Smithfield Ham and Chicken Bake

Sometime during my teenage years, the male members of The Newtster's family decided we didn't really enjoy turkey at holiday meals. It was always too dry and not particularly enjoyable. This should not be construed as a criticism of my mother's culinary abilities, rather an expression of preferences.

In the absence of turkey, ham became our holiday meat of choice. As I've mentioned before, Smithfield ham is the best of all the hams out there. Virginia law used to state that "Genuine Smithfield hams [are those] cut from the carcasses of peanut-fed hogs, raised in the peanut-belt of the Commonwealth of Virginia or the State of North Carolina, and which are cured, treated, smoked, and processed in the town of Smithfield, in the Commonwealth of Virginia." Therefore, anything deviating from these specifications could best be described as 'Country Ham'. Apparently the statute was repealed sometime in 2008. Regardless, Smithfield ham and Country ham are essentially interchangeable terms for the same great treat.

The Smithfield Ham and Chicken Bake quickly became a family favorite and a fixture at most holiday meals. It is rather rich so it probably wouldn't work in heavy rotation for meals. The recipe is very simple once you have located the proper ham.
- 4-6 boneless chicken breasts
- 1 can of Cream of Mushroom Soup
- 8 oz. of light sour cream
- Thinly sliced Smithfield ham (approx. 1/3 lbs)

Preheat the oven to 275°. Line completely the bottom of a baking dish with the Smithfield ham. Place the chicken breasts on top of the ham. In a small bowl mix the soup and sour cream and spoon it generously on top of the chicken. Put this in the oven for two and a half to three hours.

When the chicken comes out, the ham has basically molded to the bottom of the chicken is super tasty. Mandy should like this one because of the super long baking time. Of course that says nothing of the other ingredients, which Mandy should not like.....

And since I am The Newtster, what better accompaniment could there be for this delicacy than rice? None is of course the correct answer. As you can see, The Newstress sauted some asparagus for herself, which she said was a nice addition.

With the chicken burrito from Qdoba I had for supper on Monday, that brings the Chicken and Rice counter to 22.

Turner Ham House

After the success of the country ham biscuits a few weeks ago, I decided to bring another batch for the last tailgate of the year for us. On my way back from Roanoke on Thursday, I took a detour to visit Turner Ham House, which I discovered on Roadfood.

The retail portion of Turner Ham House is really just a convenience store located in Fulks Run, VA, which is located about 15 miles west of I-81 near New Market, VA. The store is just about 10 miles from the West Virginia border and is nestled right in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley.

I purchased 3 lbs. of country ham there for the same price as 2 lbs. of country ham at Balducci's. The Turner ham was sliced thin, but not shaved like what I bought at Balducci's. Nevertheless, the ham was excellent for biscuits and was just as big a hit. Joe assisted in the biscuit assembly process on Friday and we only wound up using half of what I bought. Looks like Julia and I get to power through another 1.5 lbs. of country ham in the near future, which I am quite happy about. I also purchased some Turner Ham House Vidalia Onion Peach Hot Sauce and Bill 'n Vern's Red Hot Rooster Sauce, but have not tried either of them yet.

As you might be able to see from the picture above, there is also a DVD of the 1985 flood available for purchase. I did not purchase one but I imagine it must be quite compelling if it's still on sale some 23 years later. I do remember the flood they are talking about though as Roanoke was flooded as well by the remnants of Hurricane Juan.

As for dining the rest of the weekend, there wasn't too much special. I had a great Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshake (a seasonal item) at Chick-fil-A on Friday, the chopped barbecue plate at Little Richard's on Saturday, and some boneless wings from Macado's on Sunday.

Update from the weekend

Before heading out of town on Friday, I snapped the first picture on the left, which is the front of our building. The second picture is the same scene from back in the spring. I am showing these because the color in the tree in the back was done in the middle of last week and it's pretty much bare now.

We loaded up on Friday night and picked up our friends Jen and James and headed down to Winston for the game. We stopped for dinner at Sonic in Fredericksburg, where I ordered a Bacon Cheeseburger Toaster Sandwich and tots. The sandwich was just OK. I had higher hopes for it as I usually enjoy the Texas Toast there. Oh well. Somewhere between Petersburg and South Hill I also mashed a bag of M&M's.

