Mom is baking a ham for Father’s Day. I need to bring a dish to go with the ham. I don’t want to do potato salad (yech), so give me an idea, please?
Must be:
Easy
Not terribly expensive
Enough to feed about a dozen people
Something that can travel about 20 minutes without catastrophe
Don’t fail me, Dopers!
Scalloped potatoes?
Pasta salad?
Ooh, I have a great, easy potato recipe! Let me go find it!
Applesauce, or some other apple dish, like cinnamon apples or something.
Beans and brown bread
My family always has to have pineapple stuffing with ham. Always a big hit, but I am not sure how well it would travel. I suppose you could mix the ingredients before hand, then add the bread bake it there?
I got this recipe at the Kings Inn in colonial Williamsburg VA. I use less milk than this recipe suggests, but of course you can adjust to suit. I sometimes mix in a little sprinkle of ground cloves or ginger. You can make everything ahead of time (the night before, even), except for the baking. Save the extra brown sugar to put on top just before putting it in the oven. My kids insist that this dish must be served at every holiday meal.
Kings Inn Sweet Potatoes
3 lb sweet potatoes or yams
¾ cup brown sugar
3T butter
½ t cinnamon
½ t nutmeg
¼ t salt
1 C milk
Boil, peel and mash potatoes. Reserve 2T sugar; add remaining ingredients. Mix. Place in greased casserole. Sprinkle reserved sugar on top. Bake at 400 degrees for up to a half hour or so.
Okay, I have two- both are yummy comfort food!
Potato Cheese Casserole
1 large bag of frozen potato cubes (hash browns)
1 stick butter, melted
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 8 oz sour cream
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
4 green onions, chopped
Preheat oven to 450 F. Mix all ingredients together and pour into a 9x13 in baking dish. Top with crushed potato chips (Ruffles brand works very well). Bake for 45 minutes Top should be browned but not burned- if it starts to burn, cover loosely with foil.
Granny Annie’s Potatoes
5 lbs potatoes
1 8 oz package of cream cheese
1 cup half and half
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 teaspoon onion salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Bake potatoes at 350 F for 1 hour, or until done; let cool until warm. Then beat half & half and cream cheese together in a large bowl. Scoop out pulp of potatoes and add to cream cheese mixture (discard skins); add butter and whip with an electric mixer. Add seasonings and mix thoroughly Put mixture in 2 quart casserole dish and brush with additional butter and sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes.
The first one is a standard ham side dish in my family. The second is a killer recipe that a young gal at my church got passed down to her from her grandma.
Everything suggested sounds great.
I’ve fixed EJsGirl’s first potato recipe and it’s excellent. If you can get them, fresh green beans would be good for a second vegetable. How about French silk pie for dessert?
I agree about skipping the potato salad. Everybody and their brother has their own idea of how it should be made, and it’s rare to find one recipe for potato salad that everybody will like. I like a basic mayo dressing and think the vinegar dressing is an abomination. I’ve seen heated arguments over whether to add mustard or leave it out. It’s the destroyer of families, potato salad is!
Go with simple, go with classic…go with mashed potatoes.
Baked mac and cheese, of course! Mmm…ham and cheese.
Ham goes best with more ham.
My second girlfriend introduced me to party potatoes. She had a great recipe, it’s similar but not the same as some of these.
I saw her recently out and about. It was cool… we just gave each other a knowing nod. What a Bill!
I like cruciferous veggies with ham. Cabbage, broccoli (especially with cheese sauce), cauliflower, brussel sprouts…that sort of thing. I also like green beans, baked beans, pork ‘n’ beans, and pinto beans.
Himmel und Erde - the medieval version that I learned in the SCA -
Cabbage steamed then chopped into bite sized bits, apples peeled and cut into wedges. Saute in a fat of your choice [goose fat is absolutely fantastic but butter or olive oil works too] and seasoned with black pepper. I have seen it with turnip or potato added as well. With turnip you have to gently parboil them first to take the bitter away unless they are the tiny golfball sized baby ones. After gently parboiling the slices of turnip, fry them up just like if you were using potato.
I make homemade scalloped potatoes all the time. There are only three ingredients, so it couldn’t be simpler. It’s also how my mom and grandma make them. I remember when I first got married, I called and asked my mom how to make them. She laughed, because it’s the easiest thing ever.
Anyway …
Peel and slice enough potatoes to fill a 9x13 pan (I always use glass) about three-quarters of the way (you don’t want to over-fill or they’ll boil over). I usually use most of a five-pound bag. Over top, pour one pint of heavy whipping cream and one pint of half-and-half. I usually bake them at about 375 or 400 for an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half–basically until the sauce thickens and the potatoes are done. The sauce thickens more when it sets.
Green beans just seem to pair naturally with ham.
This is a recipe my mom got from her friend Rosie, and tweaked to make it her own. We still call it Rosie’s Potatoes, though! Mom passed away a few years ago, and recently Rosie called me for the recipe! Cracked me up.
Rosie’s Potatoes
6 red potatoes, sliced and parboiled for about 3 minutes
1 cup milk
1 tbs butter
1 tbs corn starch
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
2 green onions, sliced thin
¼ lb velveeta, cubed
4 oz sour cream
Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray. Place sliced potatoes in dish, and add a dash of salt and pepper. Mix to season all the potatoes.
Over medium heat, whisk milk, butter and cornstarch until thickened. Add salt and pepper. Be careful not to scorch the bottom. When it starts to get thick, stir in the green onions and velveeta, heating slowly to melt the cheese. When all melted, remove from heat and stir in the sour cream. Combine thoroughly, and pour over potatoes.
Bake about 40 minutes until golden and bubbly.
Mmmmm, these almost* all sound yummy! Something in the potato casserole line might be just the ticket…Easy, too, so I may go with one of those! Thanks, everyone!
*No, I’m not going to say which ones sound gross. 
