Honey Glazed Ham

Ingredients:
1 Fully cooked ham, spiral or not
1 cup of honey
1/2 cup of butter
3/4 of cup of brown sugar (I prefer Dark Brown because the color)

Preheat oven to 325

 Combine butter sugar and honey in a pot

 Bring to a simmer and make sure all ingredients combined.

 Line a pan that is atleast 1 inch think and line it good because you are going to have a mess if you don't. You can also make this in the crock pot.

 If using a spiral ham place like it is on the pan so the glaze can seep in between the slices. But if using a regular ham I recommend flat side down so that all sides get basted equally. 

 Baste the ham on all side equally. And put in oven.

 Pull ham out every 15-20 minutes to baste with glaze. I use a spoon and found it worked the best because there was enough glaze and there is not issue with not have enough :). Most hams cook for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. The last baste put the oven on broil to caramelize the glaze.

 I forget to take a picture of the final one because I was in rush but I putted all of ham off the bone and poured the drippings that I had in the pan all over the pieces and it was an Easter success!

Garlic Green Beans

Start with fresh green beans washed, cut, and trimmed. Add to heated olive oil. Sautee with minced garlic and sea salt.

Don't overcook as to retain maximum nutritional value and to keep them nice and crunchy!!! This is actually the first thing that Colleen and I have made together. Actually she cooked it for me to eat :)

Creamy Chicken Apple Sausage Penne

Tonight I tackled making my own pasta sauce. I bought some amazing chicken apple sausage at Publix and wanted to use it in a Pasta. Of course I leave the heavy whipping cream usage to Colleen so I had to come up with an alternative on the lighter side.



For the sauce:
Sautee a diced onion in 1/2 cup of chicken broth (low sodium) until liquid begins to evaporate


Mix together 2 cups of skim milk to 1/3 cup of flour. Then add mixture to broth and cooking onions. Wisk to create a smooth sauce. Then add 1/3 cup of white wine, salt & pepper to taste, and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese. I also decided to add some garlic infused olive oil (sautee garlic in olive oil and then add the oil into the sauce).


This is definitely a meal of multitasking, while making the sauce you need to heat the sausage (already fully cooked) in a pan with some olive oil. Then remove sausages and chop. While chopping sausage add apples and onions with some white wine.


Serve the sausage, apples, and onions over penne pasta tossed in the cream sauce. Enjoy!

Mozzarella, Ricotta, Mushroom, and Pepperoni Pizza

Ingredients:
1 ball of Publix pizza dough (made in the bakery) ( If you don't want to use Publix dough there is a recipe for pizza dough as the beginning of the food blog.)
2 tbsp butter
4 cloves of crushed garlic
6 oz pizza sauce
4 oz of fresh Mozzarella (Used pearls)
4 oz of Ricotta
Pepperoni
Mushrooms

Preheat over to 380

 Stretch out dough to pan, I happen to have a circle but you can use whatever you have. Then mix melted butter and crushed garlic together and brush it on to your pizza dough.

 Add sauce and mozzarella, notice the size of the "pearls" they were perfect for pizza!

 Fill in holes with ricotta cheese.

 Top with remaining toppings. And bake for 15-20 minutes!

Brush crust with butter and garlic mixture. Cut into 8 slices and enjoy :)!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of butter or margarine, softened (2 sticks)
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups of flour
12 ounces of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.

 Mix sugars, butter, eggs, and vanilla in bowl for 1 minute. Then gradually mix in baking soda, salt, and flour and mix about 2 minutes.

 Then mix in chips.

 Use a spoon to "plop" the dough on to a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until the rim of the cookie turns lightly golden then remove let set for 2 minutes and transfer to cooking rack.

 My cookies were large but that is how I love them! Because I don't feel so bad when I eat one vs. eating three small ones :).

 They were soft but not too gooey! What I call perfect :)!

Twice Baked Potatoes

Ingredients:
5-7 medium, large potatoes
1 1/2 cups of cheddar cheese
1 cup of sour cream
1/4 cup of butter
1/2 cup of onion
1/2 cup of diced ham
Garlic power, Salt and Pepper to taste.


Preheat oven to 350 and bake potatoes for 45 minutes to an hour until fully cooked. Don't forget to fork twice in each potato. DO NOT poke more than twice because it will ruin the potato skins.

 Cut the potatoes in half after they cool off a little bit.

 Scoop out the insides into a bowl without ripping the skin. The easiest way to do what is to cut around the edge like the picture then scoop from there. It is okay to leave a little of potato in the skin it makes the potato skin sturdier.

 All my skins made it with out falling apart!!

 Now add the onion, butter, sour cream, and 1/2 cup of cheese to the bowl (add ham at this time to but it is optional) and mix until creamy.

 Mixture with ham.

 Stuff the potato skins with mixture it is okay to over stuff too and if you have left over mixture is it no biggie but try not to waste :).

 After stuffing them top with remaining cheese and bake on 350 for 20 minutes or until heated thoroughly.

 And enjoy as a side dish or as a main dish is you add meat to them.

Pork Steaks

Ingredients for Marinade for Pork Chops:
4 Steaks, pork of beef.
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup of Italian dressing
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce  
1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
3 tablespoons dried basil
1 1/2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon minced garlic (optional)

 Place all ingredients in a blender on high speed for 30 seconds until thoroughly mixed.

Pork Steaks that I used but you can use this marinade on steaks or anything.

Pour marinade over meat and cover, and refrigerate for up to 8 hours. The longer the better :)

 

Throw pork steaks on the grill on medium. I turned the middle burner off and had to two side burners on medium. Cooked for 8 minutes, flipped cooked for 8 mintues, flipped then 5 more minutes on each side.

 The absolute best pork steaks I have ever had. Tender, I let them marinade for 6-7 hours. And they were so tasty :)!