scalloped potatoes and ham...

When my brother M, his wife A, and my dad were here last week (different blog post on that later =), I asked Dad if he would make his famous/infamous (??) scalloped potatoes and ham. Now, it is the Betty Crocker recipe (with ham added), but my dad has a special touch that always makes it turn out better than anyone else who tries to make it. I have many fond memories as a child of helping my dad make this (and he would be cruel and make us 1 1/3 the recipe sometimes just so we could practice our math) in our kitchen. This is a labor intensive recipe and Dad can make this easily by himself, but it works so much better if a lot of people help. So all of us chipped in to help Dad out last week.

A favorite non-family blog of mine to follow and read is called Pioneer Woman. I won't go into everything on her blog right now, but one of the sections on her blog is about cooking and she takes detailed pictures of each step of the recipe which makes it very easy to follow. So since I had taken pictures while we were making the scalloped potatoes and ham with Dad, I thought I would do a picture how to post showing our fun.

How to make Dad's Scalloped Potatoes and Ham:

Put ingredients for white sauce in pot and stir stir stir...
(M always enjoyed this enthralling job)

Peel a bunch of potatoes
(I had forgotton to take a picture of this so A is actually posing! =)

Cube up a bunch of ham
(this is a great all natural ham from Costco that they only carry around Easter and Christmas)

Someone has to hold the fussy baby!
(S is either not sure why C is fussing or why that is his job! =)

Slice up the bunch of peeled potatoes
(Dad is super good at doing this evenly and quickly - it takes me way too long and the slices are never even and I always manage to almost cut my fingers off so he stopped letting me help do this part)

Slice up a bunch of onions
(do NOT add the clementines to the pot!)

Watch intently as a 3 yr old shows you how to layer everything in the pot...except the uber hot white sauce - an adult should do that
(G loves this part and fortunately she is 3 so she fits the bill for this job)

Save some nice big potato slices for the top layer
(ooooh, look at that potatoey, hammy, oniony goodness!)

Put in oven and watch bake for a while
(shh, don't tell, but this is actually a picture of all of them watching bunny cookies bake, not the scalloped potatoes and ham!)

Make way for the clean-up crew!
(and you really need to get out of the way, W is dangerous with a broom!)

And then enjoy!
(no pictures were taken of that because we were too busy stuffing our faces! =)