Easiest Ham Ever

I'm not even kidding. This is the easiest ham ever. Three ingredients, five minutes of effort, one great dish.

You need three ingredients--a ham, some dijon mustard, and some brown sugar. In return for your minimal effort, you get a great-tasting, fancy-looking ham that you'll be able to pull out even on a weekday.

Take your ham out of the wrapper and rinse it off. Then pat it dry. Set it in a roasting pan, preferably one with a rack to get the ham off the bottom of the pan.

Then grab some Dijon mustard.

Slather the thing with mustard. Smooth, grainy, spicy, whatever you like. Just not yellow ;)

Then measure some brown sugar (because you sure don't want to be double-dipping into your sugar with mustardy ham hands!)

Pat the ham all over with the brown sugar. The mustard should help it stick.

Pour a little water in the bottom of the pan, just to keep the sugar that will inevitably fall off the ham from burning.

Roast the ham for 45 minutes-1 hour. The sugar will melt and become nice and caramel-y.

Let it rest for at least 20 minutes before serving. This will give the hot, melted sugar time to form a crust.













Then serve. Seriously, was that the easiest recipe or what? And guess what--it tastes awesome, too! It also makes great leftovers--Wednesday's recipe will show you how!

Recipe: Easiest Ham Ever

1 3-4 lb. smoked ham
1/3 c. Dijon mustard
1/3 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. water

Rub ham with mustard. Pat brown sugar over the mustard until ham is completely coated.

Place ham in roasting pan. Pour water into the bottom of the pan.

Bake ham at 325F for 45 minutes-1 hour. Let rest at least 20 minutes before serving.

Split Pea Soup

There are two things you shoud know about me.

1. I am a huge football fan. I will watch the Green Bay Packers play whenever their games are televised. Since we fall within the NFC North region, and they are the defending Superbowl champs, that means I see a lot of games!

2. Because of Thing 1., that means that I don't usually spend a lot of time cooking on Sunday. But people still have to eat. So in the fall and winter, I tend to rely on my crock pot quite a bit!

This week was no exception. This Sunday my house was loud with the sound of football cheers (and, from my husband the Vikings fan, a lot of "Awww"s and "NOOOO!!"s) and smelled of Creamy, Cheesy Chip Dip and Split Pea Soup.

This has got to be one of the easiest soups ever. First, pick your favorite vegetables and cut them up into bite-sized pieces. I used onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, and parsnips. I also minced some garlic.

Sprinkle the split peas over the top. I used 1/4 lb. of yellow split peas and 1/4 lb. of green (about a quarter of a bag each.) In the future, I would add more peas--probably increase to half a bag apiece. The written recipe below reflects that.

Bay leaves, fresh thyme, and pepper will flavor the soup. Use your favorite fresh or dried herbs.

I didn't add salt at this point--the next ingredient is plenty salty by itself.

And that ingredient is a ham shank.

Anything hammy (roast, shank, hock, etc.) would be fine here. Just make sure it has a bone, for maximum flavor.

I love ham. But there's just no way to make it look appealing!

I seem to be missing a picture. But at some point, pour in a box of chicken broth. That's the liquid you see here. If you don't have chicken broth, you could use water too.

Now put the lid on the crock pot and go watch the game. How easy was that??

After 5-6 hours, the peas should be cooked fully and the ham should be falling off the bone.

Nab the ham shank and pull all the meat off.















Return the ham to the crock pot and serve your soup! Just a little peeling and chopping, and you've got a pot of soup that will stay ready for you to eat for the rest of the day!

Recipe: Split Pea Soup

3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 small onion, diced
1 parsnip, peeled and diced
1 celery stalk, sliced
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
1 lb. split peas (one bag)
2 bay leaves
4-5 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1 tsp. dried)
1 ham shank
1 box chicken broth (or water)


Combine all ingredients in crock pot. Turn on high. Let cook for 5-6 hours, or until peas are cooked through. Pull meat off ham shank and return to the soup. Serve.

Pineapple and Brown Sugar Ham

Ham is a great food for the home cook. It comes in a variety of sizes, if bought at the right time it can be extremely inexpensive, it has a long shelf life, and it can be used in many meals after its initial roasting. It freezes well, reheats well, and the best thing is that it's already cooked, so there's no worry about overcooking or undercooking. And, if you're not so in to the whole turkey thing, ham is a great Thanksgiving alternative!

