Christmas Ham

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We've finally begun our Christmas preparations.  In our house this begins the day after I finish school.  I'm definitely a one-thing-at-a-time kind of gal; working and Christmas is more than my brain can handle at once.

Miss Sunshine put the tree up on 1 December, and we have been enjoying twinkling lights and strings of gold beads instead of tinsel.  The girls and I went shopping on Thursday and managed the bulk of our shopping.  Mr Busy has planned to do his with some friends (I'm trusting the girls he'll be with to help him out if he gets stuck!).  Miss Mischief has turned her thoughts to our Christmas meal.  She has one thing on her mind.

Christmas ham.

We have our favourite recipe.  We used to use my brother's recipe, and it was delicious.  But our new favourite recipe is even better.  We use Nigella's "fully festive ham" from Nigella Feast.  I've never seen a raw gammon, although I'm sure they're probably available with some effort.  We prefer shoulder ham in any case.  It's smaller, cheaper and more tasty than a leg ham so that's what I go for.  I remove the rind, score the fat layer beneath and stud with cloves and the coat with the glaze (recipe also found here).  I bake that at 130C for about 3 hours, basting every half hour.  Mmmmm.  Yum.

I also use Maggie Beer's "slow roasted pork" recipe for the stuffing (sans hazelnuts) to stuff a whole, de-boned chicken roll.  I don't enjoy turkey, probably because my mother never made one, and neither did my grandmother.  Dh's family always had turkey and I was never impressed.  So we're glazed ham and roast chicken people.  The kids will determine salads they may want and I'll do roast potatoes (with olive oil instead of goose fat).

Our only dilemma?  Pavlova or lemon and raspberry trifle?  And if we choose pav, do we have Granny's pav, a chocolate pav, or a coffee pav?  Oh the choices?

What are your favourite Christmas foods?