this, that and a lot of ham

Hickory wood-smoked ham.

First eaten hot from the smoker on warmed sourdough rolls and buttery croissants, accompanied by brown sugar-pecan mashed yam and collard greens sautéed in bacon grease with garlic, chilli flakes and white wine. Leftovers abounds, we’ve eaten it every which way since then. Ham and brie sandwiches; side to a green salad with roasted butternut squash cubes,

red onion, roasted red pepper, celery, pesto and thinly sliced red chillies; nibbles when I’m going into the refrigerator to get something else; and tonight’s ham jalfrezi over brown rice.

My cast iron skillet had never cradled a T-bone until last night. Yowza.

Cherry lime scones.

They were going to be my first recipe entry to a blogging event. The excitement! Ack, the letdown! I thought about submitting it anyway, but I didn’t want to act the fraud with a less-than-perfect high tea treat.

My cooking wouldn’t be what it is without some self-deprecation, so where to begin? For starters, Texas heat and humidity be-darned! The dough was so sticky I added about 1/2 c flour just to be able to work with it. Now they run on the tough side of scones, very little trace of that trademark crumble. Then the lime flavor wasn’t as prominent as I wanted — I think the lime was past its peak and the zest had lost its… zest. And I’ve come to decide that I’m staunchly an all-cream or all-butter scone girl. No more of these cream + butter recipes!

Despite my best efforts to ruin them, these are still delicious scones. Dried cherry and lime is an interesting flavor combination — a nice farewell to summer, even though I’m sure ’summer’ will persist for quite some time here. Much like that ham…