Archive for January 17, 2010
Bodacious Baked Ham
January 17, 2010 | 
Author - 1/2 butt ham (6-7 pounds) – which has sat out of refrigerator for 30 minutes at least. You will want the chill off of the ham.
- ***For Glaze:
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2-3/4 cup orange juice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2-3 tablespoons “jerk seasonings”
- 1 tablespoon dry mustard
- 3 tablespoons dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder (not salt)
- 1 teaspoon red chili flakes
- 2 tablespoons balsamic syrup (yes condensed balsamic vinegar – available at fine food stores or places like Turcos and Trader Joe’s)
- (Don’t have any balsamic vinegar? – Use 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar instead)
- 5 tablespoons duck sauce (or 5 packets of duck sauce from your last time you went for Chinese take out)
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- ***Equipment Needed
- roasting pan, tin foil (optional for easier cleaning), bowl, spoon, knife, one working oven at 325,
- one lazy Sunday afternoon with a crowd to feed.
Directions
- Take cured (pre-cooked) ham out of refrigerator and let chill come off of ham. Remove packaging and rinse under water. Remove any plastic.
- You will be cooking your ham 20 minutes per pound, so take notes on the amount of time you will need to bake your ham and when the ham should go into oven. You will want to let it rest for 15 minutes before you start carving it up.
- Place ham onto cutting board.
- With knife, make 1/2″ or less cuts on the diagonal all over ham. Then going in other opposite direction, make additional cuts so that a “diamond” pattern is now on your ham.
- Put ham flat side down onto tinfoil that you have lined your roasting pan with.
- Place in oven at 325 degrees.
- In bowl, add all ingredients for glaze, stir till well combined.
- Go about your business for one hour. Yes, go on now…
- Return to kitchen and open up oven door.
- Carefully, pull out rack that has the ham roasting and spoon glaze all over ham.
- At this point, every twenty minutes, you will want to put more glaze on ham until ham has completed its roasting time.
- You can up and increase the heat in the oven, to crisp up glaze should you think the ham needs it for the last twenty minutes.
- Take ham out of oven and let rest 15-20 minutes.
- Call peeps to table and place ham up on its side onto a serving platter. Call up your favorite carver and slice up that ham!
- The crispy “diamonds” are now absolutely decadently Divaliscious!
Enjoy this wonderful tasty bodacious baked ham – and remember any leftovers makes for awesome ham hash (yes ham hash! – and the recipe is posted here folks).
Posted in affordable dinner ideas, easy recipe, Ham | 
Tags: affordable dinner ideas, baked ham, bodacious baked ham, easy, easy recipe | 
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Early Sunday Dinners with a Twist – Weekly Sunday Potlucks with Friends
Try having a weekly get together with friends for home cooked meals
Here’s an idea for some of you to try -
Early Sunday Potluck Dinner with Friends
Some of us may not be so rich to be able to afford going out to dinner so frequently – and also some of us adore home cooked meals – I started a trend in my neighborhood which is catching on like a good football game. And so many of us grew up with the traditional Sunday Family Dinner.
Now some of us have grown up and away even from family – but that doesn’t mean you have to stop having this traditional and lovely meal without the help of friends!
How this trend started:
Several of us single people who adore cooking, but dislike having too many leftovers especially when cooking for one, have created a Early Sunday Dinner Ritual whereby we each take turns coming over to the other’s home to share a meal cooked by that week’s host.
The benefits are obvious – you get to have a get together with your friends, you get to share a meal – try something new even such as a new recipe, people can bring something to add to the dinner such as dessert, you can even get help with them cleaning up and washing the dishes. You as that week’s host get to cook, which you already love to do, have your food eaten up, and have less leftovers for any possible waste.
I have been known to roast a small chicken, but that meal turns into 6 dishes – and I will freeze the left over chicken (which is good for up to a month) since I rather not eat chicken every day for one week. This early sunday weekly dinner with your friends can happen as often as once a week or even every two weeks depending upon’s everyone’s schedule.
But if you are smart, which I know you are, you can start with at least 4 or 5 people, this way if one is not able to attend, you still have enough people.
Recently, we have had the pleasure of enjoying the following homemade meals: bodacious baked ham, pineapple chicken (recipe to come), Beef Bourguignon, fennel and sausage homemade pizza with goat cheese, Linguine with meat sauce, amazing tarragon salad dressing, homemade croutons from homemade breads, rosemary and garlic artisan bread and even a tasty Danish dessert.
So save some money, see your friends – and since they are friends, they are there to eat, not to complain about how your apartment looks – just scurry them into your dining room or kitchen area. It will feel like you are going out to eat but without the expense of the bill.
Would love to hear if any of you pick this trend up – it is certainly fun – and share which recipes you have tried and shared with your friends on your Early Sunday Potluck Dinners!
~Chef Maven – Chow Ciao for Now…