Silvia, what language is being practiced?

Also, I will post a few carrot ideas in the next day or so.

dcarch

I like mustards (particularly grainy) and various breads served with ham.

Dcarch, they are coming to practice Italian, some are native speakers and others are learning or fluent.
Because is a large and very nice group, I usually don't control what they bring which usually is a lot of pasta dishes and more sweets that you can think of. They also bring a lot of wine. I have a lot of fresh tomatoes, but they will bring them in the made dishes.
Thank you for thinking about the carrot ideas...

Bumblebeez - Thank you for your suggestions, if I don't find a savory topping for the ham, I will make the one in the link that has the grainy mustard.

Silvia

Here is a link that might be useful: dijon-maple-glazed ham

I love corn relish alongside ham and what we call mustard pickle is also good. Some call mustard pickle picalilli, another type of relish that goes well with ham. These are served in a dish beside the platter of ham, not on top of the ham.

Teresa

Teresa - Thank you for your idea, corn relish sounds good beside the platter of ham and corn is in season now in my area.

Silvia

Chow Chow would be good too.

I always have to have horseradish or horseradish & beets with ham. Yum! My Eastern European heritage is showing.
:)

I love the Cranberry Jezebel Sauce / Relish from this thread with ham. Just sweet enough, just savoury enough.

Steve

Bumblebeez - Chow Chow sounds good, the one that I checked the recipe has a lot of ingredients and is done Southern style.

Booberry - I guess that we all remember the dishes that we are familiar, that reminds me that long time ago I went to Eastern Europe and they served me horseradish and I didn't know what it was, was I surprised when I took a big mouthful! lol. I love beets for small dinners but for a crowd I had to be careful with colored things.

Steve - I am going to check on the Cranberry/ Jezebel sauce for the ham. Thank you for your suggestion.

Silvia

I like a mustard and horseradish sauce on my ham and then I compliment that with a selection of two or three different mustards and one or two horseradishes.

My favorite accompaniment with ham is my cheater baked beans. They would be dynamite with that Chipolte ketchup instead of the Chile sauce...or maybe 1/2 and 1/2.

Baked Beans
1 Can kidney beans drained
1 Can lima beans drained
2 Can Brown Beans
1 1/2 Cup of chili sauce
2 Tbl brown sugar
1 Tbl Dijon mustard
1 Tbl Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbl molasses
3 Slice bacon cut in half
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a medium baking dish, mix kidney beans,
lima beans, brown beans, chili sauce, brown sugar, Dijon mustard,
Worcestershire sauce and molasses. Top with bacon. Bake 1 hour in the
preheated oven, until thick and bubbly.~

I would recommend a raisin sauce. I make one that is canned but you could make one for fresh serving.

2 C raisins
1 C water
1 C Simply Orange juice
simmer and then let soak overnight
Puree and measure with added water if need be to = 4C

Add 1 pkt powdered pectin plus 1/4 of a pkt (or not needed if you are using this as a fresh vs. a canned preserve/jam)
1 t grated orange peel
1/2 t grated lemon peel
1 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1T lemon juice
Bring to boil and cook 1 min after boil
Add
4 C sugar
bring to boil and count 1 min

Combine raisins and water in a saucepan. Bring back to a boil; then simmer 2 minutes. Cool to lukewarm and put in a blender or food mill. Add water if necessary to make 4 cups of pureed raisins OR leave whole and add water to be 4C. Put in a preserving pan. Stir in pectin, grated peel and spices. Heat to boiling, stirring. Add lemon juice and mix well. Stir in sugar. all at once. Bring to a full, rolling boil over high heat,stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute after a full boil is reached. Remove from heat; skim and fill jars. Seal with two piece lids and put in BWB 10 minutes.

Nancy

I was going to suggest a cold beet salad...love rachel ray's beet salad with red cabbage...cabbage goes so great with ham too.

I used to serve my ham also with chunk pineapple...very tasty together.

Here is a link that might be useful: Beet and cabbage salad

Chase - Thank you, that will be a great use for my already made chipotle ketchup, I can even do that for a family meal. Last time that I had a small dinner party I served the guests cowboy beans and they all like them.

Nancy - Thank you for your recipe on a raisin sauce, it is going to be something that I will try, probably like it fresh without the pectin.

Annie - Thank you for your ideas, the group is going to be around 40 people while the beet salad I can try for a small dinner or a family meal, I can see myself cutting a fresh pineapple and putting around the ham...

The friends that are coming are bringing a lot of rich food, think big dishes of lasagna and other super rich dishes with meat, cheese and tomato sauce.
The sweets are also on the rich side, type of tiramisu and cakes.
There will be no shortage of food, it never is with this group. They will also bring a lot of red wine.

I was thinking that now I have big lettuce leaves, different colors in my garden, how about if I put them alongside the other dishes for maybe lettuce wraps, does it sound like a crazy idea? what do you think?

Silvia

It is the day after a very successful party! Thank you all that contributed with your wonderful ideas.

Here is how it went...in the morning I made a very easy amaretto cake

I took some of the Italian books that I have for decoration

Picked carrots from the garden

Cut some bread to go with the ham

And the guests start arriving and brought a fritatta

Olives with arugula from their garden

I made Ruthanna's Marakesh carrots, the ham with maple glaze and somebody brought another ham! He was nice and apologized. The ham came out pretty good and instead of using cinnamon and nutmeg I use red pepper flakes, the carrots were cooked for 10 minutes and heat them in the oven with the dressing when the ham was resting. I was so impressed that the first thing that they ate was the carrots, there were none left!,lol. And they asked me about planting carrots in their own garden.

