Don't Throw That Bottle Away: Incredibly industrious, Michelle Humes takes her leftover Merlot and makes mulled wine syrup.

Classic Revisited: We have come a long way from Campbell's canned tomato soup. Kristen Swensson goes the dairy-free route with tomato soup with roasted garlic and herbs, a recipe she got from FatFree Vegan Kitchen.

Simple Side Dish: Straight from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, Blake Royer delved in the braised winter squash with garlic, a nice deviation from other recipes that use squash in soups and casseroles.

Let Them Eat Cake: Or at least let them eat Cindy's (of Hungry Girl Por Vida blog) decedent and pretty jam cake.

Salad in January: Maybe salad doesn't sound so good in the throes of the cold season, but Meat Lite's Joy Manning dishes up a warm winter salad complete with Brussels sprouts and butternut squash.

Spicy Slaw: Fat-free and zesty, this Vietnamese spicy cabbage and chicken salad from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen is great for that first potluck of 2009.

Pink Pasta: Nick Kindelsperger may have mistakenly turned Bon Appétit's ziti with skillet-roasted root vegetables a fun rosy shade, but he said it still tasted great.