Welcome to the weekend, my friends! I’m planning to get out for a walk, read my book, cook and photograph some new dishes, and work on a puzzle with my boys. Nothing too exciting for anyone else, but it all sounds lovely to me right now. I hope that your weekend is filled with many of your favorite things too!
ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK: Supercharge your cookout side dish game with this dill pickle potato salad. Classic tender potato salad gets a glow-up with scandalous amounts of dill pickles, pickle relish, pickle seasonings, and hard-boiled eggs.
This creamy corn with jalapeno will be your new cookout side dish go-to. The sweet pop of fresh corn is enrobed in a rich, creamy cheese and jalapeno sauce and pairs beautifully with just about anything you can cook on your grill from steaks to chicken to pork and beyond!
While zucchini isn’t usually a vegetable most folks crave, these zucchini fries are about to change that! Tender zucchini wedges are coated in a crunchy, crispy, utterly crave-worthy Parmesan breadcrumb coating to create these zucchini fries.
Buttery, tender, sweet yeast rolls are bursting with juicy blueberries and tart lemon glaze in these blueberry sweet rolls. They are a perfect weekend baking project.
Blueberry peach cobbler bursts with juicy, fresh peaches and the sweet pop of blueberries under a tender, golden brown cobbler crust. This homey, comforting dessert takes no time to whip up and tastes like pure summer.
Good luck resisting snickers ice cream: peanut butter ice cream swirled with luscious caramel sauce, and bursting with pieces of snickers bars. Sometimes you just need to indulge yourself!
Mock apple pie began as a thrifty way to make a sweet treat from pantry staples in the late 1800s. I served this pie to my husband a few nights ago and he loved it. The look on his face was priceless when I later told him there was no fruit in it. The flavor is reminiscent of a combination of pecan pie and apple pie and the whole family agrees it is delicious.
What I’m CRAVING: My friend Christi’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies. These cookies are some of the best I have ever tasted. I’ve mentioned them here before, but it bears repeating because they are FANTASTIC. (I’m fairly certain that these cookies played a part in how quickly Christi’s husband Rick fell in love with her.)
My FAVORITE THINGS this week are these reusable grocery bags. I stumbled on this 10-pack of bags the other day and I have to tell you, I wasn’t expecting much. But it turns out they’re great! They’re bigger than I thought they’d be and they hold a LOT. I like to keep a few tote bags in my car for random things I’m transporting, not just groceries. (i.e. a stop at the used bookstore that results in an armload of books or for garage sale finds.)
I love that the bags are available in solid black (versus so many bright colors and patterns) and that the straps are long enough to carry the bag on your shoulder. And at about $2 a bag, this was a screaming deal.
What I’m READING: Paper and Fire (The Great Library Book 2) by Rachel Caine. These YA books have a draw that I can’t resist. The idea that there might be a world where books and their contents are subject to a higher authority preventing access to their information is nightmarish for any bibliophile or book lover. While this wasn’t my favorite book in the series, it ended with a great cliffhanger that drew me straight into the third book as quickly as I was able to download it.
What I’m LISTENING to: Precious Memories by Alan Jackson. Sometimes the old hymns are the only praise music I want to listen to. And this album is perfect for those times. (My mother is likely reading this and grinning at the thought that I’m listening to and enjoying so many old hymns. You never would’ve caught them on my playlist as a younger adult.) The song “In the Garden” brings me to tears almost every time it plays. What a gift our Jesus is, my friends.
“Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.” Psalm 62:8 ESV
Wishing you a beautiful week full of little things that make you smile!
Mary
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