Spunkygal

The collar is striking on him! 😍

Excellent post and I agree about both Philli and Santosh! Jay was, as always, funny when he remarked that he didn’t want to play a party game with her flow chart. Wasn’t it Philli who had the overwhelming basil oil on a dish (a dessert)? And regarding Santosh, I am easily overwhelmed by cuisines that offer too many choices. I recently concluded watching the Family Cooking Showdown or whatever it is called and so many of those families offered numerous little dishes of this and that just like Santosh does. Yes, it all looks tasty but I don’t want all that. I would prefer Bart’s sole dish over all the other dishes. Jamie’s dishes looked good, too, even the chicken breast wrapped in haggis. After enough wine, I might even be willing to try his haggis! However, I got the feeling from the beginning that Santosh would win. It was impressive when Jay said he had been a judge for a decade and that that was the best day he’d ever judged. Yet another satisfying episode from one of my top three favorite shows.

Private message me if you haven’t found the entire episode and I will send you a link. My DVR cut off 30 minutes before the end but I went to my reliable source for British shows and they had the entire episode.

Give Mo a Merry Christmas smooch from his internet fans! 🎄🎄🎄🍾🍾

Be sure to check out his IG page! As you can imagine, so many amazing creations and one of my recent faves is him creating a gorgeous reindeer and sleigh.

I wish that Bakers in Toyland had executed the bottom half of their presentation better. It got so muddled near the gorgeous flames and the “smoke.” They were spectacular all season and should have crushed the finale. That elf hanging off the back was darling and I loved Santa’s face! Dough Babies were smart in having Santa sit in the spaceship so they only had to construct the upper half of his body. Those gifts should have been cleaner. I’m rooting for the Halloween Wars champs over Dough Babies next week. Hope you fellow Wars watchers have a safe and happy Christmas!

Thank you for your kind reply! I will PM you with some ideas but remember, YOU are the alpha dog in the house. Just like children, pups need structured, loving discipline. I think that Mo thinks he is the boss.

He is so adorable and cheeky, but there is NO WAY I’d put up with that biting, especially since he draws blood. IMO (which no one solicited), that is a very bad habit for a dog. I would have squashed that by day three. I know I’ve spoken out of turn, but there it is. I won’t say any more.

“On December 26, the reigning champions of Halloween Wars and Holiday Wars face off in a New Year’s themed battle involving team mascots and champagne inspired cakes. The winning team gets a trip to NYC for the biggest NYE party in the world.” Airs December 26 at 8 pm CT.

@TVbitch, I do agree that Liam cooks with passion, but I wouldn’t say he cooks with smiles like Aaron does. He’s so intense! Regarding the mistakes in Marcus’s dish, I can see the error in missing the langoustine/lobster(?) vein, but the cling wrap? Oy! I may have shared this story before but in a restaurant in Glenwood Springs CO, I ordered a grilled chicken sammy for lunch. When I lifted the top bun to squirt on the mustard, the plastic bread tab from the bag of buns was on the chicken breast! How does that happen? So I have no sympathy for a non-food item being in a dish. It took a while for me to warm up to Dan and several times I thought he was a goner. But his cute family were so endearing. I don’t know anything about a bonus episode, but, yes please! Helpful tip on the bread tab: use them to tag the cords of your devices when you have lots of stuff in a power strip. Get a sharpie and write laptop, printer, scanner, DVR, etc., and then fit it around each cord near the strip. That way if you have to unplug one item, you don’t have to fiddle around to see which is which! You’re welcome! 🤣

Coincidentally, we just spent a long weekend in Bentonville last week and it is a beautiful area. I have never been to Arkansas and have wanted to go to the Crystal Bridges Museum (a brainchild of Alice Walton’s) for many years after hearing people rave about it. The museum did not disappoint. The architecture and setting of the museum alone were just as impressive as the art. I would definitely go back. We assumed that since Fixer to Fabulous is based there that the charming town square would have lots of cute boutique shops. While the square did have lots of wonderful restaurants, there were few boutiques. But there were quite a number of shops related to cycling gear! The cute boutiques are several streets away from the square. This picture of the square with Christmas lights does not do it justice: https://www.visitbentonville.com The area is so lovely and has challenging cycling terrain. We rented a cute VRBO and the house binder had tons of cycling trail info. Anyways, it looked like a cute place to raise a family. I didn’t really understand the HH’s motives for moving there, but whatever!

