Baked Ham with Brown Sugar Mustard Glaze

I pinned this recipe a couple of years ago and have made it several times. It's one of those recipes that always comes out perfect with very little effort. Warning: it makes the house smell amazing making your mouth salivate during the cooking time and creating a huge appetite.

Like I said, this recipe takes very little effort for a huge pay-off and uses ingredients that most people have on hand.

This recipe is from Food Network.com from Georgia Downard and featured on the show, Cooking Live and can be found here. The aim of this blog is not to supply original recipes but to unveil the mystery of good cooking and show that anyone can cook.

Baked Ham with Brown Sugar Mustard Glaze
12 servings and then leftovers

Ingredients:

Whole cloves for studding the ham
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup prepared mustard
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 12-lb smoked ham
1/2 tsp. ground cloves (this is a variation from the original recipe)3

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Glaze:
Add brown sugar, mustard, vinegar, and ground cloves together in a bowl (as shown in the picture).

Place ham in roasting pan. Score the ham into diamonds. Stud the ham with whole cloves (as shown in the picture).

Pour the glaze over the ham (as shown in the picture). The original recipe doesn't add the glaze until the very end but I add it from the beginning of the roasting time and continue to spoon the glaze over the ham as it cooks.

Bake ham for 1 1/2 hours but make sure to verify the cooking time depending upon the size of the ham. Test with a meat thermometer to ensure the internal cooking temperature is 140F.

Transfer to a serving platter and let the meat rest for 15 minutes before carving.

If you have a bone in the ham, save it along with any dippings and even your vegetable water to make a wonderful soup.

I tried desperately to get a photo of the finished ham but getting dinner on the table is a busy time with everything ready at the same time and by the time the photo crossed my mind, the family was busy munching.

March Music Challenge - Day 11

For Day 11, the challenge asks you to choose your favourite holiday song -- this one is particularly easy  for me and you'll see why in a moment. 

When you think of a holiday song, often it's Christmas songs that come to mind and there are some great ones from traditional like Bing Crosby singing Faith of our Fathers to pop hits like Baby It's Cold Outside and It's a Marshmallow World. It seems like Christmas sets the whole world to singing but for me, my favourite holiday song is tied to Halloween and my birthday. 

There are actually quite a few Halloween songs like Thriller by Michael Jackson and Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr. But it isn't Halloween or my birthday, the day begins with Monster Mash by Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt Kickers released in 1962. 

So next October 31st play this and I promise you won't be able to resist dancing.

March Music Challenge Day 8

The Day 8 Challenge is to choose a song from a concert that you have been to. I've been to some amazing concerts with big names -- Elton John, Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Sheryl Crow, David Bowie in Edinburgh with the Thompson Twins, Chicago in Caesar's Palace -- and some equally fantastic concerts with lesser known names but first class music -- Harry Manx, Martyn Joseph, Dala, Delhi to Dublin, King Crow and the Ladies from Hell.

I would say the two best concert experiences are when Dave took me to see Maroon 5 with Owl City and Neon Trees in GM Stadium in Vancouver and the outdoor concerts held nightly during the Canada Winter Games especially Black Spruce Bog (a local group). So the songs that I would choose are Everyone Talks by Neon Trees

and Tete Juane Road by Black Spruce Bog

Both of these nights, both of these concerts were magical -- the crowds were charged with electricity, I was caught up in the excitement of the crowd, the love for the man I was with, and carried away by the music. The power of music is that hearing those songs, I simply close my eyes and can feel all those same emotions. 

Temperature Blanket - Update 3

Temperature Blanket 

The study in blue continues with the white between the shells representing the snow and the white fluffy clouds the fill the horizon.

Shells: 
Row 22: Chain 1 (counts as first sc), turn and sc in each stitch across the row. (White)

Row 23: Chain 3 (counts as first treble), turn and skipping 4 stitches 7 treble in the 5th stitch (shell), *chain 1, skip 7 stitches and 7 treble in the 8th stitch**, repeat from * to ** across to the last 5 stitches, sc in the last stitch. (Turquoise)

Row 24: Chain 1 (counts as first sc), turn and sc in each stitch across the row. (White)

Row 25: Chain 1 (counts as first sc), turn and sc in each stitch across the row. (White)

Row 26: Chain 6 (counts as first treble), 3 treble in last stitch of last row (at the base of the chain 6), *chain 1, skip 7 stitches and 7 treble in the 8th stitch**, repeat from * to ** across to last stitch, 4 treble in last stitch. (Dark blue)

Row 27: Chain 1 (counts as first sc), turn and sc in each stitch across the row. (White)

