How to Prepare Your Easter Ham with a Simple Two-Ingredient Glaze

Easter is just around the corner, and if you're looking for an easy, yet delicious way to prepare your holiday ham, I've got the perfect recipe for you! This simple two-ingredient glaze creates a beautifully caramelized, flavorful ham that will be the star of your Easter table.

Easter Dinner Menu and Recipes

Easter Sunday is just around the corner and we are looking forward to hosting 24 family and friends at our home. I've been working on our menu for the last couple of weeks and even started buying groceries last week. Now, as the final details fall into place, I couldn't resist the urge to share our Easter dinner plans with all of you. Whether you're seeking inspiration for your own gathering or simply curious about what's cooking in our kitchen, read on for a taste of what's to come this weekend!

Easter Leftover Makeover Blog Party

It's the day after Easter, family and friends have left, and I've got a fridge full of food.  Well, for me the three items I have the most of in my fridge are hard-boiled eggs, ham and mashed potatoes, so what should I do?

Hard-Boiled Eggs - Breakfast - Chopped Egg & Chorizo Breakfast Pizza from Ally's Sweet and Savory Eats

On Saturday our kids dyed 48 hard-boiled eggs with their second-cousin, so to say I have a few hard-boiled eggs in the refrigerator would be an understatement.  So what can I do?  One option is Ally's Sweet and Savory Eats's Chopped Egg & Chorizo Breakfast Pizza.

I love breakfast pizza and Ally's version is sure to hit the spot with chopped hard-boiled egg, smoky and spicy chorizo, layered with a cheese sauce!  Oh yeah!  I can't wait to transform some of my hard-boiled egg leftovers into this breakfast makeover.

Ham - Dinner - Funeral Sandwiches from Jeni Eats

Next up is ham!  We double-smoked two hams for Easter yesterday and I have a couple gallon bags with leftover ham in it.  With spring planting on the horizon this week the first thing I thought about making was Jeni Eats's Funeral Sandwiches.

These quick, glazed, baked ham and cheese sandwiches are delicious!  Between everything being melty, ooey and gooey, along with the delicious glaze on top - these have become a family favorite and are perfect for feeding a crowd, or a hungry tractor and planting crew.

Mashed Potatoes - Supper - Shepherd's Pie from Corn, Beans, Pigs & Kids

Last up is mashed potatoes!  I made 10 pounds of mashed potatoes for yesterday and while people did a really good job of trying to finish them, I still have some leftovers.  So what better way to makeover mashed potatoes other than Shepherd's Pie.

This recipe is a great way to turn your mashed potatoes into another great comfort food.  Add in some of your leftover vegetables and some hamburger, and you've got a classic supper ready for your family.

So now it is your turn!  I've teamed up with my Country Fair Blog Party friends, Jan of The Tip Garden and Nicole of Tales of a Kansas Farm Mom to bring all of you an Easter Leftover Makeover Blog Party.  Feel free to link up as many of your posts that would work as a leftover makeover!  I can't wait to get inspired by all of your ideas.

What leftover are you excited to have in your refrigerator?  What's your favorite leftover makeover?  Remember to Comment for a Cause.

An InLinkz Link-up

Pay it Forward with #HamsAcrossAmerica

The holiday season is a joyous time for many - celebrations with family, special treats and dinners, and presents under the tree.  It is easy for me to take all of this for granted, but for some, they don't have a support system and money can be too tight for those special treats, dinners and presents.  So My Farmer and I joined other pig farmers from across the country and paid it forward by donating holiday hams to families in need.

We decided to reach out to our local Crisis Intervention Service and help a couple of the families using their services.  Our friend Katy made us aware of the needs of the Service Center after doing a service project for them last month.  It means a lot to us that we were able to donate holiday hams to two families that are clients of our local Crisis Intervention Service, both after struggling with domestic violence.  The director let us know how much each of these families appreciated the hams, as they both have large families and are not receiving any support from the abusers.  Knowing these families are now able to celebrate and feed all of those growing bellies means a lot to us, as those are two things we care about for our own family.

Our family, and other pig farmers from across America, encourage you to pay it forward and give a holiday ham this holiday season.  Who would you like to give a holiday ham to?  Remember to Comment for a Cause.

