Confessions of a REAL NJ Housewife

So, here I am...cooking dinner tonight, as I've done countless times before. But...tonight...something...different. Something...unique. Something...creative!

What, you ask? I'm cooking...and...BLOGGING! Wow! Crazy and new...yep...I've broken into the blogging world.

Why, you ask? Because, I say!!! Because, I make all these cool dishes (at least I think they are cool), and I have no one to share them online with, unless you count my FB family and friends. Usually, the only ones commenting are my mother, my sister and my loving and tolerant husband. Oh, I get lots of likes from the rest of my FB family, but it's just not the same. You know?

So....I came up with this oh-so-brilliant blogging idea over the last few days as my husband and I have been cooking up a storm in an attempt to keep a) the house warm in this zero degree weather, b) challenge each other to make delish dishes, c) create foods that the kiddies will eat, but that are still good for them.

Fun, right? I thought so.

Here we go! Tonight's menu is what we like to call a mish-mosh night. Leftovers, to the rest of the world. A little of this, and a little of that. We have leftover cubed smoked ham, diced onions, peppers and garlic, homemade smashed potatoes, a teeny-tiny container of sweet corn kernels, half a block of a great local cheddar cheese, an apple, and that's pretty much it. (grocery shopping is DEFINITELY in the cards soon!)

What have I done with all this?

I've browned up the ham in the skillet to render out as much fat as possible, then popped it into my blender, along with the diced onion, peppers of various colors, garlic, about half a cup of the local cheddar, a tablespoon of brown mustard, a tablespoon of mayo, a dash of black pepper and sage, half an apple and a squueeeeeeeeze of lime juice to make it pop. Pureed on high until it was a nice, fluffy mess. Yes, it looks disgusting. But it tastes HEAVENLY. Fab. Reminds me of a great minced ham that I tasted in Virginia many moons ago. See the pic? Told you it looks gross.

YEA ME!

Popped that into the refrigerator to chill up a bit.

Now, the smashed potatoes. My original thought was to turn them into potato pancakes. However...that flopped...miserably. Not being the discouraged type, I placed a sheet of waxed paper on one of my baking trays, shlopped the potato mix onto it, and it is happily baking on low heat in the oven right now.

Oh yeah, I forgot. I took a smidgen of white wine, a dollop of red wine, and deglazed my ham pan. Some butter, milk and flour, black pepper and lime juice (yep, you read right - lime juice), and I've got us a nice little gravy for the potatoes.

Gravy...yum!

My goal? Make nice toasted minced ham sandwiches using more of that delish local cheddar, nice whole wheat bread and the minced ham mix. An easy dinner for tonight on this cold day.

For virtual drooling purposes, I've added pics of the whipped chocolate truffles, strawberry shortcake cupcakes and dark chocolate brownies that I made for Valentine's Day this year.

On that happy note, it is time to indulge on this mish-mosh night.