Baked Ham

I LOVE baked ham, if I had to choose between turkey and ham, ham would win everytime.

So I did promise a secret ingredient that has an Irish touch...

GUINNESS!

OK so you are wondering what on earth is she going to do with the Guinness, well the night before the big meal I place the ham in a big pot and pour a few bottles of Guinness over the ham. Then turn the heat on the stove to medium and let the ham boil in the Guinness turning it over after an hour and cook for a further hour. When it has cooled place it in the fridge.

If you want to save time the next day place it in the roast pan you will use and wrap in foil. When it's time to put the ham in the oven I just pour a healthy helping of honey over and cook it according the type of ham it is.

The Guinness adds an extra flavor and anyone that has tried it love it. It's been a tradition in my family and the smell takes me back to Christmas Eve as a child sneaking into the kitchen to see if my parents were in bed so I could see my presents. So for me aside from the smell of a live Christmas tree nothing screams the holidays like the ham on the stove boiling in Guinness!

Thanksgiving Menu!

Thursday is Thanksgiving, my ninth. I think it's such a wonderful holiday, because it's simply about giving thanks for all our blessings.

Of course it's a big cooking day, this is one of the few occasions throughout the year that we get to really be extravagant. It's days like this that the Martha Stewart comes out in me and if I was unrestrained would probably have the whole decorating, matching tableware, fine details going on.

So what's on the menu at my house?

Roast Turkey

Roast Ham

Homemade gravy

Roast Potatoes

Green Bean Casserole

Sweet Potato Casserole

Cauliflower Au Gratin

Bread Stuffing

Steamed carrots and Brussel sprouts

Bread

Pecan Pie

Mini Butterscotch Pies

Fresh Fruit Salad

OK yes this is probably extreme but it's THANKSGIVING and I want to spoil my men! Now cooking such a big meal is intimidating and timing is a fine art to work out. The first Thanksgiving I cooked was a disaster. The Sweet Potato Casserole recipe I used called for orange juice and well it would have been better called Orange Casserole because orange was all you could taste.

If you join us and I say we're eating at noon, expect to eat at 1pm. This year I'm planning to be finished by 11am so that we can eat at noon because without fail I always seem to be an hour late.

This year I'm going to do as much as possible on Wednesday, like make the casseroles and pop them in the fridge, that's the wonderful part of casseroles. So with that said, I'm going to share 2 of my casserole dishes, Green Bean Casserole and Cauliflower Au Gratin. I hated cauliflower growing up but have come to love it as an adult and this casserole is so rich and delicious. It does call for Gruyere cheese which is a little more expensive but again it's Thanksgiving so a little luxury added to your dishes is wonderful. White Cheddar or regular cheddar can easily be used.

GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE

2 (10.75oz) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup

3/4 cup milk

1 (2.8 oz) can French Fried Onions

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

32 oz green beans, cooked (I boil mine with a healthy sprinkling of Tony's Cajun Seasoning)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

2. In a small saucepan, combine mushroom soup, milk and cheddar cheese. Mix together over low heat until melted.

3. Mix in the cooked green beans and pour into a greased casserole dish and top with French fried onions.

4. Bake for 30 - 40 minutes.

Make Ahead: You can make the dish up without adding french fried onions on top and either refrigerate or freeze, just add to cooking time to ensure fully cooked through.

CAULIFLOWER AU GRATIN

1 (3lb) head cauliflower, cut into large florets

4 T (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, divided

3 T all-purpose flour

2 cups hot milk

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup freshly grated Gruyere, divided

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Steam the cauliflower florets until tender but still firm, drain.

3. Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons (T) butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add the flour, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes.

4. Pour the hot milk into the butter mixture and stir until it comes to a boil. Boil, whisking constantly, for 1 minute, or until thickened.

5. Off the heat, add 1 tsp of salt, the pepper, 1/2 cup of the Gruyere and the Parmesan.

6. Pour a 1/3 of the sauce on the bottom of a 8 x 11 x 2 baking dish. Place the drained cauliflower on top and then spread the rest of the sauce evenly on top.

7. Combine the bread crumbs and the remaining 1/4 cup of Gruyere and sprinkle on top.

8. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and drizzle over the gratin. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

9. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, until the top is browned.

MAKE AHEAD: You can construct the casserole up to the end of step 6 and refrigerate. Then complete the remaining steps when you are ready to cook, just add a little extra time to ensure full cooking.

I'll be sharing my Baked Ham recipe tomorrow with it's secret ingredient and Irish touch!

Beef & Pepper Stir Fry

I thought for the first recipe I'd share a quick and easy dish for all the busy mothers. This is Chinese fast food home style! It's one of my favorite go to recipes for busy nights.

I think the best thing to own is a wok or good skillet! Either will work with this.

Go ahead and do ALL your preparations BEFORE you start cooking, once you start it's really quick! It probably takes longer to cook the rice and cut up the ingredients that the actual cooking.

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp cornstarch, divided

6 Tbsp dry sherry, divided

6 Tbsp soy sauce, divided

1 garlic clove, minced

1/8 - 1/4 tsp of ground red pepper (adjust to taste we like things spicy at our house)

1 lb top sirloin, thinly sliced into ¼ inch strips

½ cup water

2 Tbsp good quality refined peanut oil (I use Spectrum, it's a little more expensive but when it comes to taste you need it).

