Tag Archives: Friday

Happy Friday! Have a lovely weekend

Posted on April 14, 2023 | Comments Off on Happy Friday! Have a lovely weekend


It looks like it is going to be cloudy but warm here in Toronto this weekend. That’s fine. I am happy for the warm weather and the lack of snow. It’s tulip time and I love tulips, so one thing I might be doing is either getting some more or just window shopping for them.

Lately I’ve been trying to read more, despite my limited attention span. Because of that, this list of 30 of the best short films and novels you can do in less than an hour and a half got my attention. I might be able to get through something before Sunday evening.

Of course weekends are also good for sleep. If you are trying to catch up on yours this weekend, here’s some guidance on  how to fix broken sleep schedule.

Fun stuff: check out these pictures kids took of their parents. Priceless and true. Something that was fun but no more is Looney Tunes: HBO is removing Looney Tunes online. Sad to see that happen.

Do you know someone moving into their first apartment? If so, they might appreciate this checklist . They might appreciate more than that, but it’s a start. 🙂 If they need a new sound system for their place, maybe they’d like this new Sonos speaker.

Fans of minecraft and Chromebooks: it seems that Microsoft is going to release a version of Minecraft for Chromebooks. Nice!

Something moving: these final words of Darren Barefoot are as splendid as the things he writes about in the end:  they were all splendid.

If you want to get away from it all,  this all white minimalist cabin is the flexible and functional tiny home on wheels you need.

Enjoy Spring…and your weekend, as you head out into it.

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Happy Friday! It’s the weekend!

Posted on November 25, 2022 | Comments Off on Happy Friday! It’s the weekend!

Woo! It’s Friday! If you are American, then there is a good chance you are participating in Thanksgiving activities! May your days be joyous and your feast plentiful. As for me, I’m in Canada, where we celebrated our Thanksgiving weeks ago. I suspect I will be gearing up like many Canadians for that other festive time that is coming soon: Christmas.

Speaking of feasts, here’s a cornucopia of things for you to check out and enjoy as you head into the weekend.

How cool is this  Balmuda speaker? I just love it. Move over Sonos! (JK I love my Sonos One speaker too.)

Also cool: this public bench. I wish my city had such great places to sit.

This artwork by  Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (below) is stunning. Plus it is related to your pulse. Intriguing, yes?

Speaking of stunning, check out these bold black houses. I just love to look at them and to imagine staying in them.

As for imagining things, how great it would be to take some time and do this 750-Mile Bicycle Route from New York. That’s a good bucket list item.

Or perhaps that’s too much effort. In which case, why not daydream about climbing on board The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express for one of their Winter Journeys? That sounds fabulous.

If you can’t afford that, then maybe you just want to stay at home and have a low key meal tonight. I recommend you look into what Austin Kleon does every Friday. He has these Pizza night blockbusters with his family that you might want to try (this link even has his wife’s pizza recipe). It’s a great idea and the pizzas look delicious.


Or maybe you can’t even decide what to eat. Kavall, a Swedish grocery delivery company, understands.  See that button? You press it and they will  randomly selects a recipe and have the ingredients delivered by bike in around 10 minutes. Amazing! You can read more about it here!

Want to impress your kids after dinner? Show them the metal rig Jelle Seegers built with a handmade fresnel lens on top that can concentrate solar rays tightly enough to smelt metal. You can see it, here. It will blow their mind.

Or show them this small paper microscope that works!

But don’t show them this McDonald’s gaming chair because they might want one! Unless you too like it…I dunno. 🙂

I have written often on cat furniture. Perhaps too much. But I can resist sharing this one called Igloo that is a side table that also gives your cat a cozy home.

Have fun on the last Friday of November! This year is flying by. Have a great weekend.

 

 

 

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Friday (French) Food for You in September 2022

Posted on September 2, 2022 | Comments Off on Friday (French) Food for You in September 2022

I love French food, both cooking it and eating it. If you feel the same and you want to get into doing more French cooking, why not start with these recipes from Chatelaine? I recommend them. Especially, I am a big fan of their coq au vin blanc, shown above. I’ve made it a few times and each time it comes out well.

If you find the idea of making French food daunting, fear not. Here are some easy French Bistro Recipes to start with. That said, the ones in Chatelaine are not hard. Either way, you have no excuse not to start due to difficulty.

If you are feeling more ambitious, here are the best classic French dishes according to chefs, via Food & Wine. Some of those will challenge you.

