Last month, I spent a good bit of time working on five healthified southern recipes for Our State Magazine’s online food blog.  For me, recipe development starts with research.  I look at recipes online, brainstorm, bookmark, flip through cookbooks, and talk to my foodie friends, all the while scribbling down notes and ideas.  Then comes the testing.  I lay out the ingredients and get to work, jotting down notes (usually on the back of some random envelope from the recycle bin) as I go, tasting and adjusting continuously.

Obviously, one of the perks of developing recipes is eating the wares.  Well, after you’ve snapped approximately 3,000 photos of each dish, that is.  Normally, I incorporate whatever recipe I’m working on into my weekly meal plan.  No sense in wasting food!  But, at the time of this healthy southern recipes project, I also happened to have a a whole ham to cook for the North Carolina Pork Council.

Want to throw a successful holiday party?  Just add ham.