Weekending + updated Honey Baked Ham recipe + 4th of July/patriotic decor

Had a very nice Father’s Day weekend; I didn’t get a chance to write anything on Sunday and then on Monday decided to wait until Tuesday to post for Hello Monday and Tuesday Talk with Joanne. So here goes:

Friday was a fun though low-key day. One highlight was that Alyssa and I walked to pick up lunch. No, the boot is not absent from my life, unfortunately. But I am not disabled with it, just differently abled... I am not in my exercise era, put it that way, but I still get around. Fortunately, there is a seasonal cafe/ fresh fruit and vegetable market that is, as the crow flies, less than 1000 feet from our house. Going the crow flies way requires walking through our neighbor's back yard (we’re friends with the neighbors and don’t do this often!), climbing over or under a fence (the trickiest part of the walk for me this time being differently abled, lol) and then crossing a state highway to get to the market. Crossing the state highway can be tricky especially when one cannot move fast (there’s no light or cross walk near where we emerge from the fence and need to cross the street so traffic does not stop near us) but there are definite lulls in traffic, and we can see pretty far in both ways when getting ready to cross. Anyway, it’s just a fun, little adventure and I am glad to say that I have made the trek now two times with my boot.

Our house is on the tree side of the fence. Alyssa and I went under the fence rather than over... The road is just to the left of the sidewalk (not pictured) and the market is across the road. 

The reward for this feat (/unusual “feet” issue with regard to my boot) was a piece of the best fried chicken around, homemade macaroni and cheese and a bag of double dipped chocolate peanuts :). I enjoyed every second/ calorie of this meal! 

So many fun candy choices!

But I knew from the get-go that this was what I was going to get!

Saturday for me was a day to get started with preparations for the Sunday’s “Thankful for dads/ dad figures” Father’s Day meal. To wit, I cooked the turkey! I have found that making the turkey the day before a large family gathering event like Christmas is the way to go. People are always in the kitchen the day of the event and then you have the carcass/ mess to deal with while also doing all of the other hostess and Christmas momming activities. Doing it the day before and then reheating the following day works best and so I made the turkey on Saturday. Even had the time to make bone broth (and though I took a picture of the process, it’s kind of weird looking; I’ll keep it on my camera roll!). I also prepped a side dish. Abby made the eclair cake that the Rineer men all really like (besides Jacob- my disliking of soggy graham cracker gene was stronger than Donnie’s- none of the kids like it but most Rineers do!!)

I also set the tables- there were going to be thirteen of us on Sunday. So, I got to use my patriotic decor in the kitchen and then was able to use my formal china (Noritake June! In June!) for those sitting in the dining room.

One other thing about Saturday- I mentioned that I am not in my exercise era right now. My era is definitely along the lines of, “enjoying the small things era.” Sometimes those things are literally small. I have two zucchini plants in the garden. The are looking beautiful- all green and flowering. However, I couldn’t help but be worried when no lil’ zucchini was appearing. I did some reading up on potential problems with the plants. The biggest culprit is bees not pollinating the flowers. One can hand pollinate- do that which the bees haven’t done and so I went out to the garden with a small paint brush in hand. The brush would be the tool by which I would transfer the pollen. As I looked at one of the plants again to identify from where to get the pollen, I saw the beginnings of two tiny zucs- hooray for the bees doing their job so that I didn’t have to!

So excited about this guy and his baby brother (or sister!)

Sunday morning before church, I made the ham (revised copycat Honey Baked Ham below) and prepped a dessert and appetizer. Jacob came up from Cincinnati shortly after we got home from church and Donnie and Jacob went to play pickleball in the afternoon. It was in the mid 80’s and sunny but will risk a heat stroke for pickleball, apparently, lol (oh, and will also research the costs of putting a pickleball court in the back yard as well!!). Glad the boys got to spend time together. I finished dinner prep and then our guests came.

Had a really nice visit/ dinner and I hopefully all the dads/ guys felt loved and appreciated. Just a few pictures:

Mark & Cindy brought a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake. Yum!

Speaking of yummy food that has been prepared by someone else, here is some info on Honey Baked Ham and the revised copycat recipe that I have for it. 

Only 189 (or thereabouts!) sleeps until Christmas... Surely you are thinking of your Christmas menu!! OK, probably not :). Nonetheless, since it is on my mind:

For Thanksgiving in 2020, I ordered a Honey Baked Ham. Delicious but the HBH store is not convenient to get to and the price tag at around $75 was less than ideal for what was undoubtedly a good tasting ham but at the end of the day was... ham. Doesn’t seem like a ham should cost that much no matter how good it was! That cost was before inflation began in earnest beginning in 2021- I can’t imagine what the cost is now as HBH’s costs have increased for everything, they have likely had to pass those costs on to consumers.

I found a copycat Honey Baked Ham recipe and then revised it based on what I did when I tried the recipe. The recipe was a hit... and not too difficult to do... and did not nearly cost $75. When I prepared a HBH on Sunday for Father’s Day, I made a teensy mistake (that turned out to not be bad) and also, I realized something when making it concerning one of the ingredient measurements and so I decided to revise the recipe. 

I wrote a post about the recipe here. 

Here is a screen shot of the directions. 

Things I do differently now: 1 1/2 cups sugar is just too much! I used just one cup of sugar and that was plenty. 

On Sunday, I messed up direction number 6. I added the liquid (step 7) before I placed 1/2 of the sugar mixture on the ham and broiled that. 

Failing to do that, I didn’t get the nice crust of sugar. However, the crust had a tendency to fall off of the ham when I cut pieces of the ham to serve it. So, omitting step 6 and just going to 7 will result in no crystallized sugar on the ham but you will still get the flavor. Anyway, I need to update the post to reflect the changes.

The ham on Sunday was really good!

Finally, just a few patriotic touches around the house to red, white and blue it.

This was from a dinner with friends on Tuesday

For Father's Day, I used a star paper plate and festive napkins but kept the rest of the tablescape the same

Of course, not decor. But sweet red, white and blue confections have been a welcome addition to late spring entertaining/ sharing of the season. I bought this 62 ounce container of M&M's and in addition the same size container of RW&B Peanut M&M's mostly for Alyssa's grad party sweets. I picked out the red and white M&M's since those are the colors of her college for her grad party treats.  Since I have had the M&M's on hand, I have enjoyed using them when baking/ entertaining.

For a Memorial Day party we went to...

As part of dessert on Tuesday

Holly and Sarah

and Joanne for Talking about it Tuesday