Excited to make this wassail
http://knightsinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2008/12/annettes-wassail.html

My friend Trevlyn brought me some of her homemade wassail. I don't think I have ever had real homemade wassail.
Mom always made wassail but as far as I know she always bought apple cider and put a tea ball of the Williams Sonoma wassail mix in it. I never even thought that there might be a recipe from scratch!

Excited to try this when I'm home next weekend.
And grateful for sweet friends who know that I'm cold and needed a little warmth tonight!

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/Soft-Garlic-Breadsticks/Detail.aspx

with

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/slow-cooker-italian-meatball-soup/0115d2b6-bf6e-470b-9a1e-f47806344839

The Breadsticks were a total winner. It made about 18 for me and I had them on 3 different baking sheets. The top baking sheet in the oven cooked to perfection. The two on the lower shelf got a little "burned". We still ate 2/3 of them last night.

We probably ate so many breadsticks because the soup was a bomb. Just wasn't that good.

But one recipe out of two being a repeat is something I can get excited about!

Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

Alex said that the cookies taste doughnuts.
Jasmine and Bret both liked them as well.

Easy to make - but I don't like things that aren't instant - I had to chill for at least two hours (which for me usually means overnight)

These were in the Food Network Cookie email - I'm getting one every day for them. So far there have only been two that I want to make.

Al and I tried this tonight. He was even super patient and stirred constantly for almost all of the 15 minutes himself.

However, it wasn't very yummy. Luckily, we hadn't put all of the noodles into the sauce. He took some plain marinara sauce and had his noodles with that.

Anyone have a good alfredo recipe? This is the second time I have tried, and haven't been happy either time.

http://www.food.com/recipe/olive-garden-fettuccine-alfredo-8596?scaleto=4&mode=null&st=true

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made these tonight for a sweet girl of a dear friend. She was looking for chocolate the other night while Bret and I were chit chatting with her parents. She ended up going to McDonald's for a chocolate shake. I told her that I would make her some cookies.

I have signed up for two different Christmas cookie email newsletters that come daily. It is hard to keep up. I had two I wanted to make today - so I had to pick one.

This one isn't cheap to make. And it probably only made 2 dozen. But they were yummy. Rave Reviews. And they were easy. The expensive part was the creme de menthe baking chips and the semisweet baking chips (although for one batch you only needed 1/2 of each bag). I also realized I didn't have mint extract so that was purchased (by a run thankfully made by Jasmine and Alex). I barely had enough green flavoring. I had to cut the little plastic bottle in half to get enough drops in the bowl, but I made it work.

These are a definitely do-over but I will keep the recipe in my Christmas collection.

Roast Chicken

Have you ever roasted a chicken before? I hadn't.
WHY? You can buy one already done at costco, safeway or walmart for $5.
To buy one at the store raw, it is at least $4
$1 savings for a lot of WORK.
BUT I wanted to try it.

So I bought a little chicken. I cleaned it. I took out the neck and the gizzards.
I seasoned it with salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme. I drizzled my potatoes, onions and carrots with olive oil and the same seasonings in the same pan. I sprinkled fresh lemon juice over it and put the cut lemon in the cavity of the chicken.
It cooked for 90 minutes.

I made rolls while it was cooking in the bread machine.

Alex came home from being with the missionaries to tell me that he had already eaten. And then he saw my face totally deflated and said, "but wait, K... I can eat some more". Bless his heart.
We had a nice dinner.

I would make another roast chicken. It makes the house smell yummy and there is a sense of satisfaction (at least for me) of not just picking up a ready made chicken but doing it myself!

Hunter's Minestrone - I have made this before. Tonight both kids gave it an 8 and Bret gave it a 7. It makes the house smell yummy.

I like the pasta and sausage part. What I don't like is when the carrots or the beans get inside the rigatoni pasta - because then I can't eat that piece of pasta until I get the gross bean or the super gross carrot out of the inside of the pasta. But I do like the flavor.

And it is fairly easy.

And yes - aren't my cute winter soup bowls cute? thanks Rod. There are also cute plates that go with them!