Friday Favorites and This & That

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Good morning friends, it is has been a surreal week in this country, it is hard to believe the first 6 days of 2021 already seem worse than 2020. I have high hopes for better days ahead. In the meantime, it is Friday and that means “Friday Favorites” here on the blog. I found many interesting articles, books and of course food to share with you this week so grab your coffee, tea or whatever else you like and lets get to it. 

Food

It is hot chocolate season and this recipe from Mast Brother’s is one of my favorites. 

I am still eating Christmas cookies but I am also adding a few of my favorite salads to the menu, this Roasted Beet, apple and blue cheese salad topped with pecans is one of my favorites. 

Aside from pizza anything with noodles is “my favorite food” these Sesame Noodles from Two Peas and Their Pod look easy and delicious!

And if you like noodles in your soup, this recipe for Vegetable Tortellini Soup from Modern Honey. 

Interesting Articles

Why We Make Resolutions and Why They Fail

13 Tips to Cleanse Your Life

If you need advice for 2021 This is an interesting Podcast.

 11 Benefits of Sleeping Naked: Why it Might Be the Healthier Choice.

If one of your goals this year is weight loss, This is the Best Overall Diet(Again).

60 Healthy Breakfast Ideas When You Don’t Have Time To Eat( from Foodie Crush)

10 Things to Remember When Everything Is Out of Your Reach

What if There is Beauty on The Other-side of Your Pain?

The Link Between Covid-19 and Sleep

How to Organize Your Photos(According to the Experts)

Declutter These 52 Things From Your Life Today

How to Live Life Intentionally

A Man Spends Every Day For 40 Years Planting Trees on a Barren Island and NOW It is a Forest

French Designer Pierre Cardin Dies at Age 98

It’s never too late, How a Retired Teachers Hobby Led to the Discovery of 20 New Species of Fungi

I know that many people are watching Bridgerton(I read the books years ago, what can I say, I love a good romance) if you are looking for something else to binge watch here is a list of 67 shows you might enjoy. I will be honest, I’ve never watched any of them, I rarely watch tv  because I prefer to read or watch a good movie. 

Books

Looking forward to my copy of Wild Sweetness! 

From the creator of the award-winning food blog, Butter and Brioche, comes a unique and beautifully designed full-color cookbook that brings wild flavors to desserts as told through the seasons. 

In Wild Sweetness, Thalia Ho captures the essence of the wild, and re-imagines it on the plate. She guides us through a tale of six distinct seasons and the flavors inspired by them: of bright, herbaceous new life in spring, to the aromatic florals that follow, of bursting summer berries, over-ripe fruit, warmth and spice in fall, then ending with winter and its smolder.

In more than 95 recipes, Thalia opens our eyes and taste buds to a celebration of what the wild has to offer—a world of sweet escapism, using flavor to heighten our experience of food. Enthralling, unique, and inspired recipes you’ll want to cook over and over again. 

Also pre-ordered The Fire Keeper’s Daughter which is the debut novel of my cousin Angeline Boulley. 

In Firekeeper’s Daughter, debut author Angeline Boulley crafts a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community, for readers of Angie Thomas and Tommy Orange. 

Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team.

Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug. 

Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims.

Now, as the deceptions―and deaths―keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.

I am reading The Heiress A Pride and Prejudice Novel. 

As a fussy baby, Anne de Bourgh’s doctor prescribed laudanum to quiet her, and now the young woman must take the opium-heavy tincture every day. Growing up sheltered and confined, removed from sunshine and fresh air, the pale and overly slender Anne grew up with few companions except her cousins, including Fitzwilliam Darcy. Throughout their childhoods, it was understood that Darcy and Anne would marry and combine their vast estates of Pemberley and Rosings. But Darcy does not love Anne or want her.

After her father dies unexpectedly, leaving her his vast fortune, Anne has a moment of clarity: what if her life of fragility and illness isn’t truly real? What if she could free herself from the medicine that clouds her sharp mind and leaves her body weak and lethargic? Might there be a better life without the medicine she has been told she cannot live without?

In a frenzy of desperation, Anne discards her laudanum and flees to the London home of her cousin, Colonel John Fitzwilliam, who helps her through her painful recovery. Yet once she returns to health, new challenges await. Shy and utterly inexperienced, the wealthy heiress must forge a new identity for herself, learning to navigate a “season” in society and the complexities of love and passion. The once wan, passive Anne gives way to a braver woman with a keen edge—leading to a powerful reckoning with the domineering mother determined to control Anne’s fortune . . . and her life.

An extraordinary tale of one woman’s liberation, The Heiress reveals both the darkness and light in Austen’s world, with wit, sensuality, and a deeply compassionate understanding of the human heart.

And last but not least, I read Ms. Engles over this past weekend. 

Very little is known about Lizzie Burns, the illiterate Irishwoman and longtime lover of Frederick Engels, coauthor of The Communist Manifesto. In Gavin McCrea’s debut novel, Lizzie is finally given a voice that won’t be forgotten.

Lizzie is a poor worker in the Manchester, England, mill that Frederick owns. When they move to London to be closer to Karl Marx and family, she must learn to navigate the complex landscapes of Victorian society. We are privy to Lizzie’s intimate, wry views on Marx and Engels’s mission to spur revolution among the working classes, and to her ambivalence toward her newly circumstances.

Yet despite their profound differences, Lizzie and Frederick are drawn together in this high–spirited love story.

If you would like more books suggestions from previous posts visit My Books Club Board on Pinterest.

Finds

If you missed out on this dress from Draper James at Christmas is now on sale for $69!

Cute sweater from The Loft. 

Are you a waffle lover? Me too but I I only eat them once in a blue moon and don’t like the ones that are the size of a dinner plate. I received this mini-waffle iron for Christmas and I love it! It is $10 and it makes waffles about the size of a tea cup saucer which in my opinion is the perfect size. Target also has a heart shaped one for Valentine’s day.

That is it for this week my friends. I hope that you have a happy and safe weekend. Before you go please don’t forget to share your favorite recipes, books, podcasts or whatever else you enjoyed this week. 

Happy weekend.