Ham 7 Ways 9 Times

Here it is as promised – my ham post.

For Christmas Eve, my mother requested ham, so I ordered a ham.

For Christmas, my mother-in-law requested ham, so I ordered a ham.

Both times, I followed the guidelines for the number of pounds to get based on the number of people. So, I went with two twelve pound hams.

I ended up with about twelve pounds of left over ham.

I mentioned a while ago that I’ve become fanatical about using leftovers and cutting down on the grocery budget (much to the chagrin of other household members). But one has to get pretty creative to get through 12 pounds of ham when there are typically only 1 to 4 people at dinner.

My first step in using the leftover ham could be considered cheating. I sent 3 or 4 pounds home with Connor (along with the leftover pasta I came home with from my mother-in-law’s).

My next clever use of ham was motivated by the movie Chef. A very cute movie with some amazing food prep scenes that we watched while the girls were home over Christmas. Anyway, the chef in the movie ends up becoming famous for his Cubano sandwiches. By the end of the movie, we all wanted a Cubano. And I thought, I have ham. So we had Cubanos (sans the pork, but with everything else). Delicious.

Here’s the recipe I used. Next time I make it, I will remember to take a picture and update the recipe with the picture. Be sure to bookmark this page and come back to it.

For my next use of ham, I made Creamy Fettuccine with Peas and Ham. This recipe had the added benefit of using up the leftover half-and-half from Christmas and most of the leftover peas from Thanksgiving. The combination was so good, I almost forgive my husband for those peas.

Then I made Garbure – a French stew that actually calls for dried beans and a ham hock. Seriously? But I am pretty confident at tailoring recipes. Again, quite good.

I followed this up with a fried rice that I don’t think I’ll make again. At that point, Nicole was begging for no more ham.

But I figured she wouldn’t mind a Hawaiian pizza. Unfortunately, everyone ditched me that night, and I was alone with the pizza. I ate half of it.

It was back to the Cubanos when my uncle came to install the sink.

So all of that used up about 4 pounds of ham.

For those of you who need help with the math, that means I still have four pounds of ham sitting in my freezer. (Yes, I googled, and you can freeze ham.)

So now I’m going to go back to that fettuccine dish again, and then I’ll try Ham and Gruyere Potato Gratin and Spinach and Ham Stuffed Baked Potatoes.

Let me know if anyone wants an update.