Friday Favorites: They’re baaack.

The good old Friday Favorites are back, ya’ll, and I have two words for you.

Shut. Up.

Without going into a long explanation of the mental state I’m clearly in to be as hypocritical indecisive and flustered about something so trivial, let me just say that as much as I thought I liked the idea of change, I clearly didn’t.

The Friday Favorites are like my kids, you guys.

When the blog was fresh and new and the FF posts were first conceived, I showered them with attention. I didn’t miss a single week. No matter how tired I was, how much I didn’t want to write them, or how tough it was to follow through, I did it.

As the months and years passed, however, the Friday Favorites began to get overlooked. I’ll admit, I often got overwhelmed by the expectation. Threw them a bowl of Lucky Charms for dinner instead of making them eat vegetables. You get it.

So I got rid of them. Replaced them with something new and more exciting (this is where the metaphor ends, in case you were concerned). But then the guilt set in. And I spent a couple of weeks making notes on my phone of my favorites (old habits die hard). And also? I wanted to show you guys my favorite rice cooker.

So out with the new, in with the old. Towel off and let’s go.

1. Perfect sticky rice — every time. 

I love kitchen gadgets.
I hate to cook, but love shopping in boutiques filled with colorful measuring cups, spoons, and things that will turn an ordinary avocado into freaking origami. I also seem to love buying colorful gadgets and never using them, but that’s another story.

But this.
This I use.
A lot.

 

Other than my crock pot, this cheap-o rice cooker is my favorite kitchen gadget.
Since most of you know how I feel about cooking, you’ll understand why I can’t stop laughing that the phrase “my favorite kitchen gadget” just flew from my fingertips as easily as it did.
It’s the power of the rice cooker, obviously.

I never liked rice growing up unless it was sticky white or brown rice from a Chinese food restaurant.
You know, the kind that sticks to the sides of the little paper box and your intestines.
Rice like this:

Rice that is gooey and sticky and is the perfect mattress for our favorite easy dinner—which I make every other week—Six Sister’s Stuff Honey Sesame Chicken.

I always use sushi rice (I find this brand at Super Target or, for my local friends, Lunds has it as well), and it always turns out perfectly.

I’ve had my rice cooker for years so I don’t remember where I bought it, but I just found it on Amazon HERE.

I use a ratio of 2 of the cups (that come with the cooker) full of rice to 3 cups of water, which probably makes about 4 servings but which my husband and I fight over every last grain of.

 

2. Back to the books

I actually found two books over the past couple of weeks that have made me want to read instead of watch Netflix, which is something that hasn’t happened in months, and they couldn’t be more different from each other.

I know I’m way behind the crowd with this one, but it honestly hadn’t crossed my radar until the movie was being promoted (because the bulk of my reading material comes from E!Online, Entertainment Weekly and UsWeekly, obviously). While I’ll admit there were sections where the author seemed to drone on and on about the geography of that damn island and the intricacies of how a lighthouse works (which I may or may not have skimmed over), the story is so compelling that I kept with it.

It’s heartbreaking, especially the last third, but so well written that it’s excused.
I can’t decide if I’ll see the movie. I might just let the power of the words be good enough. 

Then two days ago I started this book —

and I cannot put it down.
In fact, I only have 20% left to read (according to my Kindle app) and I’m waiting for a time this weekend I can sit with it uninterrupted, because things just took a big turn.

It’s a quick read. Light and funny but written so well it doesn’t read like fluff.
Because I’m short on time, here’s the official summary from Amazon:

Named “Summer Book Pick” by Us Weekly * Redbook Magazine * Brit + Co * Buzzfeed * SheKnows *Bustle *

From international #1 best-selling authors Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus comes a story about a girl from the trailer parks of central Florida and the two powerful men who shape her life―one of whom will raise her up to places she never imagined, the other of whom will threaten to destroy her.

Amanda Beth Luker has spent her whole life desperately looking for someone who can show her the way out of her trailer park Florida town. And then, finally, help arrives―in the form of Tom Davis, a successful lawyer with political aspirations who grew up just a few towns over from Amanda. But it’s his wife, Lindsay, who really captures Amanda’s imagination. Strong, smart, and determined, she gives Amanda something she’s never had―a role model. Meanwhile Amanda is introduced to the wealthy, charismatic, and deeply troubled Pax Westerbrook. He clearly desires Amanda, but if she gives in will that move her closer to the life she’s always dreamed of―or make it impossible?

Amanda rides Davis’s political success all the way to Washington, where he becomes Senator and will later be tapped for president and even make a bid for the White House. But when Amanda starts to suspect, and later confirms, his moral indiscretions, her loyalty is tested. Will a girl from a trailer park even be believed if she goes public with damning information? Will she be willing to risk losing everything she’s gained?

I’ll definitely be adding both of these books to my “Good Reads” tab up top! If you like to read check it out, and let me know in the comments books you’ve loved and would recommend. Thanks!

3. Rory who?

Like most of the people who’ve been watching and who have a beating heart, I’ve fallen in love with NBC’s This Is Us.

The writing is brilliant, the story original, and the acting—by the entire ensemble—superb.
I don’t need to tell you.

After that shocker of an ending this week I tweeted out this reaction GIF.

Me at the final moment on tonight’s #ThisIsUs pic.twitter.com/cJM5XIwiDh

— Michelle Newman (@urmyfavetoday) September 28, 2016

The next morning I discovered it had been retweeted by Dan Fogelman, the creator and writer (who also writes the new show Pitch and who also wrote Crazy, Stupid, Love, which just so happens to be one of my favorite movies) which threw me into slight hysteria and made me wonder for like two or twenty minutes if I was about to get a job offer. Naturally.

But then.
Then.
Yesterday I got this notification:

Milo Ventimiglia liked your tweet. 

Don’t believe me?

 

I mean, I was always more of a Dean girl, but this seals the deal.
Sorry Rory, you snooze you lose.
Now, if I can just convince him to move back to Stars Hollow.

That’s gonna do it for the big return today, folks.
I just glanced outside and it looks like this:

So I’m shelving the rest of the Favorites for another time.
Happily, now that they’re back, I can.
Happy weekend! It’s going to be a beautiful one here!

 

For more Friday Favorites click HERE, and for the five or six of you mourning the loss of the Pictures or It Didn’t Happen posts, you do understand they’re basically the same thing (and I am crazy), right?? Don’t worry, they’ll be back in some form.
Just try to stop me from oversharing.