rainy days, elves and ravioli soup

Sunday was a rainy afternoon and evening…and what better to do than make cookies, watch Muppets Christmas Carol and play hide and seek.

Mmmm…classic molasses crinkles – courtesy of a delish recipe from Ang.  A Smith family classic – Muppet Christmas Carol.  Hudson loves Marley & Marley!

   The yummies in the oven…bakin’ up some goodness. 

So in addition to those delightful memory makers – today’s Charlie Brown Countdown window required the following: “Make an Elf Hat”.  Yup, and we did.  Hudson was way into it.  Mommy on the other hand, well, it took me a little bit to warm up to the idea (mainly because he opened it during breakfast and my orange juice was not completed yet).

Once we got started though, it was a blast!  Anna chose to decorate her elfin cap with Charlie Brown stickers and a few touches of crayon.  This is her yelling “Cheese” or “Elf” – one of the two!  Like her cute ears?  I think she may be among the top cutest elves of the season :)   Hudson chose to go the route of candies.  Not real candies – the creative young man he is – he made construction paper candies, cut them out, and then glued them on: a lollipop, chocolates, a gumdrop, orange chocolate, blue peppermints and a Perry the Platypus gummy.

That brings us to the Ravioli soup – which was delicious.  It was something that we found in the paper yesterday and I tweaked it to our tastes…it is pretty easy (crockpot) and worth the little bit of prep – as my family loved it. The recipe below (as a disclaimer :) is the re-vamped version that I created from the basic recipe from the paper.  We like more spinach, more tomatoes and I made the measurements a bit easier.  Also, the original called for chickpeas, but next time I am going to use cannellini. 

Ravioli Soup

· 8 oz sweet/hot Italian sausage, casing removed

· 1 clove of garlic crushed/chopped

· 2 cans of chicken broth

· 1 can of water

· 1 can of cannellini beans, drained

· 1 can of petite diced tomatoes

· ¼ cup squeeze of spicy mustard

· ½ teaspoon dried oregano

· 1 package of frozen mini cheese-filled ravioli

· 2 cups of fresh spinach leaves, torn

Brown sausage and garlic for about 5 minutes. Drain off excess fat if any. Put all ingredients, except spinach and ravioli, in a slow cooker on low for 4 hours. At end of cook time, add spinach and boil ravioli to thaw (4-5 minutes). Add them to the soup and heat for an additional 15 minutes. Garnish with parmesan cheese.

And because Martha Stewart would so finish off a meal of Ravioli Soup and Cantaloupe with finger jello, that’s what we did.  A little jiggle does a body good.