Creative Uses for all that Ham...

Would you..? Could you..?  Of course you can...

I've often pondered why we call a bad actor a "ham" who "hams up" his lines - that is, overacts so badly that she/he's unbelievable in the role they're playing. 

So I looked up the definition...

And it's nothing to do with the meat itself.  Instead it refers to the first syllable of "amateur" - what a let down.  And I've lost my sequitur :(

Back to the issue of ham leftovers.  In our family, only six people sat down to Christmas Dinner so we have plenty of ham left to play with.

We scouted around for family-friendly recipes which weren't just the same old stock of turkey leftover ideas only with ham substituted for turkey meat.

The best source of ideas we came across were on this Southern website and the ones we'll be trying this week are:

•  ham and white bean soup - a marriage made in heaven and is sooo good that it doesn't even count as a leftover meal;
• ham and scalloped potatoes - basically an excuse to slather the two primary ingredients with cream and garlic!

Or what about Keri's suggestion - this pea and ham soup?

Another recipe idea was provided by Stormy Lundy, the chef who runs the Reading Terminal Market's Catering Division.

Cookin' up a storm

When she bakes a ham she tends to lean on her mother's special "Hammy Hash" recipe...

This is a variation on a corned beef hash but switches out the corned beef for finely diced ham.

Forget the Green Eggs and Ham. 

Try this Hammy Hash instead.  It too is perfect with fried eggs sunny side up.