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Happy Friday! Is everyone else ready for the weekend too?! This weekend was busy with a LOT of errand running. I’m in charge of the fall product sales for my daughter’s Girl Scout troop. I had to pick up the troop’s orders and sort them so that parents could come pick them up. This week I had to run to the liquor store to pick up a bottle of wine to give to my co-worker for her 50th birthday. I got carded when I went to pay! Add in a library pick up, a stop at Walmart and a stop at Kohl’s and it’s been a busy week.

Last night was the first night of Hanukkah. Dana is half-Jewish and we normally celebrate Hanukkah with his mom’s side of the family….but obviously not this year. Since he and my son had Tae Kwon Do Thursday night, we are going to make latkes either tonight or tomorrow to celebrate.

The weather isn’t looking great for Saturday, so we are not sure yet what we will be doing. Our school district has gone fully remote until January. Being home all this time has been rough for the kids, so I like to get them out of the house on the weekend. Here are five from this week:

1. Cooking – My daughter requested Gigi’s (Hadid) Pasta that is trending on TikTok. Of course I told her that she had to help make it. We made some minor tweaks to this recipe and I have to admit it was pretty good!

One of our favorite meals this week was this Vegan Creamy Sausage and Potato Soup. We used Sausageless Sausage from Trader Joe’s. It doesn’t look like much from the picture, but it was delicious!

2. Watching – It is a family tradition to watch Elf every December. We watched it this past weekend and it is STILL so funny! What is your favorite Christmas movie?

3. Reading – I am slowly making my way through White Ivy. It was very hard to get into, but I’m about halfway through and it’s picked up. I have a fun looking holiday read that I’m looking forward to next!

4. Shopping – Sunday we visited the White Plains Holiday Market. We bought some treats from Flour Power and I got a candle from Two Knit Wits.

5. Eating – We made a stop at The Hummus and Pita Co. and enjoyed a Vegan Shawarma Bowl and a Falafel Laffel.

We ate these donuts from Beascakes Bakery after I found out they had sold out of Hot Cocoa Bombs.

We are enjoying Jingle Jangle from Trader Joes. It’s a delicious mix of milk chocolate and dark chocolate covered pretzels, dark chocolate covered caramel popcorn, chocolate covered Joe-Joe’s cookies, milk and dark chocolate mini peanut butter cups and milk chocolate gems.

6. Hot Cocoa Bombs – I wrote my Hot Cocoa Bombs blog post and mentioned not being able to get any in time, since most have to be pre-ordered. Jane Street Sweets reached out to me and offered to deliver me some! As I’m writing this post, we haven’t tried any yet. But we are super excited to! They have 4 different varieties: classic chocolate, gingerbread, cookies n’ cream and peppermint.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Monday I shared Where in Westchester County you can get Hot Cocoa Bombs.

Tuesday I shared my November Reads.

Wednesday I posted the newest edition of Westchester Weekly.

Sharing with Friday Favorites. Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday and happy fall!  I am all about all things pumpkin spice, cozy sweaters and fall foliage!   This is such a fun time of year! School is going well for the kids. My daughter is loving high school! Last night we attended virtual back-to-school night for my son, who is in 7th grade. I have to say, I kind of enjoyed “attending” from my couch, wearing my pajamas! We are looking forward to a three day weekend. Happy Yom Kippur to those who celebrate. Here are five from this week:

1.  Supper Club Picnic – We finally got to see the other couples from our supper club!  The last time we had gotten together was in February, pre-pandemic.  Sunday we met up at the Kensico Dam and enjoyed a picnic lunch. It was a beautiful day with great company!

After our get together, our family walked along the dam and visited the 9/11 memorial, the Rising.

2. Shopping – Last Saturday we took our daughter shopping at Plato’s Closet.  She has become a big fan of thrifting and second hand shopping.  Me and my wallet are not complaining!  

3. Watching – This week I watched the first episode of both The Home Edit and Sing On on Netflix.  The Home Edit has gotten me wanting to organize ALL the things! I will be checking out some of their books for sure for some more ideas. Sing On is a karaoke singing competition show, hosted by Tituss Burgess, from The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.  It’s a fun show that I can watch while doing other things.

4. Eating – This week we went to The Hummus and Pita Company while we were shopping in Brookfield, CT. Their vegan Shwarma is tasty and we love all the sides!

