Recipe: Spiced Ham Loaf and Spiced Apple Sauce

My mom grew up in Pennsylvania, and this is a very traditional Pennsylvania Dutch home-cookin' recipe. I served this last Sunday, and it was delicious. The leftovers were delicious, too!

Spiced Ham Loaf
Ingredients:
1 3/4 c. milk
2 large eggs
2 T brown sugar
1 T dry mustard
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
6 slices soft bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes*
1 1/2 lb ground ham (pre cooked)
1 lb ground beef

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the milk, eggs, brown sugar, dry mustard, salt, and pepper. Add the bread cubes, ham, and beef. Blend well; shape a loaf. Place in a large loaf pan or onto a roasting pan.**

Bake at 350 until firm and lightly browned, about 90 minutes. Meat should reach an internal temperature of 175 to 180 degrees on a meat thermometer.

Remove from oven. Let rest 15 minutes, allowing the juices to settle, before slicing.***

Apple Cider Sauce
Ingredients
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
3 cups apple cider, or no-sugar-added apple juice
3/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2T + 1 tsp cornstarch
2 T water
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Combine the brown sugar, apple cider, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a saucepan. Note: because the sweetness of ciders varies, be prepared to adjust the amount of sugar to taste.**** Bring to a boil.

Separately dissolve the cornstarch in the water. Gradually add the cornstarch mixture to the boiling apple cider mixture, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens slightly.

Remove the sauce from heat. Stir in the lemon juice. Serve with Spiced Ham Loaf or Baked Ham.

This recipe is from CDKitchen http://www.cdkitchen.com

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*I bake my own bread, so this was extra yummy bread. It would still be ok with store bought bread, but the bread I bake doesn't have any extraneous ingredients.

**I used a round casserole dish because it was what I had on hand.

***I let mine rest, then covered it and put it into the fridge. Then, for Sunday lunch, I microwaved it to take off the chill and put it into my already-warm oven to heat it up enough to serve at the table.

****I used the full measure of sugar, and it was prrrrreeeeeety sweet! Next time I'll use just half.