On Saturday, we got out to the tailgate around 9AM and began to enjoy the ham biscuits I put together on Friday afternoon. I purchased 2 lbs of the thinly sliced Virginia country ham from Balducci's and put it on some Martin's Famous Party Potato Rolls. I didn't think to take a picture of all the biscuits as I was putting them together, but it was quite the undertaking. Julia did manage to snap the picture to the left of what they looked like before they disappeared at the tailgate....both trays of them. People really seemed to enjoy them so perhaps we have found our food niche for Almost Gold. I ate some pigs in a blanket and some homemade chicken nuggets at the tailgate, but basically just stuck to the ham biscuits I guess.

After the game, we went out to Ted's Kickin' Chicken and then stopped by Cook Out for a milkshake. I had the caramel cheesecake shake for the first time and was very pleased with it.

On Sunday, we headed down to Lexington and hit John Wayne's Barbecue, where Sally had taken us before. I had the chopped bbq plate with mac & cheese and deviled eggs (both of which were classified as "veggies") and some hush puppies. I drank sweet tea of course. It was all super delicious.

We made our way back to DC, but not before stopping at Jersey Mike's in Ashland to grab a dinner, and in my case, also lunch for today. I selected the giant Original Italian and happily enjoyed it.

That wraps up the weekend recap. I am not preparing anything for dinner tonight and we headed to the Robert Earl Keen show at the 9:30 Club (technically named Nightclub 9:30) on Wednesday night so it may be a light week here. Be sure to check back just the same.

Red Meat From The Formerly Red State

First of all, I'm not an artist so I'm not too good with the colors and stuff. Does that look blue to you?

OK, moving on. Since I am "All-American" as evidenced by the fact that I voted today, I decided to go with a classic "meat and potatoes" theme tonight. You can also call this a "meat and two", which would be equally as "All-American".

I purchased a 1.5 lb sirloin yesterday at Whole Foods Market. I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to prepare this steak since we don't have a grill, but then it hit me. I am going to pan sear this thing and then bake it in the oven. Here are the ingredients that I decided to use to make this super delicious.

- Ground Black Pepper
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Medium Yellow Onion
- 3 Garlic Cloves, pressed
- 1/4 lb Virginia Country Ham, sliced very thin
- Sliced Mushrooms

I let the steak sit out for 30 minutes until it reached room temperate and pressed some ground black pepper into both sides of the steak and brushed both sides with olive oil. I then preheated a baking dish to 450°. If we had a broiler pan, I probably would have gone that route instead of baking. Once the oven was preheated, I seared both sides of the steak over medium-high heat for 2 minutes each. While the steak was searing I removed the preheated baking dish from the oven and lined the bottom of it with enough of the country ham to cover the length of the steak. I then placed some sliced onion on top of the ham before setting the seared steak on top of it. I then covered the top of the steak with the pressed garlic cloves, then covered the top of the steak with more of the country ham. Finally I placed some mushrooms on top of the ham and baked it all in the oven at 450° for 17 minutes without flipping.

The idea behind using Virginia country ham was for its overwhelming saltiness, which I hoped would bake evenly into the steak. I choose ham over bacon because I didn't want the fat from the bacon, just the saltiness. Since the ham was sliced so thin, there wouldn't be much fat coming out of it. I suppose you can also use pancetta, but that doesn't make the steak as "Virginia" as using Virginia country ham. It should be noted though that it is next to impossible to find any country ham actually behind the deli counter. They have some pre-packaged country ham steaks at most grocery stores, but in order to get some sliced thin, I wound up going to Balducci's after first trying two separate Harris Teeter locations where I have found it in the past.

For the potato portion of the meal, I prepared some garlic mashed potatoes. I used 6 golden potatoes and ran them through a food mill to mash them as I generally like my potatoes without chunks, almost whipped I suppose. I added 4 cloves of pressed garlic, some margarine, and milk until the potatoes looked smooth enough for me. Finally I added salt and pepper to taste.

Last but not least, I went with a green bean portion of the meal. For this portion, I pulled apart some slices of the country ham and added it in a pot with a can of drained cut green beans along with some chopped onion, margarine, salt to taste, and a pinch of sugar. This was cooked over low heat for probably close to 30 minutes.

Everything turned out pretty great. The only thing I would change is to add a little bit of salt to the steak before searing it. The ham, garlic, and onion gave the steak a great flavor though so I wouldn't change anything I did there. The mashed potatoes were better than I remember them being anytime recently that I have made them and the green beans were excellent with the ham and onions and broke down quite nicely.