Zesty Pineapple Ham is an excellent family dinner entree, and an equally excellent company dinner entree.

We had this delicious dish for Easter Dinner last year; there is just something “warm weather-ish” about baked ham.

Ingredients:

1 two-pound fully-cooked ham center

1 can of pineapple chunks, drained (save the juice)  (8 1/4 oz. size can)

1 tablespoon whole cloves

4 teaspoons cornstarch

1/4 cup packed brown sugar, dark or light

2 tablespoons rum

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 cup Pineapple Habanero Pepper Jelly

What to do:

Slash the top of the ham and place it on a rack in a shallow baking pan. Bake for a half hour, at 350.  Remove from oven.

In a large saucepan, mix together everything except the cloves.  (Don’t forget to add the pineapple juice!)  Bring to a boil and immediately reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.  Stir until the mixture thickens.

Spread over the ham and return it to the oven; bake for about fifteen more minutes.  Remove from oven, and spoon any “pooled-up” mixture or fallen pineapple chunks over the ham again.  Stud the ham with the cloves, put ham back in the oven for five minutes. Remove the ham, remove the cloves.

Serve hot.

If there is any ham left over, which I doubt, it will make a spectacularly tasty sandwich, hot or cold.

Mmmm, Zesty Pineapple Ham.

Baked Pepper Jelly Ham is a wonderful company meal, Sunday dinner, or a family meal on those nights when you just feel like fixing something special.

I use a fully-cooked ham.  If you use a “raw ham,” add 20 minutes per pound to the baking time.

Ingredients:

One fully-cooked ham  (for five people, I use a ham that weighs about 3 pounds)

One 5-ounce jar of Pineapple Habanero Pepper Jelly

cloves, if your family likes cloves

What to do:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

If your ham is wrapped in plastic, be sure to remove all of this coating.

Place unwrapped ham in a roaster or dutch oven, and cover.

Bake for about an hour.  Your ham is already fully cooked, so all you’re really doing is getting it really hot.

After an hour’s baking, remove the roaster/Dutch oven and set on top of stove.  Take a VERY sharp knife (I recommend our Messermeister knives) and score the top into squares, diamonds, triangles, or whatever design you like.  Just make sure your design is “fancy” enough to give the glaze some “cling.”  Spread the pepper jelly all over the ham, even the sides.  Return to oven and bake another half hour or so, until the pepper jelly glaze glistens.

Remove ham from oven and let it “set” for another half hour before you try to slice it.

If you’re serving four or five people with this recipe, you can count on a few slices left over for someone’s lunch the next day.  If I have a can of shredded pineapple, I sometimes mix that with the pepper jelly.

That sweet/hot flavor just permeates the ham, and turns it into something so good, there are just no words to properly describe it.  You’ll never glaze a ham with brown sugar again.

My son is the only one of us who likes cloves on this ham, so I usually just stick a few on one of the ham ends.  The rest of us just like the pepper jelly glaze on ours.  But a ham is big, so there’s plenty of room to “individualize” it a bit. 

We had Zesty Texas chicken for supper tonight, and even though my husband said out loud that he was taking the leftovers to work the next day, the kids couldn’t help themselves and cleaned out the casserole dish.  It was just so good!

This is the fourth time I’ve made this recipe, and each time I used a different sauce.  So far, I’ve used Texas Habanero Salsa, Chipotle Habanero Hot Sauce, Apple Cherry Grilling & Finishing Sauce (added a chopped apple to the recipe for that one) and tonight, Texas Spicy Peach Grilling Sauce.  Each member of my family has a personal favorite, including me.

Mine is the one with Texas Spicy Peach Grilling Sauce.  I love peaches, and the combination of chicken, peaches, and Texas Spicy Peach sauce was tantalizing and AWESOME.  My son liked this dish made with Chipotle Habanero Hot Sauce best; my daughter LOVED the Apple Cherry, and I think my husband would put a straw in the jar of Texas Habanero and just eliminate the middleman altogether. 

