Ham and Baked Beans in Cornbread Bowls

ByDavid January 17, 2017April 1, 2021

I’ve partnered with Castle Wood Reserve® and Collective Bias to create these Ham and Baked Beans in Cornbread Bowls.
Think beyond the sandwich…by using cornbread bowls! #BeyondTheSandwich #CollectiveBias

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Think beyond the sandwich...by using cornbread bowls! These Ham and Baked Beans in Cornbread Bowls are a fun twist on a classic!

Growing up, there were a few recipes that were just ingrained in me from birth. These classic buttermilk biscuits fit that bill. In fact, I don’t think I was allowed to move out of the South until I had mastered a good biscuit. The same goes for cornbread. I didn’t love cornbread when I was a kid, but it’s grown on me in recent years…and now it’s one of my favorites. (My go-to Thanksgiving stuffing/dressing recipe starts with a base of crumbled biscuits and cornbread…go figure!)

I’ll never turn down a batch of cornbread muffins, but for some reason I always crave cornbread after the holidays. Maybe it’s because cornbread just goes so well with winter comfort food. Stews…chilis…that sort of thing. Heck, even a good post-holiday salad can be improved with a cornbread muffin on the side! But I decided to take the cornbread muffin one step further. I decided to hollow out those muffins and turn them into cornbread bowls. Kinda like a bread bowl for soup…but way better!

Funny side story: my niece Blakely loves baked beans. Blakely is quickly approaching her 3rd birthday later this spring, and I bet she’ll ask for baked beans. I kid you not. When Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas this past year, she said baked beans. Hah!

Laura also happens to love baked beans, so I decided to fill these cornbread bowls with baked beans. Talk about winter comfort food right there! But baked beans always taste better with ham, right? I’d picked up some Castle Wood Reserve® sliced deli meat this past week on my grocery run at Walmart. I intended on using their Smoked Virginia Ham for delicious ham sammiches. But then it hit me. What if I put some of the ham into these cornbread bowls? What if I made Ham and Baked Beans in Cornbread Bowls?

During these cold winter months, one of our favorite things to do is hunker down, build a fire in the fireplace and make homemade meals together. Well, that and chase a certain little toddler around the house. (He’s so close to walking these days…if he could only figure out that whole balance thing!) There’s something really enjoyable about making food at home on a snowy day! With Castle Wood Reserve®’s tasty ham on hand, homemade in the new year is easy!

Do you guys remember the story of John Montagu? He was the English nobleman who liked playing cards so much that he had his kitchen staff serve him dinner between two slices of bread. That way he could continue playing cards without stopping to eat. He was also the 4th Earl of Sandwich…and thus the ‘sandwich’ was invented.

Now I love a sandwich, and I almost always keep good deli meat in the fridge for said sandwiches. Castle Wood Reserve® is one of my favorites, and I particularly enjoy their Smoked Virginia Ham and Oven Roasted Chicken Breast. Their meat is always flavorful, and I often snack on a piece or two whenever I pull it out of the fridge. I also love that I can pick up this premium meat at Walmart. Score! This time, though, that Smoked Virginia Ham was destined for bigger things. It was destined for Ham and Baked Beans in Cornbread Bowls!

We ate several of these Ham and Baked Beans in Cornbread Bowls for dinner one night along with a side salad…while watching Robbie get mad at his lack of balance. It was like going out for a meal and a show…toddler style! Enjoy!

How do you guys entertain yourselves during the winter months?