Ham and Cheddar Biscuit Pockets

I originally found a recipe for these way back when, in Readers Digest.  (I'm pretty sure I was in middle school at the time.)  The recipe said Grands "thwack" biscuits, and that's what I used.  Hey guess what?  Like most foods in this world, these taste better when you make them yourself!

So.

Ham and Cheddar Biscuit Pockets

Ingredients:

1 batch of biscuit dough

diced ham

shredded cheddar cheese

Roll your biscuit dough thin as you can, and cut large circles (I used a 4" round tupperware.) Really roll these thin- biscuit dough puffs a LOT.  Not paper thin, but definitely pie crust thin.  Place biscuit rounds on a cookie sheet and top with ham and cheese, and another biscuit round.  Pinch the edges shut- make sure there aren't any holes!  Top biscuits with a little more grated cheddar cheese- my husband really likes crunchy cheese, this is his addition.

Bake at 450 for 10-15 minutes, until lightly golden.

The kids and Daddy like to dip these in ketchup.  I prefer a mixture of honey mustard and plum jam.

Leftover Ham

I've been cooking up a storm these past couple days with no time for writing! Let's take a look at what I've been doing shall we?

We had some lovely leftover ham in our fridge, and mom wanted to make ham and eggs for dinner. She likes Breakfast Dinners... I don't. And so I made dinner.

Ingredients:
~2 Cups Ham
2 Packages Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice
2 Cans of Pineapple Chunks
A little bit of butter

Cut your ham in to bite size strips.

Throw some butter in a large cooking pan that you have a lid for (Lid is important!)

Once the pan is hot, throw the ham strips in and let 'em sizzle for a while until they are nice and brown. They should have a nice bacony smell going, slightly crunchy on the outside and still nice and tender inside.

While those ham strips are sizzling away, open up your two cans of pineapple chunks and drain that tasty juice in to a large measuring cup (not down the sink!). You'll be using it in a second.

Now go check on those ham strips. Slightly browned and a little crispy on the outside? Perfect. Rip open those packages of Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice, and remove the two seasoning packets.

Now not everyone has a 5 cup measuring cup, so, in whatever way is easiest for you, add all of your pineapple juice and enough water so that you have about 4.5 cups of liquid in your pan. Dump in the rice, and the seasonings.

Put it on high heat and bring the contents of the pan to a boil. Once it reaches a boil lower the heat to low, put the lid on and let it simmer for a good 20-25 minutes, until most of the liquid is soaked up.

Once that's done, you'll probably have some extra liquid still in the pan, but if you don't that's fine too. Either way, add the pineapple chunks, bring the heat up to medium/high and stir everything around good until the pineapple chunks are warmed up, excess liquid is steamed out, and everything looks delicious (Your mouth should be watering by this point).

Once everything looks the way you want it, you're good to go. Enjoy a delicious use of leftover ham, and don't forget some veggies with that meal!