Pineapple Bourbon Spiral Ham and Creative Uses for the Leftovers

Our family is deeply divided when it comes to Easter. We all look forward celebrating Easter, but we just look forward to different aspects of the day. For the kids, it's all about the eggs: the hunt and the chocolate and candy free for all that follows it. When I look at their big smiles, their glazed over sugar coma eyes, and their messy chocolate mustaches, I can almost forgive them for waking me up at 5:30. This is the stuff of childhood memories. But as much as we like to stuff the eggs, hide the eggs, and then steal candy from our kids, for my husband and I, Easter is all about the spiral ham.

In previous years, I've tried to talk Steve into varying our menu. I've suggested rack of lamb, or garlic studded leg of lamb on the grill, even baby quail, but he won't even consider skipping his yearly ham, he loves those thick, pink, meaty slices too much. This is a marital battle I don't mind losing, because I love the ham leftovers. I can make a week's worth of lunches and dinners from the remains of our Easter dinner without getting bored. Spiral ham is so rich and its texture is so forgiving that it makes a wonderful base for:

• Pastas (pic to be added tonight once our pasta is cooked!)
• Soups
• Blow your family away with a sweet and savory apple pie
• scrambled eggs
• quiche
• stuffed tomatoes
• risotto
• Grilled Cheese
• Salads
• and even tacos

I had grandiose plans to cook the ham from scratch this Easter instead of reheating a pre-cooked version, but between the Passover holidays and my ob appointments, I ran out of time. Instead I settled for buying a nitrate-free, organic, free-range ham from Whole Foods and throwing that little dried out flavoring packet. We concocted our own basting liquid instead and combined it with fresh pineapple. The ham was even tastier than in years past, and tonight the fun of leftovers begins.

Pineapple Bourbon Spiral Ham
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 90 minutes
Ingredients
1 fresh pineapple
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of Bourbon
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of ground mustard
1/4 cup of soy sauce
salt and pepper to your liking

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Peel and core your pineapple and cut it up into 1 inch chunks. Take half the chunks and puree them in a food processor. Put the other half of the pineapple chunks in a bowl and set aside.
3. Add the remaining spices and ingredients to the food processor, just to make sure you don't forget any (as I've been known to with catch-all instructions like this one), I'll list them here: brown sugar, Bourbon, maple syrup, garlic powder, cinnamon, ground mustard, soy sauce, and salt and pepper. Pulse two or three times to mix. The liquid will now be frothy and will smell a little boozy.
4. Place the spiced pineapple liquid in a small saucepan and cook on low-medium flame until it begins to simmer. Stir frequently. Continue cooking for 2-3 minutes, just to blend the flavors together well and boil away a little of the alcohol.
5. Place the spiral ham in a large oven-proof casserole dish. Arrange the leftover pineapple chunks alongside. Pour a third of the pineapple liquid on top of the ham, using a spoon to drizzle some liquid over most of the ham.
6. Cover with foil and heat for an hour.
7. Turn the oven up to 400 degrees. Remove the foil and pour the remaining glaze on top of the ham. Cook for another 30 minutes to get the top of the ham nice and brown.
8. When serving, feel free to cut the ham in a criss-cross pattern. We chose not to.

Easy Easter Appetizers on the Snackpicks Website

Although my closet is overflowing with Easter candies waiting to be stuffed into eggs (shhhh... don't tell the kids!), I am still in denial that Easter is just a few days away. The fact that it was snowing in Chicago on Sunday might have something to do with my disconnect from the calendar. If you, like me, are falling a little behind on your Easter preparations, I have a post up on the Snackpicks website highlighting some delicious, but easy to whip up appetizers.

My Easy Easter Recipe Snackpicks post is filled with some great ideas that you can throw together on top of crackers, like these pretty yogurt and strawberry canapes that you (or your kids!) could throw together in 5 minutes.

I also mention meatier fare like deviled egg spread, roast beef appetizers, and hard to resist bruschetta bites.

Take the pressure off the Easter planning and head on over to Snackpicks.com to check all these great recipes out and so many more.

Easter Goodies Made from Rice Krispie Treats

In the past, we've always colored eggs, a messy craft that had me nervously smelling the air within days to detect sulfur fumes. This year we did something a little different for our Easter treats: we made Easter eggs, bunnies, and butterflies with Rice Krispies.

I love edible crafts like these which are fun to make and fun to eat. If you google Rice Krispie treats for Easter, you'll literally get hundreds of great ideas: from using the Rice Krispie treats as nests for Peeps, to fancy eggs from Bouchon Bakery. The beauty of Rice Krispie treats is how easy they are to make, and the goal of our exercise was not to turn them into something fancy and complex. Our eggs, bunnies, and butterflies were an easy craft that even my 3 year old easily made.

