Well, sometimes, we don’t have a sit down dinner at my house. I just fix a meal, and, as friends and family come and go, there is food prepared should anyone desire to have a bite to eat. This year, it will be the following:
CHRISTMAS HAM
Easy way to honey glaze your ham
5-6 lb. fully cooked ham
1/4 cup whole cloves
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
2 cups honey
2/3 cup butter
1/8 tsp. white pepper
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Place ham cut side down in a foil-lined roasting pan. Using a sharp knife, score the surface of the ham in a diamond pattern. Place the whole cloves in the scored intersections. If you don’t like the cloves taste, leave this part out.
Combine corn syrup, honey, butter, and pepper in the top of your double boiler, and heat until the butter melts and the mixture is smooth, stirring occasionally. Let the glaze sit in the top of the double boiler, over the hot water, while your ham bakes, for extra basting glaze.
Brush glaze over ham, cover with foil. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 325 degrees, basting the ham every 10 to 15 minutes with the warm honey glaze.
During the last 5 minutes of baking time, remove the foil and turn on the oven broiler to caramelize the glaze. During the broiling time watch the ham carefully because it is easy to burn the glaze on top of the ham.
Remove ham from oven, cover with foil, and let sit for 10 more minutes before serving.
A 5 to 6 pound ham should serve 10-12 people.
POTATO SALAD
Ingredients
4 pounds potatoes (about 8 big potatoes)
3 hard-cooked eggs, chopped up, diced, cut into 8ths, however, you like it.
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon pepper
Preparation
Cook potatoes in boiling water, covered, about 40 minutes, till tender. Drain and let potatoes cool down. Peel the potatoes, and cut into 1 inch cubes.
Sometimes I bake the potatoes, let them cool in the fridge and then peel and cut them.
Stir together potato and egg.
Stir together mayonnaise and next 3 ingredients; gently stir into potato mixture. Serve immediately. I think it is best left overnight in the fridge.
Sweet Pickle: Add 1/3 cup sweet salad cube pickles or relish.
2 celery ribs, diced, and 1/2 small sweet onion, diced, to potato mixture.
Light Potato Salad: Substitute 1 cup low fat mayo.
DEVILED EGGS
6 eggs (makes 12 deviled eggs, duh)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 tsp salt
one or two shakes of the pepper shaker
2 tsp prepared mustard (plain old yellow mustard)
a pinch of sugar (then to taste)
Remove egg yolks. Mash them up with a fork. Add the remaining ingredients. Some people add sweet pickle relish – I personally don’t like them that way. This is simple and tasty.
BAKED BEANS
SIMPLE – Just buy a couple cans of baked beans – doesn’t matter – If you can still find BIG JOHN’S – these always worked great. If you want you can fry up some bacon, just don’t let it get too crisp, and add this to your baked beans. But bacon or not, add some brown sugar to taste, put in some molasses or dark corn syrup to taste – I find TASTING is a big part of cooking – maybe that is why I am never hungy when it comes time to eat…I watch everyone fill their plates and sit down to eat while being asked, “where’s your plate,” and I find, I’m just not hungry for a big old plate of food… wonder why????? Cook this a while on top of the stove or go all out and stick it in the oven just to heat it all up. That’s the end of that.
So you have ham, potato salad, baked beans, deviled eggs, and just buy some little dinner rolls, preferably from a good bakery around your house, and you can serve this meal up all day long. Of course, refrigerate any food after it has sit out about an hour and a half.
For dessert, you have all those cookies and candies, I just know you have already made, to sit out on the buffet or counter-top if anyone has any room left for dessert.
Grab a plate, go sit down, enjoy each others’ company. Thank your higher power for bringing everyone together once again this year. Share memories of Christmas past. Remember our loved ones who aren’t with us and the joy and happiness they brought us. First and foremost, remember we are celebrating the birthday of our beloved Jesus Christ.
