Merry Christmas

I hope that everyone’s Christmas was a happy one. Ours went well, for the most part. For dinner, I prepared a Baked Ham with Brown Sugar Mustard Glaze (from the Food Network website) and a Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes that Wanda had a recipe for.

Baked Ham with Brown Sugar Mustard Glaze
Ingredients

• 1 (12-pound) shankless skinless smoked cured ham
  
• Whole cloves for studding ham
  
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
  
• ¼ cup prepared mustard
  
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  
• Score top of ham into diamonds and stud center of each diamond with a clove. Place ham on a rack in a roasting pan and bake for 1½ hours. In a bowl combine the sugar, mustard and vinegar and spread glaze evenly over ham. Bake for another 35 minutes. Transfer ham to a platter and let stand 15 minutes before carving.

Garlic and Parmesan Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients

• 8 c potatoes, peeled and cubed
  
• 16 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 2 T butter
  
• 1 c parmesan cheese
  
• ¼ c buttermilk
  
• Salt and white pepper to taste

Directions

• Put potatoes and garlic in pot and cover with water. Boil until potatoes are tender. Drain.
• In a mixer bowl, add potatoes, butter, cheese, buttermilk, and salt and pepper. Blend until creamy.

Tom loved the ham, but hated the potatoes. He started off by taking one bite of the potatoes, then said that I made the best potatoes in the world. Then Donnie casually said something about how you can’t even tell that there was garlic in them. Then Tom decided that they tasted funny, and there was a weird aftertaste. I don’t think it was the garlic – he can handle that in small doses – it was probably the parmesan cheese, which he never eats and wouldn’t recognize the flavor of. Donnie and I both enjoyed everything, even the potatoes.
After dinner, we all went out for the yearly Christmas movie and saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

I thought it was good, and Tom thought it was one of the best movies he’s ever seen. He didn’t have any criticism about it, which he usually has for everything, so maybe that’s true.
After the movie, I finished making Peppermint Pattie Cookies, which I had started earlier in the day, but had to refrigerate the dough.

Peppermint Pattie Cookies
Ingredients

• 2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 1 egg
  
• 1 tablespoon milk
  
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
  
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
  
• ¼ teaspoon salt
  
• 24 to 26 small (1½ inch) YORK Peppermint Patties
  
• White decorator's sugar

Directions

1. Beat butter and sugar in large mixing bowl; add egg, milk and vanilla, blending thoroughly. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Add to butter mixture, blending well. Refrigerate dough about 1 hour or until firm enough to handle. (Dough will be a little soft.)
   
2. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. Remove wrappers from peppermint patties.
   
3. Roll dough into 1¼ inch balls. For each cookie flatten ball slightly; press peppermint pattie into dough. Mold dough around pattie so that it is completely covered. Place on prepared cookie sheet. Using knife edge press star design into surface of each cookie; sprinkle with decorator's sugar.
   
4. Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until cookie is set; sprinkle with additional sugar, if desired. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 2 dozen cookies.

These cookies turned out really well, and both Tom and Donnie said they were good.
Then, to end my Christmas extravaganza, I popped in a movie that Donnie had brought with him, Bridesmaids.

It was funny and sad at the same time. The main character had a life that made me cry, but there were a lot of funny parts, too.