Christmas Cookie Time

Patty-cake, patty-cake, baker's man.  Bake me some cookies as fast as you can (before you start crying, baby)! 

Roll it, pat it, and mark it with a "B!"  Put it in the oven for your daddy and me, and a bunch of other people (sorry, you can't eat these goodies yet, baby).

Sugar cookies. Nothing like them. Sprinkles, dots, sugar, butter cream icing, dough. Random chilly pepper in the mix to spark up some conversation. 

Package them up, and ship them out. Yes, let's get them all out of this house!

A special thanks to my little baker...he played with this spoon the entire time.

Night Out In Phoenix

I'm so over my trip (it was crazy fun), but I have to blog about one of our nights out in Phoenix.

On Monday night we got treated to this amazing 5-course meal.  It was put together by Andy Papas, a pretty famous chef and cuisine historian so I've been told.

The night was full of conversation and wine parings.  Oh yes, and some devastatingly delicious food (devastating because I probably gained 10 pounds from it).

Here is a taste of our lavish menu...

This first course was Insalate de frutta di mare (fresh seafood with fennel).  It was better than I expected, although it looked scary at times.  I loved the flower accent on the plate.

The second course was my favorite.  It was ravioli all parmagiano (artichoke, prosciutto in a parmagiano cream sauce).  Very rich, very flavorful.  I was getting full at this point.

Because the pasta was so rich, we had to cleanse our pallets with some lemon ice. I swear there was some liqueur in it as well.

The entree was vittello ripieni (stuff veal loin). I have to be honest, I hate veal. I can't say this was the best entree in the world either. It had these beans around it with tomatoes which tasted kind of bland. I would have preferred a good steak (and a cow that lived longer than a month; veal is just wrong).

I loved the cheese course which was called formaggio e frutta (academia barilla pecorino gran cru, quince & singh farms honey). The chef described it as "coming down from the mountain." Apparently eating cheese helps you digest a big meal. Perhaps we should have it more often.

The dessert was amazing. It was mascarpone crepes macerated(crepes & ice cream with berries).  Need I say more?

And finally, I needed a decaf to round it out.

What a night to remember. Gosh, perhaps I should now start a foodie blog. Yep, probably do not have time for that task. I'm home now and ready to focus on little man again.

Good night.

Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

Brrrr, it's freaking cold outside.  This weekend while my dear husband was off having fun at the football game, I took care of a sick baby (just a cold).  I decided to get a head start on the cold that will likely hit me next by making some chicken noodle soup.

On Saturday night we ate a rotisserie chicken from Costco (only $5 for a huge bird!) and half of it was leftover.  Soup is the perfect way to use it all up.

This soup is so easy, I was able to make it while Jackson took his morning nap!  That's right, 20 minutes.

First I cut up some prewashed carrots, celery and parsley.  I put some olive oil in a big pot and sauteed the veggies until semi-cooked.  I pulled the rest of the chicken away from the bone and added the it to the pot along with 1.5 cups of no-yolk spiral noodles.

I added 3 cups of chicken stock (low-sodium is best) and stirred.  Cook and stir occassionaly for 30 minutes and it's done.  Shake in a little salt n' peppa and you are done.  It yields about 6 servings.

It was so yummy for yesterday's lunch.  I gobbled it up.  I even have enough for dinner tonight.  I can't wait to dig in again.  And, it's low-fat.  Can't beat it for comfort food.