Row 28: Chain 1 (counts as first sc), turn and sc in each stitch across the row. (White)

Row 29: Chain 3 (counts as first treble), turn and skipping 4 stitches *7 treble in the 5th stitch (shell), chain 1, skip 7 stitches and 7 treble in the 8th stitch**, repeat from * to ** across to the last 5 stitches, sc in the last stitch. (Medium grey blue)

Row 30: Chain 1 (counts as first sc), turn and sc in each stitch across the row. (White)

Row 31: Chain 1 (counts as first sc), turn and sc in each stitch across the row. (White)

March Music Challenge - Day 7

The Day 7  March Music Challenge is to choose a song that reminds you of your childhood. My childhood was filled with music. My mom played the organ, sang at church, and filled our house with hits from Jesus Christ Superstar to Petula Clark's Downtown that she played on a then state-of-the-art record player and sang along to -- it's difficult to pick just one song. For some unknown reason, I have been thinking a lot about the novella and music of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I recently re-read the novella written by Richard Bach and published in 1970, which tells the story of a seagull who becomes disenchanted with the conflict and materialism of his flock. Jonathan follows his passion for flying practicing and perfecting his flying abilities until he finally leaves the flock and is taken to a higher plane where he is mentored by a generous and skilled teacher. Jonathan realizes that his journey is not complete until he can find the forgiveness he needs to return to his original flock and continues his journey towards flight by taking his own students and spreading his wings so to speak. It's a beautiful story of the search for our true passion, self-fulfillment, and teaching and learning. In a truly enlightened situation, the positions of teacher and student constantly shift as the teacher often learns from the student and vice versa.

The soundtrack sung by Neil Diamond is equally moving winning the 1974 Grammy for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special.

Not the typical childhood song but then I didn't have a typical childhood mom.

March Music Challenge - Day 5 and 6

So I forgot to do the music challenge again yesterday - this challenge is proving to be more of a challenge that I thought.

Day 5 is to pick a song with several renditions and to choose my favourite rendition. For this song, I chose Crazy Love released in 1970 by singer-songwriter Van Morrison. The song has been featured in numerous movies and several artists have done covers of it including Helen Reddy, Ray Charles, and Michael Buble. Lyrically, it's quite a simple song but those few words express the depth and breadth of true love. My favourite version of this song is by Harry Manx. Although originally from the Isle of Man, Manx spent years in India studying music and now calls Canada home. His rendition of Crazy Love contains subtle Indian tones that I feel deepen the song and pair nicely with the lyrics. I was fortunate enough to hear Manx play this song live. Even though this is far from the most famous rendition, Manx's soulful picking makes his version my favourite -- as he says in the video the "right notes sing sympathetically ... anxious to play".

Day 6 is easy for me as there is only one song I know how to play in its entirety and most of it I still know off by heart -- When the Saints Going Marching In. My mom tried so hard to teach me to play the organ and her method was that you memorize the first bar, then add the second and continue to play from the first bar through adding another bar once you had the last one down, which is why when I see a piano or organ, I can still play the beginning of this song. Also, I feel it's not a particularly difficult song to play. I don't come close to the beautiful version I have added her by Louis Armstrong.

I would love to hear about your music choices ... 

March Music Challenge - Day 3 and 4

Sorry I missed yesterday so you get a 2 for 1 day.

So the Day 3 challenge is to list the last song on your music library and Day 4 is a song from the soundtrack of your favourite movie.

The last song on my iPod is 1973 by James Blunt. I haven't actually listened to this song for a long time so it was a treat to play it again today. While the song isn't particularly nostalgic for me, it's about nostalgia -- the idea of the glory days, lost loves, and aging. The song that Blunt references, Here We Go Again, is also somewhat nostalgic taking back a lost love. That's one of the beautiful things about music is its ability to take us back in time.

The Day 4 challenge is trickier for me because I have so many favourites that I'm fickle with favourites. One of my favourite songs of the moment is from movie (not my favourite movie as it's about a subject painfully close to my heart -- dysfunctional families), Last Mile Home by the Kings of Leon. I actually thought this was an old song but it was written for the movie, August, Osage County. It's a brilliant song and I love the guitar music so much that I often play it in the car with the windows shut and music so loud that the guitar dictates the beat of my heart. The song conjures up for me that last couple of miles into Nelson, BC. (the place my heart has always called home).

But I guess I would have to say that my favourite movie is Love Actually. It has that Dickensian story line that appeals to me so much. Taking multiple lives and connecting and intertwining them together but knits them all up into a nice tidy ending. And I would have to say that despite the great soundtrack my favourite song is Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell.