Baked Ham Dinner

Since Christmas is just around the corner and ham is quite popular here for Christmas dinners I thought I would do a series on a great baked ham dinner. Of course, I'll include lots of goodies that I think are great with baked ham.

I hope you all have a great Christmas and especially a great Christmas dinner! So let's get started and see what we can stir up to make your Christmas special shall we?

First of all, the ham. I prefer a semi-boneless ham because it has enough bone to give you great flavor. I really don't care much for the boneless hams as they seem to not have enough fat to bake them without drying them out. I do like the spiral sliced hams but the slices are awfully thin and you do have to tie them together before baking to keep them from drying out.

Are you wondering how much ham you'll need for your crowd?

Most guides will tell you to allow about 1/4-1/2 pound of ham per guest and that might be enough with a boneless ham but you have to allow for the weight of the bone. And you surely want some leftover ham right? So with a semi-boneless ham I would allow 1-2 pounds per guest. If you have 10 guests and a 15-20 pound ham you should have plenty of ham and leftovers for sandwiches or ham and eggs for breakfast.

But then I always want to make sure I cook enough and I usually cook a lot more than I actually need. The horror of my life is having a meal for company and not having enough food. So needless to say my guests usually have to drag themselves to the sofa and moan and groan for at least a couple of hours before they're ready for dessert...but then I know they enjoyed the food right?

The dishes in this series are: