Every time I make this it reminds me of when I was a young girl. In the summer we would go and visit my Grandma and Grandpa. I had really neat grandparents on both sides of my family. These were my fathers parents. I have fond memories of our visits. My Grandma could make the best blueberry pies. We would even help pick the blue berries. ( The next morning we would be woken up with the smell of the pie cooking). I remember her telling us that one person had to be on watch for bears while the others picked. I thought she was kidding…..but no…you really did have someone watch. I don’t know what in the world we would have done if one of us had seen one! Anyway, my father grew up in a big family. People didn’t go by burger king, or grab some chicken on the way home through the drive through, or even have a pizza delivered. Everyone cooked and I do mean it was real cooking. Everything was from scratch.
One day while we were visiting I saw my Grandma give my Grandpa a ham bone, a knife and chopper and a bowl. I remember thinking, what is he going to do with that bone. Apparently he had done it many times before. He started cutting and chopping and before you know it….that bowl had a lot of ham in it chopped into the neatest little pieces. He took it back to Grandma and she put her special touch to it. My goodness, that was the best ham salad I had ever eaten.
I do not have her recipe, I just started putting things together and well it was close anyway. Of course that has been just a few…well ok more than just a few years ago.
With the holidays here it is the perfect time to use that ham up. You can only have so many sliced ham sandwiches. This salad can be used to make a sandwich, but most of the time I just like to eat it with crackers. You know, those yummy butter flavored crackers! Other times I put noodles in the mixture and it is good just like that too.
So grab that ham bone and before you throw it away. Pull out your knife and you just might be amazed at how much you get off that bone.
The pieces that are somewhat fatty or a little tough, I put all that into a baggie or two and save it for when I make green beans. You can put that straight out of the freezer into the beans…yes…even canned beans and everybody will think you did something special.
I chop the ham, add several boiled eggs, pickles or relish, squirt of mustard, celery and mayonnaise. I know…the ingredients are regular ingredients….but it is yummy. Maybe it is because it is made with love. I think that makes all the difference in the world. So don’t forget to put a pinch of that in there as well. Who knows…maybe some loved one will remember your ham salad and think its the best!
I've Gone Country 