Friday Things
1. Duke and Einstein on Easter night, totally tuckered out from a day spent at my mom’s. I wanted to eat them up they looked so adorable sleeping against each other!
2. Our patio was completed this week! We absolutely love it, and can’t wait to get our furniture in place and get our first fire going. I’ll definitely be sharing more photos once everything is set up!
3. For my birthday last month, my mom bought me a Clarisonic Pedi Sonic, which had been on my wish list for months. I don’t have awful feet, but standing for the majority of most days had left me with some cracking around my heels. I wanted to wait to review this until I had put in a good amount of time with it (the packaging says you will notice results in two weeks), and frankly… I love it! I use it each day after I shower (it takes only 5 minutes), and my feet, heels especially, are like night and day! Highly recommend!
4. Have you seen the Brian Williams “Gin and Juice” rap that’s been circulating this week? This is the result of some creative editing over at The Tonight Show, HYSTERICAL!
5. Einstein is still rocking his cone, poor guy. I had him at the vet last Saturday because I thought I felt a bump on his ear near where the drain is, but it turns out it was a nasty buildup of all the stuff that’s been seeping out. The vet cleaned him all up and said things look great; he finally gets to have the drain removed on Tuesday! Hooray!
6. I somehow ended up on the other side of Easter without eating a single Reese’s peanut butter egg or jelly bean. Totally ludicrous.
7. My Chief Culinary Consultant and I started watching a new show on AMC – Turn, which is based on what is considered to be the first spy ring during the Revolutionary War. We’re also still going strong on The Americans (yay spies!). I adore Keri Russell (I have ever since Felicity), and every time I watch The Americans, she makes me want to go on a diet, but I’m usually watching while eating dessert… Sooo… yeah.
8. Have you seen any of the movies that were big during the awards season? American Hustle… Dallas Buyers Club… The Wolf of Wall Street… Captain Phillips… ? We’ve officially hit a movie dry spell and I would love to hear if you think they (or any others) are worth watching!
9. Don’t forget to enter the NatureBox giveaway, which ends tonight; two winners will each receive a 6-month subscription to NatureBox!
10. TGIF! Duke continues to be a good little brother and makes sure Einstein’s ear is doing okay :)
I LOVE that last picture. Really shows the brotherly love. :)
I love watching movies and have finally caught most of the nominees. I loved Captain Philips and Dallas Buyers Club. Twelve Years a Slave was also excellent and deserved its win.
I just had to write a little note on how much I love
your dogs.They are so sweet,especially the last one in this post,
it looks as if your dog wants to crawl in with Einstein and share
his agony.
Anyway,
xxoo to the dogs
That last photo is amazingly cute!!
I love your dogs they’re just so real that they add the icing on the cake when I’m just going into read your recipes. Thank you so much- you make every week so enjoyable!!! I will continue to pray for Einstein’s good health.
Aww! The dogs are sooo cute! I love goldens! Poor Einstein, that most be sad! I am glad to hear he is doing better though.
I have to disagree with the comments in respect of Wof of Wall Street. I thought it was one of the best movies that I have seen in a long time. Yes, it is hectic and over the top, but the point is that it shows a world that one would never thinks exists. It will make you uncomfortable at times, but that’s the point. I thought Leonardo’s performance was AMAZING and it couldn’t have been an easy role to play. Overall, it gets 5 stars from me. If you are prepared to push yourself out of your comfort zone and experince a movie that shows you things about how some people live, then its a great movie to enjoy. Do you have to like the lifestyle? No. Do you have to agree with all the drug taking? No. Do you have to admire how those people lived? No. But in the end, it’s not about whether you like those things and are left feeling warm and snugly. It’s a movie about a man, a company and a lifestyle. It gets 5 stars from me!
Love your blog! In addition to great food to eat your puppies are food for my soul. We had to put our two yellow labs down last year ( brother/sister) and seeing your pups grow helps us remember them and all the fun doggie cakes we used to make them.
Hi! I saw all of the best picture nominees this year, and most of them were great — you shouldn’t have any trouble finding good ones to watch! Wonderful: Dallas Buyers Club, American Hustle, Her, 12 Years, Nebraska, Captain Phillips and Philomena. You can skip Wolf of Wall Street and maybe Gravity. Also great but not Best-Picture-nominated: Saving Mr. Banks, The Butler, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. And, of course, if you haven’t seen it and don’t mind animated things, Frozen was my favorite movie of the year :) Enjoy!