Here’s the recipe for Zesty Texas Chicken.

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

1 stick of butter

1 large onion, chopped

1/4 cup green chilies

1/2 lb. cubed Velveeta

1/2 cup (insert Texas Pepper Jelly sauce of your choice here!  So far, it’s been delicious with all choices!)

1/2 cup evaporated milk (Not the sweetened kind)

1 package of Doritos

What to do:

In a large skillet, melt the butter and add the onion, chicken, and chilies.  In a separate pan, combine the Velveeta, Texas Pepper Jelly sauce of your choice, and milk.  Heat until the cheese is melted and all these ingredients are blended.

In a casserole dish, layer the Doritos, chicken mixture, and cheese mixture; repeat layers until you’ve used it all.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until it’s “bubbly.”

This and a tossed green salad are all you need for a delicious, nutritious, and very simple-to-create supper.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go make a peanut butter and pepper jelly sandwich for my husband’s lunch.  The kids ate all the Zesty Texas Chicken.

These little cocktail sandwiches are just as good when they’re full-sized and served for lunch!

Ingredients:

1  (6 oz) package cream cheese, softened (I use Neufchatel)

1/4 cup mayonnaise or Miracle Whip

1/4 cup Texas Pineapple Habanero Pepper Jelly

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

1/4 cup shredded pineapple

What to do:

Whip the softened cream cheese and add everything else.  Cover and place in refrigerator to “firm up.”

After about an hour, remove from ‘fridge and spread on whatever kind of bread you wish.  Cut the sandwiches with cookie cutters, or just trim the crusts and cut into triangles.  For a party, I like to trim the bread crusts off and roll the sandwiches up.  Insert a frilly toothpick and you’ve got a party hors d’oeurve!

This recipe is not quite as simple as most recipes I post here, but oh my goodness, it’s absolutely FANTASTIC!  It’s equally perfect as a family supper or a company dinner, too.

Wait until pork tenderloin goes on sale; where I live, they are often two for the price of one.

Be sure your knife is very sharp, too.  I recommend one of our Messermeister knives. Kitchen knives really need to be sharp and sturdy, and Messermeister knives fill the bill perfectly.

Ingredients:

1 large pork tenderloin, between 1 and 2 pounds

1 box stuffing mix, any kind

2 medium Granny Smith apples, chopped

1 5-oz. jar Texas Apple Jalapeno pepper jelly   1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1/2 cup white wine

1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

1/4 cup heavy cream

What to do:

Preheat oven to 350.  Follow the directions on the box of stuffing and stir in apple, pepperjelly, raisins, and nuts.  Set aside for a few minutes.

Put the tenderloin on a stable work surface, with a cutting board underneath.  With your sharp knife, slice it lengthwise almost all the way through, but be sure to leave enough “connection” so it won’t tear when you fold it.

Open the tenderloin out like a book, and flatten it as much as you can without breaking the connection.

Cover the stuffing mixture on the tenderloin, pressing it into the meat as much as you can.  There will probably be a little stuffing left over; that’s okay.  We’ll use it.

Roll the tenderloin up to enclose the filling.  tie it together with clean cotton twine.

Put the rolled-up tenderloin in a large baking pan, NOT a cookie sheet.  Pan must have sides!

Roast the pork  for about a half hour. A really large tenderloin will need 45 minutes, at least.  Check with an oven thermometer; the meat’s internal temperature should be 15 degrees before it’s removed from the oven.

When the meat is done, remove from oven and set it aside.  In a large heavy skillet, mix together 1/4 cup drippings and the wine; cook for about three minutes.  Add the chicken broth, and cook for another 3 or 4 minutes.  Add the cream and give it another 3 minutes.

Place the tenderloin on a platter and pour the sauce over it.  Slice into disks.

Stand back.  Your hungry family or guests will attack this dish with gusto.  Watch your fingers!

If there is any tenderloin left over – don’t count on it unless you hide a slice away for later – it makes an awesome sandwich.