Summer Fridays, Vol. 1.

Welcome to SUMMER FRIDAYS here at How Sweet Eats!

I could not be more excited about this, because let’s be real – is there anything better than a summer Friday? A relaxed Friday where we are either sneaking out early or taking the entire day off. There is no better way to kick off June – and summer.

Personally, I’ve always thought that the weekend REALLY starts on Thursday. The anticipation of Friday is so real. And I’m in this stage where I’m so happy and don’t want to let these little moments of “nothing special” (like an empty weekend!) pass me by. I want to enjoy every bit.

Even though I’m self employed, I still try to take as much of Friday off as I can in the summer. One of Eddie’s former jobs allowed him to leave at noon on Friday a few years ago and it was amazing. I still miss those days! And I even know people who save up allll their vacation days just to use it for all Fridays in the summer. Sure, Fridays are powerful. But in the summer? They’re everything.

Hence – the birth of HSE Summer Fridays. I did a few posts like this four (!! omg what !!) years ago and loved it. How Sweet Eats Summer Fridays are going to be my way of kicking off the weekend to make sure we ENJOY and love it… even if we have nothing going on! Real life inspiration and chats instead of a round up post about my ten favorite cocktails – which of course have their time and place.  I want to make every weekend this summer feel special. And I want to bring you right along with me! xo

Eating

All the donuts! HELLO it’s national donut day, people! If you’re looking for something to celebrate, I’ve got you covered but I would definitely recommend the salted dark chocolate donuts I shared earlier this week. And if you’re feeling super extra, make a donut snack board like I show up above with your favorite donuts, fruit and… sprinkles. Of course!

Prepping

This cherry chipotle BBQ pulled pork. Our freaking air conditioning is still broken and won’t be repaired until next week, so I want to heat the house as little as possible. This means tons of salads and grilled meals, but I am putting a pork shoulder in the slow cooker this morning before I leave and made a batch of the cherry chipotle BBQ sauce last night. It is SO good and easy.

Drinking

These strawberry gin lemonades. Nothing else screams the first week of June like these do, right? Even though I’ll be in Nashville for The Pretty Dish until Saturday night, we’re going strawberry picking on Sunday and I want to make these for Sunday happy hour while we grill.

Making

Strawberry cobbler! Yes there may be a theme here but last year at this time is when I made a fruit cobbler or crisp every weekend. And I kind of thought that it was because I was pregnant, but apparently it wasn’t and I still want to make a bunch. This strawberry one is the BEST.

Writing

Our summer bucket list. To be honest, I haven’t made an official summer bucket list since I wrote out this one a few years ago, which was actually kind of a sneaky trick since I was pregnant but trying to keep the pregnancy under wraps. When I look at the calendar, it’s so weird to think how quickly summer will go. We will be gone every single weekend in July. Things like the strawberry picking I mentioned above, taking Max to an amusement park, making homemade popsicles with him, having big fruit breakfasts every morning on the patio – those sorts of things! What is on your summer bucket list?

Reading

I’m diving head first into my summer reading list today while I’m on the plane. If you didn’t catch last summer’s list, there are amazing suggestions on there too! BUT. Since I’m going to be doing summer Fridays this season, I wanted to know if you guys actually wanted me to tell you which book I’m currently reading and then we could discuss in the comments? Nothing formal, but like a mini book club here on summer Fridays!

Buying

All the summer things at the Nordstrom half-yearly sale. I bought these shoes and while these other shoes aren’t on the sale, I’ve seen so many amazing recommendations for them that I couldn’t resist. Are they too mom-like? I hope not. Secretly (or not so), I’m just waiting on the the anniversary sale in July.

Listening

To every song of summer that I can. Here is your first HSE Summer Fridays playlist that absolutely screams SUMMER! Each week I’ll have a new one, and why yes, of course you can expect my interesting taste in music to shine through. I’m looking at you 90s Mariah followed by a James Taylor song which then turns into a Frank Sinatra duet.

Craving

A trip to Nantucket! I mean, I talk about this all the time but you know the reason I romanticize it so much is because of Elin’s novels. And then, of course, we actually went and it poured the entire time but was amazing. And I just want to go back ALWAYS and am constantly trying to convince Eddie that it isn’t too expensive ($$$), it isn’t too difficult with two kids (two flights or a flight + travel + a ferry which actually feels like nothing now after the traveling I’ve done for the book with both kids!) and we definitely have the time (even though I don’t know if we have the time this summer but I want to make the time, hello). In my secret not-on-the-internet world I pull up realtor.com late at night (instead of sleep, because why the heck should I do that?) and look at the $30 million shacks on the beach there. Dreams!

Trying

Something new here! We’ve been tossing the idea of Summer Fridays around for over three months now and to be honest, late last night I almost scrapped the idea and posted a recipe… because CHANGE. It’s different than what I normally do. A change. It’s something slightly new – even though it may not be new if you follow Crumbs. It’s essentially what I wanted my Crushing On posts to be when I first started them five years ago. Those will still be here (I know so many of you love them!) and they will be full of my favorite internet finds. But this here is how I want to make every weekend exciting, in a way other than sharing a recipe for the fifth time in one week and being like OMG YOU MUST MAKE IT but it’s Friday go on and be free! HSE Summer Fridays is a curated weekend for myself that I hope you can draw inspiration from.

But really, now go make a donut board and be on your way! xo