My great grandfather, who lived in Southern Maryland, loved to make a stuffed ham at Christmas. It's a tradition we haven't kept up, mainly because stuffing a ham is an event on its own. We decided this would be the year we would make my great grandfather proud. We made it a family event - my grandmother got the ham, my mom got the greens, and we stuffed it together. I took pictures of the process in case you feel like attempting to stuff your own!
This is the recipe that we use as a guide. We've had this recipe clipped from the Baltimore Sun for years. 
A Southern Maryland ham is stuffed with lots of earthy, thick greens: kale, collard, and cabbage. We also add in onions and celery. 
My mom is removing the tough veins and stems from the kale and collards. We like to leave the pieces rather large. My grandmother prefers to chop hers up fine in the food processor.
Yeah...you don't want to chomp down on one of those things!
We had three bowls filled to the brim with kale, collard, and cabbage. They seem to multiply!
We had some new wooden spoons, so we're going to use them to help push the greens into the ham. Sometimes, if we don't have the spoons, we'll use wooden dowel sticks.
A large amount of cheese cloth is also important. We'll wrap the stuffed ham in this.
We need to combine all the greens together and since there isn't a bowl big enough to do the job, we used a laundry basket lined with a trash bag.
Gran and Mom layer the green with the spices, onions, and celery.
The ham is the star of the show! This is a 20lb corned ham. My grandmother trimmed off the skin and left about 1/4 - 1/2 inch of the fat for flavoring. 
After the ham is trimmed, deep X's are cut into the meat. 
The greens mixture is jammed into the holes just created.
My grandmother and mother used their fingers and the ends of a wooden spoon to stuff the greens mixture deep into the holes they've created on the top and bottom of the ham. It's quite messy but fun!
The stuffed ham is placed inside of cheese cloth. Extra greens are packed around the ham and then tied up inside the cheese cloth.
The ham goes into a ginormous pot. During the year, this pot is used for steaming crabs, but right now it's all about the ham!
As you can see, we still had some greens left over. These got tossed into another pot with some water and ham flavoring to cook down.
This was such a fun, "making memories" kind of day. I love my grandmother and am so glad that the three generations could do this together.
The past two weeks have been pretty intense. In addition to the general busyness that is my job, I've had two work parties that I have catered. So it was so wonderful to relax today and simply spend time with my mom. It's been forever since I've spent time with my family and I've missed them! Mom and I had a marathon baking day to get ready for Christmas. We didn't get all of our cookies made but we got a head start. We baked from 2pm - 9pm and we were exhausted! All of the cookies we made are going to our neighborhood Christmas party. I've been wanting to host a neighborhood party for a while but haven't been able to make it happen because of my work schedule. One of our neighbors must have been reading my mind because they called a few weeks back to see what we thought about "having a little neighborhood get together." Yes! Our contribution to the party will be Maryland crab dip, semi-homemade meatballs, a veggie platter, and (of course) tons of cookies.
"You don't really need all of that, do you??" asked my dad. Yes, Dad, we do. 
No matter how many cookie baking books I have, I always come back to these two. 
I begged my mom for a cobalt blue Kitchen Aid mixer a few Christmases ago. She managed to find it on sale at Kohl's on Black Friday. I think I just about cried when I opened the box that Christmas. 
Sugar cookies aren't my favorite cookie, but my mom's are pretty tasty. Her secret is to roll them out using a 50/50 mix of flour and powdered sugar...and she rolls them thin!
I always line my baking sheets with parchment paper because it makes clean up super easy. Another one of my "secrets" is using a cookie scoop. It makes all the cookies uniform so they bake evenly. I like to use a scoop on my chocolate chip cookies. After I scoop them, I flatten them slightly and they bake up perfectly.
This is first year I tried to make these chocolate mint ribbons. They were very buttery and delicious! 
Mom and me :D
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Today was spent decorating the house for Christmas. As my mother and I were putting up the Christmas tree, my brother (who was "supervising") suddenly yelled, "LOOK! It's snowing!" Can you ask for a more perfect day? Decorating the house while it's snowing? How awesome! When it was time for a break, I ran outside and took some photos to share with you.
Back inside, I finally finished decorating the tree. It looks a bit haphazard because I had to use three different varieties of lights, but at this point I don't care anymore! I love to hang the Christmas ornaments. I love the history of the ones that have been passed down. I love the new ones that create new memories. Here are my current favorites. 
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Two Christmases ago, Point of Grace and guest Scott Krippayne came to the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore for the Winter Wonderland Tour. It was a big affair and felt much like an old TV Christmas special: gorgeous set, Christmas feeling, and fantastic music. This year, they were back with a stripped down version. Much can happen in two years. In 2007, Scott Krippayne wrote "This Is My Now," selected by American Idol to be sung by Jordan Sparks and Blake Lewis on the finale episode of American Idol. Heather Payne, longtime member of Point of Grace, had her 4th child and decided to retire. This leaves us with Shelley, Denise, and Leigh, who are seeing a resurgence of Point of Grace thanks to their song, "How You Live." It's taken off at country radio (even though they are not a country trio and don't sound it) and opening doors they've never gone through. This concert was an opportunity to celebrate Christmas, play some #1 hits from their 17 years, and get acquainted with new fans. 
Denise Jones
Shelley Breen
Leigh Cappillino
Ronnie Freeman
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