The Weekend Roundup

It's a two-fer today...linking with both Hello Monday (Holly and Sarah) and also with several bloggers who host a once a month hop called Share Our Lives. I'll add their buttons at the end of this post. 

First, the weekend. Let's discuss. It was gorgeous. Saturday and Sunday both were all day sunshine and low humidity which is my favorite. 

We had two neighbor couples over Saturday night for drinks and s'mores around the firepit. It's so hot and humid here in the summertime that we rarely have a fire then, but this springtime weather was made for one. I had the traditional Hershey bar option, but also bought some of the thin Reeses (have you seen these? oh my!) and nutella for anyone who wanted to spread that on their graham cracker before adding the marshnallow. Hubs made mine because he toasts them to perfection and I tend to get impatient and end up charred.  

Friends we hadn't seen in a while invited us to their club for a Mother's Day brunch and we had a nice time catching up. We came home to find our magnolia blooming -

We have a pygmy magnolia which won't get as tall as other varieties, but the blooms are still large and spectacular. After brunch we took our inaugural boat ride of the season.

We love to see what all has been going on around the lake during the winter months. This picture makes it look like I know what I'm doing-

Which I do as long as all the planets are correctly aligned. They were. Normally you'll find me here-

Hubs made smashburgers for dinner and they were so good. We followed this recipe and it's a keeper. 

We don't have one of those fancy smash tools, but hubs chef spatula, which he's owned for forty years, worked just fine. 

And no, he's not a chef. He just plays one on the internet. 

All this talk of food feels like an appropriate segue into today's Share Our Lives link up. This month's prompt is-your five favorite and five least favorite foods. 

I saw the prompt on Friday and have wracked my brain all weekend to come up with a food I don't actually like. It's a problem y'all. And then limiting my likes to just five? Also a problem. 

I saw a website saying the top three least favorite foods in America are anchovies, black licorice, and oysters. I love oysters and while I prefer red licorice I don't mind the black. And I like anchovies in some dishes so also not on my list. 

Other items that did make the list were fennel, mushrooms, capers, olives (what???), brussel sprouts, and coconut. I feel like mushrooms and coconut are two foods you either love or hate, there's no middle ground there. I'm on the side of love. 

After way too much overthinking my list of least favorite would be...

Liver and onions -blech

Kale- I've tried but it's just eh. I mean if I came to your house for dinner and you served kale I'd eat it, but it's not a favorite. I much prefer it in a salad as opposed to cooked. 

Tofu-no explanation needed, right?

Lima beans-I like them in certain dishes and I always add them to my homemade vegetable soup, but I don't want a side of limas with my meal. When my girls were little they absolutely loved them and whenever I had a babysitter coming they would get so excited because that meant they could have lima beans for dinner. Yay!! Rachel is coming! We get lima beans for dinner! I think they both still love limas. 

Sardines-  I will eat almost any kind of fish, but I've never acquired a taste for sardines. 

Whew! That was hard. Okay, now for my favorites. And these are just five of my favorites, but not necessarily my top five. Too much pressure. 

Watermelon-I love all fruits and could easily have filled the list of favorites with just fruit, but for the sake of variety I've chosen one and watermelon it is.

Popcorn-it's what's for dinner. I kid, but only sort of. When hubs traveled a lot for work I sometimes made popcorn my dinner. 

Steamed Blue Crabs- eaten on a picnic table beside the Bay whenever possible. I love a crab cake too, but sitting with friends around a butcher paper covered table where a bucket of steamed crabs are dumped and then picked is one of my favorite things ever. We lived in the Annapolis area for nine years and this is one of the things we miss most. Also what made us crab cake snobs. Just sayin'. 

A burger-cooked just right on grill with lettuce and tomato and a side of summer sunshine 

Egg Salad -this one kind of popped into my head out of the blue. There's something about an egg salad sandwich that takes me back to my childhood and it's still a favorite for me. 

So tell me what foods would make your love/hate list? 

I hope you had a nice weekend...ours ended with a four foot rat snake slithering across the yard. 

Fortunately for me I married someone who mans the grill, docks the boat, and loves to relocate a snake when relocation is necessary.