Weekend Cooking: Recipe Organizing and Glazed Ham

Welcome to the last Weekend Cooking post of the year. As is the case with many of you, we've been enjoying the holidays . . . and all the holiday food.

I haven't done much cooking at all this week. I made a ham for Christmas Eve, which provided several meals, ham and bean soup, and ham sandwiches. It's like Thanksgiving all over again! I'm really ready for some lighter meals.

Do you make food or cooking or diet resolutions? I don't, but I'm always looking for better, easier ways to organize my recipes and plan my dinners. A few weeks ago, Melissa (MelissaFirman.com) wrote about an app called Plan to Eat, which was having a 50% off sale at the time.

Yesterday I learned about another one called Copy Me That, and a friend was recently praising Paprika. I don't use any of these . . . yet. I'm exploring to see which program might work for me. I like the idea of having digital copies of my tried-and-true recipes plus an easy way of dropping them into a meal plan calendar. These programs also automatically generate a shopping list. I wonder if they also calculate nutritional data.

I'll let you know if I decide to give one of these apps a try. In the meantime, I'll muddle along.

In case you're in need of a good ham recipe, our favorite comes from the now-defunct Cuisine magazine (the USA version). I first tried this in the early 1980s, and it's been my go-to ever since. I've tweaked the recipe over the years, and my version is the one printed here.

Note: I didn't photograph our ham, so I took this photo from the Martha Stewart website -- it has the right look!

Ham with Ginger-Brandy Glaze
Adapted from an old USA Cuisine magazine

• 8-pound, bone-in spiral cut ham
• Whole cloves
• Zest of 1 orange
• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/2 cup brandy or bourbon
• 2 tablespoons current jam or sour cherry jam
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

Heat oven to 300°F.

Place whole cloves in the ham, poking them into the spaces between the slices.

Place the ham, flat side down, a roasting pan. Pour in about 1 cup of water (just enough to cover the bottom of the pan) and cover loosely with foil. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile mix the orange zest and orange juice in a small bowl. Remove the foil from the ham and pour the juice and zest over top. Bake for 1 hour, basting occasionally.

Meanwhile, combine the brandy, jam, mustard, and ginger. Whisk (or use a small blender) until smooth. Spoon the glaze over the ham, and continue baking until the ham is deep brown, basting every 10 minutes or so, about 30 minutes. You want to bake the ham for a total of 15 minutes per pound, so you might have to adjust the three baking times.

Transfer the ham to a cutting board and let stand 10 minutes before carving.

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Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

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