Oh my goodness, is this delicious. We live in the country and our neighbor had a lot of fresh green beans and zucchini to get rid of. We are literally up to our eyeballs in this stuff. We found this recipe after our 4th day of eating zucchini and green beans. I’m sure glad we did, we are definitely making this again. Yum!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs. fresh green beans, halved in the middle
• 1 package bacon, crisply cooked
• 2 zucchini, medium-sized, cut to 1/4 inch thickness
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 2 tsp. dried thyme
• pepper, to taste

Directions

1. In a large skillet, start cooking bacon.
2. Meanwhile, wash and cut green beans.
3. Cut zucchini and onion.
4. When bacon is done, put on a plate covered in paper towel to drain the grease.
5. Drain grease from pan, leaving 3 Tbsp. for sauteeing the vegetables.
6. Saute vegetables (including onion) until zucchini is soaked through and beans are crisp.
7. Tip: You could serve this as a side dish instead of a main dish.

Your mouth will be watering for more of this (hey, it’s even better than plain-old fried zucchini). I wish I had more to heat up right now but it was so delicious our family ate it all at dinnertime!

A ham is usually one of the easiest meats to bake. Why? It’s usually already fully cooked when you buy it at the grocery store. In fact many of the hams available can be eaten cold right out of the package. The downside to buying a precooked ham is that there’s much less room for creativity. You’ll lose the option to brine the ham yourself and you won’t even get to score it in most cases. On the plus side, there are still some great ways to add your own personal touch for a ham, while enjoying the incredibly easy preparation of the ham at the same time. The best way is to create your own ham glaze. It’s quick, easy to apply, and you can use just about any flavors you like. Here’s our recipe for a quick, easy and delicious mango-pineapple butter rum ham glaze, and how to prepare with your ham.

Ingredients:

• 1 Ham - we recommend a bone-in spiral ham, but any fully cooked ham will do
• 1 can pineapple rings with juice
• 1/2 stick butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 cup mango flavored rum (if you prefer regular rum, just add an additional 1/2 chopped fresh mango)
• 2 cans of Ginger Ale

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
• Make sure your ham is already scored (has light, diamond shaped cuts all across skin)
• Pour 1 can Ginger Ale into your roasting pan and add the Ham
• Place in the oven, covered, and cook for 10 minutes per pound
• For the last 30 minutes - remove ham from oven and increase heat to 500 degrees.
• Coat ham liberally with the ham glaze (directions below)
• Return to oven, uncovered
• Baste 3-4 times over the final 30 minutes
• Let ham rest for a couple minutes after removing it from the oven and serve

Directions for Pineapple Mango Butter Rum Glaze

• Place half of a can of pineapple rings + juice, brown sugar, rum, 1 can ginger ale, clove and mango (if using fresh) into blender or food processor and puree
• Melt butter in a saucepan and stir in blended mixture
• Bring to a rapid boil and stir well.
• Continue to boil until mixture has dramatically reduced and has a texture similar to syrup. (The first time I made this I had it at a strong simmer for over an hour and a half).
• Apply the glaze to Ham when ready and baste ham frequently.