Friday, January 23, 2026

It’s been a cold week! I just want to sit by fires! It’s Friday and time to link up with Andrea and Erika to share some favorites.

I find that I need to write my winter goals and keep them visible. I have them on my memo board in the kitchen. See my attempt at a snowflake? A favorite this week was seeing them and being intentional.

I met my friend Victoria at Drake’s one afternoon. We were still home in time to cook dinner. Drake’s has a fireplace and two green leather chairs in front of it. Guess who has two thumbs and snagged those seats?

We had some amazing buff chik dip as the younguns’ say.

The fire was so toasty!

I also had a happy hour with my friend Beth and this place has a great atmosphere and some hh specials. We chose the big leather chairs.

espresso martinis and …

spinach and artichoke dip – yum.

Now I want to make both dips at home!

Favorite podcast of the week – Midlife Matters – they discussed home and fashion trends for 2026. I’m on board! Give it a listen!

Favorite tv of the week – I completed Love is Blind Germany and watched the reunion, I am re-watching Younger – seriously so good. I love Sutton Foster, Below Deck Mediterranean – still enjoying seeing the port in Barcelona. With Tom, we finished Seven Dials and are watching His & Hers and Best Medicine. He always has British tv on these days. I can’t keep up with all his “alone” shows. I am usually reading my book.

Favorite foods of the week at home – I took some grilled chicken from Trader Joe’s – I really like their already cooked chicken, some leftover Dave’s Hot Chicken Sauce, a ton of dill pickles, and made my own “fries” from some Yukon Gold potatoes on the air fryer setting. I can’t wait to have this again. Hear me out – Yukon Gold taste like McDonald’s fries. I am going to have to look up a copycat recipe for Dave’s Hot Chicken sauce. It is a new chicken restaurant here. Just did it – here it is!

I like to let my frozen fruit melt or microwave it and pair this with OIKOS Pro vanilla – yum! I’ve been trying to eat this as a dessert.

I added a bit of this.

I really like this for some added fiber. I just eat it without milk and it looks a bit like rabbit pellets but nbd.

Seriously good muffins! Adding a couple mixes to next grocery order! $1.19 for the mix!

I have eggs for either breakfast or lunch. I am obsessed with my new method. I was using a mug in the microwave and now I’m using a round glass Pyrex. It makes the egg mixture of one egg, liquid egg whites, cottage cheese, and whatever else you want to throw in spread out and create more “surface area”. I’m obsessed with my bowls. Molly gave me new bowls for Christmas and I am using them daily for my bowls!

This one had the Pyrex egg, regular potatoes, and bacon bits with a bit of Mexican shredded cheese.

This one was sweet potato, bacon bits, Pyrex egg, avocado, Mexican shredded.

Usually I use Amylu chicken breakfast sausage instead of bacon bits. Here is my In the Kitchen post with some ideas I’m using.

One of my winter goals was to hygge up my house. I finally got one of these candle warmer thingamajigs on Amazon and I love it! It has a dimmer switch so you can make the light part of it various levels and it came with two bulbs. I also bought a cinnamon chai candle. I saw on Instagram that you can use it as a queso warmer and I might do that this weekend to make Tom laugh.

But like why is warm queso funny? It’s freaking awesome! Just a snapshot into my daily life, though…See the candle lid? Eddie Otis stole it and I had to bribe him with pepperoni to get it out of his mouth. We do this many times a day with various things. Lots of fun!

I also got awesome pillow covers and a new blanky.

Here is the lamp/warmer.

Here is the candle.

Here are the pillow covers.

Here is the blanky.

Did you catch my Best Buys of 2025? I talked about the frother and here is a photo:

I also am still making homemade creamer! Who am I?

I talked about Pavoi earrings and just smaller earrings as one of my best buys. I added these to my collection this week. I have lost a couple recently and decided to replace them with something different.

I needed a new brush and found this “unbrush” at Kroger. I love it!

This week I’m enjoying this lip combo – Clinique black honey and Selena Gomez Rare Beauty lipgloss.

I finished this and it was a cute story!

Despite the cold Eddie Otis and I get outside for a couple of walks each day.

So, this is not a favorite…

We were issued a winter weather advisory yesterday at 11:30 until Monday morning. I don’t think I can remember one lasting that long. But the snow isn’t supposed to start until mid-day Saturday. I have seen predictions of 5 inches to 24 inches for my area. I have also heard we could get sleet. I have plenty of food stocked – I think. I don’t want anyone to lose power in this cold.

I hope you had lots of favorites this week, too! Stay warm! Stay safe!

Amy