Cheesy Potato and Ham Crescent Rolls

On Sunday, I decided to revisit Thanksgiving Leftovers. They were, once again, quite delicious.

Now, what does one do when one doesn’t have leftover ham and potatoes for this recipe? I bought some pre-cooked, cubed ham from Meijers (you should be able to find it by the ham steaks). I also had a coupon for two packets of Betty Crocker instant mashed potatoes. I picked roasted garlic and cheddar.

After cooking the potatoes in the microwave, I added nearly a pound of cubed ham and then I decided to alter the original recipe some by adding half a block of cream cheese into my bowl of ham and potatoes.

These were wonderful. I think I’ll add an entire block of cream cheese next time and maybe some shredded cheese.

Cheesy Potato and Ham Crescent Rolls

Ingredients

• 1 pd cubed ham
• 1 cooked packet of Betty Crocker instant potatoes
• 1/2 block of cream cheese
• 2 cans Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (I used the 1/3 less fat variety)

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients, except crescent rolls, in a bowl.
2. Arrange crescent rolls so that two triangles are together, forming a rectangle (you will wind up with 8 rectangles). Press the seams together.
3. Place a spoonful of filling in the middle of each rectangle and then pull up the corners to surround the filling and seal the seams.
4. Bake a 375 for 10-15 minutes.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Unlike the vast majority of Americans, I didn’t make a turkey or even the typical feast on Thanksgiving. Instead, I prepared a little precooked ham, some homemade mashed potatoes, frozen bread sticks, and a little can of creamed corn.

It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was good.

Cooking Note: When heating up a precooked ham, put in a baking dish with about a half cup of water and cover with foil. Then put it in the oven for around 30 minutes. I put mine in for 20 minutes and it was lukewarm to cold by the time we sat down to eat it.

But we also wound up with a lot of leftover ham. Ham for days isn’t a bad thing because, well, I like ham and I like eating leftovers; having leftovers is one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving. My husband, on the other hand, doesn’t eat a lot of leftovers.

This brought me to the dilemma of how to make ham and potatoes more appealing for him so that all of it would get eaten.

Yesterday, I remembered that I had bought a two pack of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. I also remembered that it seems like there’s a very real possibility that everything tastes good when stuffed in a crescent roll.

Except, perhaps, things like gummy bears.

So, when I got home, I told my husband that I was planning on putting cheese and ham in some crescent rolls.

In response, he said, “what about the potatoes?”

Hmmm…what about the potatoes, indeed?

After popping open one container of roll dough, I decided to leave them in twos. Two crescent rolls left attached = one square/rectangle that is easier to stuff.

When doing this, try to make sure that you press the seams together to try to prevent food from escaping while it’s baking.

After setting the oven to preheat at 375 degrees, I filled each with two small spoonfuls of mashed potatoes, which I sprinkled with salt and pepper; a pinch of mild cheddar cheese; and ripped up pieces of ham.

I put these on a baking sheet lined with Reynolds Parchment Paper and then baked them for what wound up being a total of 12 minutes.

These were super tasty, but still a little doughy. So, in the future, I think I’ll bake them for 15 minutes instead. Also, I think it would be good to mix up chopped up ham and shredded cheese into the mashed potatoes to use to stuff the rolls instead of just layering them like I did.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 package of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
• Precooked ham; I didn’t have the honey variety
• Shredded cheese; I used mild cheddar
• Already prepared mashed potatoes
• Salt & pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and use as your work surface. Once you’ve opened the crescent rolls you’ll find that 2 rolls together create a square/rectangle. Spread these out and pinch the seams that connect the two together
3. In a bowl, gently mix together the rest of the ingredients
4. Using a spoon place portions of your filling into the middle of your squares of crescent dough. Then, fold the ends of the dough together and over the filling so that there aren’t any openings
5. Bake for about 15 minutes depending on your oven

Cooking Note: As you can tell, I didn’t really measure anything when I made this the other day. Use however much and whatever type of ham and cheese and potatoes you want. Also, one pack of crescent rolls yields 4 pockets of ham goodness.

The next time that I make these, I don’t think I’m going to use potatoes. I’m going to see what happens with just ham and cheese.

Irish Potato Cakes

I made Irish potato cakes and cheesy scrambled eggs for dinner.

This recipe, like the one for Italian sausage meatballs, comes from Food Network Magazine.

A note on cheesy scrambled eggs: add a little water to the eggs while you’re whisking them to make them extra fluffy. And, when adding cheese, American gets really melty and tasty. I’ve found that an awesome egg to cheese ratio is 2 eggs:1 slice of cheese.

Here’s the recipe for the Irish potato cakes:

Ingredients

2 cups leftover mashed potatoes (I made instant mashed potatoes last night to used, and they wound up making the pancake dough super sticky, so I wouldn’t suggest you do the same)

a heaping 1/3 cup flour

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon mixed herbs (I didn’t have any mixed herbs, so I put in a couple pinches of red pepper flakes; I couldn’t really taste this, but my mom, who has a low tolerance for spicy foods, thought it was way too hot with those in there)

Directions

Combine the mashed potatoes, flour, milk, and mixed herbs in a bowl (I attempted to use a blender to mix these; do not do this)

Knead until smooth

Season with salt and pepper (I didn’t do this; I’m of a mind set that people can add how much salt/pepper they want at the table)

Divide into four balls on a floured surface and flatten each into a 3-inch patty (I actually managed to make 6 potato cakes)

Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat (I used oil instead, which works, but, whichever you use, make sure that you keep the bottoms of the potato pancakes wet to prevent them from burning or sticking)

Cook the potato cakes until golden brown, 4-5 minutes per side