Thursday, March 31, 2016

Easter 2016: Blossomed Branches, Lamb and Dominoes

Doesn't it feel like spring came on very quickly this year? Flowers that were just blooming last year (according to my Timehop) have already come and gone. I'm trying to enjoy the little bit of time we have together, so after doing a bit of yardwork the other day, I snipped these pink blossomed branches to admire from the comfort of my couch.

Blooms never last as long as I'd like!

For whatever reason, I haven't spent Easter with family since high school, but this year our family decided to get together for a lovely evening of delicious treats and laughter.

 It wasn't warm per se, but I just really wanted to wear this new linen dress.

 We had a fantastic meal of rack of lamb, couscous, sugar snap peas and this scrumptious lemon almond cake.

And believe it or not, I played my first game of dominoes! We learned how to play Mexican Train dominoes and it was so fun. 

Monday, March 21, 2016

Spring is Here, and We're Eating Good


Spring has come to the Kennedy house! I finally (omg, this is embarrassing) put away my Christmas mantel last week, and decorated for spring. Easy enough, with daffodils popping up in the backyard.


The only other real thing going on around here is that we're still loving Plated, our meal delivery service and had one of the honest-to-goodness best homemade meals ever last week when we tried their seared skirt steak with red wine shallot sauce, honey-roasted rainbow carrots, smashed red potatoes and (not pictured) whipped goat cheese with chives. Oh my lordy, I cleaned my plate. And whipped goat cheese couldn't be easier! I'll be sure to post about it sometime soon.


On St. Paddy's Day, I conquered one of my former food nightmares: Shepherd's Pie. I'm not a fan of mashed potatoes, which makes me a bonafide crazy person in the view of most people, so I'd always regarded the dish as an Everest to climb. But guess what? Every single bite of this was delicious (even though I could do with more flavorful mashed potatoes).


And for a picture of marriage, let me set the scene. On Thursday, I arrived home to see my Bartlett pear tree in full bloom. I took a deep breath and it just smelled lovely to me, exactly like the certain arrival of spring. I went inside and declared the same to my husband.

Me: Did you smell the tree outside?
Sean: Oh, I know, it stinks. It's god-awful.
Me (shocked): Are you kidding? It smells like flowers! It smells like spring!
Sean: It stinks. It smells like poo. It's terrible.

He then pulls out his phone and shows me a post in our neighborhood's facebook group in which many, many people talked about how disgusting the neighborhood smells right now because of the pear trees.

I don't care. I think it smells great.

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Sunday Best v.267

Milton Avery, "Conversations in the Studio."

It's a bit late to be posting a Sunday best, but I hope we're good enough friends you'll understand that I really had to spend my whole day watching the BBC's adaptation of "North & South" or life just wasn't going to be worth living. I'm HEAVY into a 19th-century Brit Lit film adaptation phase at the moment, so if it's not in Derbyshire or Sussex, I just can't give a damn. But here are a few links that did catch my attention:

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Sunday Best v. 266

How to Work Better by Fischli & Weiss, 1991.

Oh, y'all, I haven't shared a Sunday Best in so very long, I don't blame you if you've unfriended me. I'm determined to make it up to you, so here are a TON of favorite links from the past couple weeks.