Date I made this recipe – April 16, 2017 – Easter
American Heirloom
Pork Cook Book From Checkerboard Kitchens by Gertrude Kable, Manger
Checkerboard Kitchens, Consumer Services
Published by McGraw-Hill Book Company
© 1971
Purchased at Arc's Value Village White Bear Ave St.
Paul
Recipe: Easy Ham and Potatoes in Foil – p. 72
I have to tell you that recipes for Passover and then for
Easter (and Thanksgiving and Christmas) often give me pause because every
single cut of meat anticipates consumption by at least 22 people, give or take
a few.
We are a household of two.
T.W.O. Two people cannot possibly
consume all that meat and don't even bother suggesting that we freeze it
because we tend to forget it is there and then one year later, we are removing
ice-encrusted packets (contents unknown and undiscoverable) from the freezer
and I hate that.
And so usually, dear reader, I often look for alternatives
to a whole ham such as ham loaves or scrambled eggs and ham or – one year –
lasagna which I made just to be subversive.
This year though, I thought that I might like to make a ham
recipe and had in mind scalloped potatoes and ham which I love, and then ta-da,
this recipe appeared and all was well with the world. Well, all was well except I had to find a
small-sized piece of ham.
If you read my last blog about my Passover brisket, then
you'll know of the challenge of finding a small cut of meat and the ham search
took the same route, which is to say that most grocery stores featured hams the
size of boulders and that was too much.
Even the "smaller" cuts of ham were too big for two people and
sheesh, I was not in the mood to pay $22.00 for those cuts either. (In case you didn't know, the price of pork
has been inching up over the years.)
Thankfully, a hot tip from the woman sampling ham at a local
grocery store led me to a different section of the meat department where I
discovered ham slices. Said slices were
the same ham as was being sampled but were only a couple of pounds instead of
mega pounds and the price was very reasonable so...sold!
And with that, my Easter/Passover menu was complete: Tuna Noodle Casserole for Good Friday, Beef
Brisket for Passover on Saturday, and these ham packets for Easter Sunday. I was so chuffed with myself!
Now I cannot say I ever associated Ralston Purina Company, owners of "Checkerboard
Kitchens," with anything but dog food but here I am, proven wrong by a
cookbook that is most decidedly NOT filled with dog food recipes. As an aside, when I graduated from college
(with an English degree), I really wanted to work in food marketing and so
applied to everybody and anybody including Ralston
Purina. So it's dog food, big
deal? As you might imagine, I was denied
by every single company to which I applied, go figure. Believe it or not, it wasn't necessarily
because I didn't have a marketing degree, but rather because I didn't have much
business experience and as an English major, I wouldn't would I? Oh well, that was then, this is now.
At any rate, Ralston
Purina is still in the dog food business but they deal also in animal feed
products which I suppose is the tie-in to our pork cookbook and that is fine by
me.
I think you'll be happy with the wide variety of pork
recipes in this book as they cover a decent range of incredible edibles in
these categories:
- Fresh Pork Roasts (complete with diagrams – nice!)
- Chops and Steaks
- Ribs and Back Bones
- Foreign Recipes (Chinese; Spanish; French; Mexican; Irish; Latvian (was not expecting that); Hungarian; Hawaiian; Danish; Phillipine; English)
- Barbecuing
- Variety Meats (Ugh: Liver; Feet; Hocks; Knuckles; Cutlets)
- Smoked Pork
- Bacon
- Sausage
Hopefully, one of these categories, and recipes within these
categories will float your boat and your selection is once again vast, ranging
from "Crown Roast of Pork," to "Sausage Potato Soup," to
"Colorful Coleslaw with Tangy Bacon Dressing," to Bacon Chop Suey
(hmm...interesting, that one)to your basic Ham-Yam Casserole. Several other recipes looked really good but
just like with the brisket, I was on ham and potato lock and load.
This recipe will take you all of two seconds to put together
and it only bakes for 30 minutes. What I
loved about it was that you get your potatoes, ham, and cheese all in one
packet and so it sure beats dirtying up several baking dishes.
For those of you who like mustard with your ham, go ahead
and splash a little on top. My preferred
mustard is Gulden's which brings a
tiny amount of spice to the dish.
Enjoy!
Easy Ham and Potatoes
in Foil – Yield: 4 servings
4 medium baking potatoes
2 cups cubed cooked ham
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
Salt and pepper
½ cup chopped parsley
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
½ cup light cream (Ann's
Note: light cream's fat content is
slightly higher than whole milk, and slightly lower than heavy cream. Since I had heavy cream on hand, I used it
but just added some water to it to lighten it up. I have no idea if that is the correct way to
lighten up cream but that's all I could think of. Did it matter? No! The
recipe was delicious.)
Pare potatoes and cut lengthwise in strips as for French
fries. Place potatoes and ham in the
center of a large piece of heavy aluminum foil.
Shape foil to form baking dish.
Dot potatoes with butter.
Sprinkle with salt, pepper, ¼ cup parsley and cheese. Pour cream over. Bring edges of foil up to cover
potatoes. Seal all edges to make a
tightly closed package but don't press.
Place on cookie sheet or shallow pan.
Bake in a 425F oven for 40 to 50 minutes until potatoes are tender. Sprinkle with extra parsley just before
serving. Note: French fries can be used in this recipe.
Ann's Notes: Just for fun, I cut the ham in long strips,
same as I did with the potatoes. I
cooked my packets for 60 minutes to be sure the potatoes were done and I turned
the packets on the baking sheets halfway through cooking to ensure they were
cooked evenly. These were damned nummy
packets and so I was glad to have leftovers!
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