Ham and the end of the world

Hellloooooo, everybody!!! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I have nothing really fresh to tempt you. Nor any sugar. Nor any handsome men.

No, wait, that last one I can probably remedy.

 

hahahaha! Isn't that great! Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy in the 2005 'Pride and Prejudice'.... but he's texting! *smirkle*

 

 I'm not a huge fan of that movie, but I did just give away a copy on my blog to celebrate my 3,000th sale of 'Pride, Prejudice, and Cheese Grits'. Yay!

And then Vince Mooney gave it a hilarious write-up on 'The Philosophy of Romance' here. I just love that guy. My favorite line? "To begin with, I think this title is a great example why editors don’t let writers choose their own titles."

(Let me just say, I have no idea why the fonts have just gone wonky. I blame Vince. That makes much more sense than considering the possibility that I can't even handle blog fonts. *sigh*)

ANYHOO, Yes, it's been a fun week, and Spring is here and life is wonderful, despite having the head cold from Hades.
Honestly, I forgot what it's like to be sick. I'm never sick. You know, that sort of never that's really ALMOST NEVER. *sigh*
But I did manage to cook a little. Well, I always cook because I like to eat. And my husband likes to eat and all those kids... yes... like to eat.

 

Irma S. Rombauer wrote in the Joy of Cooking that "one definition of eternity is a ham and two people."
We have more than two people in this house, but there is something about left-over ham that makes me wonder what we can possibly do, besides eat cold ham sandwiches for the entire week.
I remembered a  friend of mine made a delicious quiche with a grated potato crust and I wondered if that might be one possible reincarnation of Easter ham. So, we set to work...

My kids had a great time grating potatos, with the skins. Here's approximately seven potatoes, or 6 cups. I think the original recipe was 3 cups of hasbrowns per pie plate. You can use prepared hashbrowns. Add 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of pepper and 4 TBS of melted butter. I was wary of adding salt because I knew the ham would be salty.

(Oh, excuse me. We have a call. A very important call on the banana phone. See his brother giving him the 'whaddya doing' look. Big brothers have no appreciation for the importance of produce communication. One must answer, speak politely, and pass it to the mother... who then must answer, listen intently, and take instructions for a play date at the park. That is the way of the banana phone.)

After pressing the grated potatoes into your pie pan (it covered several pie pans and one small casserole dish), put in an oven that has warmed to 450F, for about 20 minutes. I was afraid it would burn so I took it out as soon as the crust was cooked, but the edges were only slightly crispy at 15 minutes. Next time I might leave it longer. I nibbled just a bit at it and YUMMY. Anyway, we're tryin to use up the ham...

Lay cooked ham in the bottom of the potato crust.

About 3 cups of cheddar cheese. The original recipe was 1 1/2 cups of cheese, but I was making a big batch. Add 8 eggs and 1 cup milk (or 4 eggs and 1/2 cup milk). Mix well. Add 1/2 tsp salt a dash of tabasco sauce, and sprinkle of pepper.

Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes until puffy. I was afraid this would spill over, so I set it on a cookie sheet. But everything was fine. I think, all in all, I prefer this potato crust over the usual quiche crust, but I might make a more traditional Quiche Lorraine (with Swiss cheese). It seemed very cheesey with the cheddar. The kids devoured it, and husband ate it (that's all we can ask for, he's not a fan of cheese), but I'm imagining broccoli-Swiss-mushroom version in my future.

  One more picture to lighten your day...

 

Awwww. Such nice eyes. :)

 

 

And now I must be off. Someone is calling on my banana phone. I wonder who it is? And after we're done, I'll be singing this song by Raffi. Click it. You won't be sorry. Unless it gets stuck in your head...

 Until next time! And Edna waves hello! She's made a wonderful friend and they will be taking over the blog next week to show off their skillz in the kitchen. It's a combined effort... No, I'm not telling, so stop asking.