The Code Dojo

On Friday, November 20th, we had our annual Thanksgiving Feast with our neighbors, WhiteLabel SEO, and decided we needed to share a few recipes.  This will hopefully be the first post of several along this theme over the next month or two.

Raspberry Cheesecake

This first recipe comes from Susan Ehlers, spouse of Chad Ehlers who works here at Code Greene, who was willing to share her awesome Raspberry Cheesecake recipe with us.

• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 8-12 oz. Cool Whip / whipped topping
• Graham cracker crust (homemade or purchased)
• Raspberry Pie Filling (or other pie filling or pudding)

Mix cream cheese and powdered sugar together until smooth. Add Cool Whip (8 oz for a pie tin, 12 oz for 9×13 pan) over graham cracker crust. Top with Raspberry Pie Filling, or substitute another topping of your choice. Any pie filling works well, also pudding is a great alternative! Chill until ready to serve.

Ham Loaf

The name might not sound that appetizing, but I can assure you it is a family favorite and people at the party trying it for the first time said they liked it a lot and wanted the recipe. My wife, Susan Newbold, brought this from her side of the family and I’ve loved it ever since.

• 3 lbs. ground ham (Keep it a simple - no fancy smoked ones, just plain. Bone in works fine, or boneless, but preferably one without added water.)
• 2 lbs. ground pork (Almost any cut works great here, we usually use boneless pork chops)
• 2 cups soft bread (you can break it up by hand, or I often use the food processor)
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• The Special Sauce:
  • 1/2 cup pineapple juice
  • 1/2 cup vinegar
  • 1 tsp dry mustard
  • 2 cups brown sugar
• 2-6 rings of sliced pineapple (optional)
• Maraschino cherries (optional)

Mix meat, bread, eggs, milk, and pepper, and knead it by hand until it is well mixed. Form into two loaves as you would meatloaf. Mix sauce ingredients in a saucepan on medium heat until brown sugar is dissolved. Pour sauce mixture over the loaves. If desired, garnish with pineapple and cherries. Bake at 350 degrees for 75-90 minutes. Because we live in Utah, I actually bake mine at 375 degrees because of the high altitude. Check with a meat thermometer to make sure it’s cooked all the way through, probably 170 degrees internal temperature should do. (It is pretty hard to overcook, and you can baste it with the sauce if you’re worried about it drying out.)

Grinding the meat: you can do it yourself with a meat grinder (we use our Kitchenaid mixer with the grinder attachment) or you can order it from your local grocery stores. Some stores won’t do it, but others are willing and usually don’t charge anything extra. We’ve found locally that Harmons will, and Albertson’s used to, but some locations won’t do it for me any more. They usually prefer to do it first thing in the morning in their grinder, so that they can clean the grinder once instead of twice. (They have to prevent cross-contamination, so if they’ve been grinding beef, they’d have to clean the grinder before and after the pork, but if they do the pork first thing on a clean grinder, they don’t have to clean twice.) Because it involves a little extra work, some butcher counter employees get huffy and refuse to do it. You can also usually find ground pork - not out with the other meat, but at the butcher’s counter. Hope this helps!