Book Club Recipe: Ham Biscuits
When Marisa de los Santos was in college in Virginia, she discovered ham biscuits, which were served at every school function. According to her, they are just what you’d expect: salty, thinly sliced Virginia ham slapped between two biscuit halves, and if you spread on some mustard butter, they go from excellent to sublime. After you buy the ham, you can make the biscuits from a mix, rolling out the dough and cutting it with a round cookie cutter. You can prepare them ahead of time because they are lovely at room temperature. The mustard butter is made from scratch, and that takes about ten minutes to prepare.
Ham Biscuits Recipe:
- 2 pounds thinly sliced cooked ham
- 1 package of Pillsbury Buttermilk Biscuit Mix (or your preferred biscuit mix) – Prepare and bake according to package directions.
Mustard Butter:
- 1 cup butter
- 1 sweet onion
- 2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
Instructions:
Put one cup of softened butter, two tablespoons of minced sweet onion and two tablespoons of spicy brown mustard in a bowl, and mix. Spread mustard butter on inside of the biscuit halves, add ham and enjoy!
Entertainment Tip:
“When I first started having parties, I would focus too hard on specialness, preparing fussy and delicate finger foods and doing it all myself. No buying prepared foods, no saying yes to friends offering to bring something, no cutting corners. By the time my guests arrived, I’d be exhausted, cranky and too sick of food to eat a bite. Eventually, I realized that focusing less on impressing my friends and more on what they would actually like worked out much better. People like to feel at home. People like to eat food that is simple but decadent and delicious. And most of all, people like a host who is having fun at her own party. So now, I gleefully break all of my original rules. I purchase scrumptious stuff like tangy tomato pie (cut into bite-sized pieces) and tiny, heavenly éclairs from a local, family-owned bakery. I always say sure when people offer to bring something to share. And I leave myself at least twenty minutes before folks arrive just to relax with my husband, or maybe dance around the living room with a glass of wine in one hand and a Yorkie in the other.”
