Ham & Butternut Squash Skillet; play time

13 thoughts on “Ham & Butternut Squash Skillet; play time”

1. I really think you are the reason I’m so into butternut squash. Really looks good.

   • Thanks – we were forced into loving them after the first harvest… Now we can’t wait until we can harvest again

2. This looks good, but…squash 🙁 I do really wish I liked it. I just don’t. I did tell you I bought a little ham over the holidays? We had ham and scalloped potatoes and it was so small, there was only enough left to make Green Bean Soup. My favorite soup of all time. The ham, eggs, sour cream and green beans just make for a wonderful soup.

   We had a day like that in…early December, I think. It’s still gray here now, though supposed to get sunny at some point. And around 18 degrees. Yes. I’m SO familiar with those days that are brilliant and icy cold. 🙂 Michigan, after all.

   • This is our coldest winter in a few years. I keep telling myself that the hard frosts will help with the weeds and bugs in the garden. I hope I’m right lol.
     Green beans is low on the vegetable list for the hubs – which means I get to eat them all. My favorite is (in summer) beans, bacon, cooked in cream with cheese added at the end – more like soup then veg and I get it all!

3. Your views are lovely for your watercolor project !

   • Now I just have to get started…. it’s that first 5 minutes that are the hardest !!

4. I can’t reply under your answer to me, there’s something wrong, so I’ll do it this way, but if you’re interested in the Green Bean Soup recipe, which is beyond easy and you can tailor it for one or ten, let me know. I’ll be happy to give it to you. It’s absolutely delicious.

   • I would love the recipe!
     I’m hoping for a bumper crop this year – and I might even buy some of the Italian green beans I see in the spring.

     • It looks now like replies are working again. Maybe it’s on my end, who knows?
       So, this is really simple but it takes awhile, that’s all.

       One ham bone with some ham left on the bone
       Enough water to cover, usually 6 to 8 quarts
       1 large onion, chopped
       2-4 cloves garlic, chopped fine (more to taste)
       Ground pepper to taste
       Eggs, depending on the amount of soup
       Sour cream.
       A 16oz bag of frozen green beans (or a pound of fresh) depending on amount of soup

       Put the ham bone, onion and garlic in a large pot and cover the bone with water. Bring to a boil then turn the heat down and simmer, covered, two to three hours. Pull the bone, pick the ham off and add back to the pot. I also add the bone back into the pot and simmer for another half hour or so.

       Remove the bone. Whisk the eggs in a bowl with just a pinch of salt to release their proteins. If I’m using the entire amount of broth, I’ll use between 9 and 12 eggs because I like it thicker, but you can add less if you want it more brothy. Let them sit while the green beans are cooking so those proteins get nicely stretched.

       At this point, you can separate the broth and use it for other things if you want or you can continue with the whole amount and freeze what you want. If you do freeze it, do Not put the eggs or sour cream in at this point.

       Add the green beans and pepper and simmer another half hour. You want the beans very soft. At the end of the half hour, turn the heat up to a mild boil, whisk the eggs again and slowly swirl them into the broth. You don’t want egg drop soup, you want them broken up more so let boil while stirring for 30 seconds to a minute.

       Turn off the heat and add, if using the entire amount of broth, between 3/4 and a cup of sour cream. Stir slowly until sour cream is almost completely melted. You can use more or less to taste as well, but the sour cream really makes this soup.

       That’s it. I don’t add salt ever while it’s cooking because our hams here are usually already very salty. If the soup needs it, you can add it at the end. And I usually don’t divide the broth because we love the soup and will finish it in two days. So it’s really very simple, just takes time like I said. It doesn’t work in a crock pot. I don’t know about an instant pot, I haven’t ever tried it in one. If you do, let me know how it turns out, but I only have a 6 quart instant pot and it’s not big enough for the amount I make. Also, it just seems easier on the stove because of adding things. You’d have to wait for the pressure to build and pressure to drop and in this case, that seems way too labor intensive for me 😉

       I hope you like it.

       • Thanks – it sounds delicious and I may even buy some frozen beans to make it this winter. And I will freeze more beans next summer. I can’t get a ham bone (I miss that) but I’ve learned that a chunk of dry-cured ham works as well…. Also very salty. I’d make it the old-fashioned way – that way one gets to enjoy the scent before the soup lol

         • No ham bones? Oh, that’s horrible! I’m sorry, but they’re so versatile once you make your broth. Can you ask your butcher at all? I hope it works well with the dry-cured. You’d really need about a pound. That’s usually about what’s left on my hams. I do cut off the hard rind before putting the picked ham back in the pot because it never gets soft and we don’t enjoy that. I’m sorry about the bone 🙁

5. I can buy about 30 different kinds of dry-cured ham (think Prosciutto) which is what I would use slices of. But those bones would be much too big and salty. The traditional ham, as we know it in the U.S. doesn’t exist here. That kind of ham (of which I can buy 10 different kinds) is always boneless, rolled, and sold by the slice for sandwiches. If I want ham for scalloped potatoes, for example, I buy a thick slice of the rolled ham. The ham counter at supermarkets is huge – but all sold (normally) in paper thin slices.

   • Truly a shame. The old saying, you can use every part of a pig except the oink, is so true and it seems such a waste but! It’s France. Not here. Cultural differences. Let me know if you make it, how it works out. 🙂

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