Roasted Broccoli, Ham and Cheddar Grilled Cheese

Up next for my leftover Easter ham is something nice and simple and yet oh so good, a grilled cheese sandwich; pure comfort food! Ham and cheese is a fabulous and broccoli and cheese is another, so why not combine the two? That's right a broccoli, ham and cheddar grilled cheese sandwich! I was not about to stop there either, I roasted the broccoli to bring out even more of it's flavour before adding it to the sandwich! I then finished the grilled cheese off with a touch of grainy mustard to give it some bite! Cheese, broccoli and ham is such a magical combination of flavours and it is perfect in grilled cheese form! If you are fresh out of leftover Easter ham you are going to have to run out and get some ham, along with the broccoli, but it is so worth it for these roasted broccoli, ham and cheddar grilled cheese sandwiches!

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Chicken Cordon Bleu Quinoa Casserole

First up for my leftover Easter ham was something that I had been wanting to make for a while, a casserole inspired by the flavours of chicken cordon bleu. Chicken cordon bleu is a dish when chicken is wrapped around ham or prosciutto along with a melty cheese, covered in breadcrumbs and baked or fried until the cheese has melted and the breadcrumbs are crispy. This recipe is pretty much like you would expect with chicken, ham, a tasty cheese sauce similar to a mac and cheese sauce and a crispy breadcrumb topping. Normally you would fill out a casserole like this with pasta or maybe even rice but I also like to go with quinoa every once in a while and it works really well in casseroles like this. You could of course also add some vegetables to the casserole to make i a one dish meal but it is great either way. If you are a fan of chicken cordon bleu, mac n cheese and quinoa then this is the casserole for you!

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Ham and Cheese Egg Casserole

Over the holidays I always like to make some tasty breakfasts and things work out really well if you make a ham for dinner as the leftovers can be used to make this quick and easy ham and cheese egg casserole. I first came across the idea for this egg breakfast casserole on Kalyn's Kitchen about four years ago and I made it right away and I have been making it ever since. With some leftover ham in my fridge and the holidays here it was the perfect time to make it again and update the four year old photos for the recipe!

This breakfast egg casserole is super easy to make and really light to boot. It consists of eggs and cottage cheese at it base and from there you can add pretty much whatever you want. I like to experiment with different flavour combinations but the one that I keep coming back to is the classic ham and cheese combo. You pretty much just need to mix the eggs, cottage cheese and the fillings and bake until golden brown! You can even assemble everything the night before so that you only have to bake it in the morning making it even easier for a busy morning.

I am a big fan of spicy heat so I like to add some pickled jalapenos to my ham and cheese egg casseroles and you can never go wrong topping it off with some salsa and sour cream! What a tasty to start the day!

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Ham and Eggs au Gratin

Are you looking for a special breakfast for the holidays? This is it! Until recently I had actually never heard of a ham and egg au gratin but when I saw it on pinterest recently, via Scrumptious South Africa, I knew that I would have to make it! The ham and egg au gratin is essentially slices of ham and hard boiled eggs that are made 'gratin' style, covered in a creamy sauce and baked until golden brown and bubbling! Besides the fabulous ham and egg combo what really makes this recipe work is the super tasty sauce, which is pretty much a basic bechamel sauce that is seasoned with dijon mustard, lemon juice and parsley and I could not help but throw in plenty of cheese!

In addition to being one of the tastiest breakfasts that I've had in a long time the recipe is actually really easy! You pretty much just need to make the hard boiled eggs, make the sauce and then assemble and bake it. With the ham and egg combo I immediately thought of this as a breakfast dish and it is perfect for days when you have a bit of time in the morning like the weekend or a holiday but if you assemble everything the night before you can easily bake it on a busy weekday morning!

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Split Pea Soup

As with a lot of roasts I sometimes think that I have more fun with the ham leftovers than the initial meal and I always like to start off with that precious ham bone! The ham bone is perfect for simmering for hours in soups and stocks to bring out all of its flavour imparting it into the soup. You can use a ham bone in a lot of different soups but my favourite has to be the classic split pea soup which is a bowl of comfort food on a chilly day. With the days getting colder I knew that I would be using the bone from the gingersnap crusted ham that I made last week and it was the perfect opportunity to update my split pea soup recipe with some new photos!

