I confess! I am a meat lover and I eat pork. Before my vegetarian brothers and sisters get up in arms, I want you to know I also love veggies. I sometimes create meals that are meatless but probably not as often as I should. Still, we have veggies with every meal and usually include a salad too. Don’t get me wrong. I am not feeling guilty because I eat meat but I just felt I needed to say that out loud. Of course if you have been following dmariedining.com it is obvious we are a meat eating family. However, my youngest son and I are really the only pork lovers in the household.
Growing up we had pork quite a bit besides chicken. In my lifetime, I have probably eaten almost every part of pig from the snoot to the tail. Those of you with southern roots have probably done the same. Nothing goes to waste with southern cooks. Now that I am older and cook for myself there are parts of a pig you could not pay me enough to eat. Bacon, pork chops, ribs, sausage and ham are things I like to eat but I do limit how often we eat them.
Last weekend I finally decided to fix the ham I have had in the freezer for a while. Because we do limit how much pork we eat I thought my family would eat it one night and then I would have to freeze the leftovers. What was I thinking? As soon as I took the ham out of the oven my son was asking if he could taste it. After cutting a few slices I looked away for a second and they were gone. When I asked him what happened to all of the slices his comment to me was “You knew what you were getting into when you cooked the ham”. Translation…. Mom you know I love ham so what did you expect!?!
Needless to say the leftovers I thought I would have to freeze were gone in three days. Between my son and me I think we had ham for breakfast, lunch or dinner each day. At this point, I am all hammed out but I must say it was good while it lasted.
Whiskey Glazed Ham
Ingredients:
1 12 lb ham
1 4 oz can slice pineapple (reserve juice)
1 cup 7 UP or ginger ale
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup whiskey
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
8 cloves
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place ham in a large pot and fill ½ way with water. Boil for 1 ½ to 2 hours over medium high heat. (helps to remove salt) Save broth for another recipe.
Place ham in a roasting pan and pour 7 UP over the ham while hot. In a medium bowl mix together brown sugar, mustard, whiskey and juice from pineapple. Score the ham then dot with cloves and lay the pineapple slices around the ham (secure with toothpicks). Pour brown sugar mixture over ham. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes basting every 10 minutes. Allow the ham to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.
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