Friday Favorites~a weekly series where we share our favorite books, decor, fashion finds, recipes, podcasts, articles and more.
FRIDAY FAVORITES NO. 613
Good morning friends! How was your Thanksgiving? We had a wonderful day. It was cold and rainy in the morning so we skipped the blessing of the hounds. Instead stayed in bed and read for a bit before getting up to make the sides we were bringing to my brothers. I made cauliflower gratin and it was delicious, my husband made green bean and mushroom casserole, I cannot speak to how that tasted because I do not like either one.
Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, and our time with family lots of fun. We with full hearts and bellies and cheeks that hurt from laughing.
Tell me about your celebration, were were you, what did you make and what was your favorite side?
As always, I have lots to share so let’s get to Friday Favorites!
FOOD
Pizza is one of my favorite things to eat but I have never tried a leftover Thanksgiving pizza, have you? This one looks delicious.
Cranberry turkey sliders, are an easy sandwich to whip up during the games today.
Turkey Cranberry stuffed sweet potatoes!
Cranberry Cheesecake bars are a delicious treat and can be made with your leftover cranberry sauce.
Cranberry Cream Cheese Danish are another easy treat you can make with leftover cranberry sauce.
23 More Ways to use up Thanksgiving Leftovers.
LINKS TO READ+WATCH+LISTEN
An I.V.F. Mixup, a Shocking Discovery and an Unbearable Choice
When your high standards derail your success.
ChatGPT Was Tasked With Designing a Website. the Result Was As Manipulative As You’d Expect.
How the inventor of the fitted kitchen came to see it as a curse.
It traveling to every country n the world a worthy cause?
14 Subtle Ways Having A Toxic Parent Affects You As An Adult
The Truth About Salt: How to Avoid One of the World’s Biggest Hidden Killers
BOOKS
Christmas at Silverberry Hall
Holidays can be tough when you’re recently single, but luckily for Sienna Sanderson working at Silverberry Hall means she is fully booked for Christmas. For the last few years she has helped Freddie and Elizabeth Blakesley run their beautiful manor and organising their legendary holiday bash has become the highlight of her year.
Nestled in a sleepy Cotswolds village, the Christmas Party at Silverberry Hall has become one of Darlingham’s most cherished traditions. But this year is different. With Freddie’s recent passing, they all need it to be extra special in his honour. Sienna is determined to go all out. There is going to be a festive play, carol singers, and a lavish Christmas feast in the charming old stone barn.
She is more than up for the challenge, but when Elizabeth learns of an adult grandson she never knew existed and asks Sienna to find him, she may have bitten off more than she can chew. Luckily, Oliver Townsend, the enigmatic and handsome set designer, seems more than eager to lend a hand.
One Day in December
Two people. Ten chances. One unforgettable love story.
Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn’t exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there’s a moment of pure magic . . . and then her bus drives away.
Certain they’re fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn’t find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they “reunite” at a Christmas party, when her best friend, Sarah, giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It’s Jack, the man from the bus. It would be.
What follows for Laurie, Sarah, and Jack is ten years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming, and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.
Mr. Dickens and His Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens is not feeling the Christmas spirit. His newest book is an utter flop, the critics have turned against him, relatives near and far hound him for money. While his wife plans a lavish holiday party for their ever-expanding family and circle of friends, Dickens has visions of the poor house. But when his publishers try to blackmail him into writing a Christmas book to save them all from financial ruin, he refuses. And a serious bout of writer’s block sets in.
Frazzled and filled with self-doubt, Dickens seeks solace in his great palace of thinking, the city of London itself. On one of his long night walks, in a once-beloved square, he meets the mysterious Eleanor Lovejoy, who might be just the muse he needs. As Dickens’ deadlines close in, Eleanor propels him on a Scrooge-like journey that tests everything he believes about generosity, friendship, ambition, and love. The story he writes will change Christmas forever.
For years, Nigel Slater has kept notebooks of curiosities and wonderings, penned while at his kitchen table, soaked in a fisherman’s hut in Reykjavik, sitting calmly in a moss garden in Japan or sheltering from a blizzard in a Vienna Konditorei.
These are the small moments, events and happenings that gave pleasure before they disappeared. Miso soup for breakfast, packing a suitcase for a trip and watching a butterfly settle on a carpet, hiding in plain sight. He gives short stories of feasts such as a mango eaten in monsoon rain or a dish of restorative macaroni cheese and homes in on the scent of freshly picked sweet peas and the sound of water breathing at night in Japan.
This funny and sharply observed collection of the good bits of life, often things that pass many of us by, is utter joy from beginning to end.
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.
SHOPPING
It’s Black Friday! There are sales abound. If you like plaid check out Talbots, and of course Boden has lots of great things on sale as does J. Crew!
This plaid coat of 50% off until noon. I have one very similar that I purchased at Nordstrom 8 years ago and I love it and get compliments on it all the time. I ordered these plaid shoes!
You can see more of my favorite plaid finds here!
You know that I love brooches, they are all on sale and some are under $10.00! Why not treat yourself to one and wear it all season long?
Don’t forget to check out the Cath Kidston Line at Kohls, it’s all on sale!
You can see more of my holidays finds below.
UNTIL TOMORROW
What are your weekend plans? Are you decorating for Christmas?
Tell me your favorite thing about this week?
I hope you enjoyed the recipes, links and books I discovered this week on Friday Favorites. Thank you for spending part of your day with me, your time is valuable and I am grateful that you spend a little of each day with me. Have a wonderful weekend.
Follow along with us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, and Pinterest.
Don’t forget that Kim, Juliet and I will be back tomorrow on Weekend Meanderings!
If you have missed a Friday Favorites post you can find them all here.
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On My Radar
Yes! Let’s here it for leftover Thanksgiving pizza! A new creative way to use those leftovers! Hope your Thanksgiving was amazing!