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Kathleen[_4_]

wrote:

> I want to do a ham dinner fo Christmas, I usually do a rib roast or lasagna so
> this will be a new thing for me. I was going to buy one of those boneless spiral
> cut hams. What I need is suggestions for side dishes with a ham dinner, and
> also, if I have mashed potatoes, what kind of gravy do I make, or how do I make
> it from ham drippings, if there are any? Thanks.

My husband's family has very definite expectations when it comes to ham
dinners.

It's got to be a BIG ham, bone-in, baked with a sweet glaze, unsliced,
so you can hack off chunks of varying thicknesses. You've got to have
sweet potatoes. And potato salad. And a green salad with two or three
types of dressings to put on it, a relish tray with various types of
olives and pickles (and woe be unto you if you forget the little sweet
pickles) and some sliced raw veggies. Maybe three kinds of bread and/or
rolls to make sandwiches, and a variety of cheeses. Condiments: mayo
(yeah, I know, "on ham!"), yellow mustard, sweet hot mustard, maybe
dijon and count on somebody asking where's the ketchup. And bowls of
nuts. I made homemade trail mix one year, with roasted nuts, dried
cranberries and dark and white chocolate morsels but they ate around the
fruit and chocolates and I caught one of the youngsters feeding craisins
to the dogs. Decidedly not cool.

I also make homemade chunky cinnamon applesauce, but this is not
strictly cannonical. Cherry pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert, and
also something chocolate.

Embarrassingly low tech but everybody goes home smiling, with bags of
left-over ham.