I didn’t want to watch the finale because I don’t want it to be over!

Not that surprised who made the final three, although I wish they had allowed for four so that could have gotten through too. It was great seeing Michel Roux’s daughter Emily at The Dorchester. She really does resemble him. Michel is my pretend BF but Jean-Phillipe is a close second!

Now we’re whittling down the chefs so I can better remember who is who! Episode 17:

I enjoyed the winter in the woodlands theme and all those adorable creatures! I thought the creatures in the spa would win. But I’m not mad that the urban creatures won. A great episode all around.

There’s no question that the right team went home. Those characters were scary! But I liked the “lead” lady on that team. And yay that the episode had a more festive theme than aliens or other nonsense. If the 12 Days of Christmas team had used characters other than the boring, stiff gingerbread couple, they probably would have won. That tree and those ornaments were darling.

I agree, especially when Noel said that Rahul made his daughter’s birthday cake. Should that have even been mentioned? I was rooting for Nancy, she turned 21 in 1975 and I turned 18 that same year and we are both bad asses! I’d happily share a gin and tonic with her.

They seem like nice ladies, but Aarti and Maneet don’t work for me on this show. I know Jonathan was filming a Hallmark Christmas movie this year which may have interfered with him returning to host this show, but I miss him. Maybe Jason Smith is staying close to home due to COVID precautions, but Ron Ben-Israel is a judge on The Big Bake, so get that twinkly-eyed cutie as a judge. He is actually a brilliant professional baker! Get John Henson to host. He did the Halloween Baking Championship. Although she hasn’t appeared on this franchise of shows (i.e., the “Wars” shows), see if Gesine would be a judge. I know that FN must have it in their contract that chefs have to participate in X number of shows, but this is not the right one for the two ladies mentioned above.

Episodes 13/14:

She randomly popped up on my IG feed and says that they will start filming season 2 at the end of January and it will air next summer. Eh, I guess I’ll watch again but will watch the initial walk-through and then FF to see the end result.

Me too! I like Marilyn but she needs to seriously up her decorating game.

The winning team tonight had an impressive display but I wouldn’t have called it a greenhouse. Maybe a conservatory? Or an atrium? But they deserved the win. The lodge house display was cute but not executed that great. And then we get to Alex asleep in bed. Creepy! Alex had a big head stuck near the bottom of the bed. With no room for a body. They should have scaled the head down a little and made more of an effort to shape a body under that fabulous quilt (which was genius.) I guess I need to go google Breegan Jane. I know they say she’s a interior designer but she just seems like a random choice as a judge.

I’m excited to see what the next episode brings with the challenge of “bringing the story of an iconic carol to life.” Maybe we’ll get some charming, snowy displays. And I want a Rudolph challenge so hopefully it’s about him!

We have a local restaurant whose menu is basically just sweet and savory soufflés and they are amazing. My favorites are either the spinach or the ham and gruyere for savory and the grand marnier or the chocolate for sweet. Oh and when they serve the sweet ones alongside a little pot of sauce, they puncture the center with a spoon and pour that sauce in there…..oh my eyes roll back in my head every time. They also have a rotating menu of soufflés made with seasonal ingredients. Since that, and a few salads and soup, is all they serve, the wait time for your dish is really quite reasonable. One of their soups is called marshmallow soup (because of the color) but it is really a cream of garlic soup which is sublime.