How To Cook The Best Easter Ham Ever!

Happy Easter Everyone!

This year for Easter I decided to cook my usual brown sugar glazed ham. It's always a hit with everyone and it's not that I've ever had anyone say that my ham was dry or not good but you know how it is.....you notice things about your own cooking nobody else seems to notice. 


More times than not I'm pretty sure I over cook most meats that I am preparing. It mostly comes from being paranoid that it's not cooked enough and I don't want to make anyone sick if I get it wrong so I always err on the side of caution and cook it just a little bit longer.

This year I decided to dig out my meat thermometer that sits in my kitchen drawer and never gets used and give it a try. I looked up the proper internal cooking temperature for ham and was surprised to find that my fairly large ham was fully cooked in about 2 1/2 hours. I usually cook it for 3 - 4 hours. The difference was amazing. It cut beautifully but didn't fall apart and there was enough juices left in the ham to give it a really nice mouth watering flavor. This year my ham was an even bigger hit than usual.

That said I then started to use my meat thermometer every time I cooked. I've used it on chicken breasts, meatloaf, whole chicken and now I can't live without it.

It got annoying though to have to look up the internal cooking temperatures for what I was cooking each and every time I made supper so I created this cheat sheet which I now keep in my kitchen to quickly reference the temps for what I'm cooking at the time. 

Here is the link to the free PDF for download or print. I hope you get as much use of this as I do.

<3 The Tactical Housewife

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How To Make The Most Amazing Caramel Candy EVER!

http://www.joyofbaking.com/candy/Caramels.html

Pinterest is full of wonderful looking recipes but one thing I have learned that just because the picture looks delicious does not mean that the recipe actually tastes good. I've tried a lot of bad recipes that looked fantastic and turned out to be tasteless. 

That being said I've also tried many recipes that have made it into my family's recipe book as favorites.

This recipe for caramel is one that has made it into my top favorite recipes. It has been a hit with everyone each time I have made it. I usually cook the caramel so it sets a bit harder but if you like softer caramel you can cook it a few degrees less. 

At the harder consistency it tastes almost identical to Mackintosh Toffee, just a little creamier.

Some things I learned while making this recipe:

1. If you cook the caramel too long it will set really hard and will     be impossible to cut. You could just break it into pieces if you wanted but I find by doing that you end up with sharp edges.

What I do after it's set is put it back in the oven for about 1 min in its tinfoil lined pan. That will usually soften it just enough to be able to cut. You will have to do this quickly though because the caramel will cool down fast. If that happens just pop it back in the oven for a few seconds to re-soften. 

Just remember to watch it carefully it doesn't take long to melt caramel too much in the oven and then you will have to wait for it to set again.

2. Another thing that has happened to me is not cooking the caramel enough. At this point you just have a pan of caramel syrupy mess. It's a delicious mess but not good for making candy. I have actually just taken the caramel put it back in the pot and reboiled it to get the proper temperature. 

3. A good candy thermometer is definitely a must for this recipe but if you don't have one there are other ways to judge whether or not your caramel is at the proper temperature. 


Other Tips : 


The cold water test is one really good way to test for readiness if you don't have a candy thermometer. 

For this recipe you want your caramel to be at about 250 degrees F. If you want a harder candy you will need to heat to about 255 degrees. 


If you are using the cold water test you are looking for your caramel to meet the description for the firm ball or hard ball stage.

You can also find the written recipe and video tutorial here http://www.joyofbaking.com/candy/Caramels.html 

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did and I would love to hear from you about how yours turned out and if you have any extra tips to share that you learned while making this recipe. 

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