For our supper club picnic I made roasted eggplant sandwiches with roasted peppers, artichoke hearts, tomato, fresh mozzarella and some balsamic vinegar.

5.Reading –  I am currently reading The Last Flight by Julie Clark. This suspense book had me interested from the very beginning. I’m hoping to have it finished by the end of the weekend.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Tuesday I posted shared 7 Fall Weekend Getaways.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

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Happy Friday the 13th! No bad vibes here! I am excited for the weekend because my husband and I are going away to celebrate my birthday. Technically, my birthday is on Monday, but who can celebrate their birthday on a Monday?! Plus, it’s a milestone birthday….I’m turning 40. Fortunately, I don’t feel old and my mantra this year is going to be “40 and Fabulous!” Hopefully, we will enjoy a nice, quiet weekend in the Poconos at a bed and breakfast. I will report back next week on the birthday celebrations. Here are five from this week:

1. Supper Club – This weekend we had our monthly supper club. This month’s theme was “Farm-to-Table.” We all visited our local farmer’s markets and made something using seasonal ingredients we found. I made a Mexican Street Corn Salad that was tasty. But my husband made this Skillet Peach Cobbler with the sweetest, juiciest peaches we’ve had.

2. Reading – Guys, I’m in a reading slump! I have book club next week and need to finish reading Beautiful Ruins. This had been on my to read list for awhile, so I was excited to read it. However, it is not holding my attention and I have little interest in reading it. I started reading this on the 2nd of September and have still not finished it! I’m over half-way through though and if it wasn’t a book club read I’d have given up on it a long time ago. But, I will have to read something quick and suspenseful next!

3. Watching – We had a family movie night recently and watched the 2019 Tim Burton directed version of Dumbo. Dumbo, the elephant, was super cute, but I wasn’t wowed by the movie itself. Although we were all familiar with the story of the flying elephant with the big ears, none of us were sure we’d ever seen the original version!

4. Eating – This week my husband represented NY Foodie Family and attended a tasting event at a new organic market that opened. He was given a reuseable tote bag that had some food items including this Better Almond Butter. This was my first introduction to the nut butter scene. I’m usually a peanut butter eater, if I’m eating nut butter at all. But I tried this one on toast. It has no sweetness, which takes some getting used to. But it’s healthy and I’m REALLY trying, at least during the week, to eat better.

5. Cooking – Yeah for back-to-school! (insert eye roll here!). We are in full swing with activity schedules and my chauffeur hat is really getting a workout. Meal planning is so important for us and I’m continuing to have the kids choose a recipe and help cook dinner one night a week. My daughter chose spaghetti and meatballs, her favorite. Since my son didn’t pick a recipe, he helped me make these Chicken Tikka Masala Flatbreads. These are so quick and easy to make and so tasty, that it has become a “regular” recipe for us (I put regular in quotes since I rarely make the same thing twice and we’ve now had this about 3-4 times since I first discovered it months ago). I’ve been using this sauce that I can easily find at my local Shoprite.

This week on the podcast we talk about Part II of our Weekend in Cooperstown.  Then we end with our Quick Hits of the week!

This week on the blog I posted about the new Mike’s Organic Market that opened in Stamford, CT.

I also shared my August 2019 reads.

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

You may enjoy these posts:

Five on Friday {The Kids are Back in School}

Five on Friday {I Wanna Soak Up the Sun}

Five on Friday {Summer Days Driftin Away}

Life has been busy as usual, but I’m still trying to get tasty, homemade meals on the dinner table each night. I haven’t had the time lately to write a weekly meal plan post, but I figured a monthly spotlight post on the best recipes of the month is doable. As you will see, this month we had a lot of burgers! They are easy to make and quick to cook, which is helpful on busy weeknights. And it’s so much healthier to cook your own than get fast food/take out ones.

Baked Breakfast Taquitos – I apologize that there’s no picture – sometimes, the dish isn’t photogenic or we’re in a rush to have dinner…..regardless, breakfast for dinner is always a winner in our house. These taquitos are made with Italian sausage though, not the breakfast sausage that “breakfast for dinner” recipes usually call for. We had more filling than tortillas so my husband used the leftover filling to make breakfast burritos. We thought the sausage to egg mixture was off as well and would recommend using more eggs. Otherwise, this was a tasty meal.

