Christmas dinner means one thing; lots and lots of food. In most homes, it's customary to have more than one meat on that special day. A typical Christmas meal may include ham, of course, fish, chicken and roast beef or roast pork. To keep your family coming back for seconds this year, we have included some recipes to keep them licking their fingers.

Ham

Jamaicans from all walks of life have their special way of preparing their Christmas Day ham and Lambert Sandford, a Jamaican resident in Huntsville, Alabama, is no exception. He has honed the culinary skills he picked up from his mother as a young lad growing up in Sanguinetti, Clarendon, to perfection. So why not try his special dressing for ham next Thursday?

Ingredients

1 10-15 pound ham

¹/⁴ can or bottle Pepsi

¹/² cup brown sugar

¹/⁴ cup molasses

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp Jamaican ground allspice (pimento)

¹/² cup pineapple juice

1 tbs vanilla extract

¹/² cup grape/strawberry jelly or honey

6-8 pineapple slices

about two dozen whole cloves

For Cooking you will need: 1/2 cup brown sugar and a handful of whole Jamaican allspice (pimento) to add to the water in which you boil the ham.

Method

1. Place the ham into a large pan and add enough water to cover it. Add a handful of dried pimento and a half cup of brown sugar.

2. Boil ham for about 45 minutes to an hour in order to remove some of the salt.

NOTE: If you choose not to cook the ham, then the baking time will need to be increased to approximately 30 minutes per pound of ham.

3. Mix Pepsi, brown sugar molasses, cinnamon, cloves, pineapple juice, allspice, and vanilla in a small bowl and set aside.

4. Remove ham from water and cut away all the skin and fat. Try to do this when ham is still hot - at a bearable temperature Be careful not to burn your hands.

5. Score ham in about one-inch squares and insert whole cloves into each square. Place about three of the pineapple slices on top and lay the other slices in the cooking pan with it. Place about 12 whole cloves in the pan. Base ham with mixture and lightly dust the ham with some ground cloves and cinnamon.

6. Place into oven at 380F for about 3¹/² hours, basting every 20 to 30 minutes.

7. Half hour before removing from the oven, drizzle honey over the ham. If possible, use a BBQ brush to evenly spread the honey over the ham. If you choose to use the jelly, use a BBQ brush to apply the jelly evenly over it. Do not baste ham after the honey/jelly is applied. Leave in oven for ¹/² hour.

Bon appetit!

Roast Beef

Rump roast, round roast or sirloin tip roast

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Black pepper

Salt to taste

three cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375F.

2. Cut small slits in the beef, spacing them a few inches apart.

3. Place a few slices of garlic in each slit. Sprinkle garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper and salt over the beef. Use less garlic powder if you used a lot of sliced garlic inside the beef.

4. Bake for about 30 minutes. Turn down heat to 225F and continue baking until the internal temperature gets to 135F.

5. Remove roast from oven. Remove drippings and add to a saucepan for gravy. Cover beef with foil and allow to sit for 15 minutes.

Gravy

Add about ¹/² cup water or red wine to the roast beef drippings. Add a small pepper chopped and salted to taste. Mix about one tablespoon corn starch with one tablespoon water, then add to the mixture in the pan. Stir constantly until thickened.

Serve beef with mashed or baked potatoes.

Some info from: www.associatedcontent.com