An Ode to Holiday Leftovers

“We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”
Winston Churchill

By now everyone has unwrapped all of their presents and put them all away signaling the end of the Christmas season.  Most people have received their final Christmas card and photo sent by the few stragglers that were behind this year.  Folks have turned there attention to the New Years holiday and Christmas 2007 is just a memory.  Wait!  What about the leftovers still in your refrigerator!  It would be a travesty to forget about the pitiful remnants of your holiday feast.

Normally I have a strict policy on leftovers:  There shouldn’t be any!  I try to plan and prepare every meal and never have to pull out the Tupperware.  If there happen to be leftovers they should only be consumed for lunch the next day- never for supper and never ever for breakfast.  That is my rule and I rarely waiver.  Holidays are an unfortunate exception to this strategy and I have come up with a solution.  Rather than pulling out the containers and microwaving your ham, mash potatoes and green beans a third time— re vamp them!

This year use your holiday ham to make these wonderful White Cheddar and Ham Muffins!  Your family will thank you and the recipe makes 24 muffins- so share them with friends!

6 cups Self Rising Flour
½ cup Green Onions, thinly sliced
1 ½ cup Ham, chopped
2 cups Sharp White Cheddar Cheese, grated
Pinch of Salt
2 cups Milk
¼ cup Butter, melted
4 Eggs
½ cup Sour Cream
¼ cup Parmesan Cheese

Blend flour, green onions, ham, cheese and salt. 

Mix together eggs, milk, and melted butter.  Pour wet mixture over flour and stir until incorporated- don’t over mix or the muffins will be tough.
Portion equally in greased muffin tins then sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.  Bake at 425 until muffins are golden (about 20 minutes)

I recommend refrigerating the muffins between serving.  After overloading on iced Christmas cookies and pie I think that these savory treats will be nice for a change! 

~ SD

These look totally awesome. The pictures are like a magazine. Truly well done!

Can you use Turkey in these for after Thanksgiving, or is that taking the idea too far?  I am hoping that you can, because we didn’t have too much ham lying around this year - it got used in beans, but the turkey is a pesky problem!
Thanks for the beautiful ideas!
-J

J-

Hmm… Turkey is a problem.  I am not sure how using it in these muffins would work.  My theory is try anything once!  If you do, cut the recipe in half so you don’t have 24 Turkey Muffins! (in case they don’t work out!)

If you don’t have left over ham feel free to use canned ham.  It is packaged much like tuna and is good in a pinch!

~ SD

That looks fantastic. Awesome! I’m going to have to try this!

These muffins look Awesome Stacey !! My wife and I will be baking some up...cheers.

All The Best,

Brent Mann