Yummy Ham Glaze for a Small Ham

The good quality ham was on sale this week at our local grocery store, so I picked up a small one for one of our meals this week. I wanted to give it some flavor with a ham glaze. Most recipes, unfortunately result in enough glaze for a large ham, one that can feed the entire family for three nights. Instead, I wanted to still be able to enjoy the flavor of a glaze, without having a gallon of glaze left over, using partial ingredients, such as a quarter of a can of pineapple juice, or being forced to purchase … Continue reading →

Simple Ways To Use Leftover Ham

According to food experts, you can safely eat leftover ham for up to five days after it was initially served, provided it was properly stored in your refrigerator. You may freeze leftover ham for up to six months, but for best quality, experts recommend that you consume it within two months. So, if you still have leftover ham from Easter, then time is ticking. That said, you might consider breathing new life into your leftover ham by making the following dishes: PASTA, PEAS AND HAM Ingredients: 2 (9-ounce) packages fresh tortellini, cooked 3 tablespoons butter 2 cloves minced garlic 2 … Continue reading →

Finger Lickin’ Good Summer Recipes

Corn on the cob, watermelon, hamburgers, and hot dogs are some of summer’s tastiest no-utensils-needed foods. The hands-on favorites are simple to eat and make clean up even easier. The following recipes are some of my family’s finger lickin’ favorites. All that’s required to eat them are clean hands and a healthy appetite. EGG IN THE MIDDLE PIZZA Ingredients: 1 (12-inch) unbaked pizza crust 4 ounces shredded Gouda cheese 4 ounces shredded Havarti cheese 4 ounces goat cheese 8 slices of prosciutto 8 fresh morel mushrooms 12 spears fresh asparagus, blanched and grilled 1/2 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved … Continue reading →

Classic Sunday Night Dinners

With Thanksgiving right around the corner most of us are preoccupied with turkey, turkey and more turkey. Unfortunately, most of us home cooks still have to get dinner on the table for our families in the nights leading up to Turkey Day. Our family has a long-standing tradition of gathering for a hearty sit-down meal on Sunday nights. It consists of recipes that are more involved than you would see at a typical quick and easy weeknight meal. Sundays, especially this time of year, are a great time to create warm and inviting dishes for the whole family to enjoy. … Continue reading →

Bringing Home the Bacon

If you not only bring home the bacon, but also are responsible for cooking it up, then you might find the following recipes quite helpful. One Christmas my dad was gifted with 15 pounds of fresh bacon as a thank you from a guy he helped at the office. For weeks we ate bacon for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Once the pig product was gone I took a break from bacon… for about 12 years. I’m not kidding. I swore off bacon until well after I graduated from college. To this day I rarely, if ever, eat bacon. However, that … Continue reading →

Autumn Recipes: H is for Ham

Ham and bananas… they are among my preschooler’s favorite foods, regardless of the season. However, I would have never dreamed of pairing the two in a casserole. That is, until I saw Food Network chef Paula Deen do so with her usual aplomb on TV a few months ago. I swear that woman can make dirt look good enough to eat. Deen’s Cheesy Ham and Banana Casserole is a hit in my home (mainly due to the crushed potato chips that dot it) and is the prefect dish to pass at a fall potluck. It also makes for a wonderfully … Continue reading →

How to Make Healthy Corn Dogs at Home

It’s not everyday that you see the words “healthy” and “corn dog” in the same sentence. Okay, so maybe these dogs are not “healthy,” but they are healthier than the ones you find at the state fair. Then again, who goes to a carnival to eat health food? Cotton candy, corn dogs and fried coke are what most folks are chowing down on at summer festivals, but now you can get a taste of fair food in your own home. In your own kitchen you can modify fatty recipes (such as corn dogs) to make them less artery clogging. Let’s … Continue reading →

Shakin’ & Bakin’ with Bacon

When Oscar Mayer introduced its Ready to Serve bacon a few years back you could have gotten a sunburn from the megawatt smile my bacon loving mom flashed each time she picked up a package from the grocery store. Heck, if it were not for my mom’s obsession with bacon my preschooler wouldn’t be walking around telling people that her grandma puts bagels on her salad. (She means Bac-Os.) With the weekend fast approaching I’m sure home cooks the world over are planning to fry up a pretty pound of the pork product to go along with their pancakes and … Continue reading →

Adding Pizzazz to Ordinary Pork

In a previous blog I hinted that the price of food has affected my menu planning and some of you noted that you are in the same boat. One reader commented that pork is a lot cheaper than chicken in his neck of the woods. I was surprised by the comment and today I did some comparison shopping at my local market. Chicken is cheaper, but I only buy whole birds or breast meat in bulk. However, the price of pork (at least the cuts I looked at) was not exorbitantly high. While I wouldn’t consider buying more pork based … Continue reading →

Outdoor Dining: Three-Course Simple Summer Meal

There’s no better way to enjoy the dog days of summer than firing up the grill and eating outdoors. Sure, it’s warm outside and in some parts of the country the mosquitoes are the size of lab rats, but in a few months you will be kicking yourself if you don’t take advantage of the opportunity to bond with your family over a meal in the great outdoors. When designing a meal to devour in your backyard, on your deck or in the park, think simple. The following recipes are not labor intensive, yet they pack a powerful punch in … Continue reading →