The Easter Ham Controversy

I dearly love to bake ham. I love using my imagination when mixing the glaze and try something new each and every time I make it! I do not think there is a more creative piece of meat then a Smoked Ham. You can use jams, fruit juice, honey or molasses, fresh, canned or dried fruit, spices or maybe even a bit of beer, wine or champagne.

BUT I do not like to eat ham and herein lies the problem.

I wanted to have ham for Easter Dinner but my dear husband, Joe, said "No, we still have ham from last Easter in the freezer. And you spend too much money on things for the glaze any how." We debated ham for almost a week and I finally relented.

I thought the week's menu was settled but Thursday Joe came home with a huge ham. Well, the we have a house rule "You buy it. You cook it." So the ham was his deal now.

This morning himself comes into my office, stands there looking sort of lost and says "I can't find the cloves, do we have any?" Cloves!! Good lord, what's he doing in my spice cabinet??? He says he going to cook the ham with cloves...well he might be cooking it with cloves, but I know he is not going to like it. So I asked, "Do you want me to cook the ham?" "Yes" was his answer.

HA...HA...he has no idea what I put up last year during canning season. I've got apples and peaches in the freezer, brandied cherries in the pantry. I had everything I needed, plus some extras to play with, except I had no champagne. I use champagne as the base for my ham glaze. Hmmmmm...what do I use now? I was at the Dollar Store last week and picked up several bottles of Sparkling Apple Cider..sounds good to me!

Well, we just finished our Pre-Easter Ham dinner and you know, it was pretty darn good! It's better with the champagne but the Sparkling Apple Cider was a good substitute.





Ham Glaze in a Pinch
Recipe developed in the kitchen of Big-Black-Dog

2-3 c. Sparkling Apple Cider
2 heaping TBL of Lingonberry Jam **See Note
1 c. unsweetened pomegranate juice
2 TBL grainy mustard
1 apple peeled and cut up into bit sized pieces
1/2 pt brandied sweet cherries
1/2 pt fresh frozen peaches
1 c. pineapple juice
1/4 c. brown sugar


Put first 8 ingredients in either a blender or food processor and process until well blended. In a sauce pan heat glaze and add brown sugar. When brown sugar is dissolved you can start basting the ham. Bake ham according to directions and bast with the glaze about every 1/2 hour or so.

Note: I do genealogy and discovered on my Dad's side we are Swedish. Being that we are mostly English on both my Mom and Dad's sides, the Swedish tie-in was huge!!! I was very excited to research Swedish Recipes and in the process discovered Lingonberry Jam. My entire immediate family is now addicted to Lingonberry Jam and every chance I get I try to include it in my recipes. Gawd, that stuff is so good!


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