2 tbsp. Enova Oil
2 tbsp. butter
2 onions, finely chopped
2 fresh carrots, finely chopped
1 large potato, diced into small pieces
1 parsnip, diced into small pieces
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
6 cups chicken stock or broth
1 chicken bullion cube
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1 12 oz bottle of dark beer
10 oz. extra sharp yellow cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 cup heavy cream
paprika or chopped fresh parsley (optional)

1. Place oil and butter into a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, potato, parsnip, celery and garlic. Saute until soft. Reduce heat to low: sprinkle the flour evenly over the vegetables. Stir with a wooden spoon until lightly golden.. about 5 minutes.

2. Increase heat to medium and slowly stir in the chicken stock with a whisk to avoid lumps. Add the bullion cube, dry mustard and beer. Cook and stir over medium heat for 30 to 45 minutes.

3. Puree in food processor and place back into soup pot. Stir in the cheddar cheese, cayenne pepper, heavy cream; add kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste. Heat over very low heat, stirring constantly, until warm. Do no simmer or soup will separate.

4. Serve immediately, garnished with a sprinkle of paprika or fresh chopped parsley, if desired.

Makes 10 servings.

319 calories, 17g carbohydrates, 10g protein, 23g fat, 2g fiber, 70mg cholesterol, 587mg sodium per serving.

People who travel frequently usually don’t require assistance of travel advisors.

I’ve come up with the contest rules. This contest will be to pick the best Christmas cookie recipe. Submit your recipe link to me using my Contact Form. You have until December 1, 2007 to get your entries in. Then on December 3rd I will post the recipes and the voting will begin. There will be a voting form in the post with the recipe links. Voting will be from December 3rd to December 14th.

The winner will get a cookbook entitled “Best of the Best from the Mid-Atlantic Cookbook (a $16.95 value). It contains selected recipes form the favorite cooks of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. The winner will also get some linky love from me on all 3 of my blogs… Army Mom: New Jersey, Charlotte’s Tips and South Jersey Fun.

So find your favorite Christmas cookie recipe and send it in! I can’t wait to drool over see the recipes you come up with!

Edited to add: I will also send the winner a $10 gift certificate from Amazon.com.

This post will stay as a sticky post until the contest ends.

After I get back from Texas I’m going to run a contest here. I’m thinking it will be the best Christmas Cookie Recipe contest. The winner will get the cookbook I was giving away in the last contest. That contest didn’t work out and no one entered. I sure hope someone will enter this one.

Look for the details sometime shortly after December 3rd. Meanwhile start looking for your best Christmas cookie recipe!

Comments are working faster again! I moved to a new host and now things are much speedier. So if you want to leave a comment, please do. You won’t have to wait forever for it to post!

Only 2 days left to enter our contest and win a cookbook! Get your entry in by midnight on Sunday November 4th!

I made spaghetti (sketties) for dinner tonight and I thought I’d share my “recipe”.

I took 1 lb of lean ground beef (93% lean) and cooked it in the frying pan along with some thinly sliced onions and some garlic. Then I added a jar of Prego Italian sausage and garlic sauce. I also threw in some Kraft grated Parmesan and Romano cheese. While that was heating I got the water ready for the pasta. I used wagon wheel pasta and cooked it according to the directions on the package. After the pasta cooked, I drained it and added some of the sauce to it. Dish it up on a plate. Add more sauce. Add more grated cheese. Eat and enjoy!

Click on the pictures below to see them full sized.

If you ever had anything made of brass you know how, over time, it gets kind of funky looking and the color changes. I know cleaning brass is not your favorite chore, but below you’ll find a cheap an easy way to do it.

A half a cup of vinegar mixed with 1 tablespoon of salt is a good solution to use to clean your brass. This creates a saturated solution of salt, leaving some crystals undissolved, and these are your gentle scouring crystals. However, the chemicals work well by themselves also, if you apply them using a soft cloth and then rub off using a scouring pad you will not need to use as much salt.