Mid Winter Christmas - Mains

I know it's not Christmas but how much fun is it to pretend that it is because its cold outside?  We have been holding monthly dinners with the family which involves any of the extended family and some close friends.  Sometimes we eat in, sometimes out, usually we have a theme and everyone brings something. It has been great to catch up regularly particularly when everyone leads busy lives.

So, we decided that July was time for a Mid Winter Christmas Dinner. I put the tree up, made a gingerbread house, and had them ready for when the grandies arrived - they were in decorating heaven!! The result was a rustic gingerbread house and a lopsided tree but they thought the results were wonderful. I think a few more lollies went into their bellies than onto the house though.

Starters were little skewers of tomato, bocconcini and basil, and then little morsels of salmon served on cucumber to whet our appetites. The main meal consisted of Guinness Baked Ham - the best ham ever and so easy - prepared by my son (yes my boys can cook) and adapted from a House & Garden recipe. He cut down the sugar and added some seeded mustard, the recipe is below. Chicken, roast veges, broccoli and lovely wines rounded out the main course.

Guinness Baked Ham
1 leg ham
750ml Guinness Extra Stout
Whole cloves
Glaze
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons dry mustard
2 teaspoons seeded mustard
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
3 tablespoons Guinness

Method
1. Heat your oven to 160C.
2. Cut the skin around the knuckle and then peel back the skin off the fat.
3. Place your ham in a roasting pan and pour in the guinness.  Reserve a few tablespoons for your glaze.
4. Cover ham with foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours, basting it a couple of times with the Guinness.
5. Mix all glaze ingredients in a bowl to make a thick paste.
6. Remove the ham from the oven, pour out the Guinness, score the fat into diamonds, stud each corner of the diamonds with a clove and then spread half the glaze over the ham.
7. Return the ham to the oven and turn up the heat to 200C. Bake for 30 mins and baste every 10 mins with the rest of the glaze.
8.  Rest the ham for 30mins and then enjoy!!