Comfort Faves

Welcome to the Friday Fave Five where we all share some things we are thankful for.  We do this by linking up at Susanne's site.  How about joining in or leave a comment sharing one thing you are thankful for this week??

My five faves center around the word "comfort".

FIVE FAVES

from l-r:  Donny, Hope, Dave, Courtney

• ANNUAL AUTUMN AFTERNOON: Last Saturday was our day to have my younger sister Hope and her husband Donny down for the day.  They live out in the central part of NYS, about 80 miles from us.  We get together every autumn at my house for comfort food and fellowship. I made a huge pot of pasta faglioli, garlic bread, and Swedish apple pie.  Oh my goodness it was so good and then we had a blast playing Balderdash and Carcassonne. Because they have goats, chickens, a turkey, a pig, 2 dogs and many ducks on their little farm, they had to leave by 5 pm to get home and take care of the animals.  But our afternoon together was just so much fun. I wish they lived closer but I'm thankful for the times we get together to have fun.

image courtesy of the odyssey online

• SEASON TWO!  Courtney and I  curled up on the family room couch Saturday night to watch the first two chapters of the new season of Stranger Things. (curling up on the couch is always comfy!)  It's found on Netflix and it is absolutely enthralling!  The children who act as the "geeks" are quite good actors and it's always fun to see Winona Ryder in a mom role albeit a "mess" of a mom.  It's such a fun show!  We curled up with popcorn and hot coffee.....and I'm so thankful my oldest girl didn't have plans so that we could start this season together.

• DELICIOUS DINNER! Now that we are eating more plant-based meals, I am trying new pairings of foods.  Every Monday for the last 2 years has been "meatless Monday" in my home anyways....and now we  really only eat meat for dinner about 2x a week. Sometimes for me it is only once.  (Dave and Courtney are not keen on this meat-less thing).  I was craving the comfort of pasta so made a big dish of whole grain linguine and to toss on top, I sauteed noodle Squash, cauliflower, broccoli, red pepper, garlic, onion.  I whipped up a maple vinaigrette by hunting for an easy recipe on the Yummly app and guess what??  Dinner was a huge success.  My oldest gal actually told me she loved it!  Dave seemed to like it too.  We had enough leftovers for lunches the next day or two and we texted a photo to Claire so she could see that yes, her family is trying to be more plant-based.  I have to say, if I hadn't found the maple vinaigrette recipe I am not sure how it would have all come together.  But the maple was my idea as I couldn't think of what else would go with squash.  I am so thankful for all the food apps out there nowadays and I am especially thankful my creative cooking abilities were a hit!

image courtesy of Target

• PURPLE PAJAMA PANTS:  See those jogger pajama pants?  Well, I bought a deep purple...like eggplant...pair from Target last weekend because Tuesday was "Pajama Day" at school.  Due to too many of our children being emotionally and developmentally young (age 3 but functioning more like age 24 months), not to mentioned too scared of  too many Halloween type items, we decided to skip Halloween and just do Pajama Day.  In fact, a couple of our students don't even celebrate Halloween.  And since we have many children in our classroom with multiple food allergies we don't serve candy.  The pajama pants I bought are so darn comfy!  So soft!  I paired them with a tee shirt and my slippers and it was a fun way to teach all morning.  We decided we might have another pajama day this winter!  I'm thankful for a fun staff and willing parents to go along with some of our crazy schemes. A bonus from Halloween was that in the evening when it was "trick or treat" time, a former student of mine came to the door and his cousin who is currently in the class!!  How fun it was to see A again and hear his little voice and to see J outside of school interacting with his family on such a fun night!

 

• CINNAMON COFFEE!  On Wednesday after work, I had to run a quick errand and it was pouring rain with chilly winds.  I decided to go through the drive-through at $tarbucks and order a hot skinny cinnamon dulce latte.  I brought it home and relaxed on the couch with my book before needing to do some housework and cook dinner. The cinnamon coffee was delicious! It was the comfort of coffee and the joy of reading that really relaxed me after a long morning in the classroom and a very long meeting before finally heading home.  I'm so thankful for little things like coffee and good books!

That wraps up my faves.

I hope you all have a wonderfully relaxing weekend!