8th day of Christmas... (a beautiful dinner, a farewell and prayer requests)

On the 8th day of Christmas 

I baked and baked...

Did a roast chicken this way:

butter under skin with garlic cloves,

one small onion in quarters, fresh organic sage and half a zested lemon in the cavity,

French Lemon & Ginger infused extra virgin olive oil over the skin,

with salt, pepper, dried ginger and lemon on top...

450F for about 2 hours... I think next time I will take the chicken out a bit 

before 2 hours.... it was great though and I trussed the chicken 

for the first time (did not want the cavity onion and lemon falling out!)

I made two casseroles 

from a cookbook I got before Christmas:

Bake Until Bubbly

 Potatoes with goat cheese a gratin 

and carrot casserole (with onion, cheddar cheese and bread crumbs).

From the same cookbook I baked for dessert,

stuffed peaces with raspberry sauce.

I only had half the amount of canned halved peaches...

I made the full amount of the mascarpone cheese sauce...

next time I will half the half cup of sugar...

Of course it was super fun to use my Christmas dishes.

Peaches baked and then mascarpone cheese with sugar

and raspberry syrup on the bottom (under the peaches

as they baked at 375 F for 20 minutes) and slivered almonds on top

of the cheese...

*

And so I made what was the farewell dinner for 

my friend, the Mother of our Goddaughter, and our

Goddaughter as they leave for TX at the end of the week.

She is 4 months old now and very healthy, with a cute smile.

She wore a cute Christmas reindeer outfit for the occasion! 

It was a lovely dinner and I thank God for this time.

*

So as I mentioned earlier it's hard to see them go.

I am pretty sure the grief part of this (they were one of the two

main first couples in our book club, some of our first

new friends as a couple here) is why I am not sleeping well.

*

Also a family friend who is prominent in my families life

is in hospital with pneumonia and possible other complications

and a family member is waiting for a biopsy at the end of January

(it was postponed).

*

And my friend's son is still in hospital with unexpected complications...

 *

So that's a few difficult things.

I ask your prayers

and I thank God for them!