Happy Friday everyone! I hope you had a nice week and have a few fun plans for the weekend!
Ben took a couple days off work for marathon March Madness watching and will be smoking ALL the meats today, including pork shoulder, ribs, chicken, salmon, and any other protein he can get his hand on. I wouldn’t be surprised to see my purse smoking away in there! If you ever feel the urge to get into smoking, Ben recommends picking up a starter smoker for $20 at Walmart (or wherever,) to see how you like it. For him it’s become more than a hobby over the past five or six years – it’s an addiction! Me? I’ll tolerate the smokehouse smell that inevitably wafts into the house as long as I get to eat all the aforementioned meats. Especially the salmon. Holy moly is it delicious!
Other than that we’ll just be hanging around doing sun dances in hopes to bring back the warm temperatures we enjoyed over the past two weeks. Lincoln is furious that post-nap activities are back to Sesame Street and indoor golf. Give him walks and parks or give him nothing! We’ll also be curating a small wine collection to fill the new wine fridge Ben finally picked out after I “gave” him one for his birthday this past October. This…could be trouble. And by trouble I mean terribly fun – muwahaha!
Tell me your favorite red and whites to fill our fridge with!
Anyway, wherever you are and whatever you do have a wonderful weekend and in the meantime please enjoy my favorite finds from the web and beyond in this week’s Friday Favorites!
Click on the light blue links to be taken directly to the source.
Favorite breakfast: Bangin Breakfast Potatoes. Bangin INDEED! These are the crispiest home fries I’ve seen outside of a restaurant. Can’t wait to replicate ASAP, aka tomorrow morning for brunch. :)
Favorite dress: Trinette Shirtdress. So adorable, right? I’ve had the same sundresses for years now so I think I’m going to pull the trigger. I like how versatile it is – could be dressed up or worn as is for a casual summer event, plus it comes in petite. Hollar my fellow shorties!
Favorite splurge: Baked Sweet Potato Chips with Blue Cheese Sauce, Bacon and Green Onions. If this doesn’t scream March Madness face stuffage than I don’t know what does. Drool, drool, drool – especially to those crispy sweet potato chips.
Favorite DIY: Ping Pong Ball Cafe Lights. So, this is THE YEAR I string lights under my pergola for majestic summer nights. I found this DIY ping pong ball cafe lights project, which I’d do with just plain white lights, but do you think water from rain would get into the balls and mold? Maybe if I sealed each ball with hot glue or something, but that’s a lot of ping pong balls!
Favorite spring: The Crispiest Spring Chicken. Ben made us a roast chicken the other day with just three ingredients and it was honest to goodness the best roast chicken we’ve ever had (think I’ll post the recipe soon.) I love the addition of herbs to this recipe though, which helps to make a yummy sauce to drizzle on top.
Favorite groove: Uptown Funk Treadmill Dance. If this doesn’t make you want to get up and dance and/or run, I don’t know what will. You go, Glen Coco!
Favorite snack: Mini Cuban Sandwiches. I am LOVING the latest snack I created for The Laughing Cow, whom I’ve been creating snack pairings for over the past couple of years. I slathered gluten-free crackers with their Creamy Swiss cheese then layered on deli ham, mustard, and a pickle. Instant, fuss-free Cuban sandwich!
Favorite summer: High Low Cover Up. Ben got me this coverup in black for Valentine’s Day, in anticipation of our Puerto Vallarta vacation, and I LOVE it. For some reason black isn’t available anymore, but these beachy colors are gorgeous anyway. I wore it alone at the pool, and with shorts while walking to the beach and through town. (Black has a bit more coverage than the coral shown here.)
Favorite splurge: Authentic Canadian Poutine. Ben and I had poutine for the first time in San Diego several years ago and have been obsessed with it ever since. Fries, gravy, and cheese. What’s not to love? Locals, if you’re craving poutine head to Louie’s Wine Dive where they toss gluten-free fried cheese curds and lobster into the mix. TO DIE FOR!!
Favorite find: DIY Ant Poison. Ant season is coming and with constant crumbs under Lincoln’s high chair, we’re bound to get a colony coming through at one point or another this summer. I can’t wait to try this three ingredient ant killer solution vs the highly toxic gels and traps we’ve previously used, which would be a nightmare to have around now that Lincoln’s on the move.
