Ham & Beans

This year for Thanksgiving we decided to make a ham rather than turkey. And in true Thanksgiving fashion we had lots of leftovers! Along with making ham sandwiches, we decided to make ham and beans to get through all of the ham. It turned out to be pretty tasty and very easy!

To make this dish you only need:

• 1 & 1/2 cup HAM, cubed
• 8 oz. DRY PINTO BEANS, make sure to look through the bag and make sure there aren't any rocks!
• WATER
• SALT
• PEPPER
• GARLIC POWDER 

The only hard part of making this is remembering to soak the beans you are going to use overnight in water to soften them. I used about 8 oz. of beans. Below on the left is a picture of the beans after just going into the water. Below on the right is a picture of the beans after about 12 hours soaking. Look how much they plumped up!

Once you are ready to start cooking, bring a large pot of water to a boil and then throw the beans in! Boil the beans for about an hour to an hour and a half until they are tender.

While the beans are boiling, cut the ham into bite sized pieces. I cubed about a cup and a half of left over ham.

Once the beans are tender, drain most of the water and add the ham! Continue heating the pot in order to heat the ham. Mix in the spices and then you are done! Dig in!

We also made corn muffins to have on the side!

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Ham & Beans

Ingredients:

• 1 & 1/2 cup HAM, cubed
• 8 oz. DRY PINTO BEANS, make sure to look through the bag and make sure there aren't any rocks!
• WATER
• SALT
• PEPPER
• GARLIC POWDER 

Directions:

1. The only hard part of making this is remembering to soak the beans overnight in water to soften them. 
2. Once you are ready to start cooking, bring a large pot of water to a boil and then throw the beans in! Boil the beans for about an hour to an hour and a half until they are tender. 
3. While the beans are boiling, cut the ham into bite sized pieces. I cubed about a cup and a half of left over ham.
4. Once the beans are tender, drain most of the water and add the ham! Continue heating the pot in order to heat the ham. Mix in the spices and then you are done! Dig in!

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Famous Dave's Corn Muffins

My family loves to go to Famous Dave's and get some good BBQ. Along with having great BBQ Famous Dave's also has delicious corn muffins! They are sweet, fluffy, and cakey! I made a few small changes to a recipe that I found on a blog (the blog's website is posted at the bottom of this post) and they turned out very close to the muffins Famous Dave's makes!

To make about 16 corn muffins you will need:

• 1 & 3/4 cup CORNMEAL
• 1 & 1/2 cup FLOUR
• 2 tsp BAKING POWDER
• 1/4 tsp BAKING SODA
• 3/4 tsp SALT
• 2 EGGS
• 3/4 cup SUGAR
• 1/4 cup VEGETABLE SHORTENING
• 1/2 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT
• 1 cup MILK (I used 1%)
• 1/4 tsp LEMON JUICE
• 1/3 cup VEGETABLE OIL
• 4 Tbs HONEY
• BUTTER, to spread on the muffins after baking

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Then in a medium sized bowl whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In another bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the eggs, sugar, vegetable shortening, and vanilla. Once the ingredients are well combined add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and continue to mix. It should have a course meal texture and look like the picture below.

Then mix in the milk, lemon juice, oil, and honey. This should make it more like a batter.

Line your muffin pan with paper liners and fill the liners about 3/4 the way full with batter. I didn't have any liners on hand when I made them so I skipped that part. I recommend using the liners though, my corn muffins got dark around the outside edges when I baked them.

Bake the corn muffins for 13-16 minutes. After the muffins have baked and are still hot, rub some butter over the top of the muffins! Then eat them!

Yum!

I know the edges are dark, but they still tasted good. Only the very outside of the muffin was slightly overcooked. Use paper liners to prevent the outside of the muffin overcooking!

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Famous Dave's Corn Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 & 3/4 cup CORNMEAL
• 1 & 1/2 cup FLOUR
• 2 tsp BAKING POWDER
• 1/4 tsp BAKING SODA
• 3/4 tsp SALT
• 2 EGGS
• 3/4 cup SUGAR
• 1/4 cup VEGETABLE SHORTENING
• 1/2 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT
• 1 cup MILK (I used 1%)
• 1/4 tsp LEMON JUICE
• 1/3 cup VEGETABLE OIL
• 4 Tbs HONEY
• BUTTER, to spread on the muffins after baking

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Then in a medium sized bowl whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. In another bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the eggs, sugar, vegetable shortening, and vanilla. Once the ingredients are well combined add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and continue to mix. It should have a course meal texture.
3. Then mix in the milk, lemon juice, oil, and honey. 
4. Line your muffin pan with paper liners and fill the liners to about 3/4 the way full with batter. 
5. Bake the corn muffins for 13-16 minutes. After the muffins have baked and are still hot, rub some butter over the top of the muffin! Then eat them!

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I found this recipe from the following website: http://www.eatcakefordinner.net/2011/11/famous-daves-cornbread-muffins-copycat.html