My Ham

My most favorite dog grooming customer brought my most favorite grooming dog today. I am only doing a handful of dogs until after back surgery. The Woodall's know that they are special to me, too. They brought me gave me frozen bacon, 4 huge vacuum packed boneless skinless chicken breasts, (I finally figured out how to make a tasty boneless skinless breast, thank God) and the great gift of a bone in spiral sliced ham.

I'm not going to be able to resist cutting off the ham meat and freezing most of it. Then I get to do what I most want to do. I will make ham stock. I'll toss in a ham hock for the gelatinousness of it, a ton of garlic, the holy trinity and a bay leaf and let it simmer for a long time in a 200 degree oven. I'll freeze this in ice cube trays, vacuum pack them and used them as needed as the greens in my garden start to produce. I cook for one and a garden that one person can care for with hand tools. This make a nice batch of greens for one. I'll probably cheat until the greens come in and make a small pot of split pea soup to get me through.