Honey Baked Ham... only homemade

The credit for this ham should go to my husband. Because I ended up being in charge of the turkey and the ham, and I don't have two ovens (sniff. sniff.), my husband offered to go to a friend's house to baste the ham every 15 minutes. Bravo sweetie. It was delicious. The picture, of course, doesn't do it justice (Any tips on photographing meat? This is my hardest subject.)

Honey Glazed Ham

adapted from here
1 small, spiral cut, bone-in ham
2 Tbsp whole cloves
1 cup honey
2/3 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Score the ham on a diagonal, about every 3/4 inch, to make diamonds. Evenly space the cloves in some of the intersections. Set aside.
In a small saucepan combine honey, butter, and brown sugar. Bring to a simmer, let brown sugar dissolve, reduce to low.
Brush sauce liberally over ham (you won't use all of it, just some, you'll use the rest later). Place in oven. Baste every 15 minutes for 1 to 1 1/2 hours (depending on size of ham). Keep sauce warm on low. After ham is warmed through, turn on broiler until crust is crunchy and caramelized, about 3-4 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Mustard Pork Chops

I can't believe I haven't shared this recipe with you. I got it from my sister years ago and it is a staple in our house. I put this on our menu at least twice a month. Mustard and pork is one of my favorite combination.

Mustard Pork Chops

4 Pork Chops
1/2 cup evaporated fat free milk
2 Tbsp dijon mustard
2-3 green onions, sliced
salt and pepper, to taste

Season pork chops with salt and pepper. Heat a large skilled over medium-high heat. Add pork; cook on each side until browned and just cooked through. Remove pork from pan, set aside and cover with foil.
Reduce heat to low. Add evaporated milk; stir to loosen brown bits from bottom of the skillet. Stir in mustard and onions. Add salt and pepper to taste. Return pork to skillet. Cook until sauce is slightly thickened.

Tips: 

Can use pork tenderloin, cut into 1-inch thick slices then pound until about 1/4 inch thickness. Season with salt and pepper.

Pork Tenderloin Two Ways

I love getting my pork from Costco - it's generally cheaper and when you buy the tenderloin, you get two in a package. That means, I get to try out two recipes at once. Plus, pork tenderloin is very lean and low fat.

These are my two simple Pork Tenderloin recipes.

Balsamic Pork Tenderloin

1 pork tenderloin

1 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup honey

Bake pork tenderloin at 325 degrees for about 20-25 minutes, or until internal temperature is 145 degrees. Meanwhile, combine vinegar and honey in a small pot, simmer until reduced by half. Remove pork from the oven, brush with reduced vinegar. Place under broiler until sauce is bubbly and starting to caramelize. Remove, turn, brush with vinegar, and repeat. When finished, remove from oven and let rest 7-10 minutes before cutting. Drizzle with remaining vinegar if desired.

 

Apricot Pork Tenderloin

1 pork tenderloin
1 cup apricot preserves
1/4 cup dijon mustard

Bake pork tenderloin at 325 degrees for about 20-25 minutes, or until internal temperature is 145 degrees. Meanwhile, preserves and mustard in a small bowl, microwave until liquid, about 2 minutes. Remove pork from the oven, brush with preserve mixture. Place under broiler until sauce is bubbly and starting to caramelize. Remove, turn, brush with sauce, and repeat. When finished, remove from oven and let rest 7-10 minutes before cutting. Drizzle with remaining sauce if desired.

Pork with Sweet Balsamic Onion Sauce

I really wanted to make something all on my own, no changing found recipes or getting inspiration from other recipes - the only inspiration came from my brain.
This was the result. Delicious, savory, sweet. See how you like it.

Pork with Sweet Balsamic Onion Sauce

1 thick pork loin chop, filted and pounded until 1/4 inch thick
1 red onion, sliced
1/4 c balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp flour
about 2 c milk
1/4 c chopped parsley

Brown pork chops in skillet over medium heat. Remove from pan (its okay if they aren't cooked all the way). Add red onions and balsamic vinegar, scrape bottom of the pan with wooden spoon to get all that goodness in the sauce. Add honey and cook until onions are soft. Add flour and cook 1 -2 minutes, or until flour is absorbed is paste-like. (Make sure there are no large clumps of flour, this will make your sauce lumpy and will have an uncooked, flour taste.) Add milk slowly, stirring constantly until desired consistency. (Do a little more than you think because the flour will make it thicken slightly as it cooks.) Return pork chops to pan and cook until heated through. Add parsley, reserving some for garnish. Serve over buttered noodles (if you so desire, I highly recommend) and top with reserved parsley.

