April 15th is National Glazed Ham Day

If you're looking for something to do today then make some swine glisten because it's National Glazed Ham Day!

You best get to basting!

Let's get right into celebrating National Glazed Ham Day!

Why is this a holiday?

If you love ham but have never had glazed ham before then you're in for a treat. If you've had glazed ham before then you know exactly why people want to celebrate this delicious meat. And if you don't like pig meat then you'll continue to ask "why, why, why is this a holiday?" But the reason is simple... it tastes good and people don't want to wait for some other holiday for an excuse to bake a glazed ham!

Ham, of course, is just cured pork meat and to glaze it you have a variety of options. First, to make it an actual glaze, you need some type of sugar and a liquid, which you will boil down. You can use sugar, brown sugar or even honey which will sort of caramelize as you boil it down and cook it.

And a common liquid to use is fruit juices like orange or pineapple juice. Then people like to add in flavorful ingredients like cloves, Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce to help really round out the glaze.

And then all you do is mix that stuff up, boil it for a few minutes to help thicken the glaze and then pour it over your ham before you bake it. To help really coat your ham, give it more flavor and keep it nice and moist you'll want to keep basting it with the glaze every so often. Every time you open that oven door you're going to be welcomed with mouth-watering scents that will make you happy you decided to celebrate today!

So how can you celebrate today?

Well, you can take the easy route and try to find a restaurant that serves up glazed ham regularly.  I can't think of any offhand but I'm sure there are some that serve it!  You could also buy a glazed ham that just needs heated up.  Yeah, it might be a cop out but I can understand if you're busy!

But if you do have some time then look up a glazed ham recipe online and start mixing things up so that you can enjoy a fresh, glazed ham in the comfort of your own home.  You can use a recipe from online, your family recipe or make one up off the top of your head!  Come up with a sugar, liquid and some other flavorful ingredients you want to try and then give it a shot!

I know some people use lemon lime soda as their sugar and liquid in one but think of all the possibilities.  You could use any soda if you want; how's Crush or Cherry Coke sound?  Or you could use honey and some kind of fruit juice like cherry or mango if you like.  Then come up with a bunch of flavorful ingredients that you think would go good with ham. 

Hopefully it turns out awesomely well and you enjoy your celebration!