(Congratulations to Gaye M. for winning a $30.00 gift certificate, good towards the purchase of her Easter Ham.  And a big thank-you to the National Pork Board for sponsoring this contest.)

There’s only one thing better than a great ham dinner for Easter and that’s a free ham dinner for Easter.  And thanks to the National Pork Board for donating a $30.00 gift certificate that one lucky reader of the BBQ Grail blog.

Entering the contest is easy.  All you have to do is go to recipe section of Pork Be Inspired,  and leave a comment on this blog post with your favorite ham recipe from Pork Be Inspired. (Originally, the plan was to count the number of ham recipes found on the website.  However, I blew that one because there are way to many recipes to do that. So just leave your favorite and you’ll be entered.)

You may enter the contest once a day through Midnight (Pacific) on March 27th.  On March 28th the winner will be chosen randomly from those entries with the correct number of ham recipes found on Pork Be Inspired.  The winner will be notified via email.  In order to get your gift certificate in time for Easter the winner needs to reply the same day they are notified with their name and address.  The certificate will be mailed by the National Pork Board to the winner.

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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Larry Gaian

Lot’s of places have Bacon Maple Bars but Twisters has a true “breaktfast” donut. 

Toss in some ham and cheese and you’ve got yourself an amazing meal.  Not sure just how great it is to start the day with this work of pastry art.

Later in the afternoon we took a nice stroll around the Capitol and found ourselves outside of Meconi’s Sub Shop.  So I figured a pastrami sub would be a great way to hold me over for dinner.

Even the kids enjoyed thier sandwich…

Okay, so I have a new favorite cookbook every couple of weeks but this week it’s Ham: An Obsession with the Hindquarter. Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough have come up with a well written, enjoyable book to read If you enjoy ham as much as I do, you’re going to want this book.

Bruce and Mark are the authors of the “Ultimate” cookbook series. Even those this book doesn’t have the word Ultimate in the title they have written what may be the ultimate ham cookbook.

The cookbook is divided into four primary sections that deal with the four basic types of ham: Fresh Ham, Old World Dry-Cured Ham, New World Dry-Cured Ham and Wet-Cured Ham. Each section not only has representative recipes from around the world it is interspersed with stories, definitions, cooking tips and humor that illustrate the versatility of the back-end of the pig.

By “ham” we mean the hindquarter, the joint that becomes Italian prosciutto crudo and Spanish jamon iberico, the meat that comes to the table at a holiday meal –sometimes with those nasty canned pineapple rings and maraschino cherries stapled to it, sometimes tarted up with canned soda and unspeakable marinades, but many times just on its own: glorious simple smoked or not, cured or not–a large cut of pork the ultimate roast.

Many of the recipes include “Slash The Shopping List” and “Tester Tips.” These two features provide keen insight into how to actually cook the recipes. With “Slash The Shopping List” the authors provide home cooks the ability to not go out and purchase ingredients that might only be used once. As an example in their “Grilled Country Ham Steak with Plum Grill Mop” they explain how to eliminate 11 ingredients by substituting a store bought fruit based BBQ sauce. For the thrifty or budget conscious cook this will allow them to experiment with recipes they might not normally use. With “Tester Tips” Mark and Bruce might explain some of the regional differences in ingredients or maybe the history behind something.

Ham! It’s certainly not bacon but Ham: An Obsession with the Hindquarter will help you to appreciate the second most popular part of the pig.