Over the holiday season I stocked up on a couple of hams when they were super cheap – 99 cents a pound? Yes, please. That means that when I cook one up, we’ll pretty much be eating off of it for a week. We had the ham when I first cooked it and then we had breakfast a couple of times and then I made some ham and corn soup. I found this recipe on Pinterest.
I made a few changes to the recipe and wasn’t very careful in following exact measurements. I also used a slow cooker so it was cooking all day long. I think this recipe would be great if you cooked it on the stove in a short amount of time, but I love the depth of flavor that comes from all day cooking. I used onion instead of green pepper. I didn’t use parsley, simply because I didn’t have any and I only used canned corn.
I got a Ninja cooking system for Christmas and I love it. One of my least favorite things about crock pot cooking is having to brown meat or vegetables in a pan on the stove and then transfer it to the crock pot. With the Ninja, I can do it all in one pot. Love it! It also claims on the box that I will rule the kitchen – I’ve always wanted to try out this royalty thing.
I garnished my soup with a bit of shredded cheese, some French fried onions and some green onions. It was so tasty and comforting and satisfying. Yummo!
I served biscuits with the soup and we made homemade butter as a family. It’s so easy. We put some heavy cream in a jar and just shook it until it goes past the whipped cream stage and suddenly, you have butter and buttermilk. I drained the buttermilk, rinsed the butter a bit and added some salt. It was lovely.
On New Year’s Eve, I made the mistake of trying to make butter using only full fat milk. I looked it up on the interwebs and they said you could use regular milk. I shook and shook and shook and we never got any butter. I shook that jar for hours! I also had the worst sore muscle pain I have ever had, it was awful. Nearly crying awful, pain meds not touching it awful. So we’re going to stick with heavy cream from now on when we want to make butter. Of course, as my husband said, we can always just use the stick of butter that is in the fridge.
Lamppostings 
I reckon for it to work with milk, it would need to still have that layer of cream on top. None of our supermarkets sell that, but, whenever we visit the country, my husband is always on the lookout for un-homogenised milk! I’m going to try making butter with my 6yo now!
Yeah – the store bought whole milk just won’t cut it. It’s a super fun activity to do with your child – fun and educational!
Love the fact the you made your own butter – am going to have to give that a go! I’ve been making our own greek yogurt the last few months – super easy – just heat up milk (I use semi-skimmed) to boiling point, then let it cool to blood temperature. Whisk in 1-2 dessert spoons of natural yogurt, the one that has live bacteria (I re-use a bit of the the current batch of yogurt to make the next batch) Then pour this into a thermos & leave for 6-8 hours to do it’s thing. Then just tip out into a muslin cloth that is in a sieve over a bowl & let whey drain. Then just put contents of the muslin into a bowl & whisk until glossy & it’s done! The longer you leave it in the thermos the thicker it becomes. It’s super yummy & versatile as it can be used for savory or sweet.
Becky – this sounds so cool I bet Jude would be so into making yogurt. I’ll have to gather up some supplies and try it out. I remember my Mom making homemade yogurt when I was growing up. So good. Miss you friend!