Family recipes are most treasured.  They involve a tattered recipe card and many memories.  My grandma would make Ham Loaf for many family gatherings. Celebrating Easter and Christmas as a family, sometimes there is leftover ham.  This is a perfect pork recipe for leftover ham.



Farming is a very essential industry, especially this time of the year.  I am sure you have seen farmers working in the field in the past week.  They are anxiously preparing the soil, discing, applying anhydrous ammonia, getting ready to plant.  This year will be business as usual for farmers, they will go to work every day and make sure this year's crop is planted on time.  Farmers faced many hardships last year, with a very wet spring.  They hope for drier conditions, and a larger window of opportunity to plant.  

Since my kids are now home for the remaining of the school year, they are spending more time on the farm with their grandfather.  Today they  ran outside extra early to meet one of the guys my husband use to work with at the fertilizer plant. He was delivering tanks to a field right behind our house. It had been a few years since Charlie had seen my kids, and he said they had really grown! My daughter and son have spent time learning how to operate the tractor, and discing and helping when needed.



I love seeing recipes with my grandmothers handwriting.  I asked mom to send me a picture of the recipe.  To me, it looks well used, old, and I am now curious who Martha McMahon is.  I don't think grandma missed cooking many meals for her husband and son who worked on the farm every day for lunch.  Grandma Patty only had her recipe box to turn to for recipe ideas, now we have so many more resources to discover new recipes.






If you have leftover ham, the best way to grind it, is to grind it up in a food processor.  Our family is used to preparing large meatloaf's, so I made this ham loaf bigger for our family of five. You can adjust as needed for your family.  We always make sure to have left overs.






PRINTABLE RECIPE

HAM LOAF Ingredients For Ham Loaf

How to Make Ham Loaf

1.  Mix ground pork, ground ham, milk and corn flakes and form into a loaf.
2. Place loaf in a casserole dish or loaf pan, leaving room for the sauce
3. Mix the ingredients for the sauce in a pan over medium heat. 
4. Heat on stove until mixture thickens and sugar completely dissolves.
5. Pour mixture over ham loaf and bake at 350 for one hour.
6. Internal temperature should read 160 degrees.

Chasing Saturday Pork recipes we love:
Instant Pot Bacon Ranch Potatoes
Crock Pot Pork Carnitas
Crock Pot Pulled Pork
Crock Pot Cowboy Casserole
Grilled Pork Chops
Fried Pork Chops
Crock Pot Shoups Pork BBQ Sliders
Pressure Cooker BBQ Pork Ribs
Cheesy Ham Hashbrown Casserole







This post is sponsored by Indiana Pork but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

If you love pasta, Tuscan Chicken Spaghetti is a great one-pan dinner.  It is a creamy and flavorful meal, you will want to make again! This is a great recipe when you have company over! 




We have been busy with the kid's 4-H project - PIGS! One thing we love to do this time of the year, is to spend some time with the pigs in the pen.  The pigs are getting used to  being in the new barn, and we are spoiling the pigs with some treats.  I am sure you are thinking, pigs will eat anything! They especially love pudding, jelly beans, marshmallows and marshmallow creme! 



We are still dealing with cooler than normal temperatures in April, and we are keeping the pigs warm with heat lamps and a small heater in the barn.  It's time for the farmers to start field work, but because of the cooler temperatures, snow, and rain we have received the first part of April, ground temperatures are still too cold to start planting. Soil temperatures are reported in the mid-30s and we need more warm days to increase soil temps.  Soil temperatures need to be around 50 degrees for corn to germinate and soybeans need a soil temperature of 54 degrees.  If seeds lay dormant in the ground, and do not germinate, they are more susceptible to diseases and insects.  




Pasta is one of my favorite dishes.  I can claim my kids on this decision.  We have pasta dishes weekly!   We normally go for the kids favorites, spaghetti, or pasta, but this is a grown-up version.  It's packed with so much flavor! 




I couldn't wait to try this dish! All my favorite ingredients in one pan! You cannot go wrong with bacon, spaghetti, cheese and chicken! 





 The fire roasted tomatoes are easy to find in the isle with the other canned tomato products.  First time I had tried fire roasted tomatoes, and it bring another layer of flavor to the meal! 

TUSCAN CHICKEN SPAGHETTI

PRINT RECIPE

INGREDIENTS FOR TUSCAN CHICKEN SPAGHETTI 

HOW TO MAKE TUSCAN CHICKEN SPAGHETTI 

NOTES ON TUSCAN CHICKEN SPAGHETTI

Our mornings during the week are hectic, and kids need something to grab and go on their way to the bus.  I catch myself sometimes grabbing something in the drive-thru on the way to work.  Preparing these breakfast burritos for the week ahead gives me a peace of mind the kids have something to eat before their big day at school.


Everything can be prepared in one skillet, but I ran two skillets because I had help.  Kids were excited about helping, because they love to scramble eggs. 




Scramble 8 eggs with a little bit of water, or milk.


Brown one pound of pork sausage with 1/2 onion.


Peel, cut and chop 3-4 medium potatoes.  


Add 8 strips of crumbled bacon.


 Mix all cooked ingredients together, and add salt and pepper to taste. 


Assemble burritos and add shredded cheese on top.  Wrap them carefully. This recipe made 16 burritos.


After wrapping burritos, I wrapped them in saran wrap.  Kids can take one from the refrigerator, and warm it up in the microwave.  If you are preparing them for the freezer, wrap them in saran wrap, then aluminum foil.  


PRINT RECIPE
INGREDIENTS:

1. Scramble eggs with ¼ cup milk.
2. Peel, chop and boil 3-4 potatoes
3. Brown 1 pound pork sausage with ½ chopped onion.
4. Cook bacon and crumble.
5. Assemble burritos with a tortilla, add eggs, potatoes, sausage, bacon, top with shredded cheese of choice.
6. Wrap up burrito
7. Wrap in saran wrap and store in refrigerator
8. FREEZER OPTION - Wrap in saran wrap, then aluminum foil, and put in freezer.

The holidays are such a busy time, but pulling out the crock pots makes things a little easier. You can be sure someone is going to bring the Bacon Wrapped Smokies to a party! When I hosted a friend get-together I made sure this was on the menu.  I also served Crock Pot Cowboy Casserole. That was a huge hit!

I knew the casserole style crock pot would work great for the smokies.  If you have extras, you can double up, but when they are all lined up in the crock, they are cooked evenly.



Bring the kids in the kitchen to help out! Kids can get help wrap the smokies. I use a whole pound of bacon, cut the strips into thirds.

1. Spray casserole crock pot with Pam
2. Cut one pound of bacon. Cut the strips into thirds.
3. Wrap the lil smokies with a ⅓ of the strip. Place the smokies in the crock pot, seam side down.
4. Cover all smokies with brown sugar. Use up to one cup of brown sugar, or until completely covered.
5. Cook on high for 2 - 2.5 hours.

Cook in the crock pot for 2 - 2.5 hours.  Watch this closely, you don't want the smokies to start falling apart. This also works great in the oven. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil for easy clean up!




I linked up Watcha Crockin Week 23, Meal Plan Monday #44 and Weekend Potluck #255.