Friday Favorites~a weekly series where we share our favorite books, decor, fashion finds, recipes, podcasts, articles and more.
Friday Favorites No. 626
Good morning friends, happy Friday and happy Pi Day!
Did you have a good week? Were you able to see the see the penumbral eclipse? If you missed it set your clock because totality begins at 2:26am Eastern. I am not sure that I will be up early to see it but I am sure that there will be a lot of beautiful photos tomorrow morning.
What are your plans for the weekend? If you are in the central part of the states batten down the hatches there is rough weather ahead including tornados from Texas all the way to Minnesota.
It’s Pi Day! Pi (π) is the ratio of a circles circumference to its diameter, mathematical constant pi (π), which is usually rounded to 3.14, hence March 14th being the date to celebrate. Why not celebrate with a slice of your favorite pie?
Ok, on to my favorites from this week.
Food
Guinness Beef Stew, a rich stew tender fall apart beef and veggies served over mashed potatoes. Yummy!
Irish Mac and Cheese, yes please!
Irish scalloped potatoes with caramelized cabbage, leeks, garlic, and Irish cheddar cheese. I could eat this whole pan!
This is one of my all time favorite desserts, Banoffee Pie in a jar, bananas, whipped cream and caramel on a biscuit base.
LINKS TO READ+WATCH+LISTEN
What Do You Want More of In Your Life
The Blogger Who Upended a Murder Trial
30 Charts that show how the world changed in 2020
The US island that speaks Elizabethan English
Need help with meal planning? This post has so many great tips and ideas.
3 Daily Habits that Have Held Most of Us Back All Our Lives
What’s it like to live in a mews house?
Southwest Is Changing Its Bag Policy. You Won’t Like It.
The hidden world beneath the shadows of YouTube’s algorithm
Books
Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine
In 1845, European potato fields from Spain to Scandinavia were attacked by a novel pathogen. But it was only in Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom, that the blight’s devastation reached apocalyptic levels, leaving more than a million people dead and forcing millions more to emigrate.
In Rot, historian Padraic X. Scanlan offers the definitive account of the Great Famine, showing how Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom and the British Empire made it uniquely vulnerable to starvation. Ireland’s overreliance on the potato was a desperate adaptation to an unstable and unequal marketplace created by British colonialism. The empire’s laissez-faire economic policies saw Ireland exporting livestock and grain even as its people starved. When famine struck, relief efforts were premised on the idea that only free markets and wage labor could save the Irish. Ireland’s wretchedness, before and during the Great Famine, was often blamed on Irish backwardness, but in fact, it resulted from the British Empire’s embrace of modern capitalism.
Uncovering the disaster’s roots in Britain’s deep imperial faith in markets, commerce, and capitalism, Rot reshapes our understanding of the Great Famine and its tragic legacy.
A perfumer in Paris is forced to return to her California roots in an exhilarating novel about family, self-discovery, and taking risks by the author of The Candid Life of Meena Dave.
The daughter of proud Napa Valley hoteliers, Asha “Poppy” Patel chose a different line as a Paris perfumer, gifted with a nose for fragrances and business. Until her heightened sense of smell disappears. Her career in jeopardy, her world now muted, Poppy returns home. Maybe tending to her grandmother’s massive aromatic garden, where Poppy’s gift first flowered, will bring restorative hope.
But when she arrives, Poppy discovers that the land upon which the beautiful garden once thrived has been uprooted and destroyed. She realizes that the years she spent away from her home have loosened so many ties with the past. Torn between a mother who lives vicariously through her and a father who wants her to embrace her family’s legacy, Poppy is determined to chart her own path of rediscovery.
Poppy must juggle family drama, childhood friendships, and a former love to forge a future of her own choosing and, in time, heal an unscented life.
A Gilmore Girls meets Schitt’s Creek redemption romcom.
Hazel Hart was a successful romance novelist until a breakup drives her straight into writer’s block. Having failed (and failed some more) to deliver her new manuscript, she’s hiding from the world behind a wall of old takeout containers until her publisher lays down the law. If she misses her next deadline it’s The End.
Desperate for inspiration, Hazel impulse-buys a historic home online and flees Manhattan to tiny Story Lake, PA. Upon her dramatic arrival—involving an incident with a bald eagle—she discovers the charm of her new home may have been slightly exaggerated.
The house is a wreck and the town is struggling after their biggest employer shut down. Also, since her raccoon-infested home came with a seat on the town council our introverted heroine is stuck with a front row seat to all the small-town shenanigans.
But Hazel isn’t worried. Not since all six-feet-three inches of grouchy contractor Campbell Bishop slapped a bandage on her forehead and unintentionally inspired the heck out of her. There’s only one thing to do: Hire Cam and his equally gorgeous brothers to renovate her new spider museum…er…house.
Okay two things. A fake date for “research purposes” will really put her work-in-progress on track. Before Hazel knows it, she’s writing a romance novel and living one. At least until the drywall dust settles, the town she’s falling in love with faces bankruptcy, and growly Cam remembers why he can’t live happily ever after.
Need More Book Recommendations?
If you have already read these books or missed something I have featured before on the blog check out My Bookshop on Amazon.
Window Shopping
White jeans and a stripe shirt are classic wardrobe staples, you can wear them with everything. Pair the shirt with shorts, a skirt, pants or wear it over a dress. And the white jeans, wear them with any color that you like, everything looks great. For this outfit I paired them with white sneakers,(these are my favorites) a short blue trench and a cross body bag.
This outfit is great for a day out, to wear to the airport, or a day at home.
Outfit Details~Click the photos
You can find the pieces in the outfit above, simply click the photos. You can also find in the collage at the bottom of the blog all of this things “on my radar” including Spring bags, shoes and more.
Until Next Time
I hope that you found something to read, make and to enjoy on Friday Favorites. Don’t forget WEEKEND MEANDERINGS tomorrow with Kim and Juliet!
Before you go, tell me what are you most looking forward to about Spring?
What is your favorite pie?
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On My Radar
Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you for your response on a possible way to store my C&H Sugar better in a Tupperware bowl. I still have my parents Tupperware, I use it but I’m not sure if I still have the lids.
Oh my goodness we have the same exact issues with our tummies. I call mine, mg baby tummy. Also being on two meds ads to the issue. The doctor in our family warned me this would happen. ☹️ Going from a 24” inch waist to 27” changed all my jeans, dress pants. It’s all okay since I’m retired I live mostly in loungers. I live the roomy casual vibe. I still have a few fitted pants and compression leggings but I can’t wait to get out of them and into my loungers. I retired in 12/2016 so I don’t have to be concerned about dress up anymore. A big YAY.
Yes, I shared we had our retreat in Oak Creek Canyon/Sedona for 22 years and in Scottsdale too for 22 years. Your hubs used to live in Sedona too years ago I recall you sharing. We now live in Anthem, AZ, 45 minutes from Scottsdale. Sold our home in Sedona, fire threats.
I baked your recipe, The Best, Basic Chocolate Chip Cookie
today. Doubled the recipe, 52 cookies. In the freezer they go. I also share my baked goodies with service people and friends. My next door neighbor is observing Lent so she passed on my offering. A strict Catholic.
Gee, if we lived close by I would love to meet you and take you to lunch.
Have a lovely weekend.