Soup is the reason I prefer bone-in hams. There’s a good reason why so much meat clings to those bones. It just begs to be made into soup! In its recipe for Ham Stock Epicurious says a shank will yield a meatier broth base. But I’ve had good results with all types. And if you need a pot of ham and bean soup and have no bone, you can always throw in a ham hock and get a great flavor, too.

Growing up, my mom always made Split Pea with Ham soup after our big holiday meal. In my mind, it remains the best  ham and bean soup. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of cooking plenty of other varieties, too. Here’s a sampling of what’s out there, plus some good, basic references:

• Uncle Bill’s Split Pea with Ham from RecipeZaar
• Kalyn’s Kitchen has a good tutorial on Ham Stock
• Chowhound’s What to do with a Ham Bone
• Ham & Lentil Soup from 101 Things Every Cook Should Cook
• Ham Bone Soups from Old Fashioned Living

Perhaps my favorite reason for cooking ham and bean soups is that it’s actually better to make it ahead. The soup freezes well and actually develops more flavor if you serve it the next day (or day after) it is made. Enjoy a pot today, or tomorrow.

Likewise, I have favorite recipes I pull out annually following the big Holiday Ham Dinner. I make ‘em once a year and they’ve become almost as much a tradition as what we do on Easter itself.

In my estimation, there are probably about 101 ways to use up a bone-in ham. Boneless, too – although I favor a ham bone to make a rich soup stock.  Here are the dishes I rotate from year to year:

• Nueske’s Black Beans with Smoked Ham and Rice
• Build-it yourself Ham Quiche
• Substitute any leftover ham in Jamie Oliver’s Rolled Bread with Ham
• Eat like a Senator with this versatile Senate Bean Soup
• For leftover eggs, you can’t beat this Curried Egg Salad a la Martha Stewart’s daughter Alexis

Send in your family favorites. Bet there are about 101 of them.

It may be urban legend, but a statistic widely reported a while back stated many don’t know what they’re serving for dinner that day by 4 o’clock. If that’s true, I have to believe that, even now, those same people haven’t really planned what they’re cooking for their holiday dinner – let alone know how they’ll execute the meal.

As a public service, we here at gThankYou have decided to put together this no-fail plan (and menu suggestions) to get you started as this week’s Recipe of the Week.

Most big dinners that involve a roast of some sort needn’t be fussy to be spectacular. But it does take a bit of maneuvering if you don’t have a larger-size oven. Follow the same set of rules for cooking a Ham Dinner as other holiday meals, or dinners that include a big roast.

1. Plan a simple, yet elegant menu with family favorites or recipes you’re comfortable cooking. Too many new things will become overwhelming.
2. Include quick sides or those that be made ahead and reheated.
3. Write it down. Simply putting in writing the order your dishes need to go in and out of the oven, and how long they need to cook, will help things go smoothly.
4. Have fun and enjoy your meal!

To get you started, here’s a sample Ham Dinner menu that’s simple, yet satisfying and splendid:

• Awesome Baked Ham with a gThankYou to Recipezaar.
• gThankYou to Simply Recipes for this tasty Roasted Asparagus.
• Food Network posted this straight-forward Potatoes Au Gratin recipe (gThankYou).
• gThankYou to Epicurious for this Big Green Salad .
• If you want to make your own, these No-Knead Dinner Rolls are a big winner. gThankYou to Everyday Food.
• You have to crack a lot of eggs (a full dozen!) to make this fabulous Angel Food Cake, gThankYou to Martha Stewart. We serve ours with fresh strawberries and hand-whipped cream (yum!).

No need to scramble with this menu. Use it as is or as a launching point for your own fabulous Ham Dinner.

I remember, for instance, my aunt doing a grape jelly and ketchup glaze that, as kids, we thought was great. Today, I wouldn’t put that concoction on anything – edible or otherwise (sorry Auntie Barb!).

