The Smell Of Pork

There's nothing like the luscious smell of roasting ham wafting on the breezes in the kitchen.  It permeates the entire house.  GOSH that smells good!!!  I don't know why I double checked the label, but it's a good thing I did.  My plan for the 8 pound hunk of ham was to cook it for 20 minutes per pound.  Come to find out it was only 7 pounds and the directions said 15 minutes per pound.

I will admit up front that this is NOT my ham.  Mine was cooked in a very old roasting pan ... remember the blue one your grandmother had?  Once the bell rang, I covered it in the glaze (which I've never used before) and put it back in for ten minutes.  

My next plan was to cut it in half for transport to the dinner table of my long time friend Diane and her daughter Shelby, accompanied by her son Braden ("B") and Diane's husband.  I started cutting it apart and taste testing, which made me totally forget about taking pictures.  I was in ham heaven!!!  I have to say mine looked better.  

With one success in the books I started on the cowboy green beans.  I've never made good green beans in my life.  They are always cooked unevenly, and generally are either soft as mush or raw.  These were perfect!  The secret of course is the Instant Pot.  Fry up some bacon, take it out and fry half an onion, add the bacon back in.   Didn't I already give you this recipe??

Cut the green beans and place them in the strainer in the Instant Pot with one cup of water on the bottom.  Set it to manual pressure for 2 and ONLY TWO minutes.  Quick release the pressure.  In less than six minutes total, they were ready to be smothered in bacon and onions with a little salt and pepper.  The best part ... they are still GREEN instead of Army Mud color.  I'm so proud of these!!!!!

Off to the party I went, not suspecting mimosas along with a couple of huge strawberries Diane grew in her yard.  Little did we know while we were trying to take THIS pictures, Diane's husband was taking a picture of our BUTTS!!!!!  No, I'm not going to show you that one!!

They do it up right at their house ... B had to follow the bunny trail around and around the house to find his Easter basket.  They cut out a circle with three small circles above it as a template and sprinkled baking soda over it, making bunny footprints.  Cutest thing ever if you have young grandchildren.

Brunch included ham, a delicious green chili and ham quiche, Diane's cheesy potatoes, green beans and fruit.  In no time, we were stuffed to the brim, which is exactly when B wanted to play "fight the magic dragon" down the hallway.   I even got my own sword!

It was a beautiful morning with lots of sunshine that didn't last long, so when I returned home, I whipped up a batch of cheesy potatoes for myself.  This one is a keeper folks, especially if you need something easy for those RV rally pot lucks.  

One cube of melted butter mixed with 16 ounces of sour cream and 3/4 pound of grated sharp cheddar.  Add that to a 30 oz bag of thawed hash brown potatoes.  Stir well and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes.  I cut that recipe in half (using even less butter) and actually used leftover (already cooked) potatoes I cut into small chunks.  I threw in the ham because it was SO good.  I know this is how I usually end up with cemetery material, but this time it was WONDERFUL!!!

There's nothing like being focused on food all day!!  It didn't help that the rain started coming down around 2:00 and hasn't stopped.  In case you were wondering what Jonathan had for Easter dinner, it was his usual.  He's pretty finicky when it comes to his dinner plate.  

There is sunflower mix with a couple of peanuts in the shell, cut up apple and carrots, peanuts OUT of the shell, extra sunflower seeds (no shell), half a Ritz cracker to keep some weight on him and his bird biscuit full of sweet potato that he refuses to eat otherwise.  Yes, birds are a pain in the patoodie.  Occasionally I give him bananas, pieces of peanut butter cookie (his all time favorite) and chopped eggs.  Yes that is a dried hot pepper in the middle, which occasionally he picks at, but mostly that ends up in the trash.   My advice .... never get a bird!!

It's looking good for the Arizona house ... it may even close as early as May 15 if I can get my act together as far as the required paperwork.  That's where I'm heading today ... to the bank for a letter of credit.