Friendsgiving (+ The Easiest Ham Ever Made)

It’s too late for me to save your Thanksgiving, but never fear: I’m here to save your Christmas. I turned my Friendsgiving last month into an experiment, just so I could bring you the easiest ham recipe you’ve ever seen. You’re welcome.

A lot of people have a tradition where they HAVE to have turkey at Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. Frankly, I think that’s dumb. Turkey is hard to make, easy to dry out, cools in .2 seconds so you have to keep it warm constantly (which dries it out further), and has that chemical compound that makes your uncle pass out on the couch for the rest of the day while everyone tries to watch TV over the sound of his snores.

Given all this, doesn’t a ham just sound so much better?

I love ham because it’s versatile, easy to make, and usually involves a lot of brown sugar. I’m alllll about the brown sugar, especially around the holidays. With brown sugar, ham takes the perfect amount of sweet and salty and packs it into every bite. But even though it’s so much more simple than a turkey, it can still be a pain to make. In years past, I’ve baked it for 3+ hours in the oven, which takes up valuable oven space for other Thanksgiving dishes. Even worse, you have to baste it every 15 minutes, which can be tricky. My burn scars from two years ago are just now healed, and I’m not looking to get any more of those anytime soon.

Enter the savior of the kitchen and every cook’s best friend: the slow cooker. If you don’t have one, you need one. This magic machine takes all the pain, time, effort, and guesswork out of cooking. It’s great for drinks, soups, sides, main dishes, desserts – and even your Christmas ham.

Using the slow cooker for my ham gave me time to relax on the day of my Friendsgiving. Instead of running around, basting, cooking, and burning myself, I got to chill out, pick my finacé up from work, and help my roommate with some of the stuff he was cooking. As much as I love the feeling of being able to serve something you worked really, really hard on, I find it’s so much better to get the same compliments from something that took up half the time and stress.

So if you read my last post on gratitude, you know how important it is to spend time with your loved ones – especially during the holiday season. Give this recipe a try and take all the stress out of Christmas dinner so you can be your best self for your family to be around!