Saturday supper at home

After spending more than a week not eating much of anything (I survived on Ensure and ice water), I'm finally back on my feed. I'm posting this homely and homey supper just because it feels so good to have an appetite again.

I found a ham slice on sale at Safeway and we had bought a couple of baking potatoes the other day.

The chard came from the farmers market. The prep for the whole meal was extremely easy - hardly any labor involved.

With my insides still a tad delicate, all I did with the ham was to trim fat from it, bring a skillet full of water to a boil, drop in the ham, cover it and turn off the heat. After 10 minutes it was nice and warm and a lot of the sodium had been leached out.

We've learned a simple and absolutely dependable way to bake potatoes. First of all, we buy the biggest russetts we can find. They each weigh nearly a pound. So we cook just one and it's enough for the two of us. 1 hour and 10 minutes in a 400 degree oven does the trick. Oh, don't forget to stick a fork into the potato a few times on each side so that it doesn't explode. You can dress it with butter, salt, pepper, sour cream, chives or scallion. Many, many possibilities. I had mine with a small pat of butter and a little salt and pepper.

We use an easy braise for all kinds of greens. Baby spinach takes maybe 3 minutes and kale more like 10. Chard falls in the middle - 6 to 8 minutes. Remove the thick parts of the stems and cut them into 1/2 inch pieces. Rinse the greens and chop them roughly. Heat 1 Tbs olive oil and 1 Tbs butter in your largest saute pan. Saute a little garlic if you wish and then add the chopped stems. You can reserve them for another purpose or simply include them. They need about 3 minutes before you add the greens. When the greens have wilted, salt and pepper them a little and put a lid on the pan. Let them cook for maybe 5 minutes until tender to your taste.

All in all a meal with some definite medicinal value.