Ham Balls

Recently at work I came across a whole stack of old Taste of Home magazines. Often, I'll put things like that in the break room for the other girls at work to take if they want. This time I was feeling stingy because I took them all home for myself hehe.

Now I know your feelings about Taste of Home, Mom, but I've tried several recipes from them this past week that turned out really well. So maybe I'll just be the TOH guinea pig and I'll share the ones that turn out well!

This one for ham balls was very good. I've seen various recipes for ham balls but have never made any before. The brown sugar glaze gets thick and syrupy and just really good. Now I've got something different to do with all that ham in my freezer, and also ground pork since I've only ever used it until now to make breakfast sausage with.

Give these a try!

Ham Balls

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 lbs ground ham
• 1/2 lb ground pork
• 2/3 cup crushed crackers
• 3/4 cup milk

• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup white vinegar
• 3/4 tsp ground mustard

In a large bowl combine the meatball ingredients. Form into 1 inch balls. Place in a greased 9x13 baking dish.

In a saucepan, combine the glaze ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, and simmer for 4 minutes. Pour over the meatballs.

Bake, uncovered, for 50-60 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through.

Apple-Pecan Broccoli Salad

Whoa, two posts in one day?? Hold on to your horses! Hehe.

I thought I would quickly share the salad recipe I made this morning. It's originally a coleslaw recipe, and you probably already have it in your binder, Mom, because I know I gave it to you a long time ago.

I bought some broccoli on sale yesterday when I was out getting groceries (in the middle of a blizzard! Okay, not quite a blizzard, but bad enough), but I didn't really have a plan for what I wanted to do with it.

I was looking thru my binder this morning and when I spotted my recipe for apple-pecan slaw I thought, I bet that would work really well using broccoli instead of cabbage. And I have to say it turned out really nice! So give this a try sometime using broccoli, I think you'll really like it.

I'll post the recipe again in case you don't have it, and Aunt Martha may just want to try it too (yes you do, Aunt Martha).

Apple-Pecan Broccoli Salad

5 cups chopped broccoli

2 apples, chopped

1/2 cup toasted pecans

1/2 cup golden raisins (or regular)

3 green onions, sliced

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

1 Tb lemon juice

1 Tb honey

In a large bowl whisk together the mayo, sour cream, lemon juice, and honey. Add in remaining ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate until serving.

Quick Breads!

Okay, I'm going to finally stop being a lazybutt and post those quick bread recipes! These both come from a Betty Crocker cookbooklet on fall baking. They are both very good and worth making, I think. I would say the chocolate glaze on the banana bread is optional, I left it off and thought it was still very good (plenty chocolate-y) without it.

The carrot-ginger bread I made when I had that whole bucket full of carrots and was scrambling to find uses for them before they went bad. I made it once with the nuts. and the second time I replaced the nuts with raisins. Both ways came out really good.

Banana-Chocolate Bread

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

2 Tb buttermilk

1 1/2 cups sliced bananas (3-4 medium), mashed

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

1 tsp vegetable oil

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 baking pan.

In a large bowl cream together sugar and butter. Beat in eggs, then beat in buttermilk and bananas. Stir in remaining ingredients except the 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips and vegetable oil.

Pour into loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack. Cool completely.

Melt the 1/4 cup chocolate chips and vegetable oil together in the microwave. Drizzle over the cooled bread.

Ginger-Carrot Nut Bread

2 eggs

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup shredded carrots

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x4 loaf pan.

In a large bowl beat eggs and brown sugar until creamy. Beat in oil, milk, and vanilla. Beat in flour, baking powder, ground ginger, and salt until smooth. Stir in carrots and chopped nuts. Pour into loaf pan.

Bake 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.