My corned beef and cabbage dinner turned out better than I had expected, mostly because I actually liked the corned beef.

It was going to be a quiet dinner with just me and my friends, Katrina and Mike Fitzgerald. Then I got a call from my cousins from San Diego. They wanted to know if we might get together for dinner Saturday or breakfast Sunday.

Why, I asked, don’t you just stay at my house, have dinner here, stay overnight and get the train to New Haven the next morning?

They arrived around noon, and I fed them lunch and made them watch the UConn women’s game I’d DVR’d. They were kind enough to pay attention, although the game went UConn’s way, 140-56.

In any case, I did the corned beef, potatoes, onions and carrots in my slow cooker part of my Instant Pot, taking the beef out after four hours and adding the cabbage just an hour before dinner. The soda bread was very good; I used dried unsweetened cranberries and added finely diced candied ginger. Then we finished an upside-down pineapple cake with ice cream I bought from Big Y that now sells ice cream from Wildowsky Dairy in Lisbon.

This month’s Fine Cooking has a ham recipe as well as one for making burrata at home and a side dish called creamed potatoes and spring onions. This may be an issue you want to own.

Roasted Ham with Mustard-Herb Crust

Adapted from Fine Cooking, “Spring Fling,” April/May, 2018

Yield: serves 6 to 8

1 8-pound spiral sliced ham; I assume it is bone-in*

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon apricot preserves or apple jelly

6 tablespoons whole-grain mustard

2 teaspoons dried herbes de Provence; if you want to make it yourself, it usually includes savory, marjoram, rosemary, thyme and oregano.

3 large yellow onions each cut into one-half-inch wedges; I always use sweet onions.

1 1/2 cups unfiltered apple cider or unsweetened apple juice

Put the ham cut-side down in a 9- by 13-inch roasting pan. Let stand at room temperature for up to 4 hours before roasting.

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and heat to 375 degrees. In a small saucepan or microwavable bowl, warm the preserves. Using a small offset spatula, spread the preserves onto the rounded top side of the ham, spoon the mustard over the preserves, then sprinkle the herbs on top. Scatter the onions in the pan and cover the ham loosely with a sheet of foil to prevent the crust from burning. Place in the oven and roast for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, brush about one-half the cider on top of the ham, pouring the remaining 1 cup of cider into the pan with the onions. Cover with the foil and roast 30 minutes more, until the onions are tender.

Transfer the ham and onions to a serving platter and the pan juices to a gravy boat. Let the ham rest for a few minutes before serving. (I might, just might, add a few tablespoons of Calvados to the 1 cider or apple juice. I just might!)

*The original recipe asked for uncured spiral ham or a fresh ham, but a fresh ham would need 3 to 4 hours in the oven and I think that would be way too long for the onions.