Ham dinner

I made an exceptionally small ham dinner with asparagus and scalloped potatoes for Easter dinner today. There is an updated recipe as Ham dinner #2 using a whole mini-ham as well.

The ham was 2.7 oz. of ham cut from a slice of ham steak. I use the ham to make spicy western omelette, and just saved a piece for dinner instead of dicing the whole thing.

The asparagus was just boiled for 4 minutes.

The scalloped potatoes were most of the work. I made an exceptionally small serving in a ramekin since I didn't want to have leftovers. I used basically used this recipe but made an actual béchamel sauce for the sauce.

Béchamel sauce

This is an extremely small amount based on the small amount of potatoes!

Melt 2 tbsp. butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat.

Mix in around 2 tbsp. flour, cook until it's a light golden color, being careful not to burn it.

Add milk to form a sauce, around 4 - 6 oz. Lower heat to simmer for 10 minutes.

Add salt (particularly if using unsalted butter), optionally nutmeg (I left it out).

Scalloped potatoes

• Thinly slice gold potatoes (a mandoline helps if making a full recipe).
• Thinly slice yellow onion.
• Mince a clove of garlic.
• Mince the herbs (if using).

Add layers off potatoes, garlic, and sauce. (You're supposed to season each layer with salt and pepper, which I forgot to do.)

Added minced fresh thyme and Italian parsley (optional).

Bake for 40 minutes at 350°F. Cover with foil for the first 20 minutes.

This was really good!

2026-04-04

I made this again, basically as above.

I cooked it for 30 minutes uncovered this time since the ramekins are small.

Vacuum sealed, ready to freeze and reheat sous vide.

Ham sauce

The ham sauce is scaled and modified from this recipe.

• snack cup of pineapple tidbits, drained
• 1/8 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp. soy sauce (optional)

The soy sauce isn't in the original recipe, but it makes it closer to Mom's, which did not have mustard, but did have soy sauce.

The pineapple.

Into the food processor:

Made 3 servings, froze 2.

This is good! I'll use this again.

2026-04-05

Prep for dinner tonight. I switched the ham sauce from the small container to a vacuum bag because I realized that I could put the ham, potatoes, and sauce all in the sous vide that way.

I used 4.3 oz. of the same sliced ham I use for Ham, egg and cheese English muffin and Ham, egg, toast, and potatoes.

I decided to blanch the asparagus in boiling water for 3:30, shock in ice water, the refrigerate. This saves the effort at dinner time as I can just microwave the asparagus for 0:30. I don't like cooking asparagus or fresh green beans from raw in the microwave as I don't think it works as well as boiling.