[QUOTE=Lissla Lissar]
Yesterday I bought a twelve pound ham because it was half price.
I need recipes to use it up. I might start a thread, but I’ll begin here: help! It’s been frozen, but I cut it up first. Recipes, people? Otherwise I forsee a lot of ham and cheese omelettes in our future.
[/QUOTE]
I’ma gonna cross-post this from Skip’s Magic Board:
I was watching TV once and a guy was preparing something he called ‘Cuban Rice’. It sounded good, but he used some spices I never heard of, and he put in MSG, so I took the basic idea and made up my own version:
Cuban Rice
16 ounces peas
3 cups cooked rice
8 ounces mushrooms, white or crimini – sliced
1/2 pound smoked ham – cut into small cubes
2 medium yellow onions – diced
14 ounces chicken broth – 1 can
1 stick butter or margarine – divided
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil – optional
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon old bay seasoning
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
salt, pepper and chili powder to taste
Please be advised, ALL of the measurements in this recipe are approximate. I often add more ham, or mushrooms, or whatever, than called for depending on my mood and what I have available.
Start a cup of long grain white rice cooking in 1 can of chicken broth plus a half can of water.
Meanwhile chop up your ham, onions and mushrooms and set aside.
Put a 16 oz. package of green peas on to cook in water.
Put half of the stick of margarine in a large pot and melt it over medium-high heat.
Toss in the mushroom slices and sauté until cooked.
Now, depending on the amount of liquid you have, you may add as much of the other half of the stick of margarine as you feel like, and add the onions, seasoning with some salt and pepper. Sauté the onions until they are translucent.
When the onions are ready, add the cubed ham, sugar, pepper flakes, chili powder, and old bay seasoning.
Let things cook together a bit and taste, adding more seasonings as you desire.
You may add the olive oil at this point or leave it out if you like. I often leave it out.
Now dump the (by now cooked) rice and peas into the pot and mix together. Taste again and adjust seasonings if you desire.
I suspect you could use Creole or Cajun seasoning in place of Old Bay seasoning and get something different, but also good.
Now that I look at it again, I’m not so sure about the tablespoon of old bay seasoning. I’d start with a teaspoon and taste, and then work up from there. I don’t usually measure when I make this, and when I typed it out I kinda guessed at some of the amounts.
One other thing - don’t forget the sugar, it needs that little touch of sweetness.
I told her all the more reason she needs to go for a doctorate. 
Nice enough but not as smart as she is like, say, somebody studying physics.