Maple Bacon Beer Burgers – Another dinner that I didn’t take a pic of. We had a lot of burgers this month. They are so versatile and there are so many recipes out there to try! The maple syrup gives these burgers a slight sweetness. I substituted ground turkey for the ground beef and they tasted good.

Italian Rice Ball Skillet – I have to admit, I’m not sure that I’ve ever made an Italian rice ball. However, this skillet was quick, easy and tasty.

Broccoli Rabe Turkey Burgers – Here’s another burger recipe. I’ve actually made these burgers before. I like that there’s chopped broccoli rabe both in the burger and as a topping. Although I served these on buns, the recipe recommends serving on a piece of lettuce.

30 Minute Chicken Fajitas – I did not make the roasted pineapple salsa verde which the original recipe includes. However, the chicken was flavorful and this recipe is so easy. I’m not sure why I haven’t made fajitas on a sheet pan before. This was so quick and easy to make! We will definitely be having these again soon.

Apple Cheddar Turkey Burgers – This is another burger that I’ve made before and we’ve all enjoyed. They are tasty with the apple, cheese and cranberry sauce. I opted not to use the English muffins and served them on hamburger rolls.

What have you been cooking lately?

Happy Friday! The kids have been relaxing and enjoying their Spring Break. It’s been a slow work week as well, with school not in session. We are gearing up for a full, busy weekend. First, we are celebrating Passover with my husband’s family tomorrow. Then Sunday we will be hosting Easter while also celebrating my daughter’s 13th birthday with the family. Monday, my daughter is celebrating her birthday with a party with her friends. Here are five from this week:

1.Supper Club – Last weekend we had our monthly supper club dinner. This month’s theme was grain grab bag. At the last supper club we each wrote down two different grains, for a possible of twelve different selections. We folded the papers up and each chose one. I got corn and my husband got buckwheat. So for this supper club I made a Corn and Poblano Lasagna and my husband made buckwheat pancakes topped with roasted tomato, baby spinach and gruyere. I was surprised at how tasty, but filling this meal was!

2. Birthday Celebration – My daughter turned 13 on Sunday. We went out to dinner and she had the macarons she requested for dessert. Stay tuned….more birthday celebrations are coming.

3. Reading – I am currently reading The Storyteller’s Secret by Sejal Badani. I picked this book from its high ratings on goodreads. However, it’s been a pretty slow read for me.

4. Friend Trip – My daughter just got back from Savannah, Georgia last week. This week she spent Wednesday through today at Camelback Resort, an indoor waterpark in the Poconos, with one of her friends. Lucky girl!

5. Lunch and Arcade Date – With his sister away, my son got a special lunch date with my husband and I this week. We took him to the Palisades Center Mall where he enjoyed a sushi lunch a this favorite restaurant East. This is a conveyor belt sushi restaurant where you can pick the dishes you want as they pass by. We then went to Barnes & Noble and Dave & Busters (arcade). He was a very happy kid!

This week on the blog I debuted a new weekly post called Surviving Thirteen.

Sharing with Friday Favorites! Have a great weekend! Happy Passover and Happy Easter!

Are you the mom of a teenager? For the past couple of years, I’ve felt like I was. Eleven and twelve were filled with attitude, talking back and lots of tears (from both parties). But as of last week, I am officially the mom of a thirteen-year-old girl. And I feel like it’s a whole new ball game.

I’ve expressed concern to my husband that I’m not sure I can handle the next couple of years. Each day feels like I am tiptoeing around my daughter, not sure if I’m going to get Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. He tells me, “we will survive it.” Yes, I say, we will survive, but surely not thrive.

But does 13 and beyond have to be a constant battleground? By nature, I am a reader and writer. This is how I make sense of things. What have others experienced? What does the research say about raising teenagers? Because whatever I did during the tween years evidently hasn’t worked.

And so this new weekly blog series was born. A place for me to share (a.k.a. vent!) about life with a 13 year-old daughter. Parenting is the most difficult job in the world and it’s only seemed to get harder the older the kids have gotten. Bigger kids = bigger issues. I know that there’s no one right or wrong way to raise our teenagers. However, I always find it nice to hear how other parents deal with parenting issues. So join me on my journey in “Surviving Thirteen.” I’m really hoping that my reading and research will help the two of us thrive together through the teenage years. Hear is to wishing me good luck on this journey!