This split pea soup is super easy to make where you really just need to saute some vegetables, throw everything into the pot along with the ham bone and then simmer for a few hours letting all of the flavours come out while the split peas cook. I like to go with a ham broth for this soup but chicken broth or vegetable broth also work. If you have any leftover ham meat, it makes a great addition and I like to finish everything of with a hit of grainy mustard and lemon juice.

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Bourbon Gingersnap Crusted Ham

Whether you are tired of turkey or you are you want a second roast in addition to the turkey you really cannot go wrong with a tasty ham! Ever since I tried this bourbon gingersnap crusted ham by Alton Brown I have been hooked and I keep coming back to it when I am looking for a ham recipe. Like most hams this one is super easy to make where you bake it, pull it out, remove the skin and fat, brush on some mustard, sprinkle on some brown sugar, spritz it with bourbon and then press on the crushed gingersnaps before baking it for a bit longer. The tangy mustard combined with the sweet brown sugar and the gingery cookies is simply amazing! One variation that I like to do is to bush the ham with some maple syrup before applying the mustard which adds another tasty layer of complexity.

Of course one of the best things about a ham is the leftovers, including the bone, and all of the exciting that you can do with them! Check out some ideas below the recipe!

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BBQ Ham, Bacon and Pineapple Quesadillas (aka BBQ Hawaiian Pizza Quesadillas)

During the summer I naturally tend to eat a lot more fruit and I often like to try to use it in one of my food obsessions, dishes with plenty of hot melted ooey gooey cheese like grilled cheese sandwiches or quesadillas. I have been enjoying a lot of pineapple these last few days and that had me thinking about fun new ways to use it and the one idea that really stuck with me was to use it in another pizza quesadilla! Hawaiian pizza is one of those pizzas where you either love it or hate it with its use of sweet and tangy pineapple on a pizza along with salty ham and smoky bacon and I am firmly in the love it category so Hawaiian pizza quesadillas were on the menu!

A Hawaiian pizza quesadilla recipe pretty much writes itself, I mean you just take the Hawaiian pizza ingredients, throw them into a tortilla and toast them up until all melty and good but that just wasn't quite doing it for me... Although I do not hold to it all the time, I feel that a quesadilla should include some spicy heat and the basic Hawaiian pizza quesadilla was simply lacking in this regard! After some careful consideration I decided that the best way to add some heat to the quesadillas was take a note from the BBQ chicken pizza to replace the boring old pizza sauce with some sweet and spicy BBQ sauce and I also threw in some jalapeno peppers for good measure! The use of the BBQ sauce in the quesadillas put grilling on my mind so I grilled the pineapple to tenderize and caramelize it, bringing out its natural sweetness.

Isn't summer great? Fresh fruit? Check! Plenty of ooey gooey melted cheese? Check! Mmm...

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Ham and Bean Soup

Whenever I make a ham dinner I always make sure to save the ham bone because it can be used in soups or stocks to which it adds a ton of flavour. (The ham bone keeps well in the freezer so even if I don't plan on making a soup right away I freeze it for later.) One of my favourite soups to use a ham bone in is the ever so simple and yet wonderful ham and bean soup! Ham and bean soup lends itself beautifully for a ham bone because the longer you simmer the ham bone, the more flavour you get from it and you need to simmer the beans for an hour or two in this soup anyways. Really this soup is as simple as it gets, you have your basic vegetables, the onions, celery and carrots in addition to the ham and beans and the ham bone provides all of the flavour. You do need a bit of time to let it simmer but it is really worth it! Despite being so simple this has to be one of the best soups around and it is pure comfort food that is bound to satisfy!

If you have the cravings for ham and bean soup but do not have a ham bone on hand, don't worry, you can get a soup that is almost as flavourful using ham hocks.

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Cuban Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Up next for National Grilled Cheese month is a simple grilled cheese take on the Cuban sandwich where instead of using a Cuban bun and cooking it pressed style we use bread and butter and cook it grilled style. The Cuban sandwich consists of a really tasty combo of roast pork (preferably Cuban roast pork), ham, pickle, mustard and plenty of melted swiss cheese. Although this is just a minor variation on the Cuban sandwich, it is a good one and one worthy of making an appearance National Grilled Cheese month; I mean you really can't go wrong taking an already amazing sandwich and wrapping it in toasted buttery bread.

