Happy Friday!  It’s time for another Five Friday Favorites to see what I have been loving lately!

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Happy Friday!  I haven’t done a Favorites post in a while!  Here are some things I have been loving lately.  Have a great weekend, friends!

Uuni Portable Pizza Oven

When this Uni pizza oven arrived on out doorstep a few months ago, I thought my husband was crazy for ordering it.  It looked like an Easy Bake Oven, but for pizza.  I could only roll my eyes.  Plus, our “backyard” is actually a patio and I didn’t exactly see where we were going to put it.  But then we made our first pizza and I was eating my words, so to speak!  This thing is small but mighty and has made the most perfectly charred and crispy pizzas, just like we make at my parents’ house on Long Island, where there is a real-deal wood-burning pizza oven. The Uuni oven is powered by wood pellets that fill a small compartment in the back of the oven. Once ignited, the oven can heat up to 932 degrees in just 10 minutes and the actual pizzas take 5 minutes to make! The outdoor oven is made by a company called Uuni, and while it is somewhat pricey ($299), believe me when I say that is a whole heck of a lot cheaper than having an actually pizza oven put in your backyard.

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Sorry it has taken me so long to post my highlights of Natural Products Expo West.  There’s so much to report, I still haven’t gotten it all in there.  Although I only went for one day, I saw so much and it was honestly overwhelming! Expo West is a huge, and I mean HUGE, natural products trade show in Anaheim with something along the lines of 3100 distributors, about 1/6 of them are first-timers.  It’s mostly food, but there are tons of beauty care companies, supplements, pet food, food scientists and packaging companies.  It runs for 3 1/2 days and I don’t know that I could really handle more than one day.  Although it’s very crowded, it’s a great opportunity to meet with companies and see what’s new for them and really have the chance to ask them questions about their products.

It’s always hard to pinpoint the trends that stand out, especially since I only saw a fraction of the show.  But that’s not going to stop me from trying.  Here’s what I observed:

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It’s still Friday, right??  Better late, than never!  Nothing causes more panic than when you get an email from your host saying your website has been shut down because it almost crashed the server and other websites!  Sorry that the site was down for most of the day yesterday.  I wish the cause of the almost-crash was that millions of people rushed to my blog for my latest recipes, but alas it was a technical glitch.  Thank you for being patient.

This was a super busy week for me with 5 classes and a transition to the new March menu.  Spring has sprung!  Here are some of the fabulous things I have been talking about in class lately.  Have a great weekend!

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Happy Friday! I hope you will be able to enjoy a long weekend. My son is off from school on Monday, so we are scooting off to the desert for a few days to partake in Modernism Week with my husband, who is fairly obsessed with everything mid-century modern.  He has organized tickets for lectures, home tours, shindigs, etc.  I have put in my requests for restaurants, of course.  Should be swanky!

A quick note to remind about my Friday Favorites, since someone recently asked me, I have not received any of these products for free, nor have I received any compensation for mentioning these products.  If I were sponsored, it would be mentioned and if I received product for free in exchange for a review, that would be mentioned as well.  Believe me, I welcome sponsorships and free product if any company wants to send some my way!! 😉  With respect to the products mentioned in this post, I bought them all for full retail price and have no connection with these companies.

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Happy Friday, my dears!  Normally that wold be music to my ears, but this weekend I will be buried in book edits.  If I am not eating, sleeping or watching football, I’ll be pouring over my manuscript with a fine tooth comb, so to speak.  All exciting stuff and I am grateful to be doing it!  In the meantime I have some great finds for you!

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My Friday Favorites posts always take a backseat to holiday recipes, but they’re back!  I have a few great finds for you this week.  Enjoy!

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I know you will roll your eyes when I tell you I am exhausted from too much celebrating, but it’s truuuuue.  I am soooo tired.  So much dancing and eating and staying up late for my son’s bar mitzvah weekend and then there was all the wine in Napa earlier in the week to celebrate my bestie’s 50th.  But I didn’t forget about my classes and you lovelies here.  I am back with some things I am loving lately, a few of which I have been using in my classes this month.  Have a great weekend!

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