My Favourite Things . . .

 

 

These are a few of my favourite things.  Maybe some of them are your favourites too! 

 

 

 

Gimme a break, Gimme a break.  Break me off a piece of that kit kat bar!

I adore Kit Kats. They are simple and crisp, sweet and chocolaty. They come in smaller sizes and fingers.  They are easy to share.  Not so fond of the chunky ones, or the flavoured ones.  Give me a good old fashioned original two fingered Kit Kat and I am a happy camper.

 

Good old hand-written shared recipes.  I adore these because they are tried and true and a little piece of someone else's life and heart.  One of my greatest treasures is a small notebook my ex MIL handwrote for me for Christmas back in 1978, filled with family recipes.  I need to re-write it as some of the writing is beginning to fade.  Perhaps I will make a copy of it for each of my children.  I would love to get a gift of such a thing and maybe they will too.

  

Books you can get lost in.  I have read a few of those in my lifetime.  Books you get lost in and can't put down. Books you hate to see finish.  Books you want to read again and again  . . . funny how reading goes on tangents.  At one point in my life I was very much interested in romance novels. (Remember Harlequin Romance?)  I used to read a lot of them, and then I discovered historial romance and I got into them.  I went through  a Steven King period and gobbled up everything he wrote.  I did the same thing with Tayler Caldwell. Jodie Picoult. LaVyrle Spencer. It has been a while since I have read a book I felt like I was devouring  . . . still looking for that book. Is this normal?

 

(source) 

I love a good veggie burger.  I would rather have a veggie burger than any other kind, but it has to be a good one.  Best veggie burger I have ever eaten was at a place back home called Pasta Jax, and it was their Barley Burger.  Sooooooo good! 

 

I love LOVE salad.  Filled with different lettuces, tomatoes, cucumber, red onions, radishes, vegetables, with a tasty dressing.  Croutons are not necessary, but nice.  Cheese or chicken is also nice.  Ohh, Olives.  I love Kalamata olives in a salad.  I could easily live off of salad forever.  Why is it done sooooo poorly in restaurants?  Well, at least over here it is.  Its almost an after-thought, and even when it is your main course, its often done badly. I'm sorry but if I am ordering a Chicken Caesar Salad for my lunch, I want it to be appealing on every level.  It should look delicious and be more than a few limp and rusty salad leaves with some grilled chicken thrown on top.  I want crisp, bright lettuce.  Chicken with grill marks. Crisp garlicky croutons.  Shavings of Parmesan Cheese.  REAL bacon bits and a dressing that you could weep tears of joy over.

 

Woman Hanging out the Wash, 1881 - Berthe Morisot

I have always loved hanging out laundry.  Early in the morning while the air is still crisp and fresh and nobody's about. It is just about one of my most favourite things of all to do.  Call me crazy, but its true.

 

European Bread.  It is something which they do really well on the continent.  Bake bread. So crisp and crunchy on the outsides, and soft on the insides.  Nicely flavoured, in fact so nicely flavoured that you don't need to put anything on it, but slathered with cold butter you have died and gone to heaven bread.  I wish I could replicate it at home, but then again  . . .  I'd have to be a good bread baker and that is one thing I am not.

  

which brings me to another one of my favourite things  . . .  Bread and Jam.  Not just any jam.  Strawberry jam, preferably homemade strawberry jam.  Is there anything else tastier on earth?  Probably, but this is still mighty, mighty good! 

Some poets write of things to eat an' sing of dinners fine,
An' praise the dishes they enjoy, an' some folks sing of wine,
But they've forgotten, I suppose, the days when they were small
An' hurried home from school to get the finest food of all;
They don't remember any more how good it was to cram
Inside their hungry little selves a piece of bread an' jam.

~Edgar Alert Guest

and poetry . . .  that is another one of my favourite things. I love reading it and I love writing it.

 

Old cartoons, before they got ruined by modern computer animation.  Goofy, and Micky.  Fred and Barnie.  Wilma and Betty. The Jetsons. Huckleberry Hound Dog.  Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. Mr Magoo. I love those old cartoons. At the Base Theatre in Camp Borden, Ontario, when we lived there we used to bring the kids to the movies every Saturday and the guy who ran it always, always preceded the movie by cartoons. That was one of my favourite parts.  He also used to sell my ex boxes of candy really cheap, bargain priced.  We would bring my youngest sons fluffy blue chair for him to sit in so he could see the movie.  We would just plunk it onto the movie chair and he would be tall enough to see the film, but not so tall that anyone behind him couldn't.  I wonder if the kids have happy memories of movie nights/afternoons, filled with lots of treats, cartoons and plenty of love?

 

The sound of a ticking clock.  It is a very comforting sound to me. I love it. It could almost lull me to sleep, like the sound of water trickling down over stones, or the sound of the filter on our fish tank. 

  

A long luxurious soak in a hot bath. We don't have a bath tub anymore, but chances are with my knees I would not be able to get down into it or up again if we did but I always loved soaking in the bath, with a good book or whatever.  It was me time.  My alone time. Such a relaxing thing. I miss it.

 

The sound of birds . . . did you know you can find a channel on You Tube that plays hours and hours of bird song.  Its such a beautiful thing to listen to.  I used to love to listen to the Song Thrush that would serenade us each evening and  morning when we lived down South.  The birds are at their  most beautiful in the Spring, but then get really quiet in August. I could listen to the sound of birds singing forever.  It's also very relaxing. 

 Yesterday there was a female blackbird out on our patio hopping around,

she almost came into the kitchen. I watched her 

for quite a while, just mesmerized.

and those are my favourite things for this week  What are some of yours?

A thought to carry with you . . . 

.° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
 *.˛.° ˛°. .Take every chance you get in life,

because some things only come once.

~unknown   .° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 

Spiritual Enlightenment 

 

In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Roast Chicken with Gremolata.  By spatchcocking it you cut the roasting time in half.  Deliciously moist with beautifully crisp skin.  (Another one of my favourite things!)

Hope your Thursday is filled with lots of lovely and favourite things!  Don't forget  . . . 

═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════ ⊰✿░G░O░D⊰✿⊰L░O░V░E░S⊰✿⊰░Y░O░U░⊰✿
═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════

And I do too!