Finished Country Ham!

Baked Ham

Sliced Ham

And after all that soaking, it was still quite salty.

Country Ham Part III

I decided that due to schedules, etc. I'd give the ham one more day of soaking and then cook it. 
I placed the ham fat side down in a pan with about one inch of Dr. Pepper soda in it and baked it all day at 200 degrees F.   It smelled very good when I got home and I decided to give it 30 minutes in a 350 deg oven to finish it off.  I'll add pictures here later.

Country Ham quick update II

Changed the water again with no mishaps and added two ice cube trays full of ice since it looks like it will be a warm day (had breakfast first this time), sneakers still aren't dry so running them in the dryer again.  I will be slow cooking the ham all day Monday.  Pondering the traditional Dr. Pepper as liquid or beer. 

Country Ham: Quick Update

Drained the water, turned the ham, added more soak water.  Sneakers and socks are in the dryer.
One or two more days of soaking then cooking!

Country Ham Adventure Part II

1. Sleep in until almost time to drain and add fresh water to the ham.
2. Attempt to drag the rolling cooler backward onto the porch down a step from the back door, upending the cooler onto the step and dumping the water onto the back porch and thoroughly soaking your sneakers and socks.
3.  Remove sneakers and socks to be put in the washer and find clean socks and sneakers. (Thankfully, the sneakers I drenched were my yardwork ones.)
4. Finish draining the remaining water from the cooler.

Ham is now  looking more like a ham.
5. Turn the ham.

6. Add water and again realize that either the drain wasn't recapped or it came loose.  Thankfully water only spilled onto the back porch. 
7. Eat breakfast and drink tea.  Ponder doing this first next time (if there ever is a next time).

Country Ham part I

1. Find out friend is going to Frankfurt, KY for second time. Advise her to purchase a "country ham".
2. Friend purchases country ham but life is too busy so it lives in her kitchen for about 6 weeks until you can deal with it.  Apparently, friend assumes, you will take care of all the steps necessary to make it edible.
3. Perform a Google search on "country ham recipes" and discover that you will most likely have to scrub off mold and allow the thing to soak for 24-48 hours.
4.  Finally have a weekend where you will have time for this and bring ham home from friends' house after watching the last two episodes of season one of Person of Interest. 
5. Unwrap the ham and take a picture.

"Yep, that's mold alright"
6. And it's still their after removing the cloth mesh it was encased in.

     7. Scrub the mold off the ham and place in the cooler in which the ham will be soaking.

8.  Start to cover with water and discover you forgot to cap the cooler's drain port. 
9.  Tip cooler up and cap the drain port.  Clean up water spilled out onto the floor.
10.  Continue covering with water and cover cooler. 

Tomorrow: what it looks like after the first soaking.

First Post: An Explanation of sorts.

I feel like this blog needs a little more explaining than the title.  I will post amusing stories of "adventures" that I want to preserve.  These may be anything from occasional biking outings to culinary attempts to whatever else I deem to be an "adventure".  Since this is my definition, please don't tell me that it's not an adventure.  In fact, I consider my life to be an adventure whenever I am engaged in learning something new and my hope is that I do that almost all the time.  If I find it to be something I want to record here, then I will.  That is all.  Thank you to anyone who chooses to read along.