Ham and Eggs (and Pintos, too)

Top to bottom: pan fried ham, scrambled eggs, pinto beans.

Holy cow, I've enjoyed my meals since cooking that ham and those beans. But, I think my favorite of all was when I used the ham for breakfast and fried it nice and brown along with eggs nicely scrambled and some of those wonderful pinto beans.

I know this photo isn't the prettiest. Our plates aren't made to display our meals and there was more juice in the beans than I'd meant there to be, so what you see surrounding the eggs is that juice that ran across the plate. (My daughter bought all of our plates at Dollar Tree because she liked the colors and how sturdy they are. My set of white plates is unused in storage.)

Well, I enjoyed this breakfast so much that I just had it again for supper (or dinner, depending on where you live). The slices of ham were nicely crisped, the eggs had picked up the ham drippings (this time I cooked them AFTER the ham) and the beans were as good as they were the first time. I didn't even have bread or a tortilla with this. It was satisfying just as it was.

I wish my daughter would eat ham (not counting deli ham which she will eat). I could have it more often. But, by the same token, I can have more of it since she doesn't like it. 

Now, I'm wondering, and maybe someone reading this could advise me, about making ham gravy. I'm not talking about redeye gravy or the milk gravy you make from the ham drippings (love it!!), but ham gravy in the sense of sausage gravy or dried beef gravy. These slices are too thick to really do it justice like dried beef could, but there's so much flavor in this ham, I was wondering if I could grind some of the ham up (one time through the grinder) and then sizzle the ground ham until it begins to get color before adding my fat, flour and milk. Do you think that would work? I'm really craving a milk gravy with that kind of salty kick that sausage or dried beef would give it. I'll take any suggestions!

Oh, and even after eating beans for four meals, I still had enough left to freeze two pints of them. Well, they're not frozen yet, but they will be once the containers cool off. Good for making chili or burritos.

Late Nite Dinner and Other Food News

Happy November!! It's my birthday month and I've been promised a trip to Vermont as my present. We shall see. Money is tight for both of us, but other than gas, I think we can budget it fairly well. Maybe this time I'll get to see the Grandma Moses exhibit in Bennington that I was promised the last time we were there.

Apparently, I had an older version because ours had egg noodles.

Anyway, I am in the process of making Hamburger Helper Beef and Noodles, but I added a can of green beans to it as well as another cup of gravy so it will go farther. It always seems the gravy isn't nearly enough when you make these, but that won't be a problem this time. I'm also using soy milk instead of regular milk because my daughter has an unusual intolerance to milk. Most of us who have reactions have digestive issues. My daughter breaks out all over with acne. It's a shame because she just loves milk and dairy products, but as often as possible, we try to make them so she won't react. It's funny, too, because she can drink LactAid without a reaction, so it is apparently the Lactose that's the issue, but she doesn't have the most common reaction.

Anyway, I decided that, while the food is simmering the required 10 minutes, I would come in and post a long-overdue blog entry in my food blog.

I had the feeling when I wrote my last food blog entry that I was forgetting one of the places I had gone to eat. I just realized I'd forgotten TWO! LOL

Example of an Indian buffet

I went to another Indian buffet in Pennsauken called Palace of Asia. There have been others I liked more, but there have also been others I liked far less. The food was fresh and varied, something for everyone. I loved the fruit custard they had available for dessert. I'd love to know how to make the "custard" they put the fruit in. It wasn't vanilla or chocolate - it was fruit flavored, yet thick and creamy. Delicious!

Lobster Bisque

We also went to Cap'n Cats Crab Bar in Voorhees last week. It was my turn to treat and I had bought a certificate worth $30 for $15. So, that and an additional $6.21 at the end fed the two of us some delicious seafood. We both started off with Lobster Bisque, which was excellent. I had Coconut Fried Shrimp with onion rings and he had grilled Mahi Mahi, also with onion rings. He was a bit disappointed with the quantity of fish he got for the price, but otherwise it was all excellent. My shrimp came with a Pina Colada dip, but I opted for the cocktail sauce instead. And, we had a bottle of French cabernet; not one of my favorites, but I had a glass while he finished the bottle himself. Good thing I was doing the driving!

