Prepping begins!!

I'm not gonna lie. This warm weather did not make for the easiest pie dough making experience. I'm trying a new recipe, all butter crust, so fingers crossed!!

Oh my...Thanksgiving dinner at Morrison's was just superb with excellent service! Just didn't feel like making a bird with all the sides for just the two of us this year, so I made reservations...LOL!

Lychee martini...refreshing and scrumptious!



Butternut squash soup...best I've ever eaten!



Turkey feast (I ordered all dark meat...yum!)



Butterscotch cheesecake...it was fabulous...brought some home!

Well, it was bound to happen. Christmas Dinner Fiasco. I had a pretty good run, but we'll be talking about this one for years.

I went to North Carolina with Sissy a few months ago, and while we were there our cousin made her try Country Ham on Sweet Potato Biscuits. Sissy HATES ham. Like seriously hates it. Which is a bummer for the rest of us because we love ham. So for holidays, if we want ham, I end up making two meats, which I don't mind, but if we could all agree on a ham and Sissy likes it that would be nice, right? So yep, you guessed it, Sissy loved the Country Ham, and asked me to make it for Christmas! Darn tootin I will!

So, I ordered one that was fully cooked, because the process for the uncooked one wasn't going to work with my schedule. Genuine Country Ham, the pride and joy of Virginia.

It. Was. Horrible. Lordy the saltiness. And it was dry. We couldn't even chew it. We went through 4 pitchers of water. Seriously.

Now, the rest of the food was perfect and no one went home hungry, and we laughed the entire time, so all was not lost. Before every holiday I joke that my family loves me and if the food sucks they'll still show up for the next holiday, but this is the first time I'm actually going to put them to the test!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all! This is what I get for being half Jewish and cooking pork....

Nope nope, see it came cooked by others instead of going thru the MPB Treatment (TM). That was the fatal error.

It must be a product of your kitchen.

(What is Country Ham anyway?)

A ham cured and hung, maybe smoked, and not precooked.
A "raw" ham.

Country "Ham"

I know, this totally broke my rule of nothing on the table that I didn't make myself (with the exception of butter, salt, and pepper), but the process from uncooked is soaking for a minimum of 24 hours to remove some of the saltiness, and I was away up until the day before and didn't have 24 hours to give!

Country Ham is salt cured for months, and has a very different flavor from what the rest of the world calls ham. It has a bit of funkiness too. I didn't mind the funk, but the salt was off the charts. I'm going to boil the crap out of it now and see if I can salvage some for split pea soup.

Bleh

So, I boiled the living tar out of a few pounds of the ham to see if I could salvage for soup. It helped, and it's definitely more tender now, but I the salt level is still crazy. Live and learn!

On the menu for New Year's are items to get my confidence back - Prime Rib and Lobster!!

I think if ham came from hanging at Auntie Maries farm every year thats what you would be used to.

It reminds me of pioneer food. That ham and some hard tack could get you and your wagon train to Or-e-gone.

So MsPam are you butchering your beast and catching your lobsters too?

Now wait a minute.



So you both had the Country Ham a few months ago, and wasnt it salty then? But your sis still liked it? So you would have known....?

It was from a restaurant, and I’m guessing they either cure it less time or they soak it a good long time to pull more salt out. My aunt from North Carolina agreed that what we had when we were there was mild.

smoked a 2 lb brisket flat on NY's day

got it up to 188 but it seems like it could have gone longer/higher

up to 205 i hear

no biggie, thinly slice and it's really good

What kind of weird temp. settings are those?