I didn’t plan this meal very well…Let me back up to say that I’ve been spending some time in the evenings when we’re watching what little there is to watch on TV (summer TV is an even more barren place in the vast TV wasteland!) or listening to music (now that I can get to my records) going through recipe magazines like Taste of Home and its affiliates that have stacked up over the last several months while I have been doing other things. Meal planning is not my favorite thing to do anyway, and I sometimes cringe at having just the same old stuff I’ve been making for years to choose from. So going through magazines and getting ideas sometimes revives the culinary aspect of my homemaking occupation.

I had found a couple of recipes for ham steaks that sounded really good. I had only made ham steaks maybe once or twice in 27+ years of marriage. I don’t remember that my mom ever made them. I thought they’d be a good addition to my repertoire because, as the boys get older and get involved in youth group activities and jobs and such, we frequently find only 2 or 3 of us at home at dinnertime. A ham steak would be a good way to make a dish with ham without having to roast a whole big one.

So I clipped the two recipes I found and put them in my folder for new recipes. The next few times I was at the grocery store I looked for ham steaks, but I couldn’t find them. Then one day at another store that I use just for quick pick-ups (it doesn’t have many of the regular things I buy and its layout doesn’t make sense to me, so I don’t do the biggest part of my shopping there), I suddenly remembered ham steaks and swung by their meat department to see if they had any — and they did! I got two to have enough for all four of us (the fifth family member is still working at a camp in CA for the summer for a few more weeks). I put them in the freezer when I got home.

Last Saturday night I decided to try the ham steaks for dinner the next day, so I pulled them out of the freezer to thaw. I got out my new-recipe folder to dig out the ham steak recipe to see what I needed to do the next day. That was when I discovered it called for fully-cooked ham steaks (mine weren’t), pineapple juice (which I didn’t have on hand and wouldn’t unless I bought it for a special recipe) and ground mustard (I only had prepared).

Hmmm.

Off and on through the rest of the evening and the next morning I pondered what to do with them. I thought through my other ham recipes and wasn’t inspired. I had really wanted to make something new. After breakfast I looked at the recipe again. I decided to use apple juice instead of the pineapple and prepared mustard instead of the ground. As I mixed up the ingredients for the marinade, it looked pretty good until the mustard — that made it look too yellowish. As I put the ham and marinade into a ziploc bag and put it in the refirgerator, I hoped I didn’t just ruin two perfectly good pieces of meat and tried to think of another quick-fix meal I could have on standby if this failed.

When we came home from church I asked my husband if he would grill the ham, to which he readily agreed. Since the recipe had called for already cooked ham and since he had never grilled hams steaks before, he used a meat thermometer just to make sure it was done. But it was sliced thinly enough that getting cooked through was no problem.

When he brought in the platter of grilled meat he said, “You’re going to wish you had more of this.” I said, “Why? Is it good?” He said, “Yeah!”

And it was! Really good! It didn’t have the type of flavor that just bowls you over when you put it in your mouth, but as you begin eating it, the delicious flavor comes through.

So I’m delighted to have a new great recipe on hand. And since it marinates for a couple of hours, it works really well for an after-church meal if you have time to make up the marinade beforehand. I thought about trying it to make it the way it was originally written next time just to compare — but I think I will stick with what works.

I didn’t take a picture, though I thought about it (in fact, I was thinking “You know you’re a blogger when you want to take pictures of a new dinner before letting anyone eat”). Just think dark pink meat with grill stripes.

Here’s my revised version, which I doubled for us:

Marinated Ham Steak

1/2 cup apple juice
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon margarine, melted
1 to 2 teaspoons mustard
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1 ham steak

Combine first six ingredients and pour into a resealable plastic bag. Add ham; seal bag and turn to coat. Refrigerate at least two hours, turning occasionally.

Drain marinade and grill ham, uncovered, over medium heat. If the ham is fully cooked beforehand, grill only 3-4 minutes on each side; if the ham is raw, plan on 10-15 minutes or until meat thermometer reaches 140-160 degrees.

The original recipe says to baste the steak frequently with the reserved marinade, but that’s best only if the ham is fully cooked before it marinates. If the meat is raw when it marinates, you don’t want to use that marinade for basting and end up with residuals from raw meat on your cooked steak — only baste with that marinade if you allow time for the added basting to get fully heated: don’t baste with it just before serving or in the last few of minutes of grilling.

The original recipe also said to cut the steak in half before serving, but I cut it up into smaller pieces before marinating in order to get it to fit in the bag plus to let the marinade get to more surfaces of the meat.

If you ever try this, let me know what you think.