Despite all my photos of Bear in bed…he is not always sleeping. He maintains the Beardog watch from time to time.

It is Christmas weekend! Christmas weekend is like Birthday month…indulgences galore for the duration!

Huckleberry Kolaches thawed while I made green chile gravy to be used for my Christmas morning breakfast. And a caramel latte kept me company while I stirred.

After we were all fed, Bear and I headed to town to pick up just a few things I wanted and to have a walk along the way.

Today, we walked on a road that leads to a wildlife area. The road runs from the highway to a spot on the north shore of Flathead Lake. There is a spot to put the Jeep out of the way, about halfway. It is not a walk we typically do during the week so a special weekend diversion of unusual smells and sights.

It was above freezing, the sun was trying to come out…therefore mist and fog.

The walk, the Jeep ride, the shopping…

It wears a beardog out!

Bob was napping also and rather objected to me turning on a light…

I didn’t go for a nap, but a bowl of soup sounded good before I started on some afternoon projects. You can’t see the meatloaf, but there are cubes of meatloaf in this soup. This soup is a kind of Italian Wedding soup using leftover meatloaf cubes in place of meatballs. The broth was some leftover pesto and chicken broth. Orzo for the pasta and carrots and leeks for the vegetables. Refrigerator (all leftover stuff in the refrigerator) Italian Wedding Soup!

One afternoon project was a fennel-leek-broccoli gratin. The first step was parboiling the veg and as I strained the veg, the broth smelled so good and looked so pretty…I froze it for use in soup some day.

The gratin was a success. Fennel, leeks, broccoli, cashew cream, gruyere, an egg and breadcrumbs with parmesan on top.

Done for the day and indulging in a read of the Mountain Trader…Bear near and Bob in the sunroom.

Snippets from Saturday: Christmas weekend.