I love a sweet glaze on my ham. I usually go with a simple brown sugar and mustard glaze, but I had some pineapple juice leftover from my Whisky-Marinated Steak and saw an opportunity to use some up. I added one small can to some brown sugar.

To that I added a pat of butter and a couple big spoonfuls of dijon mustard.

I turned the burner on medium and waited for things to start heating up.

Once I had a nice bubble going, I turned the heat down to medium-low and let the glaze reduce for about 20 minutes.

While the glaze was going, I prepped my ham. I found a nice, bone-in, 5 pound ham. I always get the end that has the bone--you get more flavor, and the ham bone always comes in handy for other recipes.

While we're on the "tips" section of the recipe, I do not recommend feeding ham bones (or any other bones, actually, apart from the special, kiln-dried bones at the pet store) to dogs. Doing so can be deadly (I know from personal experience.)

Anyhow. Grab a sharp knife and cut lightly into your ham. You'll want to cut both vertically and horizonally, to create diamond shapes all across the skin of your ham.

Now grab some whole cloves and press a clove into every corner of every diamond.

I just love how the cloves look, studded into a nice piece of ham.

All right! By now your glaze should be sufficiently reduced. You don't want it to be too thick, since it will thicken up more in the oven. You just want everything blended together and the sugar dissolved.

Pour the glaze right over the ham.

Nothing makes me hungrier than a picture of a studded, glazed ham.

I like to baste the ham while it bakes. Maybe every 20-30 minutes--so, three or four times. If your glaze begins to get too thick in your roasting pan, pour in a little water to thin it out. Burned sugar is really hard to get off!









Now slice into your big, beautiful ham. Thank the pig that gave its life so you could feast upon such a glorious roast. And keep dreaming--you and your ham will have many more meals together. I love to use leftovers in potato soup, in omelettes and quiches, and sandwiched between my Sweet 'n Easy Dinner Rolls. The bone has a special place, as a flavor enhancer in my favorite vegetable lentil soup. If you ask nicely, I may post it someday ;)

Recipe: Pineapple and Brown Sugar Ham

1 c. brown sugar
1-6 oz. can pineapple juice
3 tbsp. dijon mustard
1 tbsp. butter
freshly ground pepper, to taste

1 5-10 lb. bone-in smoked ham
whole cloves (enough to stud ham)


Preheat oven to 350F.

Over medium heat, combine brown sugar, pineapple juice, dijon mustard, butter, and pepper. Once mixture reaches a gentle boil, reduce heat to medium low. Reduce for 20-30 minutes.

Place ham in roasting pan. With a paring knife, score ham horizontally and vertically, all the way around, in a diamond pattern. Press whole cloves into corners of diamonds.

Pour glaze over ham. Roast for at least 1 hour, basting with glaze every 20-30 minutes. If glaze begins to burn at the bottom of the roasting pan, add a little water to thin.

Let ham rest before serving. Don't forget to save the ham bone!

Ham Balls

The first Christmas my husband (then boyfriend) were together, he was describing to me the food his family traditionally eats during the holidays. He kept going on and on about these ham balls. My (and probably your) first thought was, "They couldn't have thought of a more attractive name?" My second thought was, "I don't really like ham." But these meatballs made me change my feelings on ham (although I'm still scratching my head over the recipe name.)

I started making these for Christmas when we couldn't make it home. I've made them dinner size, as well as mini, as an appetizer. I've deviated from the original recipe a little and made them my own, but deep down they're still Grandma B's recipe.

The recipe starts with, you guessed it, ham. I also use ground pork and turkey. The original recipe used beef, but I think the turkey makes them a little lighter and, surprisingly, moister. Beef can be a little grainy, and turkey is healthier to boot.

Sometimes I grind my own ham; a few whirls in my trusty food processor and it's good to go. But I was feeling lazy, so I cheated and bought one of these pre-ground logs o' ham. Seemed to work out just fine.

The next item also is another deviation from the original recipe--a medium onion and two garlic cloves. I send them around in the food processor to make sure they're a super-fine dice. This is another step that adds moisture, as well as flavor.

