Turkey barley soup, our Advent calendars

My honey left for golf around 10 AM on Wednesday (12/6), even though there was a 20 minute FROST delay!!! By then I was SKYPE-ing with Janice….I can’t believe I will see her and Dennis tomorrow!!! We finished up, and I had a bit of breakfast and tried to knock out a few emails before leaving for my massage. My massage was heaven (as always) and I stopped at the grocery store for just a few things on my way home. Our kitchen island has been a disaster ever since I started making candy…..and I will not have any time to clean it tomorrow, and my Christmas Tea is on Friday, so I started to work on finding places to hide all of my supplies until after the tea :~).

My honey came home around 4 PM….totally frozen, so he had some raspberry hot chocolate (with a shot of schnapps) while I headed to the basement to get my blog out. I want to have soup in the crockpot tomorrow, but I will be leaving before 7 AM for a doctor’s appointment in the morning before quilting, so I threw some carrots in the crockpot, along with some fresh rosemary:

I fried up a mess of onions and celery and some garlic:

and added in some herbs and barley:

and some homemade stock from the freezer and put the whole crockpot out on the lanair overnight. Michael can start it up tomorrow morning while I’m at quilting, and I'll add in the cooked turkey just before serving.

I know we're a little late, but we decided to celebrate the start of the Christmas season:

and we've recently gotten into watching BEAT BOBBY FLAY Holiday Edition, so that's how we spent the rest of the evening.

And BG complained that she wasn't getting to see our Advent calendars....so here you go:

So, I recently finished a book I got for Michael, probably 2 years ago for Christmas…the title is PROJECT HAIL MARY and the author is Andy Weir….Michael finally read it earlier this year…and I just finished it. I LOVED this book! Yes, it is science fiction, but it is so much more than that…it is just great story telling. If the library has it…I urge you to give it a try….if you’re not as into the science-y stuff as I am…you could skip over those parts….you’ll still appreciate the story. It IS available in our local library.

And 10 years ago today….some familiar faces: https://foodandfiberfloozie.blogspot.com/2013/12/artisan-bread-parfait-loree-reg.html

*** It's 1967, HOLLYWOOD SQUARES is on…I'm 9 years old. My mom and dad are roaring with laughter and I don't understand what's so funny.

Q. According to Cosmopolitan, if you meet a stranger at a party and you think that he is attractive, is it okay to come out and ask him if he's married?

A.Rose Marie: No, wait until the morning.

Q. What are 'Do It,' 'I Can Help,' and 'I Can't Get Enough'?

A.George Gobel: I don't know, but it's coming from the next apartment. ***