My theme for the Blogging from A to Z challenge is Creativity. We expend a lot of energy—mentally and sometimes physically—when we’re being creative. And for that, we need to keep up our nourishment.

Cooking can be another way to express your creativity. I love to cook for that reason, as well as for the good food I get to eat (if all goes well) and share with others.

Since Easter is just a few days away, I’m sharing a couple of recipes for Easter dinner—or anytime! Do you have any favorite recipes for Easter or Passover?

Baked Ham

Recipe courtesy of my friend Peter Riegler.

One bit of advice from Peter: “Do not sample the Jack Daniels Mix as I used to. You do get a headache!”

Ingredients:

1 Bone-in Ham

1 small bottle (8 oz) of SueBee Honey (or other honey)

1 pint of Jack Daniels

1 can of Sliced Pineapple, drained and juice reserved

Cloves

1 to 2 teaspoon Cayenne pepper

Toothpicks

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Score the fatty side of the ham in a criss-cross diamond pattern

Poke a clove, stem side down, at every scored intersection of the diamond pattern.

Using toothpicks, add slices of pineapple to the scored ham.

Place ham in a roasting pan, then put in oven, scored side up. Bake 20 minutes per pound.

Meanwhile:

Combine honey, pineapple juice, cayenne pepper and Jack Daniels.

Using a baster, put some of the Jack Daniels mixture over the ham.

30 minutes prior to ham being done, pour the rest of the mixture over the ham.

Note from Peter: I have in the past let the ham soak in the Jack Daniels mixture overnight, and then bake it in the oven. I save the mixture out of the soaking dish, baste once or twice while baking, and then pour the remainder over the ham 20 minutes prior to finish baking.

Lemon Cheesecake

Courtesy Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese

This is so easy to make!

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups Graham Cracker crumbs

Note: for regular cheesecake, I use chocolate wafer crumbs for the crust. For this recipe, I’m going to use vanilla wafer crumbs.

6 tablespoons butter, melted

4 (250 g) packages Philadelphia Brick Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup sour cream

1 lemon, zested and juiced

4 eggs

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Mix crumbs and butter. Press mixture onto bottom of 13×9-inch pan, or a round spring-form pan.

3. Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add sour cream, zest and juice; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust.

4. Bake 40 minutes or until center is almost set; cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours.

Optional: I like to add these around the edge of the cheesecake: Hollow out fresh strawberries and fill with sweetened whipped cream cheese. These make a great dessert all by themselves!