Michelle,
Love the puppy pics as usual. Congrats on the new patio – enjoy and have a great weekend.
Annamaria
Seeing pictures of your boys always makes me smile!
Love your blog! As for movies, definitely check out American Hustle and Dallas Buyers Club. They are great. We watched Savings Mr. Banks last night and LOVED it even more. As for Wolf of Wall Street, I’m not easily offended and can usually take movies for what they’re worth, but it was too much. Every other scene is lines of cocaine or sex with absolutely no need to use your imagination…could it possibly get worse? YES! When Leo’s character is doing lines of cocaine OFF OF the naked women he’s having sex with! It’s just too much. Funny thing…the next morning, I told my husband that I had never seen so many naked people in a movie. He said that he didn’t think it was that bad. Come to find out, he watched the movie without his glasses on! LOL My recommendation, if you do decide to watch it, perhaps you should remove glasses and contacts. It might be the best way to watch it!
This weeks pics of the boys are so sweet! I look forward to them each Friday!
Oh. My. That last picture of your boys is enough to bring tears to my eyes! What sweet Goldens. I NEED Golden #2 very soon . . . I did not eat one piece of Sarris chocolate this Easter – how terribly sad is that? And not one spice jelly bean or black jelly bean, and I crave those black ones from Sarris’. And what is up with our Pens???? Tomorrow night’s game is a MUST win . . . Buckle up, baby!!
I love the photos and stories about your adorable dogs. The one with both heads in the cone is so sweet.
Decided to make the Driscoll’s Strawberry Banana Cake with Chocolate Ganache for Easter and it was a HUGE hit!!! Thanks for sharing this recipe! Love your site, and all the updates on the family! Ever going to share pictures of your wedding or Chief Culinary Advisor? Would love to put faces to names!
Jenny
Boy I wish my Lucy had been with a “little sister” to help her through her surgery and MISERABLE two weeks wearing a cone last fall after her surgery to remove a whopping big catarac on her right eye. I don’t know who was more miserable with that cone, her or me. The one good thing for her is that most of that time she spent at my parent’s house since it was MUCH easier for her to navigate and move about. My home is over 200 years old with lots of odd spaces and tight corners, etc. She does fine normally but with that cone she spent more time banging into things than getting somewhere. There is nothing Lucy likes more than spending time with “Memaw” so that might have made it all worth it. I did discover after surviving through this ordeal that there is a quilted cone on the market. It’s a solid enough structure to keep them from scratching their wounds but much more giving and comfortable. IF Lucy, or any dog I have has to wear one of these monsters I will definitely be purchasing one for them. I believe they’re either 20 or 30 something dollars and definitely worth it. I had to assist Lucy in eating AND drinking as she couldn’t reach her bowls, I had to scratch her normal itches for her and so on and so forth, it was some of the longest two weeks of my life.
I’m on the search for a female golden to bring home around the end of May or early to mid June. Should you hear of a little ready to leave mom around that time please email me. I can’t BELIEVE Lucy will be 8 years old on May 3rd. Time has gone by SO QUICKLY. I still would like Lucy to meet Einstein and Duke one day. Give Einstein a hug from both of us and tell him this ordeal will soon be over! Best wishes, Pami and Lucy
Hi Michelle, I had sent you (via FB and email) before pictures of my Cannoli
(made from you and your Nanas recipe). I also took pictures of them filled and beautiful and would like to share but not sure how? as I assume you aren’t getting the ones I sent previously. I presented them at Easter to my very large Italian family- they were EXCELLANT! I made 3 variations of filling using Ricotta Impastata ( imported from new York) ;1) Vanilla, Cinn. & fresh Nutmeg; 2) Espresso with mini choc chips; 3) Vanilla & HINT of Fior de Sicilia-Shells Plain & dipped in Merkens choc and toasted pecans-AMAZING!!!
Thank you so much for sharing. I would love to share my photos with you and your Nana if poss.
thank you ,
Denise
Hi Denise, You can email them to michelle@browneyedbaker.com, I would love to see them! I’m so happy you enjoyed them, my husband’s nana would be happy :)
Captain Phillips was wonderful! It was great acting and a great story. Wolf of Wall Street is racy and long but if you don’t read into it so much it’s a good laugh. And American Hustle is good, but I agree with other comments the plot isn’t riveting but the costumes and set are amazing.