I know a whole onion seems like a lot, but there are 3 pounds of meat here.

To the bowl o' meat-and-onion, add crushed Ritz crackers. I send those through the processor, too.

I hate buying whole packages of Ritz crackers. We don't eat many crackers and I don't like crackers in soup, so it's hard to use up a whole package before they go bad. And they're expensive!

So I was overjoyed when Ritz started making these. I can hang onto them for a while and there's no ending up with half a tube of stale crackers. And I got them on sale. Thank you, cracker gods!

Throw in two eggs. They act as a binder to keep the meatballs together. Plus, that's just what you need with a bowl full of protein--more protein!

Then comes some half and half. The original recipe called for plain milk. Boring. Many of my other meatball recipes call for heavy cream. I decided to compromise. The half and half adds just enough richness.

Salt and pepper everything (go easy on the salt, as ham is pretty salty) and dig in to combine. If you've got a kid who likes messy fingers, mixing this might be the job for them.

The meatballs might be a little moister than you're used to. Part of this is due to the half and half, and part of it is due to the ground turkey. They'd be a little firmer if we had used beef. But they've never been the round sort of meatballs. Don't let it worry you.

Start rolling out the meatballs. I like to make mine handful size, but whatever size you like will be fine.

I got 26 meatballs. That'll usually be enough for 2 meals for us. 6-7 ham balls for my husband, 2-3 for me, 1 for my daughter, and 3 for leftovers the next day for my husband's lunch.

Did I mention that my husband used to have contests with his brother and cousin to see who could eat the most ham balls at Christmas? I consider myself lucky that I haven't had to make them over the holidays for the whole family. I'd be rolling meatballs all Christmas Eve.

We had guests, so I cooked 18 and froze the rest. I just shape the meatballs, put them on a tray, and pop them in the freezer. Once they're frozen all the way, I take them off the tray and store them in a freezer bag. When you want to cook frozen ham balls, just place them right on the pan. There's no need to defrost. 

Turn your oven to 350F, put the meatballs in, and start on the glaze.

The glaze is simple. It starts with brown sugar and a pot.

Pour a mixture of vinegar and water over the brown sugar. The original recipe called for all white vinegar, but I like the tang of cider, so I use half white and half cider.

Then comes a dollop of mustard. I do believe the original recipe used yellow, but as I'm more likely to have dijon in my fridge, that's what I used.

Doesn't look too appealing, does it? Don't worry, it'll turn out all right.  Turn the burner onto medium heat.

I like to let the glaze reduce for a little while. Not too much, but I do like to let it simmer by itself.

Now here's another deviation from the original recipe. The original recipe called for the sauce to be poured over the ham balls right away. This lets them poach in the sauce.

But I personally like my meat and sauce a little caramelized, so I let the meat cook by itself for a while to get a little color. Then halfway through the cooking process I pour the sauce over the ham balls.

The oven reduces the sauce down into a caramelly glaze. You get a little syrupy flavor along with the meaty texture of the meatballs.

For the optimal glaze, make these on a cookie sheet with a deeper rim or in a cake or brownie pan spaced a couple inches apart.

I had to do mine in brownie pans. My cookie sheets were dirty and my big cake pans were being used for rolls. If you do them in cake or brownie pans and they're as crowded as these, broil them for the last few minutes to get more flavor and flip them over so both sides get colored.

Mmm. I like to serve these with mashed potatoes, but they're really a meal in themselves. Try them today and see for yourself!

Recipe: Ham Balls

1 lb. ground ham

1 lb. ground turkey

1 lb. ground pork

1 medium onion, minced finely

2 cloves garlic, minced finely

1 c. crushed Ritz crackers

2 eggs

1 c. half and half

salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients and then form into meatballs. Put in greased cookie sheet or cake pan.

Cook at 350F for 1 hour. Halfway through, flip meatballs over and add glaze (recipe follows.)

If glaze is not very thick, broil for 4-5 minutes right before serving, turning over halfway through so both sides get glazed.

Recipe: Ham Ball Glaze

1 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. white vinegar

1/4 c. cider vinegar

1 tbsp. dijon mustard

salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in small saucepan. Boil until all ingredients are incorporated; reduce another 5 minutes. Pour over meatballs halfway through their cooking time.