Harvest Ham Pilgrim Feast

Hey again! I bet your surprised to be reading another dinner so soon! Well you're in for a real treat because tonight we had a delicious tasting of crock-pot harvest ham with crumbly bran muffins, and to finish it off, a delectable dessert of vanilla bean ice cream topped with homemade apple sauce and granola crumble. Boy was it good! And super easy too with the crock-pot. I just loaded everything into the pot at lunch time, and just an afternoon later it was ready for dinner. And as an added bonus the house didn't smell too bad either. There was a fall feeling in the air and I liked it!


Now, I have to say that the homemade applesauce was my favorite thing to make tonight. Thanks to Juli's great idea to make this as the dessert, it was the perfect ending for the pilgrim harvest. When I was trying to figure out if green apples or red apples would be best for this I was having a hard time deciding. So I consulted with Kara, and her pharmaceutical expertise said that either green or red would be good because they needed to be peeled and boiled so it wouldn't really matter in the end sauce. So after agreeing that the cheapest apples would be the ones I chose, I was off to the store. So here are the crock-pot harvest ham and homemade applesauce recipes! (The bran muffins were made from a store bought package)


Harvest Ham Ingredients
6 carrots, cut into 2 inch pieces
3 medium sweet potatoes, quartered
1 1/2 pounds boneless ham
1 cup maple syrup (I used sugar free)

Directions
Arrange carrots and potatoes on the bottom of the slow cooker to form a rack. Place ham on top of vegetables. Pour syrup over ham and vegetables. Cook on low 3 to 6 hours, or until potatoes and carrots are cooked. (www.verybestbaking.com)













And for the homemade applesauce...


Ingredients
4 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon


Directions
In a saucepan, combine apples, water, sugar and cinnamon. Cover and cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, or until apples are soft. Allow to cool, then mash with a fork or potato masher. (www.allrecipes.com)

And like I said earlier, the bran muffins were made from a store bought mix so you can get whatever kind of muffins you like to make with this. A really nice thing about this fall feast is that it is great when you are super busy and don't have time to make dinner after a long day. Just throw everything into the pot in the morning and by dinner time there is a hot meal all ready! I highly recommend trying this dinner; it is one of my favorites! And if there is any recipe that you would like my roommates and I to try please leave a comment and we'll try it out! Bon appetit!