Friday Favorites from Cooking Classy, Ambitious Kitchen and More

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Happy Valentines Day! I hope that you had a wonderful week. Mine was fabulous. I spent the week hiking and having fun with my grand-kids in Arizona. I arrived home late yesterday and I am ready settle back into my routine this weekend.

I hope that you enjoy my finds this week and that you share yours as well.

Food

I think this Chicken Cordon Bleu from Cooking Classy would be delicious for Valentine’s Day!

Or you could make this Cilantro Pistachio Shrimp Pasta from Ambitious Kitchen.

Just in case you want to bake a sweet treat for your Valentine, this Chocolate Cake with Fudge Filling and White Butter Cream frosting is scrumptious!

As are these sugar cookies.

A tray of Bite Sized S’mores would be delicious too!

Articles

Rediscover Your Local Library

Why Celebrating Other Women Makes You More Successful

Incredible Natural Wonders of Europe.

If you like beer and dogs you will love this!

Interesting Art

The Lifesaving Food 90% of Us are Not Getting Enough Of

Why Airlines Make Flight Times Longer On Purpose

Movies

Fans of Ralph Lauren will enjoy Very Ralph. 

Honeyland. I have not stopped thinking about this movie since I watched it. 

Books

A Jane Austen Education

In A Jane Austen Education, Austen scholar William Deresiewicz turns to the author’s novels to reveal the remarkable life lessons hidden within. With humor and candor, Deresiewicz employs his own experiences to demonstrate the enduring power of Austen’s teachings. Progressing from his days as an immature student to a happily married man, Deresiewicz’s A Jane Austen Education is the story of one man’s discovery of the world outside himself. 

A self-styled intellectual rebel dedicated to writers such as James Joyce and Joseph Conrad, Deresiewicz never thought Austen’s novels would have anything to offer him. But when he was assigned to read Emma as a graduate student at Columbia, something extraordinary happened. Austen’s devotion to the everyday, and her belief in the value of ordinary lives, ignited something in Deresiewicz. He began viewing the world through Austen’s eyes and treating those around him as generously as Austen treated her characters. Along the way, Deresiewicz was amazed to discover that the people in his life developed the depth and richness of literary characters-that his own life had suddenly acquired all the fascination of a novel. His real education had finally begun. 

Weaving his own story-and Austen’s-around the ones her novels tell, Deresiewicz shows how her books are both about education and themselves an education. Her heroines learn about friendship and feeling, staying young and being good, and, of course, love. As they grow up, they learn lessons that are imparted to Austen’s reader, who learns and grows by their sides. 

A Jane Austen Education is a testament to the transformative power of literature, a celebration of Austen’s mastery, and a joy to read. Whether for a newcomer to Austen or a lifelong devotee, Deresiewicz brings fresh insights to the novelist and her beloved works. Ultimately, Austen’s world becomes indelibly entwined with our own, showing the relevance of her message and the triumph of her vision.

The Light We Lost

He was the first person to inspire her, to move her, to truly understand her. Was he meant to be the last?

Lucy is faced with a life-altering choice. But before she can make her decision, she must start her story—their story—at the very beginning.

Lucy and Gabe meet as seniors at Columbia University on a day that changes both of their lives forever. Together, they decide they want their lives to mean something, to matter. When they meet again a year later, it seems fated—perhaps they’ll find life’s meaning in each other. But then Gabe becomes a photojournalist assigned to the Middle East and Lucy pursues a career in New York. What follows is a thirteen-year journey of dreams, desires, jealousies, betrayals, and, ultimately, of love. Was it fate that brought them together? Is it choice that has kept them away? Their journey takes Lucy and Gabe continents apart, but never out of each other’s hearts.

This devastatingly romantic debut novel about the enduring power of first love, with a shocking, unforgettable ending, is Love Story for a new generation.

Ferney (One of my favorite books)

One of the most brilliant timeslip novels ever written,Ferney will appeal to fans of The Time Traveller’s Wife and Life After Life. When Mike and Gally Martin move to a cottage in Somerset, it’s to make a new start. But the relationship comes under strain when Gally forms an increasingly close attachment to an old countryman, Ferney, who seems to know everything about her. What is it that draws them together? Reluctantly at first, then with more urgency as he feels time slipping away, Ferney compels Gally to understand their connection – and to face an inexplicable truth about their shared past. A passionate love story that spans the centuries, fall under the spell of Ferney.

That is it for this week! I hope that you have a wonderful Valentine’s day and I hope that you find yourself surround by love, the love of family and friends.