Breakfast for Supper

by DBPSmith on Wikimedia

Although I have cooked a couple of times this week, breakfast for supper wasn't done by me. I was invited to my landlord's for supper on Tuesday and they were having dried beef gravy with toast (aka creamed chipped beef or SOS). I love dried beef gravy, so I accepted the invite. I had my gravy in a bowl and dunked my toast rather than soaking my toast under the gravy. I like the combination of the toasty crunch of the bread with the thick sauciness of the gravy.


My friend who made the kedgeree the other day was there and decided in the middle of us getting our food that he would make another batch of kedgeree. Kedgeree is a British breakfast dish that consists of smoked fish boiled with the water used to cook the Basmati rice that goes in the dish all of which is blended together with diced cooked onions and boiled eggs, curry powder (or garam masala), cumin and turmeric. The first time he made it, he didn't get all the bones out of the fish, so the pleasure of eating was ruined by the concern over when the next piece of bone would appear in my mouth. And, there was just a bit too much heat the first time because he put a bit more garam masala in that it called for. So, he decided the night I was there eating another breakfast dish for supper to make another batch of kedgeree. Don't ask because I can tell you I don't have the answer. All I can say is that the second batch was far superior to the first batch. And, he hadn't even used smoked fish. He bought boneless whiting and made it with that and used the proper amount of garam masala. It was delicious! Of course, I was a bit too full when I left the house that night since I had eaten two different dishes (the "some" he gave me to try was a bowlful!) The curry flavor was obvious, it wasn't fishy, there were no bones, it didn't taste "eggy" (which is good because I detest hard boiled eggs) and the cumin and turmeric added just enough smoky flavor that I didn't know he didn't use smoked fish until after I'd eaten it.

Image from RecipeKey.com

But, just so you know, I have cooked this week, even if it wasn't much. I made scrambled eggs with cheese and salsa on Monday for breakfast, grilled cheese for supper using shredded cheese I had on hand (no sliced cheese on hand) and then apple-cinnamon oatmeal pancakes for breakfast this morning. I want to share with you that adding fiber to your pancakes is so easy! And, heart healthy, too. The thing I like is that the texture of the pancakes doesn't change at all. They're still the light and fluffy pancakes you would expect to get from a mix (I use the complete kind of mix - just add water), but they get an added element of fiber and oats when I add the dry oatmeal (or in this case, Irish porridge). I don't do anything special - I just mix the oats in with the mix and cinnamon before adding water. So, it's a great way to "sneak" added fiber and nutrition into pancakes for your family. Unless they see you making them, they won't know.

Jersey Girl's Italian Pork Gravy - A Great and Easy Recipe

I tried a new recipe today. I can't remember what I was doing when I found it, but I know that the blog's title drew me in. A Jersey Girl Cooks. That got my attention because, you see, I'm a Jersey Girl,too. I have fine-tuned it a bit geographically. My other blog is called A South Jersey Girl Writes. That's where I post my writing efforts that aren't food related. So, I just had to take a look at what she had to offer. That's when I found Mama's Sunday Pork Gravy. 


It looked fantastic and oh so easy (something very important to me, of course, being the lazy cook that I am). I have never been able to make a decent pasta sauce from scratch. I could "doctor" the jarred stuff, but without it, my efforts were lacking significantly. Initially, I thought I'd use a couple of my chicken leg quarters, but then I remembered some pork chops I had in the freezer. I thawed them and this afternoon, I began to make this recipe. I'm so glad I did.

Lisa's end result

The recipe calls for one can of crushed tomatoes and one can of tomato puree. I didn't have it, but I did have two cans of crushed tomatoes, so I used both of them. Instead of six cloves of garlic, I used three teaspoons of garlic juice. I didn't have onion powder, so I used dried minced onions instead. So, I was as true to the recipe as I could be and it turned out really well.

My end result, not as dark and rich

The pork chops provided additional flavor and depth to the sauce (or gravy, as Lisa calls it in her blog. I like her explanation - gravy contains meat or is meat based while sauces do not). I may have used a bit too much red wine in de-glazing the pan, but the sauce (er, gravy) still turned out wonderful. The meat was tender and fell off the bone. The cats, of course, were thrilled to have the bone when I was done. I can definitely say that this is a recipe I will be using again!