Also love your dog pictures!!
Michelle, you need to watch Philomena! I watched almost all of the Oscar nominees and it was my favorite. Such a great story.
Duke and Einstein are so adorable. Your pictures of them always bring a smile to my face! Hope Einstein is our of that cone soon!
I’m also in love with the Brian Williams rap, but I’m in love with just about anything that has to do with Brian Williams :)
I’ve seen American Hustle, Captain Phillips, and Dallas Buyers Club. Of the three, Captain Phillips was my favorite, but Dallas Buyers Club was good too. I liked American Hustle, but it didn’t live up to my expectations for a movie with such a star-studded cast.
Happy Friday!
Duke and Einstein are so cute together! No Easter candy….that is so sad…lol
I have not watched any of the award movies from this year…I too am watching Turn and love it so far!
I always look forward to Friday Things for the pictures of your cute dogs! I am glad Einstein is getting better and will finally be able to go without his cone.
As for the movies, I LOVED Captain Phillips. Wolf of Wall Street would be my second pick, and American Hustle is number three. All three are great movies though so you can’t go wrong.
Love your friday things! You make me want to get a second dog :)
I am so enamoured with Duke and Einstein that I forgot to comment about programs that we are enjoying. My husband and I have been watching a bunch of British mysteries such as Midsomer Mysteries, Doc Martin, Father Brown, Foyle’s War. For some reason they seem to have gained our interest so much more than some of the TV shows being produced here in America. The British seem to do it better. We loved Sherlock! And BOY! are we ever enjoying the best comedy to come out of Hollywood in a long time. It’s called “Surviving Jack”. It stars Christopher Meloni and is a real winner!
I, too, find myself drawn to British shows far more than anything America. I think I just “get” that dry British humor more than raunchy American humor (even if the show isn’t an actual comedy!).
Duke looks a lot like our golden, Skipper who is going to be 9 in June! Skipper is a therapy dog and so of course loves people and people love him! We also have a golden doodle, Cameron who is adorable but hyper! Love your blog, and am new to it. As for Oscar films I recently saw August: Osage County, where Meryl Streep gives the performance of her life in my opinion. Can’t believe she didn’t get an Oscar for best actress.
As with everyone else, I adore Einstein and Duke. I think you made the correct choice when you selected Duke. Both are so loving and devoted to each other. Please continue to keep us up to date with all their adventures, plus your delicious recipes. Thank you so much for it all.
I adore the brotherly love of Duke snuggling in Einstein’s cone! Not a movie but a series – if you’ve never watched “Call the Midwife” (PBS), it’s really good and on it’s 3rd season. Only about 3-4 episodes per season and so not to much time. http://www.pbs.org/call-the-midwife/home/
I highly recommend the first 3 movies you mentioned. I thought they were all really fantastic. Such brilliant acting out there right now! Here are my only notes about them: American Hustle I’ve watched twice and I liked it more the second time around. What I realized is that to me it was not so much about the plot, but it’s more of a period piece (the 70’s) and character study. My only critique is that I thought it was too long; the plot isn’t terribly riveting but the characters, the fashion and the sets kept me highly interested. My only critique of Wolf of Wall Street is that it is EXTREMELY racey. Between the language, drug use and provocative sexual scenes it could leave some people pretty uncomfortable. That sort of thing doesn’t bother me though so I enjoyed it as it was. Dallas Buyers Club is one of the greatest movies I’ve seen in looong time. It’s probably the best I’ve seen since The Help and I watch a TON of movies.
Hope you enjoy these!
Congrats on your patio — looks great! Cheers to a summer of memories made around it! :)
And I love the Brian Williams clip!!
Awww – such cute fur children :) Hope the cone comes off soon. Love the fire pit and patio – just in time for the wonderful weather!
Dallas Buyers Club, those guys earned those Oscar’s.
August: Osage County, great acting. Which I have to tell you my story that
goes with this movie. Filming was being done in the area of Oklahoma where my mother lives, and I happened to call her and she mentioned she had seen George Clooney just drive by in his sexy black sports car, my daughter sent me a picture of her on the Great Wall of China, and I was at work at my ER, and the drunk I was dealing with got nauseated all over my x-ray room. I had to pout for a few hours, how come I got the crummy life that week. It’s funny now, but it sure wasn’t then.
