Holiday meal planning should not be stressful. Meals should be easy to make and easy to serve. To help you out with your planning, I am going to share my easy holiday dinner menu that's always a hit: Brown Sugar Glazed Ham, Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Sauteed Asparagus.
Ham is a holiday staple in our home. It's served at holiday parties, dinners and Christmas day lunch, We are all big fans and I always serve Hormel Cure 81 bone-in ham in the Cherrywood flavor.
Making a ham is not complicated at all. It pretty much cooks itself in a couple of hours.
BROWN SUGAR GLAZED HAM
Ingredients:1-Hormel Cure 81 Bone-In Ham Cherrywood flavor20 whole cloves1 cup brown sugar1 cup dark soda2 tbsp ground mustard
Directions:
Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Remove ham from packaging and place in a 13 inch by 9 inch pan. Insert cloves throughout ham, make sure to add some in the first slice. Add 1 cup of water to the bottom of the pan.
Cover with aluminum foil and place in oven. Warm ham about 12 minutes per pound. This ham was 8 pounds so I warmed it for 96 minutes.
For the glaze:
While ham is warming up in the oven, gather ingredients for the glaze. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar, soda and ground mustard. Whisk until sugar has dissolved. Continue cooking until mixture begins to boil, then remove from heat. Set aside.
Once your ham has been heated thoroughly, remove from oven. Raise temperature of oven to 450 degrees. Slowly pour glaze all over the ham, making sure each slice is glazed. return ham to oven, uncovered and cook for about 15 minutes.
Remove ham from oven and let side for about 10 minutes. The best part about these hams is that they already come sliced so you can just pull your slice off the bone. No carving required!
I love to pair ham with roasted garlic mashed potatoes. Once again, easy to make and delicious to eat!
ROASTED GARLIC MASHED POTATOESServes 6
Ingredients:5 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed1 tbsp olive oil8 large potatoes, peeled and cubed4 tbsp butter1 1/2 cups milksalt to taste
While ham is baking, place garlic cloves on a sheet of aluminum foil. Drizzle olive oil over cloves.
Then, fold in the sides of the aluminum foil so you make a packet. Place packet in oven (275 degrees) for about 45 minutes.
Remove packet from oven and smash the top with the back of a spoon. This will squeeze the garlic juice out of the cloves. Meanwhile, cook your potatoes until fork tender. Drain. Add butter, the liquid from the garlic packet (not the actual cloves) and the milk. Mash together.
While you are waiting for the potatoes to boil, prepare your asparagus. In a pan over medium-high heat, add olive oil, 1 clove of garlic, diced and asparagus. Cook asparagus for about 5 minutes and then remove from heat.
Now you are ready to enjoy your holiday dinner. It really doesn't get any easier or more delicious than this! Your ham will surely bet he star of the holidays. Brown sugar glazed ham is perfect for any gathering and I know that once you make it for one occasion, you will be making a ham for every occasion!
Hormel Cure 81 Bone-in Hams are available at Walmart! Make sure to pick one up next time you are there!
Do you and your family love having ham during the holidays?