Ham Featherbeds

So, I’m guessing some of you (me included!) overestimated the amount of Easter ham you needed to have on hand, and are now looking around for any and all recipes that include the word “ham” anywhere in there.  And so here I am with one possibility…this Ham Featherbed Casserole.  Which I love not only because it is scrumptious, and not only because it has “ham” in its title, but also because it also has the word “featherbed.”  Which given my stream-of-consciousness self led me down the following road.

The word “featherbed” zapped me right over to one of the unused beds in our house.  That bed belongs to the teenager, who has a new bed down at college these days.  And thinking of that reminded me of my endless discussions with her about making her bed and picking up the giant piles of clothes on her floor, and so on.   So now that she is in college, her bed looks the way I was always nagging her about.  Like this.

And in a complete, 180 degree reversal, I am now living for the times when she comes home from college and her room immediately returns to its natural state.  It takes less than 24 hours for it to look like its bad old self.

My personal favorite thing is that wet towel moldering away on the floor.  Or maybe the blow dryer lounging on the bed.  I can’t decide.  I will mention that while I was taking these photographs, I did stumble upon this item which resides out of plain sight in between her bed and the bookcase.

She bought this with her own money after we said very firmly that no, we couldn’t get a dog.  We understood how very badly she wanted one, but no, we just couldn’t get a dog.  So one day she dug out her birthday/allowance/etc and bought, yes, a concrete statue of a dog….since her parents wouldn’t let her have an actual living, breathing dog..  A stroke of brilliance, because after that, we had no choice but to get one of these.

And just for the record, the teenager is now 14 hours away at college, and this character is about 7 seconds away, snuggled into the corner of my couch.

I have no idea how I got so VERY far away from the point, which is the wonderful and kind of unusual Ham Featherbed recipe you saw many moons ago at the start of this post.  It’s technically a kind of breakfast dish, but we happily ate it for supper one day when we had some ham we were looking to make good use of.  It also involves eggs, and bread, and applesauce…coincidentally all things that the teenager loves.  And it’s one of those handy dishes that you can make the night before and pull out the next day to pop in the oven whenever people come stretching and yawning their way out of their featherbeds!  So without further ado or meandering, here’s the recipe.  At last!

Ham Featherbeds

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ham Featherbeds

Ingredients

6 slices buttered bread
Six bread-sized slices of ham
1 1/2 cups milk
6 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups applesauce

Directions

1. Butter a baking dish and place the bread in the dish in one single layer.
2. Place a slice of ham on each piece of bread.
3. Whisk the eggs and milk together in a bowl and pour evenly over the bread and ham.
4. Cover the baking dish and refrigerate overnight (or for at least six hours).
5. Before baking, pre-heat oven to 350. Spread about 1/4 cup of applesauce on top of each bread/ham section.
6. Bake for about one hour or until the featherbed is golden brown and a little puffed up.

Recipe slightly adapted from THE BREAKFAST BOOK 

Comments

Want a photo beside your name? Go to Gravatar.com, sign up for a free account, and upload a photo. It's super easy!

  1. Gosh, that room looks so familiar! My daughter does the same thing when she is home from school but it’s the whole house! My dining room always ends up being like a shoe warehouse where she kicks them all off when she comes through the door.

    The recipe looks great!

    • Yes, I can always tell where she has been in the house from the trail. Shoes, socks, books, water bottles, sunglasses…anything but the cell phone, which never leaves her person. :) We love our teenagers…even their mess! :)

  2. It’s basically the same story whenever I go home to visit also. Drives my mother crazy! But I know deep down she loves it.

    • Yes, now I actually yearn for the site of piles of laundry working their way out of her room and into the hall. Wistful sigh….

  3. The recipe has been printed out for my recipe box…
    I hear you about the room. I once told my son that he lived in a pig stable and he answered:

    “It’s my pig stable and I have to live in it”…

    After that I just closed the door when I passed… We both were a lot happier. ;o)))

  4. Overestimating the amount of ham. Raises hand. I had no clue that that 8 lb ham I ordered would be nearly 18″ long! I mean, an 8 lb turkey is pretty small. Right? Yeah, there may be some Ham Featherbeds in my future.

    Another thing you can do with leftover ham is marinate it in brown sugar and five spice powder and, maybe, some red food coloring or a tiny bit of ketchup, then chop it up into dice or cut into shoestrings and use it like Chinese BBQ pork to make chow mein or fried rice. Doesn’t get rid of much by volume, but it’s a good way to use up the little straggly bits.

  5. Great idea! Can’t wait to try it.

  6. Holley says:

    HI, this post is a genius, I liked it so much I literally laughed out loud, as I am glancing down the hall at my daughters pristine room, don’t get my wrong, she doesn’t keep it that way, she too is at college a mere wisp of 9 hours away. alas, she comes home tomorrow, and so will the wet towel, the curling iron, the wires for all of the tech, etc…can’t wait!!!!!!

    • Oh, isn’t it WONDERFUL when they come home?? I’ll trade the mess for having them around any day of the week. (But the mess is just amazing…it sprouts up overnight!!!)

Let's Talk!

*