five friday favorites #18: week of sept. 25, 2015

Four months. That's how long it's been since I've done a Friday Favorites! But I'm back, people, and I hope to not take so long of a break again. So let's dive into the things that are making me happy this week...

1. Chuck
I swear to you, I am half in love with Chuck Bartowski. Or Zachary Levi. Or a combination of the two. Whatever.

When my sister was home a few weeks ago, she suggested that our mom start watching Chuck. So we watched the pilot and the next couple episodes (because Netflix). Then I went home and watched another. And another. I probably shouldn't tell you where I am in the series right now because that would reveal just how much time I've spent on Chuck in the last couple weeks.

Here's what I love about Chuck: It's absolutely hilarious, it's full of pop culture references from when I was still fully in tune with pop culture, and it often features the Casey (Adam Baldwin) & Morgan (Joshua Gomez) show--those two are comedy gold, I tell you! I don't think I've watched an episode yet where I didn't laugh out loud at some point. Really, John Casey is one of the funniest TV characters I've ever seen—credit to both the writers and Baldwin for that! Just last night I was watching an episode ("Chuck vs. the Couch Lock") where he makes a crack about the Clintons that had me dying. The whole episode was Casey comedy perfection.

If you weren't already convinced to watch Chuck, check out the supporting actors. It's like an 80's-90's child's dream: Rachel from Saved by the Bell: The New Class is Chuck's sister. Dr. Sam Beckett is Chuck's dad. Sarah Connor is Chuck's mom. Cory Matthews and Carl Winslow are guest stars. And I'm sure I'm forgetting others!

If you haven't watched Chuck before, or if you just want to revisit it, you should definitely check it out on Netflix!

2. Satsuma Street
Remember For the Love? (Of course you do; goodness knows I've talked about it enough!) Well, even though the book is launched, our Facebook group is still going strong. Recently, one of the girls asked if any of us cross-stitched and linked to her favorite cross-stitch designer, Jody at Satsuma Street.

I used to cross-stitch--like that one time I spent half my life cross-stitching a sampler for my cousin's first baby. (You can see a picture of it at the bottom of this post.) Said baby is now almost seven, and I haven't done much cross-stitching since then.

I couldn't resist checking out the designs on Satsuma Street, and I fell completely in love. By the end of the day, I'd purchased two patterns: Joy and Autumn Bird. I decided to stitch Joy first because maybe I can get it done by the time I decorate for Christmas.

So I'm redeeming some of the many, many hours spent watching Chuck by cross-stitching while I watch! I've stitched three nights so far, and I'm, well, not very far along ... but I'm having fun! I can't wait until I get to the part where I can use more colors.

3. AIP cookies
I am just over two weeks into my AIP journey. (I talked about the diet here.) Honestly, it feels like I've been doing this way longer than 16 days! Really, one thing is getting me through: cookies. Namely, these AIP Chewy "Chocolate" Chunk Cookies from Flame to Fork. The first time around, I followed the recipe exactly, except I subbed coconut oil for the palm shortening. They were tasty, if a bit "spready."

I'm not a huge fan of carob, though it does work when you can't have chocolate. Still, I thought I would enjoy the cookies more without the carob, so for my next batch, I decided to make snickerdoodles. I just left out the carob chunks and rolled the dough in coconut sugar and cinnamon that I ground up in my Magic Bullet. These are SOOOO good! And, I'm sure they're largely responsible for my lack of weight loss since beginning the diet.

Tonight, I decided to take the basic dough and make it into ginger cookies. This may be my favorite variation yet! Once I get it perfected, I'll share the recipe ... and I can tell that I'm really going to enjoy the trial and error process!

4. Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey
I wouldn't be aware of  half of the podcasts I listen to without my sister Val's recommendations. I don't even check out the podcasts first anymore--if Val says to listen, then I subscribe. Her latest recommendation, Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey, just might be her best yet. Each week, Jamie interviews a woman she knows, and they talk about such a wide variety of topics, but everything is interesting. This has become my new "listen to while getting ready" podcast, and I'm totally loving it.

5. The Lost Garden

Because I haven't done a Friday Favorites in months, I have lots of books to choose from for my recommendation, but this one was easily one of my favorite reads over the summer. Here's an excerpt from my review:

The Lost Garden is not a particularly fast read—it's not one of those novels that moves at breakneck pace or is full of passionate romance. But it is a beautiful novel—one that you read slowly so as to savor the experience as the story unfolds. 

The Lost Garden is a beautiful, unique read, and I highly recommend it! See the rest of my review on my book review blog.

Those are my favorites. What things are you enjoying this week?