One of my favorite childhood memories is of my mother preparing a yummy meal of ham in sweet syrup, patty cakes and buttered broccoli. Occasionally she would make that early on a Sunday evening and we would watch favorite TV programs like Roy Rogers or Walt Disney in the living room while eating the dinner.

Recently I decided to make the ham in sweet syrup. I didn't even need a recipe, for the ingredients are simply defatted thin sliced ham, butter, brown sugar and water, simmered in a skillet on low to medium temperature, turning the pieces of ham over every few minutes, until the liquid mixture turned into a syrupy consistency. Ham served hot that way is quite delicious.

Ingredients: (four adult servings)

1 cured and precooked supermarket ham (either butt or shank)

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1 cup of water

3 tbsp. of butter

Directions:

Cut the excess fat from the surface of the ham. Then cut four to six full size slices 1/4" thick. Then cut away all fat from the slices and cut the slices into pieces roughly 2" by 3" in size.

Wrap the remaining ham on the bone with plastic wrap and then put it into a gallon size Ziploc® freezer bag and put that into the refrigerator for a later use.

Put all of the recipe ingredients except the ham pieces into a large (12" to 15" diameter) skillet and heat the mixture with stirring until the butter is melted and the sugar dissolved in the water.

Add the ham pieces to the skillet and make sure they are all covered/coated with the liquid mixture.

Bring the temperature of the liquid to a low boil and maintain that low boil while turning the ham pieces over about every two minutes.

The ham is done cooking when the liquid has become a thin to medium thick syrup.

Serve the ham hot with other meal items.

Enjoy!