I can't even tell you how thrilled the kids were to partake in such a fun and delicious craft. Rice Krispie treats are a frequent snack in our house, and it's a recipe that my 8 year old Bella has mastered. At this point, I merely supervise and turn on the range to melt the marshmallows. She's a very cautious child, and watching her stir the pot with a long wooden spoon, her face frozen in intense concentration, knowing how scared she is of getting burned, makes me a proud foodie Mom. 

Small Batch Rice Krispie Treat Recipe
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
1 1/3 cups of mini marshmallows
2 cups of Rice Krispies

1. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter.
2. Add the marshmallows, stirring frequently, until just melted.
3. Turn off the heat. Pour in the Rice Krispies and mix until all the marshmallow mixture has been evenly absorbed. 
4. Immediately pour the hot mixture in the shaping container of your choice. Place a layer of plastic wrap on top and then press down on the mixture as hard as you can to have a compact Rice Krispie treat. Place in the fridge to cool and harden for 5 minutes before decorating.

COLORED RICE KRISPIE TREATS:
Around Easter time, supermarkets carry pastel-colored marshmallows. I like to use these to give the treats some pretty hues. I could also have used a little food coloring in the melted marshmallows to achieve the same effect. I divided the traditional Rice Krispies' recipe to have smaller batches of different colors to work with.

SHAPING THE RICE KRISPIE TREATS:
We used two different tools to make our Rice Krispie treats into eggs, bunnies, and butterflies. The eggs were made in a Wilton silicone mini Easter egg cake mold. The silicone made it easy to get the hardened Rice Krispie treats out once they cooled.

For the bunnies and butterfly, we used plastic cookie cutters on a thin sheet of cooled Rice Krispie treats. We had success with using the cookie cutters as a shaping guide to cut the mixture with a sharp knife. We also had success with exerting all our strength to push the cookie cutter down through the Rice Krispie sheet. We did not try putting the warm Rice Krispie mixture directly in the cookie cutter as we thought they would stick, even if the cookie cutters were generously greased. This way, we were able to make a lot of bunnies at a time.

DECORATING THE RICE KRISPIE TREATS:
This is when the fun really begins. We used two types of delicious "glue" to stick our decorations on the Rice Krispie Treats: melted chocolate and piped frosting. Yum! The melted chocolate was definitely the messier option, but, in my book, the most delicious.

I set the kids up with a smorgasbord of candies, sprinkles, and colored sugar and let them loose to decorate. It was such a success that we'll be doing it again before Easter. They've already eaten all that they made!

Why the Easter Bunny Will Skip NYC

The ambush came out of nowhere.

The meal at Rue 57 had gone surprisingly well, certainly better than I had expected when we first squeezed around the table with the three kids, and the diners on either side glared at us openly. My last minute decision to overrule the host's suggestion that the kids sit together on the banquette had been nothing short of genius. I'd squeezed in between Jack and Bella instead and they'd both snuggled into me to play hangman as we awaited our meal.

I didn't realize that they would use our seating arrangement to trap me into a vicious attack.

We were all sitting in a contented food coma, waiting for the check after a delicious meal of juicy steak and crispy fries. I was absently listening to Jack and Bella chattering excitedly about what they would be ordering for dessert from room service back at the hotel. My mind was already racing ahead to how Steve and I would enjoy our big night in New York City once the babysitter had taken charge of our sugar charged troops.

I was so unprepared for Bella's question that I burst out laughing, the only possible response after a nice glass of Cotes du Rhone.

"Mommy, is the Easter Bunny real or is it really you and Daddy hiding the eggs?"
"..." Mouth ajar, mind racing, I drew a complete blank.
"Mommy, did you hear me? Is there an Easter Bunny or is it just pretend?"
At this point, Jack chimes in from my right, getting his little face right in mine.
"Yeah mommy, tell us the truth. Is there an Easter Bunny or are you lying?"

"Of course there's an Easter Bunny! Why do you ask?"
"Well, someone told me there isn't."
"Who?"
"Kate and Maddie. They said they found the eggs and chocolate in their apartment last year, and their parents told them it was all pretend."
"Oh, I see. Well, that's because they live in New York City. The Easter Bunny only comes to houses with gardens like ours. In apartments the mommies and daddies do it."
Bella, my tough first grader smiled broadly, "Oh good. I knew I believed."
Jack snuggled back into me and said, "Yeah. Me too. I can't wait for the Easter Bunny to come to our garden. We're so lucky we live in New Jersey and not New York City."