For some years, I’ve been in the no-glaze camp when cooking our Holiday Ham, choosing to serve au natural. But some of the following glaze recipes —  this week’s Recipe of the Week –  could convince me to try glazing this year.  gThankYou for each and every glaze recipe!

• If you love citrus flavors, try this Tangerine Glazed Ham, a recipe by celeb chef Tyler Florence  posted by AptDweller.
• Simple recipes containing borubon and pineapple are main ingredients in glazes offered up by Rachel at A Southern Fairytale. Try Bourbon Brown Sugar and Pineapple Chipotle Honey glaze.
• Frugal Fine Living offers a Gingerale-based glaze with brown sugar and spice .
• And Steamy Kitchen has a six-ingredient Mango-Ginger Glaze.

Try a variety with Ham Steak to see how they taste to you. Like me, you may be a glaze convert.

This week’s recipe: Green Eggs and Ham.  It’s become our favorite way to celebrate St. Patty’s since we started  marking the birthday of children’s literary limerick genius, Dr. Seuss. While Theodor Geisel’s birthday is actually earlier in March, schools, libraries and literacy groups across the country mark the occasion throughout the month with reading activities. It’s a natural tie-in to cook up some Seuss’ most famous food.

Green Eggs and Ham can be dressed down or made into a special concoction served for breakfast, lunch or dinner. gThankYou for all these variations on the theme:

• Classic Green Eggs and Ham
• Pesto-topped Green Eggs and Ham
• Or, top your eggs and ham with this yummy Avocado Remoulade

Enjoy a bit o’ these types of green with your ham this year. And if you need a Seuss fix, check out this Green Eggs and Ham video and fun Dr. Seuss site.

Many Hams come pre-cooked and, really, need no cooking at all. But most Hams will benefit from baking. And if you don’t make big roasts that much (like me), you may need some reminders and tips.  Why bake? It brings out the natural juices and allows you to customize with a glaze, if you choose, to fit your dinner.

For a primer on Ham (the USDA recognizes four distinct classifications of Ham based on water to protein ratio), view this video from Alton Brown’s Food Network show, Good Eats.

After you’ve decided on which type you want to serve — city or country, fresh, bone-in, spiral sliced, etc. – follow these simple steps for the Best Baked Ham Dinner.

1. Buy a quality Ham: Choose well by knowing what you’re buying. Alton Brown does a good job explaining it, but there’s good information on Ham at Wikipedia, too.
2. Read the package: Most Hams you buy in your grocer’s case will come with some basic guidelines and instructions for cooking right on the label.
3. Decide on a glaze: To glaze or not to glaze is a matter of personal taste (and some intense debate). Options range from fruity peach and pineapple, to adventurous honey mustard and hoisin sauce. Experiment with recipes from CDKitchen and Recipetips.com or go with a family favorite.
4. Bake and check for doneness: One of my favorite kitchen tools is a digital probe thermometer. It is readable from outside the oven and alerts me when food is done. Consumer Reports rates them here.
5. Enjoy! Slice and serve with your favorite sides. That’s another post, but please share your top picks with us.

While not exactly a no-brainer, it is easy to make a memorable Ham Dinner, whether it be holiday-related or for Sunday supper.

These days, traditional Sunday Dinner has mostly gone by the wayside. Busy schedules of smaller families living across the country have made meals of “cheater’s chicken” or carved ham from the grocery hot counter more the norm. But preparing and serving a baked ham from home is really no more expensive or difficult than picking up a pre-cooked meal at the store. It’s all in the mindset.

We had a lot of fun reliving the Sunday Dinner tradition with our baked ham. But the best part was the leftovers, which is really why I baked the ham in the first place.

It’s show and tell time in this installment of Recipe of the Week  where I’ll share the  entrees my family of four devoured (plus sandwiches) from our 10-pound, bone-in ham.  (gThankYou to all noted for these recipes.)

