Welcome to Friday Favorites, a weekly series where I share interesting articles, books, fashion finds, recipes and more.
Good morning friends, we made it! It’s Friday happy Friday Favorites ! And happy St. Patrick’s day! A double celebration. Do you have any plans to paint the town green? I don’t but maybe later I will celebrate my Irish heritage with a little something.
It is another gray, drizzly day but I am headed to the nursery this morning to get some climbing fig and a few other plants. I am not sure what because I haven’t decided, I guess I will know when I see them. The weather has been cold this week which seems unseasonable but looking back over photos from last year it seems to be the norm for this time of year.
We do not have any other plans this weekend, just catching up on things at home. What about you?
I’ve got lots to share today so let’s get to it!
FRIDAY FAVORITES NO. 524
Food
I think the cold weather has me back in hibernation mode because I noticed that all of the food I gravitated towards this week were comfort food.
One of my all time favorite meals, beef stroganoff! Easy and delicious!
I am making Sweet & spicy Thai Chicken for dinner tonight. I love pickled vegetables and always have them on hand so that is one less step to making this better than take-out dinner.
Creamy Cauliflower Pasta Bake, is the ultimate comfort food.
It’s St.Patrick’s day, treat yourself to some Bailey’s Irish cream Cupcakes!
The Nutty Irishman is a fancy Irish Coffee recipe that’s been spiked with whiskey, Kahlua, Bailey’s and Frangelico.
Links
Heading to NYC, here are 12 not to be missed places to eat.
In defense of the landline telephone.
Why We Usually Can’t Tell When a Review is Fake
A Conversation With Margaret Atwood
14 Ways to Calm Down and Find Sanity At Home
The Failed Promise of Having It All
My aunt shared this interesting article, This Nerve Influences Nearly Every Internal Organ. Can It Improve Our Mental State, Too?
4 Daily Rituals that Will Gradually Grow in Value as You Grow Older
Books
Books I am currently reading, have on my list to read or have on hold at my local library.
When in Rome
Meet Claire: fifty-two, desperate to do something new and get a fresh start.
Enter the chance to go to Rome: Home to a struggling convent facing a precipitous end, the city beckons Claire, who’s long had a complicated relationship with religion, including a “missed connection” with convent life in her teens. Once in Rome, she finds a group of funny, fearless nuns in a gorgeous villa, beautiful runs throughout a color-saturated city, and a chance to reflect. It all leads her to an unexpected question—should she join the convent?—and an answer that startles her as much as it does those closest to her.
It also startles Marcus, a once-buzzy actor, devastatingly handsome, who is eternally in love with Claire. Marcus has come and gone from Claire’s life since college but now reappears in Rome just as she’s about to decide what’s next.
As Claire searches for her higher calling, she finds the key to her future may lay in her past—and involves an actual key. The nuns swear it unlocks nothing, but on a night when choices and voices swirl, Claire finds a long-hidden lock.
A look at faith, in oneself as much as a higher power, and love, romantic and familial, lost and found, this is the thoroughly charming story of one woman who sets out to rewrite her past and future, only to be surprised by the plot twists life plants . . . when in Rome.
Hello Beautiful
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him.
With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all.
With the Padavanos, William experiences a newfound contentment; every moment in their house is filled with loving chaos. But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations.
Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most? An exquisite homage to Louisa May Alcott’s timeless classic, Little Women, Hello Beautiful is a profoundly moving portrait of what is possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.
Beyond that, the Sea
As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America. There, she’ll live with another family for the duration of the war, where they hope she’ll stay safe.
Scared and angry, feeling lonely and displaced, Bea arrives in Boston to meet the Gregorys. Mr. and Mrs. G, and their sons William and Gerald, fold Bea seamlessly into their world. She becomes part of this lively family, learning their ways and their stories, adjusting to their affluent lifestyle. Bea grows close to both boys, one older and one younger, and fills in the gap between them. Before long, before she even realizes it, life with the Gregorys feels more natural to her than the quiet, spare life with her own parents back in England.
Desperate as she is not to leave this life behind, Bea dutifully retraces her trip across the Atlantic back to her new, old world. As she returns to post-war London, the memory of her American family stays with her, never fully letting her go, and always pulling on her heart as she tries to move on and pursue love and a life of her own.
As we follow Bea over time, navigating between her two worlds, Beyond That, the Sea emerges as a beautifully written, absorbing novel, full of grace and heartache, forgiveness and understanding, loss and love.
NEED MORE BOOK RECOMENDATIONS?
If you have already read these books or missed something I have featured before check out My Bookshop on Amazon.
Finds
Outfit of the Day
shirt//sandals//bag//earrings //jeans//sun glasses//sweater
This eyelet blouse is a beautiful piece for spring.
And this cropped jacket is fabulous!
I love this collection! In fact I loved it last year too. This year they have bunny salad plates to add to your Easter table and they are beautiful!
Target has some cute Easter decor, including this cute “wood” bunny
If you are a fan of Le Labo Rose 31 and Miss Dior Absolutely Blooming this candle has been compared to them.
UNTIL TOMORROW
I hope you enjoyed Friday Favorites and found something to make or read. Happy St. Patrick’s Day friends! Have a wonderful weekend.
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.
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Interesting as always I did check out the NYC places to eat; maybe on our next day trip there.
NYC always has so many new and interesting things to see and do. Have a wonderful weekend Linda.
Great finds. I’m salivating over the food. Well, maybe not the dish with the cauliflower. I find cauliflower to be so bland. Happy weekend!
Brenda
Cauliflower is definitely bland but it is so good in other things. I hope you have a wonderful weekend Brenda!
Beef stroganoff is good, but it’s been a long time since I had it.