Hot Mulled Wine

I love hot mulled wine. It totally says warm and cozy to me, especially when decorating the Christmas tree! Granted, it was sunny and on the warm side on Saturday, so we didn’t really NEED a hot drink. Still, though, it helped to set the mood. I used a Red Zin because it’s what we had open. Enjoy!

Hot Mulled Wine from Cooking Light, December 2008

 

6 servings (serving size: 1/2 cup)

• 1/3  cup  sugar
• 1/4  cup  bourbon
• 1  (750-milliliter) bottle cabernet sauvignon or other dry red wine
• 1  sachet Mulling Spice Blend
• Cinnamon sticks (optional)

 

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a large saucepan. Bring to a simmer; cook 20 minutes. Discard sachet. Serve warm. Serve with cinnamon sticks, if desired.

And a picture of the tree, just for fun.

 

Naughty or Nice?

Tonight’s dinner was based around a leftover Honey Mustard Marinated Chicken Breast (pre-marinated…bought it at Wegman’s), and some “Naughty or Nice” pasta from a school fundraiser. The pasta is so cute! I bought one for just about every holiday…a few for Christmas, actually. It’s regular, all natural pasta in fun shapes.

I made the pasta with Wegman’s Alfredo Sauce (the kind you get in the refrigerator aisle), and topped it with some black pepper and fresh parsley. To go with the pasta, I cooked the chicken breast until it was almost done in a skillet with olive oil, then cut it into slices and finished it off in the pan. For extra flavor, I added maybe a half tablespoon of butter to the pan and cooked it for about 1.5 min….I’m totally newly addicted to brown butter.   The dinner was complete with a salad of romaine and balsamic vinagrette. Mmmm.