Last Autumn Saturday

D & I went to our friends' house for dinner and the December installment of virtual wine tasting. We actually drank wine (the virtual part refers to a thing that she does on Bakespace's blog), and this month was Shiraz. We had three bottles, and M made gyro burgers (yum!).

Amazingly, I still made it up out of bed at 7:30-ish, so M & I went for coffee & to pick up some last minute stocking kinds of things on the South Side. We started doing this a couple of years ago, and I love having time with her, but sometimes schedules get in the way & we don't end up meeting for months. So it was good to get out this morning.

When I got home, I put together a crockpot baked shells kind of thing. I'd tried this before after seeing it on the crazy crockpot lady's blog (thank you Kristen!), and wasn't pleased with it, so I wanted to make a few changes. This time, I browned some hot italian sausage first (o.7 lbs) and added to two jars of sauce instead of just the one. This is so easy in the crockpot, I love it. Layer the sauce (with the sausage mixed in), then some uncooked shells, then more sauce, then some cheese. Repeat until the whole box of shells is gone, and you have sauce & cheese on the top. I mixed the stuff up a little bit as I went along, just to make sure that the pasta was all wet. Put the top on, and cook on high for something like 2 hours. I pulled a few shells out to check on it, found they were still a little bit crispy. So, I added another cup of water, and a couple of diced roma tomatoes. Cooked for another 30-45 mins on high, and then enjoyed.

This was so-o-o-o good! I only meant to have a small plate for lunch, and ended up going back for another one. D liked it too, and now we have a bunch to eat this week.

After a short wrapping session, during which I found myself watching a Dudley Moore and John Lithgowe Santa Claus movie (which is the movie in which they have Puce Pops!!!! Does anyone remember watching this, or making jokes about Puce Pops when we were kids?), I took a bath, took a nap, and then made my friend M's pumpkin spice cookies.