Welcome to Friday Favorites, a weekly series where I share interesting articles, books, fashion finds, recipes and more.
Good Friday Favorites, Black Friday morning to you! Did you have a nice Thanksgiving(if you celebrated)? We had a wonderful and busy day.
The day started off early at the blessing of the hounds, a tradition in these parts for many, many years. After a morning of mimosas, cinnamon rolls, and ham and biscuits while enjoying the horses and hounds we headed home to cook.
Or course all of the traditional favorites were on the menu, pumpkin pie, turkey, corn pudding, wild rice, mashed potatoes, broccoli, green bean casserole, rolls, stuffing and a few things I am forgetting. Then a few rounds of dominos before we all went to rest and read a bit before bed.
Leftovers will be on the menu today, after that I am usually tired of turkey.
Today is Black Friday, will you be shopping? I have already purchased a few things at J.Crew, H&M and Amazon this morning.
I have lots to share, a few recipes for leftovers, some books for gifts, and of course the Black Friday Sales.
Friday Favorites No. 508
Food

Image foxes love lemons
Use up your leftover potatoes and make these delicious potato cakes.

Image Savor the Best
Turkey soup, easy and delicious. I wonder if turkey soup is as good for colds as chicken soup?
Tired of turkey? Take it easy and make slow cooker black bean soup.
Cranberry sauce muffins are a sweet treat that you can make using your leftover sauce.
I am starting to bake Christmas cookies this week and I discovered this recipe on Pinterest, whipped shortbread cookies four ways!
Link Love
11 Tasty Regional Thanksgiving Food Words
How to Keep Leftovers Delicious (and Safe) Extend your Thanksgiving feast and everyday meals
Holiday Traditions Aren’t Set in Stone
Amazon Alexa Is a “Colossal Failure,” on Pace to Lose $10 Billion This Year
How disappointed Taylor Swift fans explain Ticketmaster’s monopoly
The 25 Travel Experiences You Must Have
How The Woks of Life Forever Shaped Chinese Cooking in America
Shuteye and Sleep Hygiene: The Truth About Why You Keep Waking Up at 3 a.m.
When — and How — to Say No to Extra Work
I would love to see the Northern lights.
How to cook and eat well when food is more expensive than ever
Books
This is a fabulous cookbook to give as a holiday gift. I have mentioned it before but I am a huge fan of Deb, her books, and her blog.
Deb Perelman is the author of two best-selling cookbooks; one of the internet’s most successful food bloggers; the creator of a homegrown brand with more than a million Instagram followers; and the self-taught cook with the tiny kitchen who obsessively tests her recipes to make sure that no bowls are wasted and that the results are always worth the effort.
Here, in her third book, Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics for Your Forever Files, Perelman gives us 100 recipes (including a few favorites from her site) that aim to make shopping easier, preparation more practical and enjoyable, and food more reliably delicious for the home cook.
If you enjoyed the NYTime Bestseller The Fire Keepers Daughter, make sure to pre-order Warrior Girl Unearthed.
For millennia the location of the Nile River’s headwaters was shrouded in mystery. In the 19th century, there was a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt. At the same time, European powers sent off waves of explorations intended to map the unknown corners of the globe – and extend their colonial empires.
Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke were sent by the Royal Geographical Society to claim the prize for England. Burton spoke twenty-nine languages, and was a decorated soldier. He was also mercurial, subtle, and an iconoclastic atheist. Speke was a young aristocrat and Army officer determined to make his mark, passionate about hunting, Burton’s opposite in temperament and beliefs.
From the start the two men clashed. They would endure tremendous hardships, illness, and constant setbacks. Two years in, deep in the African interior, Burton became too sick to press on, but Speke did, and claimed he found the source in a great lake that he christened Lake Victoria. When they returned to England, Speke rushed to take credit, disparaging Burton. Burton disputed his claim, and Speke launched another expedition to Africa to prove it. The two became venomous enemies, with the public siding with the more charismatic Burton, to Speke’s great envy. The day before they were to publicly debate,Speke shot himself.
Yet there was a third man on both expeditions, his name obscured by imperial annals, whose exploits were even more extraordinary. This was Sidi Mubarak Bombay, who was enslaved and shipped from his home village in East Africa to India. When the man who purchased him died, he made his way into the local Sultan’s army, and eventually traveled back to Africa, where he used his resourcefulness, linguistic prowess and raw courage to forge a living as a guide. Without Bombay and men like him, who led, carried, and protected the expedition, neither Englishman would have come close to the headwaters of the Nile, or perhaps even survived.
I ordered this book for myself and for Christmas books. It is a beautiful book filled with beautiful photos, recipes and so much more. Francophiles will love this book.
An American in Provence is a beautiful collection of exquisite portrait, scenic, and still-life photography from wildly popular and award-winning photographer Jamie Beck. Looking to slow down from her fast-paced life in New York City, Beck moved to the French countryside documenting her life as “An American in Provence.” What started as a one-year getaway became five as she continues to chronicle her life there through her photography on Instagram @JamieBeck.co, including the birth of her daughter, Eloise, all in the most breathtaking way.
In An American in Provence, Beck shares her tips and techniques for creating incredible photos and details her transformational journey as an artist and woman. Beck also includes farm-to-table recipes she’s learned along the way, including Braised Beef Stew, Spring Chicken with Herbs de Provence, Fresh Tagliatelle Pasta with Spring Asparagus, and Lemon Meringue Tart. This stunning visual journey is sure to delight anyone who wishes to escape reality and immerse themselves in life in Provence.
The Velveteen Rabbit, 100th Anniversary Edition
A cherished, 100-year-old classic gets a fresh and breathtaking new look with brilliant art by Caldecott Medal winner Erin Stead, who has cited this story as an influence on her acclaimed career.
At first a brand-new toy, now a threadbare and discarded nursery relic, the velveteen rabbit is saved from peril by a magic fairy who whisks him away to the idyllic world of Rabbitland. There, he becomes “Real,” a cherished childhood companion who will be loved for eternity. Treasured for generations, and given new life from one of today’s most exciting children’s book creators, here is a timeless tale about the magic of boundless love.
Finds~ Black Friday Sales
Amazon ~Oliplex 20%,(one of my favorites) and so much more on sale
Anthropologie~ 30% OFF Everything + EXTRA 40% Off SALE
Boden~ 40% off select items + 20% off full price items with code S8P2
H&M~ 30% off everything
J. Crew~ 50% off everything! I LOVE this dress!
Nordstrom~ so many great pieces on sale but my favorites are the Barbour coats!
Sephora ~ 50% off Black Friday Favorites
Serena & Lily~ 25% OFF Sitewide + Free Shipping
Talbots~ 50% off 1 item(until noon) 40%off entire order
Books for Kids
Toys for Kids
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
I’ve “opened” a Holiday Shop on the blog. You can find Christmas decor including trees, wreaths, pillows and more. You can also find holiday outfits, plaid finds and so much more.
Gifts Guides for Anglophiles, Bibliophiles and Francophiles
UNTIL TOMORROW
Have a great day friends, I hope you found something to read, make or enjoy on Friday Favorites. Thank you for spending part of your day with me, I really appreciate it. I hope to see you back here tomorrow for Weekend Meanderings with Kim and Juliet!
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Smitten Kitchen is my partner’s go-to for recipes online. I had no idea there were cookbooks. That’s a present sorted!
Rachel, there are so many great recipes in the cookbooks, you will love them.