1 green bell pepper, cut into strips

1 sweet red bell pepper, cut into strips

Hot cooked rice

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine 1 Tbsp cornstarch, 2 Tbsp sherry, 2 Tbsp soy sauce, garlic and ground red pepper.

2. Add beef and toss to coat; put in fridge for 10 – 15 minutes or longer.

3. In a small bowl, combine water with remaining cornstarch, sherry and soy sauce; set aside.

4. In a wok or skillet, heat 1 Tbsp oil over medium-high.

5. Add green and red peppers; stir fry for 1 minute or until crisp-tender. Remove peppers to a platter.

6. Add remaining oil and the beef to the pan; stir-fry for 1 – 2 minutes or until beef is no longer pink. Remove to platter.

7. Return peppers to pan.

8. Stir cornstarch mixture and add to pan; bring to the boil, stirring constantly until thickened.

9. Cook 1 minute longer.

10. Serve immediately over hot rice.

MAKE AHEAD TIP: you can actually cut the beef and mix it with the marinate and freeze it, then take it out of the freezer when you are ready to cook and throw it in the wok. I tried cutting and freezing the peppers too but they become soggy and not crisp but it will work, it's all down to taste.

You can cut all the ingredients in the morning ahead of time and stick them in the fridge and just pop them in the wok when it's dinner time!

HEALTHY TIP: Peppers are high in vitamin C and actually I think it's higher than an orange so this is a great dish during cold and flu season to give the family's immune system a boost!

I promise I'll try and start posting pictures of the dishes in future!

Welcome!

Hi I'm Lesley. I am a stay-at-home mother to 2 wonderful boys.

When I got married 8 years ago and took on the 'housewife' role I had to quickly learn the art of delicious home cooking. My local library became my best-friend and I'm pretty sure I've checked out every cookbook at one point or another. I have filled notebooks with pages of recipe ideas as well as numerous word documents. I have a wonderful, patient husband who has been my guinea pig and he has had to endure ALOT!!!!! I think the 'worst' offering put on a plate was a Chicken Ranch Orzo dish from a Betty Crocker cookbook, it was horrible, but the worse part was my in-laws stopped by to visit just as I was serving it, major embarrassment as his mother is a great cook and even though she worked she put a hot cooked meal on the table every night. By the way Betty Crocker recipes have been banned, too many short cuts and if you want it to taste good you are going to have put in a little effort in most cases! There have been other lessons like 'Spice-control' that I will share along the way.

I was born and raised in Northern Ireland, UK and now live in Louisiana, USA. I grew up in the country and have wonderful memories of the coal burning aga stove that we cooked on. Homemade scones and soda farls, stews and roasts. I don't actually remember shopping at a 'grocery store' until my teens, we got our meat from the butcher, fruit and vegetables were home grown or bought from local farmers or the little store in my home town. I'm so thankful that Banbridge, my hometown, still has the same butcher, bakeries (that have the most delicious pastries), green grocer and all the other little shops. It has big chain supermarkets but somehow they have managed to co-exist which now a days seems to be rare!

Louisiana is my adopted home and I love it here. My taste in food has changed because of my introduction to Cajun food! With a bounty of seafood that is beyond delicious and fused cooking techniques that although require patience are well worth the hard work, never mind the SPICES!!!! Chicken and Sausage Gumbo is my new comfort food!! And Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning is a stable in my kitchen, I wonder how I survived the first 25 years of my life without a little dash here and there!

I have developed a calender spreadsheet so I can plan my meals out for the month and make sure that, even though we may eat a dish 2 nights in a row, we only do it once a month. Variety is spice of life (after Tony's!) and it helps keep things interesting. I will be sharing my calender and how I do my planning. I'm a light weight couponer (in other words you won't see me on Extreme Couponing anytime soon but when I find them on the products I use, I use them.) I don't save millions a year nor do I do a $300 grocery shop for $30 but I try to save what I can when I can. Plus monthly planning means (in theory as my husband is convinced I live at Target and Winn Dixie!) that you don't have to make as many trips to the store. I like to use fresh ingredients and that means that at least once a week I'm going to have to make trip. It also removes the need for that 'what should I cook for dinner tonight?' question. Like I said I will go into this at a later date!

Back in 2007 I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) which is a pre-diabetic condition. I did get pregnant soon after and haven't really approached a complete diet overhaul, which I know is only a matter of time before I have to. However I did try to adopt principle number one in the diet plan NO MORE PROCESSED FOOD! Oh how it has taken over our diets! So I started making changes like instead of using the Jambalaya box mix and adding chicken I learnt how to make it from scratch and although it requires a little more work it so well worth the effort. I'll share that one at a later date!!!! I do still have a few 'cheats' like using jarred spaghetti sauce, I haven't braved that one yet, maybe come tomato season next year that and canning can be an experiment!

So with all that said my style is traditional cooking, from fresh ingredients, from scratch with as little processed food as possible, with a little Cajun spice. I'll be sharing many of my experiments, because I am still very much a work in progress and by no means am I an 'expert'. I'm just a busy mother who wants to put healthy home cooked meals on the table every night.

I hope you enjoy the blog!