Another new recipe tonight plus a new challenge!

Tonight for company dinner I made another new recipe form this month's Cooking Light magazine. This is about as simple as it gets, and it was very good. Definitely a winner. It was a mustard and blackberry glazed ham, and it was very good. At first I wasn't sure if those two flavors would combine so nicely- but oh was that good ham. The crust was definitely the best part. And of course, since it was a ham, I have quite a bit leftover, and this week may become Iron Chef Ham. I'm not sure that I'll offically declare that challenge though, as it stands to be a busy musical week, and I may be going after a few old standbys. But we'll see. We have started the official 2 week countdown to the end of the show. Two weeks from this moment we will be completely done with Bye Bye Birdie, and life will resume some sense of normalcy.

And of course, this Friday is Thanksgiving Part 1- and we're really looking forward to that. So until tomorrow, here is the ham recipe I used tonight, courtesy of Cooking Light magazine- give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

Blackberry-Mustard Glazed Ham

This classic recipe will be well received at all of your holiday gatherings; try it with any flavor of fruit preserves you enjoy. Adorn the platter with fresh blackberries, apple slices, oregano, and flat-leaf parsley.

1 (5-pound) 33%-less-sodium smoked, fully-cooked, bone-in ham half
Cooking spray
1/2 cup apple juice
1 (13-ounce) jar blackberry preserves
1 (7.3-ounce) jar whole-grain Dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 350°.
Trim fat and rind from ham. Score outside of ham in a diamond pattern. Place ham on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray.
Combine juice, preserves, and mustard in a medium bowl, stirring until well combined. Set aside half of preserves mixture.
Bake ham at 350° for 1 1/2 hours or until a thermometer registers 140°, basting with half of preserves mixture every 20 minutes. Remove ham from oven. Place ham on a platter; cover and let stand 15 minutes before slicing.
Place reserved preserves mixture in a large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Cook until reduced to 1 cup (about 15 minutes). Serve sauce with ham.

Yield: 20 servings (serving size: 3 ounces ham and about 2 teaspoons sauce)

NUTRITION PER SERVINGCALORIES 185(27% from fat); FAT 5.6g (sat 1.6g,mono 2.3g,poly 0.5g); PROTEIN 18.3g; CHOLESTEROL 45mg; CALCIUM 15mg; SODIUM 1011mg; FIBER 1g; IRON 1.5mg; CARBOHYDRATE 14.8gJackie Mills

Cooking Light, NOVEMBER 2005