Favorite wakeup: Cubano Breakfast Sandwich. Speaking of Cubans…I could go for one of these breakfast sandwiches right about now. As they say – never hurts to put an egg on it.
Favorite truth: When Toddlers Interrupt. Just…yes. Except I don’t even try to work on the computer while my toddler is up. This is so fantastic!
Favorite mess: Quick and Easy Philly Style Sloppy Joes. Ummm, I’ll have 18. Gosh these look good.
Favorite project: DIY Raised Garden Beds. I’ve been thinking a lot about my gardening plans for this spring/summer (I skipped out the last two summers because we were moving, then had an infant and it was just too much,) but I think I’m going to take a crack at these raised beds to place against our fence line this year. Our backyard is mostly all shade except for one area on the west side, so I’m thinking that’s where it will go. Will definitely write a post when it goes up!
Favorite stuffed: Baked Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Artichokes with Blue Cheese. So clever, and March is a great month to enjoy artichokes. Awesome recipe!
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Have a great weekend, everyone!
Snus Hill’s Spinna is a great white, and I love Stella Rosa Black (sold at Hy-Vee) for a sweet red. :) Enjoy the wine fridge!
I just have to comment – I am in total agreement, the Lobster Poutine at Louie’s Wine Dive is OUT of this world! I’ve been meaning to recreate it for months!
I’ve been really into cabs lately and love love love the Louis Martini Napa valley (usually $30/ bottle which is a lot but you can get it at Costco for $22!!!) the Kendall Jackson is a great one too – usually around $14-$17/bottle. I don’t like oaky cabs and these are both very buttery!!
Anywho – Panther alum/lifelong Hawkeye fan here – go Cats & Hawks today!!!! I live in Ames so I can’t help but extra hope the Hawkeyes win so I have a little something to celebrate :).
My favorite go-to wines are Black Mountain Chardonnay (from TJ’s), Apothic Red and J. Lohr Cabernet.
A wine fridge is definitely on my wish list!
I’m from the Quad Cities and I love local-ish wines. My favorite is Wide River Winery’s Felony Red, but closer to DM (in Indianola) I love Annelise Winery.
I’m REALLY looking forward to trying out the philly style sloppy joes!! It’ll be nice to eat a sloppy joe, but with a TWIST :)
Also, can Ben do a small post regarding smoking meats? We live in CA and it’s terribly difficult to find good BBQ here – when we travel to Texas we try to fill our bellies with the good stuff
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OMG that video…YES x100000! And those sloppy joes are a MUST make. Jay will fall in love with me all over again I think :)
Yay wine fridge! If you have a Costco membership my husband and I LOVE Chilensis try the Carmenere and Pinot Noir)! I like the complex blend of Fancy Pants red who wears the pants? I do! lol) and Dreaming Tree red Crush ). For whites I love Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio and pretty much any Prosecco. Oh, one more red – Root Carmenere!! ) We’ve been trying to find the best of the best for a while now :)
So many great ideas! Thank you! I would like to second the request for some smoking recipes!
The “Moon” wines from Trader Joe’s are absolutely delicious! It’s a Trader Joe’s private label and they are all about $6 each and wonderful :)
We recently threw a HUGE wine tasting party with a bunch of our friends to pick out wines for our wedding. The Moon wines were, hands down, the everyone’s favorite (even over much pricier bottles)! My personal faves are the Sauvignon Blanc and Zinfandel.
Before stocking up on any wines, I would check the list of California wines that were found to contain toxic levels of arsenic. I’m going through the list myself. Love that dress, but the price is steep and I wonder if it would fade? We love our smoker and always get it smokin’ for parties.
That dress! If only I could justify the price… but I’ve been cutting back on my spending.
For red wines, I recently discovered Locations–they are from different countries, and have a letter on the bottle saying where they’re from (E is Espana, F is France, CA is Cali). I personally like E and F. Our HyVee doesn’t carry them, but I found them through a wine distributor.
I second the Locations wine. Dave Phinney is the winemaker. E is my favorite. The only one I haven’t liked is the California one.
I’m a big fan of Tassel Ridge’s Red, White, and Blue lately, as well as their Star Spangled White in the summer. You should also try out Snus Hill’s Kitten wine–a sweet red that is great for spring/summer. I’m all about the Iowa/local wines!