Ja cię kocham…

I’m almost embarrassed to say this, but this was the first ham that I have ever cooked.  And it will NOT be the last.  It was so easy.  What have I been waiting for?!  I blame it on the fact that I typically cook for 2 instead of 10 people so there is no need to make a large ham.

To this day we are still playing the “Clean out the Fridge” game.  Every meal, Jay and I peek in the fridge to see what we can concoct with our leftovers.  We are LOADED with food!  During a time when money is tight and jobs are scarce, having a fridge full of food is such a blessing.  SUCH a blessing!

In addition to my Old-Fashioned Holiday Glazed Ham by Paula Deen, Jay’s mom made this AMAZING Bourbon-Glazed Ham for Christmas Eve.  It was smoky, tender, and unbelievable!  The entire family was picking pieces off of it before dinner, just like the dad in A Christmas Story.  (LOVE that movie, by the way…)

Tuck these recipes into your file and keep them for a family meal.  They are both incredibly easy, elegant, and unbelievably delicious.

PS – Santa brought us a Brinkmann Charcoal Smoker & Grill for Christmas.  Oh the possibilities this brings!  New Years Day is already filled with smoked Ribs.  Can’t wait to share that with you!

Paula’s Old-Fashion Holiday Glazed Ham

Source: Paula Deen

Serves: 12

1 spiral-sliced half ham (Paula prefers Smithfield)
1 20-ounce can pineapple slices, juice reserved
15 to 20 whole cloves (optional)
1 small jar maraschino cherries
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons yellow mustard

Directions:

Preheat the oven as directed on the ham package and follow the instructions for baking the ham. Remove the ham from the oven about 30 minutes before the end of the warming time.

Decoratively arrange the pineapple slices on top of the ham, securing them with whole cloves, if using, or toothpicks. Place a cherry in the center of each pineapple ring and secure with a clove or toothpick.

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, mustard and just enough of the reserved pineapple juice to make a thick glaze. Spoon the glaze over the ham and bake for the remaining 30 minutes. Remove the ham from the oven, transfer to a cutting board and carve.

Aren’t fall flavors fun?!  The aromas are so comforting and just make everything smell like home.  Our household is a huge fan of warmed apple cider in the crock pot.  We are fortunate enough to have wineries very close to our home and we like to pick out their spiced apple cider and warm it in the crock pot.  Now THAT’S a winner!

This is a non-alcoholic beverage, but you could very easily add your liquor of choice (spiced rum, vodka…etc) while making this.  I chose not to add liquor because being at my ripe old age of 27, I tend to have trouble sleeping when I have a night cap.  I like to save those drinks for the weekend when I can sleep in a little.   There is nothing worse than being wide awake at 2am when you have to work in the morning.  *Sigh*

Try this fall sipper out!  You use basic ingredients that you most likely already have, and if you don’t, it’ll cost you pennies.  You’ll kids will love this, too (sans alcohol, of course)!

Mulled Cranberry Sipper

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 cups cranberry juice (if you have unsweetened juice, please add pure maple syrup to taste to sweeten it up!)
juice of one orange (or a 1/4 cup orange juice)
2 cinnamon sticks
2 orange peels
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

Mix all ingredients into a small saucepan and warm on medium-low heat.  Stir a few times while warming.  Serve immediately.

Now that I’ve given you the run-down of our pre-Thanksgiving feast, I am happy to share our dessert!

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a sucker for dessert.  No matter how full I am after dinner, I still have room for dessert.  Knowing this, I made sure to make a healthy dessert.  Despite its healthy ingredients, the results were creamy and wonderful.  I didn’t feel like I was selling myself short with the lack of sugar, cream, and fat.  It was a perfect light dessert to end a wonderful and guilt-free dinner.

Spiced Pumpkin Mousse

Source: Clean Eating Magazine Nov/Dec 2009

Serves a huge crowd!

Ingredients:

2 15oz. cans of PUMPKIN PUREE (not pumpkin pie filling!)
1 1-lb. pkg silken tofu, drained well
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/2 cup plain Greek Yogurt
1 oz. dark chocolate, cut into thin shards (about 1/4 cup)

Directions:

In the bowl of a food processor, combine pumpkin and tofu.  Process until combined, about 30 seconds.   Add maple syrup, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and salt.  Process until combined, about 30 seconds more.

Transfer mousse to a resealable container, cover, and refrigerate.  Preferably for a few hours.

Drain any water that has accumulated and give it a quick stir and scoop 1/2 cup mousse into 10 small ramekins or glasses.  Top each serving with a dollop of Greek yogurt and chocolate.  Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Remember I told you that we need to move on from my crappy pictures?  Apply that thought right now.  It was dark, I was hungry, and I just took a quick pic of a fabulous dish.  Please don’t let the picture fool you!!  This portion of my pre-Thanksgiving meal along with my Fresh Cranberry Sauce with Apples with Ginger and another side dish a dessert soon to be revealed were awesome!

Again, the stuffing came from my Clean Eating Magazine.  The pork was a recipe that I created on the fly.  It is all healthy, simple, inexpensive, and has explosive flavor.  Sweet deal.   Trust me, you can’t go wrong with these recipes.  I wish that I had these ideas sooner!

Sweet Apple Cider Pork

Serves 4

4 4oz. pieces of pork tenderloin, 1 1/2 inch-thick (preferably)
2 1/2 cups apple cider for marinade + 1 cup for cooking
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. butter
1 tsp. cornstarch

Directions:

In a large ziplock bag, add pork, cider for marinade, cloves, ginger, and salt.  Let marinate for 30 minutes.

