What’s On The Menu And What’s The Baby’s Name?

It’s Friday!!!! Woo hoo!  This has been a fast week but boy am I ready for the weekend!

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared a recipe with you so I thought I’d share a nice, hearty, hot dish to make on a cold winter night.  If you’re trying to lose weight just skip ahead past this recipe to the end, you’ll thank me later.

Scalloped Potatoes with Ham

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5-6 potatoes, peeled, cubed, cooked, and drained (*note- I have found that it’s best to cube them fairly small and to cook them until about 1 1/2 minutes before they are done, they’ll continue to cook in the oven and you don’t want super mushy potatoes.)  If you have a Dutch Oven use it for boiling the potatoes, that way you can combine the potatoes, ham and sauce together in this one pot and throw it in the oven when ready to bake it.

1-2 C. diced ham (again, smaller chunks.  I’m not a fan of Pig’s Butt so the smaller the pieces the better for me.)

While the potatoes are cooking make the following sauce in a medium saucepan:

6 T butter, melted.  Add to that 6 T flour to make a rue.  Let cook on medium heat for about 2 minutes, stirring often so as not to burn it. 

Next, add 2 C. milk.  Cook, stirring often, until the rue thickens the milk, a few minutes.  While this is cooking dice up 1 C. Velveeta cheese into 1” pieces.  Add salt and pepper to taste (not a ton of salt, the ham is salty enough).  Stir in 1/2 tsp. of Worcestershire Sauce.  Last, add the cubed up Velveeta. Stir constantly until the cheese is all melted.

If you have cooked your potatoes in a Dutch Oven add the ham and sauce to that and gently stir together.  Otherwise throw it together in a 2 qt. baking dish. 

Throw it in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, uncovered. 

For a little extra pizazz you can top the dish with shredded cheddar for the last 2 minutes of baking or cover the top with French Fried Onions for the last 5 minutes of baking.  Mmm!  Let me know if you try it and like it.  I like to have corn for a side, seems to go well with this. 

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I have a favor to ask of you all.  Can you please leave me some baby name suggestions in the comments?  We are at a complete loss for names, especially boy names.  So let me know your favorite boy and girl names, or what you would have named your kids if you had anymore.  Or even what your kids’ names are.  I think I am leaning towards a more traditional name but any suggestions are welcome.  You never know when something will jump out at me.  Thanks!

Any plans for the weekend?  We are heading to the big city to get supplies for our closet project.  Hopefully the weather doesn’t make us change our plans.   Wednesday we got 3 or more inches of snow.  It’s hard to tell how much because the wind blew and blew and we have drifts like crazy. Today the roads still aren’t in great condition and schools in the area are still delaying 2 hours.  We are not delayed but the buses are running on hard surfaces roads only.  Doesn’t affect us here in town, we can get around no matter what.

And for your (and my) viewing pleasure, a nice way to end the week.  Love me some Matthew!  And Lance, you ain’t so bad yurself.  Yum!

I hope you give the recipe a try and don’t forget to leave me some name suggestions!  Have a great weekend, see you back here next week!

Erin