Friday Favorites #16

Welcome to Friday!  I hope you have had a great week this week. I am traveling for my 9-5 today but I have been home all week to celebrate #appleweek here.  I am going to share some of my favorite recipes from the week here for you to check out. Our weekend is planned but not overly busy.  I have a former student getting married on Saturday and a Wine Party called Books and Booze to attend.  Sounds pretty fun, right? Let's get started on the fun stuff! Ok, this just makes me happy.  I saw it outside of the coffee shop in my neighborhood! This makes me happy, too.  We went to the Cardinals/Giants game on Sunday and the giveaway were these darling hats. I mean, really!  How cute are they? Did you know my daughter has a book website?   She is the curator for Hasty Book List .  I want to invite you to come to her Online Book Club!  Our next book is The Coroner by Jennifer Graeser.  This is the Halloween edition of our book club! The book club meets on Wednesd

Stuffed Apples with Sausage

#AppleWeek continues! This Stuffed Apples with Sausage is delicious and a perfect fall meal.  I served it to my family but I know this would be a wonderful meal for guests. I used Envy apples , because they are large and delicious. This post is sponsored on behalf of #appleweek. Our generous sponsors, Swiss Diamond, Envy Apples, Imperial Sugar, Nordic Ware, Rodelle Vanilla, Flahavan's Irish Oatmeal, Nairn's and The Spice House have provided us with products for recipe creation and a giveaway for our readers. As always, all opinions are my own. Have you been following #AppleWeek?  We have over 40 bloggers participating which means there are a ton of recipes just waiting for you to try!  Such a great time to make apple recipes, the crop is bountiful and fresh apples have a flavor that is deep, sweet and rich at this time of the year. We make a lot of sweet dishes with apples, but I wanted something that featured the apple but was savory and full of fall flavors. Using

Apple Bourbon Float #appleweek

This post is sponsored on behalf of #appleweek. Our generous sponsors, Swiss Diamond, Envy Apples, Imperial Sugar, Nordic Ware, Rodelle Vanilla, Flahavan's Irish Oatmeal, Nairn's and The Spice House have provided us with products for recipe creation and a giveaway for our readers. As always, all opinions are my own. My family loves a good bourbon and all of us have our opinions on which is the best.  What we all agree on is that this Apple Bourbon Float is delicious, no matter what bourbon we put in it!  We recently did a bourbon tasting at a local distillery.  If you like bourbon but haven't discussed the process, find your local distillery and ask for a tour. We had such a great time. I used the beautiful and delicious Envy apple for this drink. Envy apples are perfect for this because they are beautifully formed and therefore make awesome garnishes. I used my trusty Swiss Diamond knife to peel the apples. This recipe is a play on my favorite float:  Root bee

Apple Chai Smoothie #apple week

This post is sponsored on behalf of #appleweek. Our generous sponsors, Swiss Diamond, Envy Apples, Imperial Sugar, Nordic Ware, Rodelle Vanilla, Flahavan's Irish Oatmeal, Nairn's and The Spice House have provided us with products for recipe creation and a giveaway for our readers. As always, all opinions are my own. I'm so excited for this week full of delicious apple recipes from wonderful bloggers from around the world.  Apples are the fruit of the month, with September being the biggest month for harvest.  Our family loves to go apple picking and making all kinds of delicious treats to eat and share with our neighbors. This post is sponsored on behalf of #appleweek. Our generous sponsors, Swiss Diamond, Envy Apples, Imperial Sugar, Nordic Ware, Rodelle Vanilla, Flahavan's Irish Oatmeal, Nairn's and The Spice House have provided us with products for recipe creation and a giveaway for our readers. As always, all opinions are my ow n. This first recipe i

Friday Favorites #15

Happy Friday everyone!  I am so happy it is Friday!  I had a big travel week with work and was only home one night. I am happy to be with my family again.  We are headed to the Georgia/Missouri game on Saturday and to a Cardinal baseball game on Sunday!  I love the fall when we can cheer on multiple Missouri teams!  Go Tigers! I have so much to share with you this week.  A little bit of travel, a little bit of food, some fun things I have purchased! Lodge of the 4 Seasons, The Village of Four Seasons, Missouri My work prefers to use the Lodge of the 4 Seasons as its go-to meeting space. The Lodge has been around since 1964 but the exterior has been kept up. The Lodge boasts one of the best spas in the area, Spa Shiki and two golf courses.  When I spend the night, the rooms smell a bit musty and sometimes the drawers slide out, but overall a very comfortable stay. As you can see, the room itself is nice. Fall Mug Are you like me and like to have your mugs

Nut Butter Stuffed Barhi Dates inspired by Sourdough #ourgoodlifebooklist

The September Cook the Books Club selection is Sourdough by Robin Sloan.  It is an interesting choice, if not out-and-out-strange. Then again, I would expect a sci-fi/fantasy book to be a little strange. The first part of the book starts out like most realistic fiction would, a new college graduate gets her first real offer in the world of coding and technology and it is a good one.  Working for a major robotic firm, the main character, Lois, meets Beoreg and Chairman, brothers who open an illegal restaurant in their apartment, when she orders delivery from a flyer she finds at her apartment. The food is magical, and thus the book digs into the land of fantasy, starting slowly and then jumping off the cliff talking about bacteria and other tiny creatures. While I enjoyed the realistic parts very much, and found the main characters interesting and enjoyable, I started to find the second part of the book not to my liking, but then, I am not a reader of fantasy fiction. As t

No Churn Banana Ice Cream

One of my favorite events of the month is the Fantastical Food Fight sponsored by Sarah at Fantastical Sharing of Recipes. Sarah knows how to host a good food blogger party!  This month we are looking at crazy fun Banana recipes!  Check out the fun below! When I was thinking about what recipe to make here, I was also trying to think of a nice dessert to serve to some friends who were visiting.  I wanted something small but delicious.  I had made no churn ice cream this summer and I decided to do it this time with some smashed bananas.  It turned out amazing! When you make this ice cream, you are incorporating the air from the mixing you do whipping the cream.  So make sure you get stiff peaks but don't whip it into butter!  Fold the sweetened condensed milk into the cream, being careful not to stir hard or you will deflate the whipped cream.  When you fold the bananas in, all you have to do is distribute the banana throughout the mixture. After you pour it into the

A Guide for Enjoying Palm Springs #pinterestchallenge

I'm super excited to share our recent visit to Palm Springs with you!  We planned our trip using a pin on Pinterest from Studio DIY.   I had seen her adorable map of Palm Springs on Pinterest.  Using her guide and the research that my husband always does, here is what we did while in Palm Springs.  This made our Pinterest Challenge easy this month! Where to Stay Our trip was planned for September to take advantage of the holiday weekend.  We chose the Welk Resort Desert Oasis as our home away from home. We are a member of the Welk Timeshare Family and one of the reasons we chose Palm Springs is that we could stay here and spend points. We had a great experience here. Great pool, cabanas, and staff made this a great place to stay.  It wasn't on the list by Kelly and her team, but it made sense financially for us. Where to Eat This is usually my husband's domain, but from time to time I'll get to sneak in a suggestion or two. This time mos