The Little Issues E-newsletter #472 – Life, laughter, and plenty of nice meals!

Welcome to the weekend, my buddies! I used to be in Park Metropolis, UT this week and the climate was implausible. Pretty cool nights and lovely days with sunshine – zero complaints about any of that. I’m again in Ohio now although and having fun with a sunny, rain-filled day.

When you’d instructed me years in the past, whereas we had been dwelling in Phoenix, that I’d sometime watch the climate forecast and are available to like the number of climate adjustments we would see in per week, I wouldn’t have understood that. Now? I dwell for the altering seasons – winter, spring, summer season, and fall certainly have their lovely moments and I get pleasure from all of them.

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK:  Pork, shrimp, and greens are folded right into a paper-thin lumpia wrapper after which fried to crisp golden perfection on this conventional recipe for Filipino lumpia. Virtually 30 years in the past, I tasted lumpia for the primary time and I fell in love with them at first chew.

Old style split pea soup is a hearty, satisfying soup made out of dried break up peas, savory ham, and tender chunks of potatoes. It’s a traditional winter soup that can be excellent for a cold, moist spring or summer season night.

Tiny bite-size items of hen are tossed with spices and oil earlier than they’re cooked to juicy perfection within the air fryer. These air fryer chicken bites have turn into one in every of my favourite lunches of late. The leftovers preserve properly within the fridge for just a few days and so they’re an amazing choice for tossing into salads or consuming on their very own each time I’m hungry.

Tempting and versatile, these rosemary garlic potatoes are tender roasted potatoes with a crisp garlicky, rosemary crust. They’re the final word in potato facet dishes.

Candy corn, summer season tomatoes and cucumbers, contemporary basil, and parsley are tossed with a vivid, tangy French dressing to create this summer corn salad.

Candy berries, spicy jalapenos, onions, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime mix to make this strawberry salsa. This comes collectively in about quarter-hour and the salsa disappears nearly sooner than that each single time I make it.

Contemporary and creamy strawberry ice cream is sprinkled all through with Nerds sweet to create this tremendous enjoyable Nerds ice cream, it’s a very irresistible child and grownup favourite.

What I’m CRAVING: I attempted bavette steak (additionally bought as “flap steak”) for the primary time this week and it was so good! I’d by no means even heard of it earlier than. The closest factor to it could be flank or skirt steak, however the texture is extra delicate and tender.

My pal Sommer instructed me that that bavette is her favourite minimize of beef and I’ve to agree now that it’s fairly superior. I discovered her guide to cooking bavette steak and now I’m semi-obsessed with discovering it close to me. 

My FAVORITE THING this week is my new wind machine fan. Admittedly, it’s a beast, nevertheless it’s an reasonably priced beast and it strikes air like nothing else. There’s an area in my kitchen by the range the place it doesn’t matter what I do, it’s simply plain HOT to face there when issues are cooking. (Not a traditional heat both, it’s just like the air simply sits proper there and doesn’t transfer.) So, I preserve this fan within the nook of the kitchen and after I wish to use it, it’s as simple as could be to arrange and blow air throughout the kitchen.

What I’m LISTENING to: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins has been one other enjoyable pay attention this week. I loved studying the whole trilogy years in the past, and we’ve watched the movies too, so the audiobooks have been a enjoyable pay attention this summer season.

“In order that Christ might dwell in your hearts via religion — that you just, being rooted and grounded in love, might have energy to understand with all of the saints what’s the breadth and size and peak and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses data, that you could be be crammed with all of the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19 ESV

Wishing you a stunning week filled with little issues that make you smile!

Mary