Whether they are Friday’s Fave Five with Susanne or Five on Friday with Amy here are my favorites I’m sharing this week. Some are illustrated with some photos from our time in San Francisco last week.
- A quiet week after time away with time to read and pray. (photo from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco)
2. Some fun adventures finding things to decorate a Chinese New Year table in February. I bought some items in San Francisco but when returning home I realized I needed more things to pull the table together. (above photos from Chinatown San Francisco) While shopping at Goodwill I spotted…
…this! Back in 1973 when I was in England I started my china Hope Chest purchases with a tea set from England. Were you in the Hope Chest era? The pattern is Moss Rose by Royal Albert. After I was married Dear and I completed my set with a dinner service for 12 that we drove into Canada to buy. When I saw this smaller teapot and trivet at my local Goodwill I grabbed it fast. With my senior discount these pretties cost me $10!
3. Happy find while I was out and about was a Persian Bakery and a Persian restaurant in a strip mall close to our home! Just look at that fresh Barbari bread above! I grew up enjoying Persian cuisine. My parents’ families escaped out of Russia into Iran in the early 30’s. My parents spent their teen and early adult years in Persia and learned to enjoy Persian food and to cook it. My father even learned Farsi while he lived there. I’m looking forward to eating at the restaurant soon.
4. One pot meals! Tomorrow on Mennonite Girls Can Cook I’m sharing the one pot meal I made from these ingredients. Earlier in the week I made Susan’s (My Mother’s Apron Strings) Skillet Lasagna and it was delicious.
5. Since Dear has been working from home we are walking together most days of the week. It rained all night and all day yesterday so we skipped but we are determined to get out on most days and do our loop. Our walk starts on a gradual uphill before we hit the steepest part of the walk and we get our hearts pumping. Then we have another flat spell before we head downhill home. This photo is not from our neighborhood but from a lovely walk we had in England on a trip in 2014. I’m always ready to go back to scenery like this!
Here we are heading into the last weekend of January. Nothing major going on which is nice. Maybe I’ll get around to dusting! What’s up in your neck of the woods?
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 
You lead a very interesting life and I’m so happy to get to know you through your blog.
Thank you Susan!
I love the tea pot and the photo of San Francisco! Also, the walk through England. I heard once that in England owners of open land have to allow walkers to pass through. Is that true I wonder?
Nope, I missed the hope chest era, but I did collect blue and white china (mostly cups and saucers) and a few of the names are still familiar, like Royal Albert. Mose roses are sweet in paintings, but they are reeeeally prickly in real life! That bread looks fabulous, Ellen. Looking forward to hearing about your adventures when you get to eat there. I’ll probably see your Pop again this Sunday 😉
What a lovely Five, Ellen! A Persian Bakery sounds wonderful and the teapot is really pretty.
Indeed your home place and life look very different from mine and it’s lovely to catch glimpses of them through your blog posts. 🙂
Have a great weekend!
Thank you Ellen for coming by my blog, its truly appreciated. I am loving the Chinese lanterns, the only places I’ve seen lanterns are cities like Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham or London – not the small town I am from. l I’m excited to as i have heard of Mennonite Girls can Cook so will also swing by and check it out.
Thank you Ellen for visiting my blog through Five On Friday. Your Royal Albert china is very pretty. My DH and I are enjoying walking as well since I took semi-retirement a year ago and are lucky enough to have several places to enjoy great walks close to where we live. xx
I too am trying to stay somewhat consistent with walking.. There are two ladies from the painting class that I have befriended and I joined walking with them in October. We will walk in the rain if it’s not too crazy. I like all of your finds. There are some things I collect but am trying to use some restraint these days.. Lol…But could not pass up a bargain like your teapot.. I am curious about the bread. Do you tear off chunks.. and dip it in something?
Yes, Mother Hen, it is perfect to go with Persian stews and it does break away along the scores…
Thanks Ellen! It looks really good!
A lovely selection, I must take a look at the memes you mention sometime.
Lovely to see you on FFF this week. That Persian bread looks so yummy! It is obviously freshly baked. And of course, good for you to be out walking every day.
The bread looks delicious! Glad you had a good time in San Francisco, it is a wonderful city isn’t it. Thank you for joining Five On Friday, happy weekend! xx
What a lovely teapot! I love weeks with nothing major going on.
i have had middle eastern food and enjoy it! the bread looks good! i have only been to san francisco once…for thanksgiving week in 1997 when our oldest girl was 4 and our youngest wasnt even conceived yet! i loved that city!!!
that teapot is beautiful! enjoy!!
I just missed the hope chest era. My cousin, four years older, had a hope chest, but none of my remaining cousins had one nor any of my friends. More’s the pity!
What a perfect find for only $10!
Thanks for the review of the skillet lasagna, too. I have that one pinned.
That is my comment above. Now that’s a first…as I was filling in information, the comment skitzed off on me. Good grief!
Ha! Glad to meet you Bee…I mean Vee!
Enjoyed the San Francisco shot, we’re originally from the Bay Area.
Ah what glorious images of my birthplace. That bread looks SO delicious.
Have a wonderful, sunny weekend!
The teapot was a great find. Such a pretty pattern. One pot meals are what I’m cooking these days, too. The bread looks wonderful!
What a great find in the Tea Pot. I love your “hope chest” pattern! I did’t have a hope chest but my mom always wanted me to pick a china pattern so she could buy me dishes. I wasn’t so interested at the time but now I love my small set of Old Country Roses for special occasions. Looking forward to your recipe on MGCC tomorrow. The Persian bread looks delicious!
I love that tea pot and the pattern, I really must start collecting bone china, especially when the charity shops here in the UK are full of it! The English fields are looking green at the moment due to the mild weather, but no wheat as yet 🙂 Take care xx
I can’t remember if I ever was in a Person restaurant ! We couldn’t do walks due to the awfully bad weather ! Nice week you had !
Hi,
A very interesting read, I would love to visit San Francisco one day, and you can’t beat fine English bone china, it’s great for tea drinking and a beautiful surface for china painting too.
Jill
Oh! That teapot is lovely! I had a Hope Chest made by my uncle. Most girls my age don’t have them anymore but he still traditionally made one for each girl in our huge family. Sadly my unce died of cancer last year, but I still have the most beautiful piece of handmade furniture made by him!
Loved reading your five.That bread looks delicious. Have a great weekend. Barbara
What a find, in that little tea pot! The bread looks so good to go with your yummy one pot meal!
I’d love to tear off a hunk of that bread! Yum!
You know what …. I’ve never been into a Persian bakery but the bread looks delightful.