Ham Balls: An Iowa Classic

This story starts off with a simple beginning, a group of friends (aka the North Iowa Bloggers) were getting together for an evening of fellowship and taste testing (something we've been known to do).  This particular evening's gathering center around the Lay's "Do Us a Flavor" Chips campaign so everyone talked about all of these cute little salads and fruit trays they were going to bring to compliment the potato chip taste test.  I thought to myself, if I am going to participate in a chip taste test I'm going to need something more than roughage, I was going to need some MEAT!  So I brought what any good ol' Iowa homecook would bring to a potluck - Ham Balls.  Little did I know I'd be bringing something very special for my friend Jeni from Jeni Eats, I'd be bringing her, her very first ham ball - a culinary classic unknown to her before that beautiful summer evening and what now has led to, dare I say, an obsession since then.

Jeni from Jeni Eats and myself
enjoying our Iowa Ham Balls earlier this week

So fast forward over the last few months and Jeni still can't get my ham balls out of her culinary palette.  She has tried making her own version, has checked her collection of church cookbooks for recipes, and has tried her local butcher's version and a local grocery store's version, but still can't forget her first true Iowa ham ball.  So Jeni asked if she could come over to my house to see a "real Iowan" makes Iowa ham balls.  I of course said "Sure! Come on over!" and began to frantic.  See the thing is, I didn't know what recipe I used on that beautiful August night - the only thing I did remember was that I pulled them out of the freezer, threw them in a crock pot and put what was left of a bottle of bbq sauce from the refrigerator on them...  The only thing left to do, was to start from the basics, and make my own Iowa Ham Ball recipe to share with her and you!

Iowa Ham Balls

2.5# Ham Loaf
2 Eggs
1 1/2 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs (one sleeve of graham crackers that has been grinded in food processor or placed in large ziploc bag and use a rolling pin to crush them)
1 cup Milk
1 can Tomato Soup
3/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Vinegar
1 tsp Ground Mustard

Ham Loaf is a mixture of ground ham and ground pork that can be found in most Iowa grocery stores. If you can't find Ham Loaf mix at your meat counter, use a food processor to grind leftover ham or a boneless ham into small chopped pieces and combine 1.5# of your ground ham with 1# of ground pork.

Add the eggs, graham cracker crumbs and milk.  Mix together with your hands and form fist-sized ham balls.  (If the mixture seems a little dry, you can add 1/4 cup of milk at a time, up to 1 1/2 cups of milk total.)  Place ham balls in a 9"x13" pan.  They fit nicely three across and five down.

Then mix the soup, brown sugar, vinegar and mustard till smooth.  Drizzle the glaze over the ham balls for the classic ham ball sauce.  (Or, if you're in a rush like I was this past summer - drizzle your favorite bbq sauce over them!)

Bake at 350F for 1 hour.

Yield:  13-15 ham balls

To check out a video of these Iowa Ham Balls being made, check out Jeni Eats!

These ham balls freeze well and can be warmed up in a crock pot if desired.  Ham balls are the perfect Iowa potluck treat!  Our family loves pairing Ham Balls with Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole!

Have you ever heard of ham balls?  How do you make yours?  When you think of classic foods for your home state what comes to mind?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Tuesday Tasty Pork Recipe

In honor of National Pork Month, my first installment of Tuesday Tasty Pork Recipe for the month is one of my favorite pasta dishes that includes two pork products - ham and bacon!

Val's Sicilian Pasta Sauce
(One of my favorite restaurant's growing up was Valentino's, an Italian restaurant, which has a great Sicilian Pasta.  So this is my rendition and take on it!)

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. bacon
2-3 Tbsp. margarine
2-3 cloves garlic, grated
3-4 Tbsp. flour
2 cups whole milk
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 tsp. chopped parsley
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
2 cups diced ham
2 cans sliced mushrooms
2 cups Italian shredded cheese

Cut bacon into bite-sized pieces and fry.  Once bacon is fried to your liking, set aside.

Add margarine to bacon grease.  Let melt and then add garlic.  Cook for one minute and then add flour to make roux.

Slowly whisk in milk to make sauce.

Once sauce is made, stir in bouillon cube, parley, Italian seasoning...

and the ham, bacon and mushrooms.

Finally add the cheese and let sit over medium heat for a couple of minutes.

Serve sauce over choice of pasta.  My family's preference is rotini or radiatori noodles.

What's your favorite pork product to cook with - ham? bacon? ground pork? pork chops? ribs? roast?  Share the name of your favorite pork product to cook with in the comment section and you'll be entered to win a pig silicon pot holder from the Iowa Soybean Association and the Soybean Checkoff!  The winner will be announced next week!