Friday Favorites No. 514 from Delish, Modern Honey, Creme de la Crumb and More.

Welcome to Friday Favorites, a weekly series where I share interesting articles, books, fashion finds, recipes and more.

Good Friday Favorites morning to you friends. How was the first week of 2023 for you? I’ll be honest, I was tired this week and didn’t jump into the new year with much gusto. I think I enjoyed my staycation a little too much last week and was feeling very lethargic.

On the home front, we finally have heat. Our new compressor arrived and was installed yesterday. If you missed it, our heat went out on the morning of Christmas Eve and hasn’t really been working since. Thankfully we have had unseasonably warm weather and with a few additional layers on the cold days we were fine. This week the weather is going back to normal so it is nice to know that we will be warm.

I spent the week catching up on work and taking an online class. Tomorrow I will be in the kitchen trying some recipes from my Christmas gift cookbooks and making these pecan praline rolls.

Now, on to Friday favorites, I have lots to share today, tasty recipes, a copycat Starbucks drink, some great books, lots of links you may have missed and so much more.

Friday Favorites No. 514

Food

If you are swearing off carbs this month, bookmark this scrumptious recipe for later, Poole’s Diner Macaroni and cheese. 

Tonight I am making this 15 minute honey chicken, it looks better than take-out!

If you are looking for an easy hearty soup try this slow cooker black bean soup.

Bring the taste of summer and the Mediterranean to your winter table with this chopped Greek salad.

Don’t these brownies look delicious? They are one of The 14 best recipes to bake in January according to King Arthur.

Do you like Vanilla Bean Frappuccino? Now you can make them at home!

Links

Have you ever dreamed of taking time to do a creative residency to write, photograph, paint, draw? Now is your chance, you can spend 4 days or 4 weeks in France. Read the details and apply now. 

Here’s Where You Need to Travel in 2023, Based on Your Zodiac Sign

The NY Times Happiness Challenge

A graceful Georgian rectory set in five acres of gentle Gloucestershire landscape

Have you ever wanted to have a cabin off grid? If so, you will love this house in Lapland.

A new generation discovers that it’s hard to balance work with a well-lived life.

Is Modern Life Ruining Our Powers of Concentration?

The 50 Best Places to Travel in 2023

Everything You Need to Get Started on the Right Foot for Dry January

Favorite Plant-Based Recipes You’ll Want to Eat on Repeat

Winter Fruits & Vegetables in the South

Waste Not, Want Not

Books

This week I am sharing a few books that have been recommended to me several times over the past few weeks. I will definitely not be reading the scary one but you might like it. The others are on my Kindle waiting to be read or on order at the library.

Trespasses

Set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a shattering novel about a young woman caught between allegiance to community and a dangerous passion.

Amid daily reports of violence, Cushla lives a quiet life with her mother in a small town near Belfast. By day she teaches at a parochial school; at night she fills in at her family’s pub. There she meets Michael Agnew, a barrister who’s made a name for himself defending IRA members. Against her better judgment – Michael is not only Protestant but older, and married – Cushla lets herself get drawn in by him and his sophisticated world, and an affair ignites. Then the father of a student is savagely beaten, setting in motion a chain reaction that will threaten everything, and everyone, Cushla most wants to protect.
 
As tender as it is unflinching, Trespasses is a heart-pounding, heart-rending drama of thwarted love and irreconcilable loyalties, in a place what you come from seems to count more than what you do, or whom you cherish.

The Villa

As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.

Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce’s girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album––and ends in Pierce’s brutal murder.

As Emily digs into the villa’s complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce’s murder wasn’t just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred––and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind.

Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge––and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends.

Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron at a Lake Geneva castle––the birthplace of Frankenstein––The Villa welcomes you into its deadly legacy.

I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You

In this reverse love story set in Paris and London, which The Wall Street Journal hailed as “funny and soulful…immediately appealing,” a failed monogamist attempts to woo his wife back and to answer the question: Is it really possible to fall back in love with your spouse?

Despite the success of his first solo show in Paris and the support of his brilliant French wife and young daughter, thirty-four-year-old British artist Richard Haddon is too busy mourning the loss of his American mistress to a famous cutlery designer to appreciate his fortune.

But after Richard discovers that a painting he originally made for his wife, Anne—when they were first married and deeply in love—has sold, it shocks him back to reality and he resolves to reinvest wholeheartedly in his family life…just in time for his wife to learn the extent of his affair. Rudderless and remorseful, Richard embarks on a series of misguided attempts to win Anne back while focusing his creative energy on a provocative art piece to prove that he’s still the man she once loved.

Skillfully balancing biting wit with a deep emotional undercurrent, this “charming and engrossing portrait of one man’s midlife crisis” (Elle) creates the perfect picture of an imperfect family—and a heartfelt exploration of marriage, love, and fidelity.

The Mitford Affair

Between the World Wars, the six Mitford sisters―each more beautiful, brilliant, and eccentric than the next―dominate the English political, literary, and social scenes. Though they’ve weathered scandals before, the family falls into disarray when Diana divorces her wealthy husband to marry a fascist leader and Unity follows her sister’s lead all the way to Munich, inciting rumors that she’s become Hitler’s mistress.

As the Nazis rise in power, novelist Nancy Mitford grows suspicious of her sisters’ constant visits to Germany and the high-ranking fascist company they keep. When she overhears alarming conversations and uncovers disquieting documents, Nancy must make excruciating choices as Great Britain goes to war with Germany.

Probing the torrid political climate in the lead-up to World War II and the ways that seemingly sensible people can be sucked into radical action, The Mitford Affair follows Nancy’s valiant efforts to stop the Nazis from taking over Great Britain, and the complicated choices she must make between the personal and the political.

Finds

Outfit of the day

Outfit details: earrings//black and white dress//boots//handbag//nail polish//lipstick

Have you been shopping the after Christmas sales?

I have a few things in my cart at Pottery Barn, including this embroidered table runner and these cute mugs.

Talbots is having its biggest sale of the season, including new pieces like this beautiful bracelet (they have matching earrings) and all of their winter items. Now is the time to get yourself a little bling!

Anthropologie, if you missed out on any holiday finds or outfits they are on sale for 50% off the sale price!

Boden has so many beautiful pieces still available and you get an extra 30% off.

Looking for some faux topiary for your front porch? I just found these for 1/2 price!

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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 always appreciate it. If you have missed a Friday Favorites post you can find them all here. 

 I hope to see you back here tomorrow for Weekend Meanderings with Kim and Juliet, our first post of 2023!

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