Mind you, even dishes that are considered laborious can be made without too much of a fuss. For example, here’s how to make Cassoulet at home the easy way in under an hour. Traditional? No. Delicious? For sure.

Maybe you just want to skip making it and go to France and have others make it. If so, see this:Restaurants, hotels and bars in Paris and across France.

Finally, here’s a man many associate with French cooking, Jacques Pepin. That link takes you to a good piece on him talking about French food, cars, and more.

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Friday Night Music with the Psychedelic Furs and….Maroon 5?

Posted on August 5, 2022 | Comments Off on Friday Night Music with the Psychedelic Furs and….Maroon 5?

I find it fascinating when ideas reoccur in music videos. Take these two. First up is “Heaven” by the Psychedelic Furs.

Next up, “Girl Like You” by Maroon 5, some years – decades – later.

Both use a similar style, where the camera seems to revolve around the singer, allowing for lots of motion even while the singer remains in one place. It’s effective in giving the video life. It’s also interesting to see it revisited after all this time in the latter video.

Of course, there are other things that give the video action. In “Heaven”, there is literally a downpour of water! While in “Girl Like You’, there is the effect of many women appearing behind Levine as he sings.

Anyway, both effective videos. I am loathe to post music videos these days: so many times the music companies will yank the videos and leave my blog posts looking poorly. Perhaps these ones, because they have been there for some time, won’t be removed.

P.S. It’s an impressive pantheon of women appearing in the Maroon 5 video, ranging from performers to athletes to activists. You can get the details on who they are, here.

P.S.S. Here’s a different version of “Girl Like You” which I like even more.

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Friday night cocktail: a formula to make your own

Posted on May 20, 2022 | Comments Off on Friday night cocktail: a formula to make your own

Tonight you can be your own mixologist by heading over to the Food & Wine web site and reading this article: How to Make Classic Cocktails Without Looking Up a Recipe. Think about what you want: bitter, boozy, bubbly, tart,  or fizzy. Then use their ratios to make something new! If it’s good, name it after yourself and make one for your friends.

Worse case, you toss it out and head over to Liquor.com and make something they recommend (they have everything).

Cheers!

P.S. Hat tip to Dana McCauley who tweeted this.

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Friday night cocktail: the white negroni (with thoughts on Brutto’s £5 negronis)

Posted on April 8, 2022 | Comments Off on Friday night cocktail: the white negroni (with thoughts on Brutto’s £5 negronis)

I’ve been enjoying negronis lately. If you have a chance to dine at Brutto’s in London like I did this month, you can even enjoy one of their £5 negronis at the start of your meal.

A classic negroni is a fine drink. If you want something unique, why not make this version? Like the classic, this one is also simple but delicious. See uncrate for the recipe.

P.S. New restaurants, if you want to get people into your place, be like Brutto and offer a small and low cost cocktail as a starter. You’ll get people talking about your place. “Did you hear X has a cheap Y cocktail?!” And you’ll get people who may never order a cocktail getting one because it is small. And small cocktails are good because people finish them fast and don’t feel rushed when the food comes out. Win win.

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Friday night cocktail: the Penicillin

Posted on February 18, 2022 | Comments Off on Friday night cocktail: the Penicillin

What could be a more appropriate cocktail for a pandemic than the penicillin? Medicinal it may not be, but it’s a perfect mix to get you through a wintry Friday. Uncrate has the prescription, here: Penicillin Cocktail Recipe | Uncrate

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Friday Night Music: Paris Match (Style Council with Tracey Thorn vocals)

Posted on October 8, 2021 | Comments Off on Friday Night Music: Paris Match (Style Council with Tracey Thorn vocals)

If you are a fan of the Style Council, as I am, I highly recommend this: Long Hot Summers: The Story of The Style Council (2020) | SHOWTIME

It’s an excellent review of the career of the musicians that made up the band, and a fine reminder of how great they were.

While there were many people interviewed for it, Tracey Thorn didn’t appear, sadly. I would have loved to hear more about how she crossed paths and became a Councillor for a time.

Watch the documentary: you’ll be glad you did. Meanwhile, check this out:

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Friday night cocktail: tonight’s is actually a mocktail.

Posted on September 24, 2021 | Comments Off on Friday night cocktail: tonight’s is actually a mocktail.


