I do not enjoy baking. I do, however, enjoy chocolate chip cookies. Something about the cold that makes me want to spend time in the kitchen devising culinary treats that warm both body and soul.

I’m making this sound far more fancy than it really is.

This is a recipe that I found on Pinterest. Actually, there are two that I want to share with my buddies here today. I made both of these today and I’m feeling super accomplished. Favorite Cookie Recipe

The next recipe is this soup. Oh my god. It’s so easy. Herb Roasted Chicken and Vegetable Soup

I use rotisserie chickens from Costco. For the batch I just made last night, I made my own broth. FYI, don’t buy the already deboned chicken from Costco. It’s not a good deal and the chicken tastes different. I bought it once and found small bones hidden in large chunks. It’s a much better deal to buy a whole rotisserie chicken and debone it yourself. This also means that you have the bones to make stock with.

So here’s what I did. I simmered the bones and some whole peeled garlic cloves for about an hour. I put some fake salt in there too. The house smelled so good. When it was done, I strained out all of the pieces and set the broth aside. I altered the recipe slightly. I used the teeny tiny potatoes from Trader Joes. (Love those!) I left out the celery and used far less onion than this calls for. I love onions, but my significant other can be quirky about them. I cut them into smaller pieces so they’d cook all the way. I also omitted sweet potato…because yuck. I chopped up my own garlic and added that. I use a lot. Jarred minced garlic used to be a favorite of mine, but anymore it always has this weird taste from the juices they pack it in. Costco sells a giant bag of peeled garlic. I buy this, portion it into snack bags, and freeze it. It lasts forever and besides, who likes peeling garlic anyway? I also use fake salt as we’re trying to be more conscious of our sodium intake here. This soup was salt free and the best batch of it I’ve made yet. I think the homemade broth made the difference. In the past I’ve used the low sodium chicken broth from Trader Joe’s. That’s another good way to go, but the homemade was so much better.

 I hope you enjoy these as much as I do! Stay warm out there!