure you test your candy thermometer each time before use. You can do this by placing the thermometer in a saucepan of boiling water for several minutes. The boiling point for water is 212 degrees, so if your thermometer is off, you merely add or subtract the difference to the temperature in the recipe.
• It is easier to toast the chopped almonds in a frying pan on the stove rather than in the oven. This way you have much more control and it is easier to see when they are done.

What are your holiday traditions? And do you have any good holiday recipes to share?

You can have your cake, and eat your pie too!

This year we celebrated Ben's 30th birthday!!! With this busy week, which included my mom's birthday and my sister's wedding, we barely had time to celebrate, especially since I traveled up to Idaho for the wedding. However, I knew I had to do something special for my man.

So what did I do? I made a pie! Now you might be wondering why in the world I would choose to make a pie, especially as I have limited pie making skills. The week before, I had bought some peaches and apples to make pies for a party. And, I only got as far as the apple pie, which didn't turn out exactly like I wanted. So, I had some very ripe peaches on hand, and remembering the one wonderful pie I made last year, I ventured to try another pie.

My fresh peach pie from last year's Fourth of July BBQ.

Because I was making the pie on Ben's birthday, I felt like he deserved some input, and instead of my fantastic fresh peach pie, he requested a baked peach pie. I found this recipe, which was fantastic! For the crust, I used the Lion House Pie Crust recipe. I've included it here, just so that

Lion House Pie Crust Recipe
(for 2 nine inch pie crusts)

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup lard
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. nonfat dried milk
3 cups unsifted all purpose flour
1/2 cup ice cold water, plus about 1 tbsp more

Put dry ingredients together in a bowl with only about 1/2 the amount of flour. Mix well with butter and lard, then add the water and remaining flour. Divide the pastry into two equal balls, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for about one hour. Remove and roll out as needed for pies.

I decided to make the pie more decorative than I usually do, and so I used my little star cookie cutter to cut out the shapes from the center. Then, I used the scraps to make additional stars, which were then used to line the crust. Didn't it turn out well?


After making the pie for Ben, I decided that he needed a birthday cake as well. Really, you can't have a birthday without birthday cake, right? So, using a boxed cake mix and packaged frosting, I made Ben his chocolate cake:


For dinner, Ben requested Chicken Caesar Salad. It's kind of an odd request coming from him, but he said that he had been craving it all day. And I thought pregnant women were the ones with the cravings! So I made the salad by cutting up romaine lettuce, broiling chicken tenders, and then dicing them. I topped it off with shredded parmesan cheese, croutons, and salad dressing. I added some sparkling soda for the beverage, since we definitely had something to celebrate. Doesn't the birthday boy look pleased?


After dinner, we watched Alice in Wonderland (2010), which was a fantastic film. We both really enjoyed it. Then, we finished the day by eating cake AND pie!