Maple Brown Sugar Ham - in the Crock Pot!

Easter's coming! And that means lots of family time - great church meetings, dying eggs together, the Easter egg hunts that follow, family dinners... I'm looking forward to it! Do you have a menu planned out yet? You should REALLY consider putting THIS ham on the list! Usually, when we cook up a spiral ham it comes out on the dry side. My *old way* was to just cook it according to the package directions & mix up that glaze packet to top it off. If I was feeling frisky I might stud it with cloves & pineapple rings. Well - notice that I called it my *old way*!!? That's because this recipe will now be my go-to ham. It's moist, flavorful & just perfect! And an added bonus? It's made in the crock pot which means your oven will be available for all the wonderful side dishes! Woo hoo for oven space!

So what do you need? It's totally simple:


A spiral sliced ham, pineapple juice (100%), dark brown sugar, REAL maple syrup (not pancake syrup).

That's it!

Put the ham in your crock pot, flat side down. Then rub down the sides with your brown sugar, Pour the syrup down over the top.


Then pour the pineapple juice down the sides - but not onto the ham. You don't want to wash off all the sugar & syrup you just rubbed on!


Now just cover it & cook on low for 4 or 5 hours. If your ham stick up so far that the crock pot lid will not fit on securely just triple layer some tinfoil together & wrap it down the edges.

When it's got about 1 hour to go baste it generously with the juices.


Look how much the juices rose! Lots of yumminess to soak in!

Once it's done just pull it out onto a board & let it rest for about 10 minutes before you serve it up.


It is SO good! Moist, juicy, sweet & wonderful. You really ought to give this one a try!

Maple Brown Sugar Ham:

7-8 pound bone-in spiral-cut ham
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup REAL natural maple syrup
2 cups pineapple juice

Use a 6-7 quart slow cooker. Unwrap the ham and discard flavor packet. Place the ham into the slow cooker stoneware, flat-side down. Rub brown sugar on all sides. Pour on maple syrup and pineapple juice. Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours. An hour before serving, baste ham with the collected juices from the bottom of the slow cooker. When cooking is done, remove carefully and let it rest on a cutting board for 10 minutes before carving.

Source: A Year of Slow Cooking

Monte Cristo Sandwiches

Ever had a Monte Cristo sandwich!? Ya - me neither, until maybe 7-8 years ago. Thankfully that has been fixed & I am now well acquainted with this delicious little indulgence! (and by little I mean more a quaint/precious sort of a feel - definitely not small!) If you have ever wondered what it would be like to use French Toast to make a sandwich but weren't brave enough to actually take the plunge... don't worry! Somebody did and they called it a Monte Cristo! Mmmmm Boy! It's sweet, savory, hearty & filling. It's got a breakfast-for-dinner feel to it. Serve it up with some fruit & you'll have a full belly in no time!

The line up:


Hawaiian sweet bread, ham, turkey, Swiss cheese, eggs, milk, vanilla, nutmeg & powdered sugar.

So - normally when I make these I just start out by making a sandwich - bread, meat, cheese, meat, bread - and then I dip the whole thing into the egg bath. But this time my hubby jumped in & started dinner on his own & there was NO WAY I was gonna derail that one! LOL And he always has to fancy things up a bit so these pictures show you a higher maintenance way of making the sandwich... and it was great! But if you don't want to fuss this much, just build the darn sammy, dip it in the egg & fry it up on all sides. And you're done - Mommy Style!

OK - so step one is to make your egg bath. Mix the eggs, milk, vanilla & nutmeg in a shallow dish.


Give it a good whisk & then dip your bread.


Fry it up, just like you're making French toast...


If there's room on the pan/griddle you can also fry up the meat to bring a little more flavor out of it. If the pan's small, just do it after the bread. Make sure you get the cheese in between the meats so it doesn't make a melty mess!


Build your sandwich with the cooked sides of the bread toward the inside & then finish cooking the still-soggy-with-egg sides once the sandwich has the meat/cheese in it. Does that make sense? I hope it does... totally clear to me but sometimes clear to me = mud to every one else!!

Once the sandwich is done give both sides a sprinkling of powdered sugar.


Cut it in 2 & dig in!!!


Look at the gooey, delicious insides! Yum... Seriously. YUM!!!

Monte Cristo Sandwiches:

Sweet Hawaiian bread (slices, not rolls)
Ham slices
Turkey slices
Swiss cheese slices
6 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Powdered sugar, for sprinkling

Option A - the easy way: Use the first 4 ingredients to build a sandwich. Mix the next 4 ingredients to make an egg bath. Dip the sandwich into the eggs bath & then fry it up in a med-hi pan, cooking all sides thoroughly (even the edges). Sprinkle with powdered sugar & serve hot.

Option B - high maintenance (but tastier) way: Mix up your egg bath. Dip each slice of bread into it & fry over med-high heat until side 1 is cooked. As this is going make a stack of sandwich guts, turkey-cheese-ham, and get it into the pan, too - put some color on it. Once side 1 of the bread is cooked, assemble the sandwich with cooked sides of the bread toward the inside of the sandwich with the fried meat in the middle. Continue cookie the assembled sandwich until both outer sides are thoroughly cooked. Sprinkle with powdered sugar & serve hot.

Pineapple Glazed Ham

Costco sells these Ham Steaks. They come individually wrapped, 3 in a pack & they're like $12-$14. Each one is the perfect size to serve my [not so] little family. I cut it into 8 pieces (like you would a pizza) & each kids gets one, Hubby & I each take 2.

I LOVE THEM.

I really, truly do. Not so much because they're amazingly delicious or anything - I mean, they're ham. Not gourmet ham, but not trash ham. Just good, acceptable ham. So why do I love them? Because you can keep them in the freezer & if you have a night where dinner time sneaks up on you & you have the ever-familiar Oh Crap!! moment (ya, you know what I'm talking about) you can stick this little plastic sealed steak of ham in the sink, cover it with hot water & it's thawed in like 5 minutes. Then pop it into a pan over med heat, 3-4 minutes per side & you're done! From Oh Crap!! to DONE! in under 15 minutes. High 5's for Mom! This week I dressed it up with a pineapple glaze, but oft times I just serve it straight or with a squirt of mustard.

Let's get cooking!


Ham, brown sugar, crushed pineapple, ground mustard, cornstarch.

If you're just making this to have right then & there just mix things in a bowl. But this is also a wonderful freezer meal that you can prepare ahead. My pictures reflect the freezer prep just because I felt like doing it that way for the pics. But no need to spend a Ziplock bag of you don't want to.

Mix everything but the ham in your bag/bowl.


Add the ham. (If you're not going into the freezer you can skip this step!)


Dump everything together into a large skillet over medium heat. Cook about 4 minutes per side.


Serve with some of the pineapple sauce spooned over the top & enjoy!

Pineapple Glazed Ham:

Ham Steak
1 14-oz can crushed pineapple, undrained
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 Tbsp cornstarch

Mix everything but the ham together in a bowl.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Spray with a shot of PAM & add the ham & pineapple mixture to the pan. Cook about 4 minutes per side & enjoy!