Some other dishes that they brought, big dishes of homemade Italian style pizza, he said his mother thought him how to make it

There was lasagna and the creamy mushroom dish was also popular, I don't know what it was because I was too busy to sample.:)

I have some ham leftover ham and I am going to make the beans that Chase shared the recipe.
Everyone had fun and I forgot to take pictures of the desserts, there was apple cake, tiramisu, biscotti, flan, chocolate from Italy and others that I will be sampling today.

Silvia

What a nice party! Wish I was there.

Food, friends and fun, and learning a language too.

You have very beautiful carrots from the garden.

Just an idea for you next Italian party. You can go to youtube and find many Italian karaoke songs, and have everyone sing along.

The best ways to learn a foriegn language is thru food and music.

I do something similar here in NY with a French group.

On behalf of all the silent lurkers on this forum, thank you for sharing your joyful food experience(s).

dcarch

Dcarch - I wish that you were here yesterday, we had so much fun! All the guests were fantastic and some of them came with 3 bottles of wine. The one that made the pizza made also a very delicious rice, maybe we have a party next time were he comes and teaches us his mother's recipes.:) I love pizza the way he made it, thin crust, little cheese and vegetables.

I love the karaoke idea, in the same group we have the ones that speak French and we have a small French group parties also.

The carrots were such a hit! I thought that I should of made more dishes from the garden. There was a guest that just arrived from Italy and was telling me that he heard about my garden from other friends all the way there. I invited them to come in the daytime to see the garden since now I am growing some Italian vegetable varieties.

I am relaxing now and thinking about my next small dinner party for close friends next Saturday and on the menu is going to be Teresa's favorite way to cook wild rice...

Silvia

Some time you might try a pea salad. Nothing better than fresh peas from the garden, if you can grow them. I just love "risi e bisi" which I make with small bits of ham for flavoring. But that's a main dish. But I also love pea salad. The Spaniards serve "russian potato salad "ensalata rusa" which has peas and carrots too.

Lpinkmountain - That is a very good idea! I love peas in any dish and I am growing my own peas, soon I will have them ready, risi e bisi sounds good and I also like them in a paella. I had a lot of different russian potato salads, they are popular in many countries and done different ways. One of my favorites has beets, carrots, peas, potatoes with a homemade mayo.

My next party has some restrictions, one person is a vegetarian and other is allergic to fish...the other guests are easy to please and they are foodies so an element of excellent taste has to be taken into account.

Silvia

Dcarch - I forgot to tell you that we have different music playing according to the guests or the occasion. Some are foreign music and while playing we do slides on the tv to go along with the songs. Because the decorations in the house right now are Christmas, we had the same type of music...

Silvia

"-----Dcarch - I forgot to tell you that we have different music playing according to the guests or the occasion. ----"

I am so sorry I didn't think of this.

This will be a blast for your party.

Next time.

dcarch

Here is a link that might be useful: Fun for your Italian Party!

Silvia, below is a link to my risi e bisi recipe. I saw the chef Andrew Carmelleni make it on one of Sara Moulton's programs. Very enjoyable. I don't often use the pancetta since I can't really afford it and don't really even like it. Instead I use a small amount of ham. Does change the flavor profile but I only use a little bit, and I rinse it out to lower the sodium.

Risotto Terazzo-man Style

Dcarch - That was so beautiful! thank you! there is always another party.:)

Lpinkmountain - Thank you for the recipe, I will make it with the ham, it sounds like a better choice. Like you I don't really care for pancetta or prosciutto, I was relieved when none of the guests brought the usual melon and prosciutto appetizer that nobody really eat it.
I sampled today the leftover rice from the party, it is so good! it has a lot of veggies, pickles, olives and can be served warm or room temperature, one of the guests is for sure a 5 star cook.:)

Silvia

Silvia, it sounds like a wonderful party and your carrots look wonderful, all those beautiful colors. That's what I grow, different colors of carrots and they all taste just a bit differently from the others, at least I think they do.

Everything looks delicious and I also think the Chipotle Catsup would be good in Chase's beans, I like the smoky flavor of chipotle, but just a tiny bit because I'm a wimp, LOL.

I don't speak any other languages, I'm not a natural mimic. I tried Spanish but no matter how hard I try I just sound stupid, Spanish with a mid-western accent. My daughter is very fluent in Spanish and she and Elery try hard not to laugh at me, but sometimes they just can't help themselves, so I know when it's really bad. Ah well....

Annie

Annie - Thank you, and yes I can taste the different flavors in carrots, that is one of the things the guests noticed when eating the carrots, they were sold on the taste and said "why we cannot get carrots like that at the store?"

I really like the flavor of the chipotle ketchup and I also like beans so that will be a perfect match. I still like to taste my food so I never make it too spicy.

You should not feel self conscientious about speaking any other language, I know that I don't. I self taught myself a lot of the things that I know, English for one, I didn't go to school here and when I came I didn't know a word. I learn watching tv, reading and talking to everyone whether they were understanding or laughing, it didn't matter.
The same thing with the gardening and cooking, I didn't have a mother or grandmother to teach me anything. I was raised by my single father and we ate in the restaurant every day because he had to work. So in reality I never saw anyone cooking or canning or anything kitchen related. Everything I know I learned it from the books and these days from the forums from people like you who teach me things. And forgive me if sometimes I put the wrong words when I am trying to say something. I take well when I get corrected in a positive way, it is learning for me and I get benefits from the experience.
I hope that I didn't write a soap now, but Annie you should watch the Spanish novelas, they are funny and you can practice Spanish in the comfort of your own home.:)
Like Dcarch said it is good to learn through music. Few years back I heard a song in English and sometimes I caught the meaning of few words, now when I listen to a song I actually understand the meaning of the whole song! Oh well, you have to start somewhere,lol

Silvia