Friday's Fave Five #240

Well, I don't know where on earth this week went but here it is Friday and I haven't done a single post all week.  What on earth happened?  Well I haven't a clue.  Don't know what to tell you but I do know I can pause a moment and look for blessings from the past week.  

1.  My first blessing was a dinner date with my hubby.  Just me and him out for some good food and to enjoy each other's company.  We went to our favorite restaurant and both our meals were excellent. I thought I knew what I wanted before we even got there but then I took a peek at their feature menu and it totally got me distracted.  What I ended up getting was a delicious steak, cooked perfectly to how I like it, with ricotta stuffed gnocchi in a delicious tomato sauce.  I really wish he'd let make take pictures of my meal at restaurants.  Hmmph.  Anyway, I love gnocchi and haven't had it for a long, long time.  I have never had it stuffed.  It was sooo good.  I wish they'd put it on their regular menu because at the end of the month it'll be gone, gone, gone and just a distant memory of a very good meal.

2.  A new comfy chair.  Our good ol' Lazy Boy was getting pretty warn.  The material was literally rubbed away in spots and the seams kept coming apart.  I bought upholstery needle and thread and sewed it.  And sewed again.  And again.  I finally gave up after the umpteenth time and that's how it sat for the last 6 months or so while hubby and I debated whether it might be worth it to recover it.  It was a swivel reclining rocker so we were a little concerned as to how much more life the mechanics of the recliner had left to it.  The last thing we wanted to do was get an expensive recover only to have the workings of the chair break down.  Finally we decided to go looking and found just what we wanted on a pretty good sale so we made the decision and said chair is now being enjoyed in my living room.  As for our poor worn rocker?  It found it's way downstairs for the kids and the cat.  LOL.

3.  Experimenting with new meals.  After all this time resisting the urge to go on Pinterest, my girls finally got me hooked at Christmas time.  And in no time flat I had pinned 358 recipes.  Ai karumba!!!! So this last couple of weeks I've determined to give some of them a try.  So I've tried this one with pesto I had in the fridge from Costco, it was pretty good.  And this one which was a big hit with the family and was absolutely delicious. 

I did change a couple of things such as prebaking the peppers for 10 minutes before stuffing and using grated mozzarella instead of the provolone.  Gotta use what I had on hand.

 And last night, I tried this one, which a pinner claimed was the world's best chicken, but I beg to differ.  I'm sure some would love it.  Son enjoyed it very much but suggested a touch less of the red wine vinegar the next time I make it but I'm not sure I will.  There are just so many chicken dishes out there that I would love more.  But it has been fun trying things out.  

4.   With snow falling, again, last weekend, yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous, sunshiny, warm spring day and today is supposed to be even warmer to the tune of 23*C (73*F).  I'll have to break out the shorts and tanks tops.  It is so about time!!

5.  Lots of reading time in above said sunshine.  While the kids did lots of outside playing yesterday, I was able to break open my book and get some good reading in.  Yay, for nice days and kids that play well together.

What were your favorite blessings this week?