Spoon Bread Ham Supper

Recently I came across a very good price on a half shank ham that was a bit less than $1 a pound.  I bought it, cut it into two meatless portions and the shank bone portion which had plenty of meat on it.  I cooked it in the crockpot last week while I was out one day and we've been eating off that meat in some form or another.  We had a ham supper, ham sandwiches, a few bits of ham tossed into a German potatoes and today I decided that was enough.  I was beginning to feel as I do at Christmas when we've eaten an overload of turkey.  

I removed what meat I could from the bone and made one more recipe and put that shank bone, with plenty of meat yet, into the freezer.  I look forward to a pot of Fifteen Bean Soup when really cold weather rolls around once more.  That won't be for months yet.

I reminisced on Blue House Journal about two recipes I'd made often in the early days of my first marriage.  One was a Spoon Bread Ham Supper dish.  The other was a Ham and Broccoli Pie.   

Both were in a Woman's Day 365 Menus and Recipes magazine that was specially published.  I think there may have been more than one volume of this published.  I bought my own copy in the late 1970's and I used that magazine often to try out new recipes.  It is from that same publication that I found my first really good homemade brownie recipe.  There was an almond cake that I really liked, a sausage stuffed acorn squash, and these two dishes.  I know there were other recipes as well.

Thank you to friend and reader, Karla, who took time to look up both recipes for me.  The recipe below reads exactly as I recall the one in the magazine reading.  That's how I made it and how I served it.

Spoon Bread Ham Supper
1/2 cup chopped green onion with tops
5 tablespoons butter, melted
1 package (8 1/2 oz) corn muffin mix
1 cup chopped cooked ham
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard
1 1/2 cups (6 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon sesame seed

Saute onion in 1 tablespoon butter 5 minutes. Combine corn muffin mix, ham, 2 tablespoons butter, eggs, milk, mustard and 1 cup Cheddar cheese. Add onion and mix just until blended. Pour into buttered 1 1/2-quart casserole. Top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese and 2 tablespoons butter and sesame seed. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Cut in wedges and serve hot with Mushroom Sauce*. 4 to 5 servings.

*Mushroom Sauce: stir 1/3 cup milk into 1 can (10 3/4 oz0 condensed cream of mushroom soup. Heat to boiling; simmer 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Ironically, I didn't see Karla's comment with this recipe until I'd decided to wing it and make my own version.  I used the Jiffy Corn Casserole recipe as my Spoonbread topping.  I added in some of my homegrown chopped green onions and I did not sauté it in butter.  It was absolutely delicious, and we didn't miss the Sesame Seed or Mushroom Sauce at all.

Let me know if you try either variation of the recipe and tell me how you liked it.

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