Mustard and Rosemary Baked Ham

Happy 2023. We started our New Year with the most delicious dinner on New Year's Day at our house watching the Seahawk football game (they won- Go Hawks!) and then we had a few people over for dinner. It turned out to be a really fun day and a good opportunity for me to cook up this ham that we get every year from a vendor that Bruce works with. It's an Amana Ham from Iowa. Amana is a quaint German town in Iowa that we visited many times when we lived in Iowa in the 80's. Bruce had a friend from college who was from Amana and his family owned the restaurant in town called the Ronneburg Restaurant that is still there. We had many good meals and lots of fun memories with the Oehler family at that restuarant. Now, we still get a taste of Amana every year with this ham that we receive. I try to cook it when we will have a lot of people over. In past years, we've served it for our Super Bowl parties that we would host before the pandemic. We're not sure when we will start that back up again. So, this year we had about 10 people over on New Year's Day to help us eat our Amana ham. Nick went to the game with a friend and they returned afterwards for dinner when the rest of our guests arrived.

This meal was very similar to Christmas Day, actually. I made my Make-Ahead Creamy Mashed Potatoes, Rhodes Frozen Rolls, green beans, Quinoa Edamame Salad, roasted sweet potatoes and some fresh pineapple. It was really quite simple but very satisfying.

Yesterday, I made Split Pea Soup with the ham bone and it tasted so good. After a busy holiday season of eating holiday foods, soup and salads are now foods we crave to get back to a normal routine. This ham recipe is from Hannah Freese, RD so it works right in with her eating plan. This whole meal followed her plan except for the rolls and mashed potatoes. But Hannah says to follow the plan 80% of the time and you can go off of it 20%. I'm pretty sure I went off of it more than 20% during the holidays but as long as I stay active and do my exercises, I still feel really good. Now that the holidays are behind us, I'm back to her eating plan once again. (I made the split pea soup without potatoes which is easy enough to do since her plan avoids "white" carbs). We had the grandkids spend the night for a few days after New Year's so the next day went down to Alki Beach where we spotted some orca whales swimming by. It was such a thrill seeing them and I felt like it was an omen for the year ahead.

It was such a peaceful and serene moment seeing them swim by. Those orcas have a real affect on people when you see them and you hear about it all the time. It's like you get a real deep connection with nature and an overwhelming sense of calmness. And I felt just that. What will 2023 bring for us? I hope the coming year will bring a sense of calm and peace, a feeling of being one with nature to all our lives like with the sighting of the orcas. I do believe seeing them on this day was an omen. Happy New Year.

Makes 10 serving

1 cup stone-ground mustard

1/2 cup avocado mayonnaise

2 Tbsp. garlic, minced

2 Tbsp. chopped, fresh rosemary

1 tsp. ground pepper, to taste

8 lbs. ham, bone-in (may be spiral cut or not)

1. Combine mustard, mayonnaise, garlic, rosemary and pepper in a small bowl and mix.

2. Place ham in a roasting pan fat side up. Slather generously with your mustard mixture. Pour about 1/2 cup of water into the bottom of the pan and place in a preheated 325 degree oven.

3. Bake for about 15 minutes per lb. uncovered.

4. Let rest for 10 minutes before cutting.

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