While cocktails are great, it is good to see the rise of mocktails too. Once they were rarities at a bar; now more and more places are serving them up. If you feel like you want to make some yourself this Friday evening, here’s 25 Booze-Free Mocktail Recipes That Aren’t Just Juice from Bon Appetit. That list has a range of drinks, from lemonades and others that are perfect in the summer, to the PG-13 Singapore Sling shown above.

It’s Friday. Time to relax. Make yourself a drink. The booze is optional. Cheers!

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Friday night cocktail: a Lambrusco Spritz

Posted on July 30, 2021 | Comments Off on Friday night cocktail: a Lambrusco Spritz

Lambrusco Spritz

While we on this blog love a good glass of cremant anytime, in the summertime we want easy drinking cocktail and mixes like spritzes. Italian liquors are great for these. While you may be happy to chug back of sip Aperol spritzes all weekend, we’d like to recommend something different: the Lambrusco Spritz. There is much to recommend for the Lambrusco Spritz. For one, you can drink Lambrusco as a spritz or straight up. Two, it goes great with snacky food. As the Times shows:

 Lambrusco pairs seamlessly with the rich foods of Emilia-Romagna, such as Parmigiano-Reggiano, cured meats and gnocco fritto, meaning that a daytime bottle can easily linger past sunset. “A lot of wines that you might apéro with, you might not want with food,” Ms. Davis said. “The great thing about Lambrusco is that you can drink it all day, and then you can drink it all night.”

Perfect, right? So grab yourself a few bottles and go Day Drinking, Italian Style.

(Image: link to NYTimes article)

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Friday night cocktail: an Old Fashioned

Posted on July 9, 2021 | Comments Off on Friday night cocktail: an Old Fashioned

I am a huge fan of the Sazerac cocktail, but I really find it best if you use absinthe (something that is not easy to find). So I was intrigued when Esquire said an Old Fashioned has the bones of a Sazerac. And I looked and it does. So I’ll be making some of these soon and hoping it is as satisfying as its New Orleans’ cousin.

Sure, it is never fashionable. But it never goes out of style, either.

Here’s Esquire with their Best Old Fashioned Recipe.

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Friday night cocktails: the marg’

Posted on July 2, 2021 | Comments Off on Friday night cocktails: the marg’

Ok, a marg(arita) may be more of a Saturday afternoon cocktail on a hot summer day, but here on my blog we only write about cocktails on Friday night. Regardless, as the days heat up, you need a cool drink to help you stay chill and relaxed and the margarita fits that description to a tee. If you’ve never made one before, or if you want to try new versions, Bon Appetit has the advice you need.

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Friday night cocktail: a spritz

Posted on February 26, 2021 | Comments Off on Friday night cocktail: a spritz

Amaro spritz
Technically this post is about an Amaro Spritz from aCoupleofCooks.com but really any combination of sparkling wine, club soda / soda water (but not tonic water) and a bitter can make a spritz. So amaro, Aperol, Campari, Lillet…even St Germain is good.

The ratio mentioned in aCoupleofCooks is this: 3 parts sparkling wine, 2 parts liqueur, 1 part soda water. And that’s good. But if you want it lighter, just increase the amount of soda water. If you want it less bitter, you might even consider a 1:1:1 ratio vs 3:2:1. But try 3:2:1 first. Enjoy!

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Friday night cocktail: honey plum bourbon sour

Posted on November 20, 2020 | Comments Off on Friday night cocktail: honey plum bourbon sour

From the folks at Food52, here’s a cocktail with a different twist: plum slices! I like it.  Of course you don’t need to make it with that particular bourbon: I am sure it will be delicious with any version you prefer.

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You’ve had a long stressful week. You want to make yourself a simple but great cocktail. Here you go.

Posted on November 17, 2017 | 1 comment

It doesn’t get simpler or greater than a Gin and Tonic. Ideal for hot weather, but good all year ’round. Enjoy your drink and your weekend.

For amateur cocktail makers, here all the info you need:
Gin and Tonic Recipe, from  Bon Appetit

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Friday night music: Brook Benton – Rainy Night in Georgia

Posted on October 9, 2015 | Comments Off on Friday night music: Brook Benton – Rainy Night in Georgia

Perfect music for a melancholy Friday Fall evening.

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Friday night music, celebrating the glamorous life

Posted on August 14, 2015 | Comments Off on Friday night music, celebrating the glamorous life

Two views of glamour. First, from Marie Antoinette, here’s New Order and Ceremony

And of course, here’s Shiela E., on some of the same themes as Coppola’s film:

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