Currently avoiding, and dreading, my Friday run… and checking in with my favorite Friday link-ups: Oh, Hey Friday, High Five for Friday, and Friday Favorites (add’l links below)!

Favorite Quote This Week

Favorite Funny This Week

Favorite Weather This Week

THUNDERSTORMS! Finally! Here’s a fun fact: during the summer, in St. Petersburg, Florida, there are daily afternoon rain showers. It’s fascinating, it’s weird, it’s cool. Tampa often gets the rain, as well, but not on quite the same regularity. I LOVE this little oddity about St. Pete. Unfortunately, while still in the Tampa Bay area, I no longer live in St. Pete. It has been weeks since we got more than 20 minutes of weak rain where I live.

Last night we got good, serious rain starting just before midnight. Sometime around 2:00 a.m., house-shaking thunder woke me up. That and one very concerned dog. I always love a good thunderstorm, and considering how long it had been, I was ecstatic. Normally I love sleeping through a good thunderstorm. Being so excited though, I ended up waking up regularly throughout the night. Totally worth it. YAY RAIN!!!

The photo below is my own, although it was not taken last night. It was taken another evening when we received the clouds, thunder and lightning… but no rain.

Favorite New Recipe

It has recently occurred to me that I should not simply pin recipes on Pinterest, but actually go back and try some of them in my own kitchen. In the past week I’ve tried three new recipes – a peach crumble, roasted butternut squash and maple-glazed salmon.

My favorite was the Clean Eating Peach Crumble, courtesy of Amy’s Healthy Baking. On a recent trip through Savannah, Georgia, I fell in love with the Peach Cobbler at Crystal Beer Parlor. When I saw a recipe for Peach Crumble that advertises only 100 calories per serving, I figured it was worth a shot – see if perhaps I could capture a bit of the Peach Cobbler taste, but in a healthier way.

The result was very promising! I’m going to try it again and make a few tweaks. First – user error – I apparently ignored Amy’s ingredient instruction words “extra large” when shopping for peaches. I’m fairly certain I was short on diced peaches, which made the almond extract a little overpowering. I’ll be increasing peaches and possibly decreasing almond extract, as well.

Favorite Song This Week

That’s How You know (F**ked Up) by Nico & Vinz.

Friday Favorites via MeetAtTheBarre

Have a wonderful weekend, e’rybody!