Three recipes worth making, three books worth reading and a week that smelled like honeysuckle
The weather this week has been something. Cool mornings, warm sunny afternoons, and everywhere I go in the yard there is honeysuckle. That smell. The birds are carrying on like they haven’t caught up with one another in weeks. The bees and butterflies have joined in and they are flying and flitting around and then resting on the wildflowers. Summer is coming, and this week Mother Nature made sure we knew it.
I am also back at yoga, which I mentioned last week, and I am still warming to the new instructors. We started at three days a week and are up to five. As I told Bill, it is not that anything is wrong — it is just different from what I loved for six years. Not worse. Not better. Different. The hardest part is the room and the fact that it’s not hot. Bright and sunny with mirrors on three sides and windows on the fourth. Looking at yourself at seven in the morning with bed hair and a body that is a little more wobbly and has cellulite in places you normally don’t see, unless you are upside down and glance in a mirror, is not ideal.
But here we are. Let’s get to the favorites.
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Food
Three recipes this week all three are going into rotation this summer. I have been wanting pasta for weeks and I cannot wait to make this weeks’ recipe.
Big Classic Italian Salad from The Roasted Root is the one I keep coming back to when I want something that feels like an Italian restaurant side but comes together in fifteen minutes. Romaine, cherry tomatoes, olives, pepperoncini, parmesan, and a homemade Italian dressing that is worth making even if you just want to drizzle it on everything else in the refrigerator.
High Protein Spring Corn Pasta Salad from Mary’s Whole Life was the one that surprised me most. Gluten-free pasta with rotisserie chicken, sweet corn and a creamy lime dressing — twenty-one grams of protein per serving and it gets better the next day straight from the refrigerator. A spring and summer lunch I did not know I needed.
Tomato, Basil, and Bacon Pappardelle for Two from A Flavor Journal is the Friday night pasta I have been looking for without knowing I was looking for it. Cherry tomatoes, crispy bacon, fresh basil, a splash of white wine and Pecorino — thirty minutes, two people, and the kind of meal that makes you not miss going out to dinner. If you cannot find pappardelle, fettuccine works just as well.
Did you try the strawberry cheesecake bars I shared this week? If strawberry isn’t your favorite berry try the blackberry swirled cheesecake bars!
Links to Read + Watch + Listen
New Artemis II astronaut iPhone video reveals new Earthset view
Four benefits of going out in the rain
Overspending? Here’s how underconsumption can help you avoid wasting money
Here’s what to know about Timmy, the humpback whale that’s sick and stranded in the Baltic Sea
7 Tips for Building a Healthy Diet With Canned, Frozen, and Packaged Goods
Help, there’s a cockroach in my coffee! 16 gross ingredients hidden in your favourite foods
The myth of the perfect mother
Books
Three very different books this week, which is exactly how I like it.
An Eligible Bachelor by Veronica Henry. Guy Portias wakes up with a wicked hangover and, it turns out, a new fiancée. She is beautiful, famous, successful — and nothing like Honor McLean, the warm and funny single mother his family has hired to help hold the crumbling Eversleigh estate together.
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher. Booker-shortlisted, 600 pages, two Sheffield families across the street from each other, 1974 to 1996. The miners’ strike, Thatcher’s Britain, ordinary lives shaped by history moving underneath them. I haven’t read this one yet, a friend gave it to me and I will be starting it this weekend.
The Strawberry House by Rachael Burton. Oxford, 1938. Camilla Kerrigan is caught between duty to her family and a life she hasn’t quite figured out. When her brother returns for the summer with a new friend — Henry, who is restless and thoughtful and recognizes something in her — the fragile peace of the manor shifts. Then four strangers arrive, including an artist determined to paint Camilla’s sister, and one impulsive act sets in motion a tragedy that takes decades to unwind. The story picks up again in 1952, when Henry — haunted by war and by that summer — is drawn back to the past by a photograph of a painting he thought had been destroyed. A love story across time, with all the atmosphere of a long English summer that never quite lets you go.
Looking for more books? Everything I have recommended can be found on My Bookshop. Most are also available from Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and on Libby from your local library.
Shopping — Outfit of the Day
I love this black and white dress! It is perfect for night and day and to wear at the beach. Add a pair of sandals, don’t forge to paint your toes, a bag and some jewelry.Â
By the way, the sandals are from Toms, they are having a 30% off sale and if you spend $135 you get a free tote($50 value).
Click the images to shop the look
What are your plans for the weekend? Tell me in the comments.
I hope you enjoyed the recipes, links and books I found this week on Friday Favorites. Don’t forget to join us tomorrow for Weekend Meanderings!
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On My Radar