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Ham and Egg Breakfast Quesadillas

Are you lucky enough to still have some leftover ham from Easter? (Or do you have some bacon on hand?) These ham and egg breakfast quesadillas are a great way to enjoy it in a tasty breakfast that is easy to make and comes together in a matter of minutes! It is so easy to add some leftover ham into scrambled eggs for a tasty breakfast but why not try doing something new and fun like quesadillas? You could throw pretty much anything that you want into these quesadillas and since I like mine spicy I tend go with salsa and jalapenos along with the ham, eggs and cheese. After a few days of these amazing ham and egg breakfast quesadillas I will be sad to see the rest of the leftover ham disappear!

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Maple and Bourbon Ham and Baked Bean Soup

Although a ham dinner is pretty amazing I sometimes think that I like the leftovers even more, especially that ham bone! One of my favourite ways of enjoying the ham bone and some of the ham leftovers is in a ham and bean soup which is so easy to make and so unbelievably good; pure comfort food! This time I thought that I would change things up and instead of making a classic ham and bean soup I would make a baked bean themed ham and bean soup. I started out with my standard ham and bean soup recipe including the classic onion, carrot and celery combo followed by ham broth and the beans but then I took a u-turn and started with the baked bean flavours including a sweetener, molasses, ketchup, mustard, worcestershire sauce and a splash cider vinegar. Instead of using simple brown sugar for the sweetener I went with maple syrup to add another layer of flavour and I kicked things up a bit with a hit of bourbon and spicy chipotle chilies before finishing the soup off with the ham. This ham and baked bean soup is a great way to enjoy the ham bone and leftover ham in a way that makes the ham dinner look a little boring, though definitely worth it!

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Ham Broth (and How to Cook a Smoked and Cured Picnic Ham)

One of my favourite special occasion dinners has to be the ham dinner! Not only are ham dinners oh so tasty but the are also super easy to make and coming up with interesting ways of using all of the leftovers is always fun! There are different kinds of hams and my favourite is the smoked and cured picnic ham which often comes on sale for dirt cheap and it never disappoints. You can cook a smoked and cured picnic ham a number of way and I usually go with a combination of boiling and roasting which gives you the best of both worlds. Boiling the ham first allows you to make a tasty broth while simmering it, helps cut down on the saltiness of the ham and helps keep the ham nice and moist and tender. You get the ham broth by adding your favourite broth ingredients like onions, carrots and celery along with some herbs and spices to the water while boiling the ham. After the initial boil the ham is pat dry and roasted to finish the cooking and you can opt to go for a crispy cracking or a glaze to add flavour.

How amazing is that? This one ham gives you a tasty ham dinner, optionally with crackling, leftovers, ham broth, a ham bone to be used in soups or stew!

(See below for ideas about what to use the ham broth, bone and leftovers in.)

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Cuban Sandwich

At the beginning of the week I had plenty of freshly minted leftover Cuban roast pork (lechon asado) and of course the first thing that I thought to use it in was a sandwich, a Cuban sandwich in particular. The Cuban sandwich, popularized in Florida, consists of roast pork, ham, swiss cheese, yellow mustard and pickles and it is generally 'pressed' when grilled. As luck planning would have it, I also just happened to also have some roast ham on hand so I was all set to make some Cuban sandwiches! These sandwiches are really easy to make, you pretty much just assemble the sandwich and grill it in a panini press. (I don't have a panini press so I just used a grill pan and 'pressed' down on the sandwich with a mixing bowl.) Despite being so simple, the Cuban sandwich is packed full of flavour and all of the flavours work so well together! The Cuban sandwich works particularly well with the lechon asado that has been marinated in the sour orange and garlic mojo and if you have any extra mojo on hand, throw some into the sandwich or dip your sandwich into it for even more kick! If you are using lechon asado for your roast pork and if you had any crackling, add some to the sandwich for a tasty crunchy texture! These sandwiches certainly are a great way to enjoy some of the leftover Cuban roast pork (lechon asado)!

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