Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Devilish Ham

Hey, who out there has leftover ham? You ate it?! No! Well, here I make a huge New Years ham with the southern Black-eyed Peas, etc. and we have a ton left. I freeze the bone and big chunks for later, but there’s a big ‘box’ of it for sandwiches, ham n’ eggs, and my hubby’s favorite PVCC Special sandwiches (Paradise Valley Country Club)-which will NEVER make it to the ‘Healthy Eating’ Blog because they are cheese and ham swimming in butter, all held together with an egg and mounded on buttered toast! O M G!!

 

But there comes a day that whatever’s left is either cooked for dinner or frozen. So, I made my version of Hoppin’John and I had enough left for something else small. Hmmm, Devilish Haaaaam! I love that stuff like Alabaman’s love pimento n’ cheese!

 

I thought I should check out some other recipes on the Net to see what other folks do. I was surprised that almost none of them were what I make. I like mine better, so they can have their ‘deviled ham’. Most rely on hot sauce, horseradish, vinegar and a very few would add a dab of pickle relish. Although, they all have mayo and some way too much of it, which wouldn’t make the Healthy Eating blog any sooner than Jonny’s PVCC gut buster! . So, I think I need to jump in with my 2 cents (or a buck n’ a half) to share MY version. So very baaaaaaad – and so very gooood.

 

Step 1: Gather your goodies and dust off that food processor.
Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Devilish Ham
Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Delish Ham
Step 2: Toss in the food processor and pulse it to the ‘Alpo’ stage – yeah, it ain’t pretty. Awwww, but you can’t smell it though…sorry, there’s no app for that. It’ll be on the iPhone 9.
Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Devilish Ham
Step 3: Pick your platform. They’re all good. Feeling fancy, try the Water Crackers. Feeling Festive then fill the tortilla cups. I was out of whole wheat saltines, so they didn’t make the photo. They’re my healthy go-to snack platform. Then there’s Pita – nothing is bad on a pita chip! Not that I’ve found, and I keep looking!
This makes about 2 1/2 cups, which is 6 – 1/4 cup servings. No, that 2 Tablespoon serving will never work here! Still, it’s 117 cal., 6.9g fat and that analyzer has no idea how much white stuff I picked off that ham.
Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Devilish Ham
Finale: There’s a close-up… spicy, hammy goodness. Remember, this is Devilish Ham so this ain’t no girly snack – the men will eat it. But probably only on a Frito, so much for healthy.
Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Devilish Ham
Michelle

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Impossible Cream Cheese Frosting

Hmmm, ‘No Carrots at Christmas’…that’s what Kathy said. I’m thinking my tight jeans may override that mantra next year. It’s a new year and I’ve got to shed those Holiday pounds! Last evening I made myself a batch of MY sugar cookies, and since I had some pumpkin left over from making pumpkin roll, I whipped up some lo-cal pumpkin cookies too. Now, Pumpkin Cookies WITH cream cheese frosting run a close second to our oh, beloved Pumpkin Roll. So, I worked up some cream cheese frosting that I can eat with my yummy little pumpkin jems. Mmmmmmmm – cream cheese frooooosting. Is there anything better? No, no – really, there are very few things that CC icing can’t improve on. (I heard that Donna!) Here we go…

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle

That’s it! Whip it up – oh, so good. Yes, it has butter in it. That gives it the creaminess and keeps away the ‘I-am-a-diet-substitute’ taste.

Since you won’t be putting much on a cookie (very rich), I’m thinking 1 tsp each, the calorie count is only 12 calories per ‘serving’ (1tsp). You could lower it without the butter, and add in a bit of milk. Nah, maybe next time.

