{"id":46,"date":"2011-05-02T21:52:08","date_gmt":"2011-05-03T01:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/?p=46"},"modified":"2011-05-03T00:03:54","modified_gmt":"2011-05-03T04:03:54","slug":"when-life-gives-you-ham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/?p=46","title":{"rendered":"when life gives you ham"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some people get sent home from Easter dinner with a few extra slices of ham.  Somehow, though, this year we got sent home with&#8230; an entire ham. Yep, an entire ham.  For two people.  I have no idea how this happened.<\/p>\n<p>I cut a bunch of it up into medium dice and froze it.  (K, who is wise in the ways of freezing, suggested spreading the diced ham on a sheet pan and freezing it first, then pouring the frozen cubes into freezer bags so that they could be easily separated later.  Brilliant.)  They&#8217;ll come in handy for casseroles or whatever.  Still got all these slices to deal with, though.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, it&#8217;s been ham in every meal for us. For dinner last night, I made a split pea soup with plenty of ham in it, and served it up with ham and cheese scones.  My standby cheese scone recipe, I figured, was robust enough to take some extra ham.  <\/p>\n<p>The batter had me worried at first, because the dough was incredibly moist and shaggy.  It was hard to work with, but I managed to separate it into triangles.  Then I pushed it into the oven and hoped for the best.<\/p>\n<p>Result: total success!  The scones are near-relatives to cheesy biscuits, not dry at all, with plenty of savory ham flavor in every bite.  They&#8217;re best right out of the oven, but toast up just fine the next morning (and, I hope, will continue to do so for several mornings to come).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/yiwei.net\/scribbling\/images\/hamscones.jpg\" alt=\"ham and cheese scones\" border=\"0\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ham and Cheese Mini Scones<\/strong><br \/>\n(I like my scones smallish, but you can make yours as big as you want)<\/p>\n<p>2 3\/4 cup flour<br \/>\n2 tbsp sugar<br \/>\n2 tsp baking powder (make sure it&#8217;s fresh!)<br \/>\n1\/2 tsp table salt (actually, you could probably cut the salt completely, with all the salt from the ham and cheese)<br \/>\n1\/4 tsp baking soda<br \/>\n10 tbsp unsalted butter, cold, cubed<br \/>\napproximately 1\/2 cup ham, cut in small dice<br \/>\n1 cup shredded cheddar cheese<br \/>\n1 green onion, minced<br \/>\n1 cup buttermilk (I used 1 tbsp white vinegar plus enough milk to equal 1 cup)<br \/>\n1 tbsp water (may not be necessary; add bit by bit if it looks like more moisture is needed to incorporate the dry ingredients into the dough)<\/p>\n<p>Preheat oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (I used a silicone baking mat).<\/p>\n<p>Combine dry ingredients in large bowl.  Cut in butter with a pastry blender or fork until lumps of butter are pea-sized.<\/p>\n<p>Stir in ham, cheddar, and green onion.  Add buttermilk and stir; dough should begin to clump.  Add water if necessary.  Knead gently until blended.<\/p>\n<p>Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface (or another baking mat) and pat into an 8&#8243; square.  Cut into 2&#8243; squares and then cut squares into triangles.  (Or if you want big scones, pat the dough into a big circle and cut it into wedges.)  Dough will be moist.  Arrange scones on baking sheet, spacing 1&#8243; apart.  <\/p>\n<p>Bake until golden, or until the bottoms start darkening, about 25 minutes.  (Just lift one up with a pair of tongs and peek if you&#8217;re not sure.)  Serve warm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some people get sent home from Easter dinner with a few extra slices of ham. Somehow, though, this year we got sent home with&#8230; an entire ham. Yep, an entire ham. For two people. I have no idea how this &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/?p=46\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weeknight-cooking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kitchen.wasteofbytes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}