Deviled ham, made of ground-up ham with mayo, mustard and pickle relish, is one of my most vivid Easter memories. Late on Easter Sunday night, after all the festivities were concluded, my dad would get out the old hand-crank meat grinder from under the sink and grind up the leftover ham. He liked his ham salad heavy on the mustard and with lots of Tabasco. He ate it on crackers with cold beer.

We had quite a bit of ham leftover this year. I sliced the nicest portion for sandwiches and put the bone in a pot for split pea soup. But I still had four cups of fatty debris--perfect for deviled ham. So I got out the meat grinder and tried to remember my father's recipe. I used a cup of mayo for four cups of ham and added about a half a cup of pickle relish and two tablespoons of Creole mustard. I had a lot of little kids visiting, so I decided to got easy on the hot sauce. For breakfast this morning, I put some deviled ham on toast rounds with slices of hard-boiled egg on top. The kids loved it.

I have a big bottle of the "Sweet and Spicy" variety of Tabasco sauce that I can never seem to find any use for. Later on tonight, I'll add the sweet Tabasco sauce to the rest of the deviled ham and have it on crackers with cold beer like dad did.