exclusively Skirt in the Kitchen
(In the photo above, the photo was taken halfway through baking time. The apples will get much darker and mush up like a really good applesauce.)
This Rose Hickory Smoked Ham is true and dear to my heart. I associate the Don Juan red climbing rose to my late father, purchased my first vine right after his passing two years ago. His name was also, Don. It’s full of life, beauty, and resourcefulness just as he was. I’ve made so many different foods with the Don Juan roses this summer, and now, this fall. Savory or sweet-baked pastries and goods, this rose is bound to please and hold up to its quality, every time. The list of ideas I’ve had for this plant and more to come is remarkable!
This has been the two-year anniversary week of my father’s passing. I’ve held this week for him, honored him through the foods I made, and in the music chosen for each post. He’s a large part and reason why this blog site exists. He was the backbone of the cooking and baking in my family. When he married my mother, he taught her how to cook and can the summer vegetables from the garden even though she had done some of that in her own family, and with her mother. Dad was a cook in the United States Navy. He met her immediately after he finished his service years. The foundation of my mother’s cooking is from Dad, just as mine is, and my oldest son’s-he’s been around us long enough to know!… My son, Caleb, cooks just like us, has the passion for it, too. He’s made his own recipes. I am glad that one of my children has already been given that gift and grasped on to it. My little girl is already that way, too. My middle child, my 11 year-old son, not so much! He’s into electronics too much to get interested in the learning process of cooking. His taste for foods is not the same as my other two kids’ as a result of it. It’s just not his cup of tea! He has given me some suggestions, but he’s mainly into popcorn!
It’s not just learning how to cook and bake. It’s developing the palette, the passion for it, using all the senses you have to put your all into foods. It goes beyond having an interest for it but it begins there. It’s also about serving others. It’s a beautiful process. It brings people together, it’s the glue that keeps families in harmony, and it just keeps on feeding and giving.
Dad was always a delicious cook and baker. I loved my time in the kitchen with him alongside my mother. Those are the years that have built my present-life, my work, my passion for foods and for my family. He instilled in me what he had inside him, what he shared with other people, too, but he wanted to make sure that he passed them on to me since I was the older daughter-his technique, for one.
My younger sister was with him during his last three days. I missed Dad by a few minutes of saying goodbye. I think, now, really thinking about it, it was meant to be that Donita was there without me. She got to have that time with Dad, that deep intimate time that was so valuable and irreplaceable that she needed to have with him; and he with her. Sure, I keep wondering what he would have said to me, exactly. I know he wanted to see me one last time, here, and look into the faces of my children. That, I will never really recover from, those lost days. It happened, it has to be alright. Maybe I could not have seen Dad go, not then at that time in my life.
I share personal things here, though not everything-just so I can still have a private part of my life to myself. I could not do this blog without Dad’s presence and what he taught me and gave me. I already had Skirt in the Kitchen 4 1/2 years before he died with cancer. He was ill much longer than that. The way that he told me was through my husband. He could never tell me, himself.
After he went, Skirt in the Kitchen just seemed to blossom and really come into its fullness. It developed something that it never had before-its true strength and character. It just seemed to really come into its being, then. I know God has been in the midst of this, has shown me things about my father, and about myself-about life-and about the other people connected to me. In every loss, there is beauty of that person’s life that is left behind, that part that you grab ahold of and keep forever until you’re with them again. That is irreplaceable, too.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the foods on Skirt in the Kitchen. Plant some Don Juan red climbings roses. You won’t regret it. You’ll get to cook the recipes that I have here with those very roses. I’m getting ready to make Don Juan rose jelly. I’ve accented sorghum and honey with them. I made enough recipes from them, already, but I’ve got a spiral notebook full of ideas that incorporate the Don Juan climbing rose that I get to smell on those mornings or afternoons when the sun’s on them, like the air has been perfumed as soon as I step off my porch.
Now on to the recipe!
If you don’t have Grimes Golden apples, use Golden Delicious apples. I had some in the freezer to use for this. Use 1 pound of apples, peeled or not. Add the petals of 1 rose head. Add 6 to 8 whole allspice, 1 anise star, 1 dried cayenne pepper, 1/2 cup unpacked dark brown sugar, and a pinch of salt. 
Drizzle over the apples and rose petals 1/2 cup rose sorghum. Add the whole vanilla bean and lavender that is preserved. 
Cook over medium heat. Do not let it reach a boiling point, just heat well through the apples. Before turning off the heat, stir in 1/4 cup sherry.
Pour everything over a hickory smoked ham, the liquid, rose petals, and apples with the spices. Cover in a heavy pan with a secure lid or heavy foil and cook at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until hot and steamy, approximately 30 to 45 minutes depending on the size of the ham. Baste a couple of times, placing the cover on securely to finish heating. Let the meat rest before serving to hold in the juices.
The broth is worth keeping to drizzle over the meat, to put into other dishes, or to make into gravy. The apples are very good, too, flavoring the broth to serve alongside the ham.
Dad loved a good baked ham. He would have loved this.
holiday food
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