A bone-in shank portion hardwood smoked ham is heated through and finished with a cherry bourbon glaze.

Cherry Bourbon Glazed Ham

Got another one for the baked ham collection y'all! 

This glaze idea came from Terry, one of our Facebook family members, when he mentioned and shared a cherry glaze he makes for the holidays, so I decided to give it a run with my own twists, of course!

I'm so far behind in getting this posted - it's just been one of those weeks - that I've no time to share the usual tips and such, so if you're cooking a ham for the first time, click through those previous hams I've posted to pick up on those.

 

  Cherry Berries in a Cloud, a vintage dessert that begins with a baked meringue shell, is topped with a cream cheese, whipped cream and marshmallow layer and finished with a cherry and strawberry pie filling.

Cherry Berries in a Cloud

I had all but forgotten about this vintage dessert until my daughter-in-law's grandmother Mimi showed up with a pan of it at one of our holiday gatherings. Not only is it delicious as it always was, but it's a perfect dessert for Valentine's Day too!

 

  From my 70s Betty Crocker cookbook, one of my first cookbooks as a new bride!

A cookie bar made with cherry pie filling and blueberries and drizzled with a powdered sugar glaze.

Cherry Pie Bars

This is another one of those recipes that kept passing by on my personal Facebook timeline so much that I decided to make it for our Memorial Day celebration with my son and daughter-in-law.

Since that holiday is the unofficial beginning of summer and falls right in the midst of crawfish season, they host a crawfish boil every year, along with the usual hot dogs and burgers.

One of my son's closest friends, Brad, is the master crawfish cook, so he always handles the cooking of the crawfish and does an excellent job of it. They sure were good this year! The boil has become a bit of an annual tradition for them and we look forward to it every year, though it was so hot that day, that The Cajun and I didn't stick around too long.

Cherry-O Cream Cheese Pie, an icebox pie made with cream cheese, condensed milk and cherry pie filling.

Cherry-O Cream Cheese Pie

This has always been one of my favorite summer pies and I swear it is literally the easiest pie in the world.

I almost hate to post recipes like this because they are so simple that even if you've never made it before, once you have, you really never need the "recipe" again.

Cherry limeade, made with lemon-lime soda, cherry syrup, a splash of maraschino cherry juice, and fresh squeezed lime juice, is a refreshing and delicious summer drink.

Cherry Limeade

After that nice little cool spell we had, it sure has warmed up here in a hurry on the Coast. And with all that rain, it's left behind a lot of humidity. Already. Perfect weather for one or three of these. The homemade sno-cone syrup I shared recently is what I use to make these, and while I am not even going to try and say that this is a copycat of the beloved Sonic cherry limeade, personally, I like mine better. You can, of course, use any commercial syrup and I've left a few suggestions in the recipe.

Crushed ice is the key!

Cherry pie, with a filling made easy by canned cherries, and finished with a lattice topped crust.

Lattice Topped Cherry Pie

I love a good homemade cherry pie, but I'm not too likely to pit cherries for an hour to make one, and yes, that's pretty much how long it takes to hand pit enough fresh cherries for a single pie. Okay, I might do that exactly once so I could blog about it, but I doubt it and I'm pretty sure there aren't many of us who would. Plus, it's messy, and believe me when I say, I make a big enough mess in my kitchen as it is.

A layered dessert, made with a buttery shortbread crust, topped with a cream cheese and whipped topping layer, a layer of fresh or frozen strawberries and finished with more whipped cream and chopped nuts.

Strawberry Delight

I have a secret I've been keeping. In the midst of this recent wintery weather, which for some of you has meant snow, I have been chowing down on fresh, local strawberries. Louisiana strawberries. They show up this time of year, every year, and I sure do look forward to it.

A refreshing summer drink of sour cherries and lemonade.

Sour Cherry Lemonade

It's kinda hard being a blogger of food this time of the year, and especially when it's primarily classic and favorite southern recipes you write about. People are cutting back on calories and passing over comfort foods, for swimsuits and vacation time. On top of that, it's just so darned hot down in this part of the world, that it's pretty hard to think about cooking, much less eating, especially if you've spent any of the day outside. On the rare occasion that we want to stand over the stove or turn on the oven in the summer, it has to be for something special, or to satisfy a particular craving.

This is the time of year that I like to try a variety of cold, fruity drinks. I was recently flipping through the July 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine, and saw a recipe for sour cherry lemonade. It sounded refreshing, and a little different, so I thought it'd be a great time to add another lemonade to the mix. Of course Martha's recipe was made with fresh cherries and fresh lemons, neither of which I had on hand. I did know however, that I had a couple cans of Oregon tart cherries in the pantry and a can of lemonade concentrate in the freezer, and so, I wasn't troubled in the least! Fresh cherries would have been nice, although much more work, and canned cherries by Oregon contain nothing but fruit and water and are a great substitute and a winner in my book anytime!

Often called Banana Split Cake, this layered dessert has the same base ingredients from a banana split but in a convenient and well loved layered pan dessert.

Layered Banana Split Dessert

Take the elements of a banana split - bananas, pineapple, strawberries, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, maraschino cherries, and chopped nuts - layer that on top of a cookie crust, throw in a layer of that fabulous cream cheese, powdered sugar, whipped cream mixture as a stand-in for the usual ice cream, and you have one well loved Layered Banana Split Dessert.