A few years ago, some friends from our church brought over a container of…I didn’t even know what to call it.  Was it a side dish?  A salad?  A snack?  A hot or cold cereal?  But you don’t ask those kinds of questions when someone is offering you a homemade gift.  What they did say was this was a family favorite and some members of their family like it with maple syrup – pomegranate barley salad. When I opened the lid of the container, I took a visual inventory of all of the ingredients…  barley, pomegranate seeds, chocolate chips, and walnuts.  Hmmm…okay.  Interesting.   I got a spoon out of the drawer and tried it.  I wasn’t sure if I liked it at first.  The contrast of textures and flavors wasn’t something I had ever experienced.  But, I kept going back for more and I realized that I really liked it!

I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to make gingerbread this year because of my healing shoulder.  Rolling out dough that’s been refrigerated overnight is not a one-arm kind of job!  But, my friend, Cheri, volunteered to make gingerbread with me, so she could do the rolling and I could share some of my gingerbread house success tips with her.  While I was sharing my tips with her, I thought I would turn the camera on and share them with you as well! Both Cheri and I made our dough the day before and refrigerated it.  We then got together at her house to make and decorate the cookies and houses together. Her house is so pretty!  She lives in a split level, which is such a challenging layout, and she did an amazing job making the house flow.  My favorite corner is this space just off her kitchen with