Ham dinner like last month but with navy beans instead of pinto.

NAVY BEANS

Wash and sort Navy beans, put in a pot big enough to cover with 3 times as much water, bring to a boil, boil for 2 minutes, cover; remove from heat and let sit for an hour.  Drain add one small onion chopped, 1/2 Cup brown sugar, salt and pepper to taste a couple pinches cayenne pepper, 1 tablespoon dried or 3 Tbs. fresh parsley and 5 or 6 meaty ham shanks. cover with water and simmer about 1 1/2 hours or until beans are tender.

HAM

Ham was a small butt end city ham with a glaze of raspberry jam, tamari, lime juice, brown sugar, dijon mustard, honey, maple syrup and a dash of balsamic vinegar.  Collard greens were stripped of the large center stems, rinsed thouroughly, chopped, boiled with water and a ham shank bone, sugar, salt and red pepper flakes.  We ate them with some vinegar and hot sauce.

COLLARD GREENS

5 bundles collard greens

4 cups salted water

3 large smoked ham hocks

1 cup sugar

Salt

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Directions

Thoroughly wash collard greens. Be sure to pull leaves apart and remove any sand. Chop collard greens.

In a medium saucepan, bring 4 cups of salted water to a simmer. Place smoked ham hocks in salted water and cover for about 90 minutes. Cook ham hocks until slightly tender. In the same saucepan, add remaining ingredients and collard greens.

Cover and cook greens for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

*Cook's Note: Make sure at least half of ham hocks are covered with water. If not, add additional water.

Country style pork ribs (boneless)

I looked at several recipes for country ribs, didn't like any so I made something up.

I put three packages of pork loin ribs in a dutch oven on top of some celery and roasted it at 300 degrees, uncovered for 1 hour, then removed the celery and drained the liquid and put the ribs back in the dutch oven.  Covered them with a sauce I made while they were cooking and topped them with an onion, sliced and roasted another hour.

Sauce is 2T. Mirin
2T. triple sec
2 T. gluten free Tamari (soy sauce)
4 T. sugar
1/2 Cup fresh cut and grated pineapple
2 T. A-1 sauce
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
4T. Sweet Baby Raes BBQ sauce.

Put all ingr. in small sauce pan and simmer about 10 minutes.

Bahn Mi sandwiches

Charlie made dinner tonight. Cassie helped.  I don't have the recipe but I know he cooked the pork loin chops (sliced thin) in butter and a lot of garlic and he marinated the vegetables in rice vinegar and sugar. At least some of the vegetables were diakon, carrots, onions and cucumbers.

Chili

Same recipe that I always use except I was short on hot bratwurst and used some kielbasa. It was not as good as my usual which is posted here already.

Pork tenderloin marinated and grilled on skewers

Marinade is

1/4C. fish sauce

3T. sugar

2T. vegetable oil

2 stalks lemon grass- I used a T. from a tube of lemon grass paste

1 lar. shallot, finely chopped

2 lar. cloves garlic, finely chopped

  

Mix and marinate pork tenderloin cut in strips for 20 minutes or over night ( overnight is too long. It becomes rather salty)

Rice Vermicelli cooked to directions on package

1/2 C. chopped peanuts ( I forgot to add these) sprinkled over the grilled pork.

Nuoc Cham sauce for dipping

5 T. sugar

3 T. water

1/3 C fish sauce

1/2 C. lemon juice or lime juice

1 or more birds-eye chilies.  I used  two serrano chilies.

Salad was cucumber and carrots sliced thin, romaine lettuce and radishes, dressed with salt, lime juice and olive oil.

Meatloaf dinner

    4 slices white bread, crusts removed 

    2-3 Tbs. milk

    2 tblsp. olive oil 

    1 large yellow onion, finely chopped 

    1 rib celery, finely chopped 

    2 cloves garlic, minced  (3 or 4 cloves)

    1/2 large red bell pepper,  finely chopped

    1 lb. ground sirlion 

    2 1/2 hot bratwurst, skinned

    2 large eggs 

    1/4 c. roughly chopped parsley 

    2 tblsp. Dijon mustard  ( honey dijon_

    1 tblsp. coarse salt & more to taste 

    1/2 tblsp. freshly ground pepper & more to taste

    1/2 lb. thinly sliced smoked bacon 

    1 lb. of potatoes cut in 2-inch pieces, oiled, salted and peppered

    1/2 c. brown sugar, packed 

    1 tblsp. Coleman's yellow ground mustard 

    1 tsp. tomato paste  Or catsup, honey dijon mustard and brown sugar)

    Heat the oven to 375F. Cut the bread into 1 inch cubes and place in a large 

    bowl. Pour milk over it & set aside for 5 minutes. 

    Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, celery & garlic; cook until 

    soft and translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. remove from heat; let cool 5 minutes. 

    To bread mixture, add  meat, eggs, parsley, Dijon, salt, & pepper,onion mixture. Combine well. 

    Place mixture in a large ungreased, foil lined baking dish or roasting pan. Shape into   a 5 X 12 inch loaf. Overlap bacon across the top, covering meat. Place potatoes

    around loaf. Season with salt & pepper. 

    In a small bowl, combine sugar, ground mustard & tomato paste to make a 

    glaze. Brush meatloaf all over with glaze. 

    Bake, until juices run clear when loaf is pierced with a 2 pronged fork & the bacon is    crisp, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Let cool 10 minutes before slicing.

Serve with potatoes or mash them coarsely  and make peas and gravy. 

Shepard's Pie

Here is today's Shepard's pie. No recipe but made with left over yellow squash, Japanese eggplant, carrots, onions, hamburger, peas, Better Than Boullion and potato  water thickened with Wondra flour, topped with mashed potatoes and baked. Next time I should just use potato (instant or potato starch) for thickening. I forgot that wondra is flour with gluten in it.

gluten free chicken breast dinner

Chicken breast with a pocket cut in it, stuffed with ham slice and provolone and topped with mushrooms, garlic and onion sauteed in port wine and olive oil about 6 minutes per side. Spaghetti is gluten free made with corn.

Left over ham and egg salad

Son said this recipe is a keeper.

Ham n Egg Salad

Ingredients

2 c. Left over baked ham, diced very small
4 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 c. mayonnaise
1/2 c. chopped celery  (subbed romaine ribs)
1/4 c. chopped sweet onion
1/4 c chopped dried apricots (subbed dried apples)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

Combine diced ham, eggs, celery, onion, and dried apricot. Add mayonnaise and mix. Salt and pepper to taste. If possible, allow to sit in refrigerator for 1 hour. Serve alone or on bread.

Note: I used romaine lettuce ribs instead of celery and dried apples instead of apricots.

vegetarian pizza and gluten free too.

I made the pizza tonight  when Cassie got home about 10:30 tonight. The small ones are store bought gluten free and the big one used home made dough. It had no sauce or meat, just olive oil, mozz. cheese, fresh basil and mushrooms and or dried garden fresh tomatoes. The tomatoes when treated like this are almost like candy. I wondered why the tomatoes didn't go as far as I thought they would and discovered later that Cassie had eaten a couple of them last night. LOL>

The tomatoes were garden fresh, then dried in the oven and used on the pizzas

3 heirloom tomatoes, sliced crosswise 1/2-inch thick • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil • Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper DIRECTIONS 1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. 2. Fit a rimmed baking sheet with a wire rack. Place tomato slices on rack and drizzle with olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Transfer to oven and bake until dry and wrinkled, about 3 to 4 hours depending on how thick and wet are the tomatoes. Oven-Dried Heirloom Tomato Pizza INGREDIENTS Makes one 12-inch pizza. • Pizza Dough I used 2 C water, 2 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. sugar, 1 T. olive oil, one packet yeast, and an egg plus enough flour to make a soft dough about 5 or 6 cups... makes enough for two large pizzas. • Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling • 4 ounces thinly sliced mozzarella cheese • Oven-Dried Heirloom Tomatoes • 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves • Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper DIRECTIONS 1. Preheat oven to at least 500 degrees. 2. Shape dough into a round. 3 sprinkle pizza with olive oil, dot with cheese, top with tomato and basil or mushrooms and basil. 4. Heat oven to 500 degrees, and bake until crust is crisp and golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes. slice and serve.