Weekend Round-Up

Best new salad of the week

Asparagus Tomato Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

http://www.cookingclassy.com/asparagus-tomato-feta-salad-balsamic-vinaigrette/

St. Patrick's Day Treat Bags Printables
http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2017/02/printable-st-patricks-day-treat-bags.html
Best New Recipes to Try

Chocolate Mint Bark
http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2017/02/chocolate-mint-bark.html

Irish Blackberry Crumble Cake 

http://www.cookingonthefrontburners.com/2014/06/irish-blackberry-crumble-cake-src.html

Shrimp and Asparagus Linguine 

http://www.thecookingmom.com/recipe-box/dinner/pasta-with-shrimp-and-asparagus/

Best new book recommendation from a local book group 

Anna Quindlen is the author of three bestselling novels, Object Lessons,One True Thing and Black and Blue, and three non-fiction books, Living Out Loud, Thinking Out Loud and A Short Guide to a Happy Life. Her New York Times column 'Public and Private' won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992. She is currently a columnist for Newsweek.

The premise of the book intrigued me and I have enjoyed her previous books. 

Still Life with Bread Crumbs begins with an imagined gunshot and ends with a new tin roof. Between the two is a wry and knowing portrait of Rebecca Winter, a photographer whose work made her an unlikely heroine for many women. Her career is declining, a bank balance shaky, and she has fled the city for the middle of nowhere. There she discovers, in a tree stand with a roofer named Jim Bates, that what she sees through a camera lens is not all there is to life. 

Brilliantly written, powerfully observed, Still Life with Bread Crumbs is a deeply moving and often very funny story of unexpected love, and a stunningly crafted journey into the life of a woman, her heart, her mind, her days, as she discovers that life is a story with many levels, a story that is longer and more exciting than she ever imagined. 

I read many reviews and the following one sums up a lot of other reviewer's thoughts 

Rebecca Winter, aged sixty, a photographer became very well known with a grouping of pictures that give the book its title. She could be any woman or every woman who never expected to find herself later in life trying to make ends meet. It's a quiet and yet an empowering look at a woman who is now at the crossroads of her life. 

Quindan has such a knack for relating the little details that make a life, the emotions that swirl beneath the surface of everyday thoughts and actions. She made this character so easy for me to identify with and feel compassion for as well.

Recipes: 
St. Patrick's Day 

Lenten special

Tex-Mex Dish  

Popular Louisiana Dish 
Note: Ever Ready has switched locations for March 

view from back patio

Blooming cactuses