If you liked the Brian Williams rap, you should watch his interview with Jimmy – it was pretty funny.
I so rarely watch movies, but I did get to rent Blue Jasmine and watched with DH and our best friends, and we all liked it. I started reading “The Wolf of Wallstreet” for my book club, and I had to stop because I was SO offensive. I don’t think even Leonardo DiCaprio could redeem that horrible story line. JMHO of course.
Thanks for sharing the Brian Williams segment – hysterical!
Poor Einstein! Glad that cone’s coming off soon. Keep the doggie pictures coming – too adorable.
FYI – I made your grandmother’s bacon and cheese Easter bread and her Italian Gougeres for Easter. Thanks so much for sharing your memories and her great recipes. Both so delicious – I could not stop picking at both of them!
Such adorable pups! I have such a soft spot for dogs. Truly man’s best friend. Thanks for sharing! :)
I cannot handle that cuteness! I really wish someone would open a dog cafe where you can snuggle with shelter pups like they do for cats…
Have a great weekend; go Pens!
Yes, Go Pens! They are making me age faster than normal, these games have been so stressful!
Captain Phillips is a definite yes in my book.
I liked the movie Noah(I think I am one of very few that did)
I want to see the others that were listed. I am not big on movies so it takes me awhile and I am usually years behind everyone else :)
The pictures of the dogs-priceless.
Now I am off to watch the Brian William’s video.
Happy weekend!!
‘The Book Thief’ is an excellent movie to see or book to read.
August Osage County – Phenomenal acting!
20 Feet From Stardom – a documentary about back up singers – fascinating!!!!
I would highly recommend both “Nebraska” and “August Osage County”! Meryl Streep is amazing!
My favorite movies from this past award season (in order):
1. Saving Mrs. Banks – Emma Thompson is exquisite! (Tom Hanks is perfect as Disney too).
2. American Hustle – All star cast. Amy Adams blew me away – and how can you not LOVE Bradley Cooper!
3. Philomena – Beautiful storytelling. heartbreaking, funny, thoughtful. Judi Dench does it again.
4. Frozen – Best Disney animated movie in a long time – LOVED it!!!
The last photo of duke and Einstein is so so cute!! Also, now you can enjoy your Reese’s peanut butter eggs on sale. :)
I recently saw Dallas Buyer’s Club; it was excellent. The awards received were well- deserved. Love the second photo of the doggies…they are adorable!
Oh your dog pictures always put me in a good mood. I am enjoying the patio updates. We are hoping to do something with our outdoor space this summer.
What sweet babies ~~ they are heaven sent!
Seen all except Her. American Hustle was fun, Saving Mr. Banks was sweet, Captain Phillips and Dallas Buyers Club were both well done. As intense as it is to watch, 12 Days A Slave is the best portrayal of slavery that I’ve seen and more than deserving of all the awards it has received. Had to turn Wolf of Wall Street off, the story line about how the company started, succeeded, and failed is a weak back drop to all of the sex and drugs. The movie starts with Leonardo snorting cocaine off a naked woman’s butt and is all down hill from there.
I agree on Wolf of Wall Street. I was invited to the neighbors to watch it, even though 40 minutes into the film, I was ready to go home. In fact 3 hours of just graphic sex and drugs left me a bit unsettled on how some people are wasting their lives. American Hustle was good….going to watch Frozen tonight and can’t wait since the music won awards! The Butler was terrific as was the first African-American ballplayer film. The Great Gatsby, again, was a very weak film compared to the original Robert Redford film. I truly think I’m beginning to be disgusted with Decaprio in the awful roles he is depicting.
Captain Phillips was really good!! I also LOVE Tom Hanks. Only movie I’ve seen off my “movies I want to see” list.
Regarding movies to see, I definitely recommend seeing most of the movies that came out. Some of my favorites from Awards Season are Dallas Buyer’s Club, Captain Phillips, Saving Mr. Banks, American Hustle. I haven’t seen Wolf of Wall Street, but it’s on my list. I heard amazing things about Her and 12 Years of Salve is incredible but intense.
Aww…I just love goldens. Poor Einstein, glad to hear he’s being such a trooper! I can’t believe you made it through without a Reese’s egg…they were everywhere! At the grocery store checkout I felt like I couldn’t make eye contact with them or else they would just beg me to buy one (or twelve) and eat them right then and there.