Try this sauce with chicken or beef! (And let me know what you think)

Easy Pulled Pork

Although I love this barbecue sauce and could practically eat it by the spoonful, I didn't have any leftover and needed something faster. But I was inspired by the peach preserves for this recipe.


Easy Pulled Pork
1 cup peach preserves
1 cup store bought sauce (don't tell!)
1 pork tenderloin

Mix preserves and barbecue sauce in slow cooker, add tenderloin. (I like to use tenderloin because it is so lean - less fat means I can eat more!) Cook on low for about 6 hours or until shreds easily. After shredding, return back to slow cooker until ready to eat.

Barbecue Ribs

Nothing says summer like a good ol' barbecue. My sister and I got together for dinner but didn't want to do the same old hamburgers and hot dogs. So, we had ribs.
Even if you don't use this recipe for the ribs - you have to try this BBQ sauce. I really have never had better! (if I do say so myself... I can, it isn't my recipe.)


Barbeque Ribs
adapted from Tyler Florence
2 slabs baby back ribs
Salt and pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 bacon slices, chopped
4 sprigs fresh thyme
½ onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups ketchup
1 cup peach preserves
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp brown sugar
¼ cup molasses
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground paprika

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Put the ribs on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Stick them in the oven, and let the ribs bake, low and slow for 1½ to 2½ hours.
Meanwhile, make the sauce. Heat a 2-count of oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the bacon and thyme and cook slowly for 3 to 4 minutes to render the bacon fat and give the sauce a nice smoky taste. Add the onion and garlic and cook slowly, without coloring, for 5 minutes. Add all of the rest of the sauce ingredients, give the sauce a stir, and turn the heat down to low. Cook slowly for 20 minutes to meld the flavors. Put some sauce in a separate bowl for basting, reserving the remaining sauce for serving.
Baste the ribs with the sauce and let them continue cooking, basting twice more, for 30 more minutes. When the ribs are cooked, take them out of the oven. You can let them hang out like this until you're ready to eat.
When ready to eat, preheat the broiler for 5 minutes and broil the ribs, basting with the sauce. They should become crisp and charred, about 5 minutes on each side.

*The original recipe says to leave the onion whole and to just smash the garlic. Also wrapped the bacon around the thyme and secure with twine. Then pull out all of these ingredients when ready to eat. But, I don’t mind a chunky sauce, so I chopped them up and left them in.

Mustard Pork Tenderloin

I love the combination of pork and mustard. Here is a little recipe I made up last night.

Mustard Pork Tenderloin
2 lb Pork Tenderloin
3 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
½ tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Parsley
¼ tsp Thyme
Salt and Pepper

Pat dry pork tenderloin with a paper towel. Mix mustard, garlic, parley, thyme, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Rub on all sides of pork tenderloin until completely covered. Let marinate for at least 20 minutes. Preheat broiler and place pork under the broiler for about 10-12 minutes on both sides or until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 155 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes. Cut on a bias and serve.

About this much mustard...

Mix with dried herbs. I use dried because fresh burn so much easier - especially the garlic.

Give that tenderloin a good massage, he needs it. (I did double this recipe because we were having some friends over.)

Doesn't it look delicious? It was.

Dressed Up Pork Chops

I love pork chops. It is just a nice alternative to the everyday chicken breast. But I try to think of different ways to dress it up so that it is not the same old pork every day. Today I had some mangoes that I needed to use. So I made a pork chop, seasoned with just salt and pepper, then topped with this mango salsa. It was delicious.

Mango Salsa

2 mangoes
1 english cucumber or 4 tomatillos
1 small red onion diced
1 tomato drained of seeds and diced
1 jalapeno seeded (when I make a normal salsa I usually leave in some seeds, but this isn't meant to be super hot)
juice of 2 limes
juice of 1/2 an orange
1/2 c chopped cilantro
salt and pepper

Mix and enjoy!

These are all estimates of the amounts I use, I just adjust to what I have on hand, how it tastes, and how it looks. This is great for any protein: chicken, fish, pork. Also great alone with chips!
If using this to top a protein, don't test with tortilla chips (my usual way of testing salsas) because the salt from the chips may throw off your need for seasoning.