Got leftover ham? Make ham salad.

If you have ever come to my house for dinner, you know I cannot stop myself from making too much. I always worry we won't have enough and over-prepare. I come by it honestly and my family is worse than I am. I swear. I tried to learn the lesson from Thanksgiving when I made a 19 lb turkey and 7 lbs of mashed potatoes. WAY too much. So I tried to buy a small Easter ham. It was one of those tiny, unimpressive ones. I thought I did good until we only ate half of it. I can only eat so many ham sandwiches myself. I considered making split pea soup, since I love it, but it was way too many steps for my "taking care of me" weekend. A co-worker suggested ham salad and it sounded good to me.

My grandma used to make us ham salad sandwiches when I was little and we'd go out on the boat. She never went out on the water but she waited on the dock and had sandwiches ready when we got back. I can picture her, sitting in a lawn chair with a hardcover book from the library. She looked up from reading and wave as we got closer. She probably also had celery sticks with peanut butter. <3

But anyway, back to the ham salad. It's super easy. I chopped up the remaining ham and some pickles. Most of the recipes I looked at called for pickle relish, but that's just chopped up pickles anyway. I threw those in the food processor with some black pepper. I pulsed it 5 or 6 times, then added some mayonnaise. The proportions are up to you. It's all about consistency. I don't like a lot of mayonnaise, but maybe you do. Pulse it a few more times and you've got ham salad. It's weird, but I like it. What I had left made enough for about 3 sandwiches and that's probably all I'll be able to stand.