Guest Recipe: Holiday Ham

Another fellow member  of a website community (Social Media Examiner) I’ve met offers his famous ham recipe. Warren Veach is one of the co-founders of HealthCare On Call, a Texas-based company focused on bringing convenient and affordable healthcare solutions within reach of the American consumer. Visit his company’s facebook page.

According to Warren, “every time a holiday rolls around, I post this on facebook and always get some good comments.”

Warren’s Holiday Ham

Step One: Open a beer and pour it in a glass to let the fizzle out of it.

Step Two: Make deep cuts around the entire ham and across the bottom of the ham also. Place ham into a ZipLock Storage Baggie, big enough to hold ham and the rest of the contents. The ZipLock Storage Bag (One Gallon) is usually big enough.

Step Three: Pour 16 ounces of honey and 16 ounces of Log Cabin Syrup into a large pan and heat to a simmer.

Step Four: Add 6 heaping Tablespoons of Brown Sugar to the honey/syrup mixture while hot (This allows the brown sugar to dissolve). Stir well.

Step Five: Remove Syrup/Honey/Brown Sugar mixture from heat and slowly add the beer, stirring constantly (and I bet you thought I’d tell you to drink the beer). Be careful, because the beer sometimes has a habit of foaming up when its poured in.

Step Six: Let the Syrup/Honey/Brown Sugar/Beer mixture cool just a bit and pour into the ZipLock Storage Baggie with the ham. Let out as much air as you can and seal the ZipLock Storage Baggie. Let sit in refrigerator until you are ready to cook the ham. I try to let it sit and soak for 24 hours, turning in over every once in a while to get even saturation.

Step Seven: When ready to cook, remove ham from ZipLock Storage Baggie and place in a large baking pan lined with aluminum foil. Also cover top of ham with foil. (I usually save enough of the Syrup/Honey/Brown Sugar/Beer mixture to pour over the ham occasionally while it is cooking)

Step Eight: Cook per instructions on the ham.

Although it is excellent right as it comes out of the oven, it cuts better if it is allowed to cool just a bit.

Enjoy!

A Special Photo Op: Girls at Tea

On a fun Sunday afternoon, I staged a tea party with my daughter and two friends to do a photo shoot. The pictures were used for a slide show presentation I was doing about tea etiquette. We took pictures of what to do and what not to do. The girls had fun, I got some great pictures and I think they learned a bit about manners. The video is posted on youtube if you’d like to watch it.

Pantry Raid #19: Lasagna

Found some more browned ground beef from the prepping the pantry day hiding in the freezer. Having that on hand made putting the lasagna together so much easier. All the cooking I had to do was boil the noodles. Then I assembled the lasagna in a glass casserole dish.

Put a bit of sauce on the bottom of the dish, then layer the ingredients: noodles, sauce, meat, cottage cheese mix, mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers 2 more times. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top. Bake for one hour at 325 degrees.

Ingredients:

lasagna noodles

large jar of spaghetti sauce (or your favorite recipe of sauce)

browned ground beef (and onions)

16 oz. container of cottage cheese mixed with 3 eggs

grated mozzarella cheese

parmesan cheese

Serve with a toss salad and garlic bread and enjoy! Serves about 8 people.

Guest Recipe: Ants Climbing A Tree

I am a member of a social media community, Social Media Examiner, and one of my fellow club members is Joan Muschamp (Fagnani).  LemonZest Marketing LLC is her company.  Joan is a long time marketing pro, specializing in content strategy and development, and working with clients to use the content to support and develop their brand, and help develop business. Her recipe comes from a Chinese cooking class she took about 30 years ago. According to Joan, it’s a bit different, but simple to make.

Ants Climbing a Tree

¼ lb. transparent vermicelli (bean threads)
1 slice ginger, minced
¼ lb lean pork
3 tbsp. finely chopped scallions
1 tbsp+ Szechuan hot bean sauce (chili-garlic sauce)

Seasoning:

1 tbsp Sherry
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp salt
1 Cup stock

PREP:
Soak bean threads in warm water until soft. Drain well
Cut several times to make shorter pieces
Chop port very fine, then chop scallions and ginger very fine (I do all together in food processor)
Mix seasoning ingredients together and set aside

COOK:
Heat 4 tbsp veg oil in wok. Cook pork, scallions, and ginger a few min
Add in hot bean sauce, mix 1-2 minutes
Add seasoning and cook 2-3 more minutes
Add bean threads, reduce heat. Simmer until liquid cooks down.
Serve hot.

NOTES:
You should be able to find the bean thread vermicelli in the Asian section of the grocery store.
Chili garlic sauce

Pantry Raid #18: Lady Finger Cheesecake with Chocolate Sauce

Still lingering around are large packages of lady fingers from when I had planned to make tiramisu. Also, hiding in the pantry was a food service size package of sugar-free cheesecake mix. Just a bit of cool whip was found in the freezer. A chocolate sauce was the only “new creation” that was needed.

Fill the bottom of a large glass dish with a  layer of (24) lady fingers. Spread 1/2 of the prepared cheesecake mix over them. Place another layer of lady fingers on top then add the second 1/2 of the cheesecake mix. Top that with cool whip. Then pour chocolate syrup over it and refrigerate.

To make chocolate sauce:

In a small saucepan, mix 1 cup cocoa powder, 1 cup granulated sugar, 1 cup water, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, dash of nutmeg.  Whisk to blend and bring to a boil, stirring for three minutes or until beginning to thicken. Remove from heat and add 2 teaspoons vanilla and stir to mix. Cool before pouring on dessert.

Pantry Raid #17: Homemade Pizza

With a homemade whole wheat pizza crust recipe (from my sister, Krisan), I had plenty to top it off with. ….like the last of the browned ground beef from the freezer from Pantry Prepping Day. I also got some “stow bot” (that is, Ragu) spaghetti sauce, already had shredded mozzarella cheese, shredded cheddar cheese, pepperoni slices, fresh sliced mushrooms and Parmesan cheese.

Even though there were only three people eating, I made the full crust recipe that makes two large pizzas.

Dissolve 1 package dry yeast in

1 cup warm water
Add:
1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
Stir to mix thoroughly then add
1 cup white flour
Cover and let rise until about double. Punch down, divide and make crust by spreading onto oiled pizza pan. (Bake at 400˚ until toasty and freeze to use later.)

For immediate use, spread out crust then begin layering. Lightly coat unbaked crust with olive oil, spread spaghetti sauce evenly over crust. Top with desired amount of mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese, ground beef (which has been browned with garlic and onions), pepperoni slices, mushroom slices and Parmesan cheese. Bake at 400 about 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is browned.

Pantry Raid #16: Whole Wheat Gnocchi

Tonight’s invention WILL be shared but not recommended. If anyone out there can “fix” this dish, please share. Well, to be honest it was voted 2 for and 1 against. I had bought some whole wheat gnocchi with sweet potato filling with only a thought of what to do with it. I had planned to make a pumpkin soup as the base but, alas, the can of pumpkin must have been only a figment of my imagination. The instructions called for “your favorite sauce” but I didn’t have any in the pantry or time to fix it. But, I did have a can of diced tomatoes. With my immersion blender, I pureed the tomatoes, added Italian seasoning, salt, 1 Tablespoon of minced garlic,  and about 3 oz of creamed cheese and heated. Then some grated parmesan cheese was mixed in. Now it was ready to add the cooked (according to directions) gnocchi. Served with parmesan on top.

Now I will say that the one who didn’t like the dish is not often willing to experiment and the other two did have seconds. I still want to make it with pumpkin soup with a dollop of sour cream on top, perhaps.