I listed this as “Impossible Cream Cheese Frosting”, because when I finished I had 3/4 Cup of frosting!?! What?! Where’d the sugar go? I’m no physics major (obviously), but when I add together a cup and a quarter of ingredients – mix it together and it reduces in size? No, no, no don’t explain it to me …. Just tell me that if I eat 1-1/4 cups of it that there’ll only be 3/4 cup of it to work off! (BTW, my recipe analyzer just exploded)

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle
Michelle

 

Michelle and I both use Whey-Low in our baking–but it’s expensive and difficult  to find.  According to their website, it can be purchased at Whole Foods but that store is in “far far away land” for me plus Michelle tells me that it’s no longer at the Dale Mabry store in Tampa.  So we both buy it online from www.wheylow.com.  If you order $75 worth, you don’t have to pay for shipping, plus I receive emails with discounts from them.  Brings the cost down a bit and one order lasts me forever since I don’t bake all that much.  I feel the cost is worth the product since it does work just like sugar in the recipes and I love sweets but I also love fitting into my clothes!
Enjoy!
KT

 

Going Green

Michelle is here as she should be on Wednesday, but she has busted out of the kitchen and broke into the laundry room!  KT

I just got off the phone with my trash collection company because I heard they were starting recycling pick up in my neighborhood! Yippee!! One of my New Year Resolutions is to be a bit greener in 2013. And as it turns out, they’re more than happy to help. I just happen to have some reusable items here. This Christmas dinner we used a little product that I really keep for the odd occasion when cloth napkins are a good idea. Kathy the Great Recycler noticed that they were washable.

Recycling

And they are, but these aren’t the hotel napkins that I’ve had in the past. Those were lovely and made me feel like I was at a 4 star restaurant (but I was really a line chef of course!). There’s a reason those places use a laundry service – cotton napkins are merciless. I HATE ironing. I don’t think my husband knew we even owned an iron until we moved and it had to be packed! That’s because, if it’s that finicky, then the dry cleaners can steam it. I have a horrible habit of making even the loosest wrinkle a permanent crease. That’s probably why most of them ended up in the rag collection in no time.

I’m a person that loves new and strange innovations. I actually take notes when reading Martha’s magazine, ok, maybe just mental notes. At any rate, that’s where I’d first spotted these little lovelies. Martha liked them because they were cotton, convenient, and you can throw them away. Like many things in her magazine they’re really only found online or in your neighborhood gourmet kitchen supply store…because we’ve all got one of those – right? HA. So, when on another shopping adventure I was cruising the sale rack at Williams-Sonoma and spied the little rolls. They were marked down from $25.00 to $7.00… Did that really say $25 dollars,….not Pesos??? Wow – any wonder they didn’t sell. OK, so I had to have them. I really like them. At the sale price, they really could save some cash. Even buying at warehouse prices, napkins can be expensive – not to mention they’re not especially green. And there’s 20 in the roll, and 20 cloth napkins would surely cost more (and be harder to iron ….oooo then there’s the dry cleaners?) So, if you see them, try ’em.

Back to Christmas dinner. As I told Kathy and crew to simply toss the little napkins, I could hear in the back of my head a little curse from my Green Recycling Trash Demon….”Did you just tell them to TOSS a small cotton sheet?! That’s perfectly cleanable? You lazy wench!” Later, there was another chorus from him, with added expletives, as I opened the trash can for something else and spotted a bunch of them in the corner. Yes, Kathy you’d be proud – I pulled them out and washed them like the good little recycling princess I plan to be this year!

Here’s how easy it is to use these reusable gems. Wash them with everything else, but careful – don’t dry them. Or they look like this…and the wrinkles will make you curse listening to that stupid guilty recycling demon.

Recycling

Just take them out and give them a quick iron while damp. Yes, I said quick. Yes that’s the counter in the laundry and a baby blanket (you know I can’t throw anything away!). I’m not dragging out the ironing board for this – silly girls!

Recycling

A couple of quick presses and they’re ready for the drawer to be reused.

Recycling

So, If you’re going a bit greener this year these are a nice start. Not to mention you can be Martha-like. Now go call that trash company and demand a curbside pick-up!

Michelle

We do recycle everything possible.  And try to live “green”.  Not always easy, for instance, we have to take it to the recycle center and it doesn’t matter how many times I call our curside trash guys–not going to happen until they’re good and ready.  Maybe this year!  But I’m happy that I was able to coerce Michelle into doing a little “green”.  Still need to start bugging the neighbor about those cardboard boxes I see in her trash.  Makes me shudder a little.

I had to add this pic of Michelle and Christmas dinner, since it just happened to be right there by my picture of her roll ‘o napkins. 

Recycling
And how do her shirts always look so crisp and neat if she doesn’t actually iron?

Recycling

 KT