1. Ham & Bean Soup: This fantastic version published recently in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that I made is from the  Bogus Creek Cafe & Bakery in Stockholm, Wisconsin. This eatery was also written up by Jane and Michael Stern of Road Food, Gourmet Magazine and Splendid Table fame. Seriously good.
2. Ham & Cheese Crêpes: Julia Child’s influence lives on in my kitchen as I continue to find new ways to serve her crêpes. This time,  it was Ham & Cheese Crêpes I found at Cookography.
3. Ham & Cheese Quiche: I score extra points anytime I can sneak spinch into a dish. This Ham, Swiss & Spinache Quiche went down just fine.

Rediscover Sunday Dinner, and all the rewards that follow. It’s worth every minute.

First, a couple of notes on ingredients.

Cabbage has been called one of the world’s healthiest foods. It’s also cheap, plentiful, economical, and versatile, as demonstrated in cabbage-based dishes  from about every cuisine (kimchi anyone?). Cabbage has become among our favorite ingredients for satisfying winter meals, with availability at its peak during the colder months.

Ham hocks are fabulous flavor boosters, often added to enhance soups and to make substantial stocks. They’re smoky and rich, and according to Recipezaar come from the lower part of a pig’s hind leg.

gThankYou for these recipes:

• Jamie Olver cooks up a simple Ham & Spring Greens dish featuring cabbage in this video.
• Another version of Cabbage Soup from Emeril Lagasse.
• Ham Hock & Cabbage Soup from the Cavemanfood blog.
• Culinary Disasters throws in potatoes in its recipe here.
• And That’s My Home offers a lentil soup using cabbage and ham hocks.

An added benefit: Making these soups can be as rewarding as eating them. Enjoy!

Plus, there are a wide variety of types and cuts of Ham to choose with terminology that adds intrigue: Country Ham, City Ham, fresh Ham, cured, cottage Ham, spiral cut . What does it all mean? In the interest of clearing up any confusion, we offer this guide for choosing the best Holiday Ham for your table, along with the best recipes for the two primary Ham types.

With his knack for explaining culinary matters, TV cook Alton Brown has the best definition of ham styles:  “A city ham is basically any brined ham that’s packed in a plastic bag, held in a refrigerated case and marked ‘ready to cook’, “partially cooked” or ‘ready to serve’. Better city hams are also labeled ‘ham in natural juices’ “

These references will help sort out the other terminology:

• Ham 101 with a gThankYou! to What’s Cooking America.
• gThankYou! for About.com’s Ham Varieies and Terminology, which provides a comperehensive overview.
• How to Choose a Ham with a gThankYou! to the “ask me” experts at Mahalo.com.
• Country Ham recipe, which includes the odd ingredient Dr. Pepper, with a gThankYou! to Alton Brown and Food Network.
• Finally, gThankYou! again to AB, who  also has a fantastic recipe for City Ham.

Knowing more about Ham and the difference in varieties lets you be in control of the cooking, or reheating, whichever you choose!

While it has the reputation of a fussy dish,  Ham is really the original home meal replacement . Most Hams available at a grocery store come fully cooked. Given Ham’s ease of preparation – just pop it in an oven to reheat – there are many possibilities. Use it for a quick meal or ingredient in a soup, for example, which cooks while you’re engaged in holiday pursuits. Here are a few favorites to get you through the harried holiday season:

• gThankYou! to Maria Rodale for sharing this Pennsylvania Dutch ham, string bean and potato soup at the Huffington Post.
• Leave it to Ina Garten to add class to a classic with this Ham and Cheese in Puff Pastry. gThankYou! Ina and the Food Network.
• The Famous Cuban Ham Sandwich with a gThankYou! to the folks at GroupRecipes.com.
• gThankYou! to Laura at Real Mom Kitchen for this fantastic Farmhouse Ham Chowder.
• And, finally, nothing says comfort in a bowl like Delicious Ham and Potato Soup with a gThankYou! to AllRecipes.com.

Happiness is  returning home from sledding, shopping or Wassailing to a pre-made meal.