Both of those sound really good, Slothrop.
Last night I made a metric fuckton of tagine with neck of lamb, apricots and butternut squash. I used several spice blends that we got as presents a few years ago from my de-facto brother-in-law. Unfortunately the names that he'd written on the jars (in English and Arabic, because he is a smarty-pants) had worn off, so I was going on look and smell, but they all that characteristic Moroccan smell to them, indicating a spiciness that is warm rather than hot: main notes being cinnamon, coriander, cumin and some (not loads of) red chili. It amazes me how a subtropical country like Morocco produced a cuisine that is so well suited to northern Europe in the winter. Although I guess much of it is pretty mountainous and probably gets quite nippy at times. Anyway, I chucked a bit of all of them in and it was really tasty. I love how lamb fat goes when cooked - it's definitely the best fat, in fact the only kind where just eating a lump of it is really nice, in a way that pork or beef fat isn't.
Tonight was cheesy past bake. All the favourites: bacon, ceps, walnuts and broccoli. The mushrooms do double duty because you can use the water they've been soaked in as part of the liquid for the cheese sauce. The sauce also had mustard in it. Experimented a bit by chucking in some chunks of stilton in addition to the grated cheddar, which worked pretty well.
God I fucking love winter cooking.