Ham, Egg, & Cheese Toast

Since I only had a small amount of Smithfield ham remaining, I decided to eat it all for breakfast. I first started with the ham and then added the cheese. This went into the oven while I fried the egg, which topped off the sandwich and made for a super delicious breakfast. Thank you.

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 Apparently the statute was repealed sometime in 2008.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.