Once the pork is done marinating, heat a large skillet on medium-high heat.  Add olive oil and butter and distribute throughout the skillet.  Add pork and brown each side (about 2 minutes each side).  Add the remaining apple cider, bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer.  Cover with lid and cook for about 8 minutes more.  Be sure to keep a close eye on it to make sure the cider doesn’t completely evaporate.

Then add the cornstarch and stir until the cider thickens.

Place pork on a serving plate and drizzle sauce over top.
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Mushroom and Leek Stuffing

Source: Clean Eating Magazine, Nov/Dec 2009

Serves a huge crowd (enough to stuff a turkey if desired)

Ingredients:

1 680g whole-wheat sourdough bread or regular whole wheat bread
1 Tbs. olive oil, divided
1 lb. portobello mushrooms, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (4 cups)
1 cup carrots, finely chopped
1 cup celery, finely chopped
1 large leek, trimmed, halved lengthwise and chopped
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. chile powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt

Directions: You can do this one of two ways –

1 – The oven-baked traditional method – Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Decrust and cube bread into 3/4-inch cubes.  Spread bread cubes out in a single layer on 2 rimmed baking sheets and bake for 10 minutes or until lightly toasted.  Transfer to a very large bowl.

Heat 1/2 tsp. oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add mushrooms and cooking, stirring until tender and lightly browned (8-10 minutes).  Add mushrooms to bowl with bread.  Wipe out skillet with paper towel and heat remaining oil on medium-high.  Add carrots, celery, and leeks and cook until tender and lightly browned (again, 8-10 minutes).  Add to bread bowl.

Add remaining ingredients to bowl and stir gently.  Bread should be moist, but not soggy.  Allow to cool.

Coat a 9×13 inch baking dish with olive oil cooking spray and add stuffing.  Cover tightly with foil and bake for 20 minutes.  Them remove foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

OR

2 – The weeknight, I don’t have time to do all that work method – Tear bread into bite-sized chunks.  In a large skillet heated to medium, add 1/2 tsp. oil (I cheated and added a little tab of butter, too) and mushrooms, cook until tender and lightly brown (8-10 minutes).  Remove from skillet.  Wipe down skillet with paper towel.

Add remaining oil, carrots, celery, and leeks to skillet heated to medium-high and cook until tender and lightly brown (8-10 minutes).  Add mushrooms back into skillet along with the remaining ingredients.  Stir until bread is completely moist, but not soggy.  Once bread is completely moist, crank up the heat to high and stir stuffing for a minute or two until the bread begins to toast.  Serve immediately.

“What is a Pawpappy?”, you might ask.   My response is that is that a Pawpappy is a WHO, not a what, and Pawpappy is my dad.  Long, long ago my father decided during an episode of Empty Nest (hello 1990s!) that his grandchildren were to call him Pawdaddy.  Mind you, I was in my pre-teens and teen years in the 1990s.

Then I moved into my twenty-somethings.  My family went on a summer vacation to the beach and heading home from a grocery store, my dad and I saw a restaurant called Pappy’s with a BIG, pink pig as its mascot.  Dad just started dying of laughter, and when I inquired about this hysterical laughter my father decided that his grandkids were to call him Pawpappy.  He also decided that my mom is to be called Popeye – so they would be Popeye and Pawpappy.   And even though this is potentially a “you had to be there” scenario I must share with you that at this moment I have never laughed so hard in my life.  Let me also note that this conversation was 6 or 7 years ago, and my parents still aren’t grandparents.  My mom refuses to accept Popeye as her “grandma” name, but now we all call my dad “Pawpappy”, “Pawpaps”, or “Paps”.   Mom, you know we’re going to end up calling you Popeye

Paps’s birthday was yesterday and in honor of him, I made him his favorite dessert food… or should I say the only dessert that he eats: ginger snaps.  His birthday cake was actually a block of smoked muenster cheese (his favorite and he likes allll cheese) with candles in it.

Happy Birthday, Paps!  We love you!

Homemade Ginger Snaps

Source: For the Love of Cooking
Yields 18-24 cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups of flour (I used unbleached)
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup of brown sugar (I used turbinado sugar or “sugar in the raw”)
1 egg
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup molasses (Mine was unsulphured)
2 tbsp white sugar (again, I used turbinado sugar)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt then set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg then add water and molasses and mix thoroughly. Gently stir the dry mixture into the molasses mixture.

Shape dough into balls then roll them in the two tablespoons of white sugar.  Place the cookies about 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack.

Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve posted.  Now that my fall work hours have kicked in, I don’t get home until it’s nearly dark and my dinner photos do not do my meals justice.  Today, however, I was able to whip something up in the crock pot during the morning, take pictures while the sun was still shining, and eat it when it was dark

My sister, Emily, of Cleanliness is Next to Godliness has created a fall challenge for her food blog.  Basically you just make your favorite fall dish – ginger snaps, stuffed apples, pumpkin pie – and post it on her blog.  I cannot wait to see what everyone has decided to share.  Fall foods are my favorite!

I decided to make a pumpkin chili in the slow cooker.  This meal is incredibly low in the maintenance department, is inexpensive, makes your house smell so good, and is ready the second you come home from work.  Sound good?

Let’s give it a go…

Pumpkin Chili

Serves 8

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground turkey
1 large onion, diced
3 bell peppers, diced
2 (15 ounce) cans white navy beans, drained
1.5 cups chicken stock
1 (14.5 ounce) can chili ready tomatoes or diced tomatoes
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. ground cloves
salt to taste
cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions:

In a large pot over medium heat, cook turkey until brown; drain.

Add meat to crock pot. Add the remaining ingredients except for the beans. Cook on low 6-7 hours, or on high 4-5 hours. 30 mins before serving, stir in beans.

Feel free to add some sour cream, pumpkin pie spice and scallions as a garnish!