Little Sisters Get Everything!

Linking Up My Tree!
Scroll down for the Friday Food Frenzy bit

Mike and I put up our tree yesterday, so I wanted to share the pics with you all. :-D

Mike is mighty and can lift a whole tree by himself! It helps that it's fake. :-p

As soon as the tree skirt was down, the kids came over to check everything out. This is Badger rolling all over it, and Bruin was crawling all under the tree and rolling around too. That is a blurry picture of him sticking his head through the branches to see me. As soon as I started taking pictures, though, Bruin walked away and his his little face and said, "No, Mummy, no pictures."

This is a cute, little nightlight we got at a Dirty Santa game at work. It's plugged in right near the tree.

And here are the stockings all hung with care. My mum made them all, and even the puppies have one each of their own.

Mike was so excited about putting the star on the tree, even though I'm not that big a fan of our star. It's a bit bulky...

And here she is! Our gorgeous tree! Red and gold and white is our theme--I'm very traditional in that way--and we wrapped a garland around it too. The tag thing there on the front is an embroidered ornament my mum made that says "Joy To the World". I love this tree. :-)

Dear Heather,
You were so nice to give me your figgy ham recipe, especially after I pestered you the way that only a little sister can. Here's the thing: I changed your recipe, made it bend to my will. That's my right as an American. So there. :-)
Love,
Your little sister Dana

Okay, I didn't change the recipe that much, but I did need it to work for me. Here's the situation. I have a nice hunk of meat to cook, but I have to go to work. the solution, a slow cooker. I do not actually have the recipe anymore, however, as it was sent to me via text, but I'm sure if we all ask nicely, Heather will give it to us. I will even pull my little-sister-pestering skills out again if need be. :-)

UPDATE: The recipe is here now.

The Deen Brother's Fig-Orange-Glazed Ham

1 spiral sliced ham
1 cup fig jam
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
Grated Zest of 1 orange
1/3 cup of orange juice

Preheat the oven as directed on the ham package and follow instructions for baking the ham. Remove the ham from the oven about 30 minutes before the end of warming time.

Meanwhile, combine the jam, mustard, and orange zest and juice in a small saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, just until the jam melts. Do not boil. Spoon half the glaze over the ham and bake for the remaining 30 minutes.

Remove the ham from the oven and spoon the remaining glaze on top. Transfer to a cutting board and carve.

I just threw everything into the slow cooker and let it go. Also, I had a Boston Butt roast and not a spiral sliced ham.


Okay, so there's the meat and the sauce ingredients in the pot. There are some fig preserves, mustard, a little water, and I don't remember what else.


Here it is when I left that morning...


...And when I came back that night, many hours later. Mmmmmm...


I paired it with some homemade mac n' cheese. You really can't get much better than that.

This worked really well, save for one, small thing. I let the thing cook for something like 14 hours, which did dry it out a bit. With some of the sauce over it, though, we could barely notice. Well, Heather, now it's up to you. Will you share your recipe with us? Please? Now? Please? How about now? Please, please, please...