I should make a confession here. I didn't believe Sarah when she told me about buying ham biscuits at gas stations in the South. We were driving down a one-lane mountain highway on our way out of town at dawn when Sarah suggested we stop for biscuits at a run-down gas station. I told her that gas stations don't sell biscuits, (momentarily forgetting which one of us would know that kind of thing).
Sounded like something a hobo after three days on the rails might do, but not some hotshot New York gourmand.
But not only are the ham biscuits so far superior to what pass for breakfast biscuits in America (I'm talking to you, Hardee's) I have to order at least one sausage, one bacon, and one fried bologna biscuit while I'm down there or I feel like I'm missing out. The ham biscuits are such a part of the down-home experience, they're like a beacon alerting you you're in a different culture. They must be Virginia's equivalent to Mount Rushmore.
Sounded like something a hobo after three days on the rails might do, but not some hotshot New York gourmand.
But not only are the ham biscuits so far superior to what pass for breakfast biscuits in America (I'm talking to you, Hardee's) I have to order at least one sausage, one bacon, and one fried bologna biscuit while I'm down there or I feel like I'm missing out. The ham biscuits are such a part of the down-home experience, they're like a beacon alerting you you're in a different culture. They must be Virginia's equivalent to Mount Rushmore.
Well anyway, that's why we bought the 25% reduced sodium ham. And it hung around for a few months in the freezer, but we thought that Memorial Day was a good occasion to bring it out. 
We baked the ham in a hot oven and sliced it into pieces, then made the tomato-and-herbs portion of a panzanella salad (top right) and carried the toasted bread portions separately to mix there, and Sarah made dynamite deviled eggs (top center) and brought West Side Market's fantastic Mediterranean feta spread. Then we mixed that rose champagne with our homemade sangria (in the jar on the right) for a fun picnic drink.
We baked the ham in a hot oven and sliced it into pieces, then made the tomato-and-herbs portion of a panzanella salad (top right) and carried the toasted bread portions separately to mix there, and Sarah made dynamite deviled eggs (top center) and brought West Side Market's fantastic Mediterranean feta spread. Then we mixed that rose champagne with our homemade sangria (in the jar on the right) for a fun picnic drink. Anyway, it turned out to be a fantastic Memorial Day picnic.
1 comment:
Note that the ham biscuits are made with country ham, but the Smithfield I cooked in the oven was just a regular ham. Big difference.
You can get a good ham biscuit in Kentucky or western Virginia. Some Yanks think that you need to eat a sausage biscuit to feel satisfied, but it so happens that the ONLY time I get a sausage biscuit is when they're out of the ham. The chicken fried steak is also good. Bologna is just plain weird.
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