Cooking with Friends: Epic Sushi Night!

One of my favorite things to do is to get together and cook with friends. (If you haven’t already, check out my 5 reasons why getting together with friends over food is a great happiness-booster.)

I am absolutely thrilled to bring you the second installation of my Cooking with Friends series. In this post, you’ll learn everything you need to know to have your own epic home-made sushi night with friends!

Sushi is one of my favorite things to eat (and make!). Not only is it delicious, but the omega-3 fatty acids in raw fish are good for your heart and your circulation, and rice is an excellent source of protein. Be careful, though — if you eat too much sushi you can easily carb overload! Everything in moderation.

Making your own sushi can be a lot of work by yourself, but with a group of friends, it’s really easy to split up the responsibilities. Everyone can bring a different ingredient, from the rice to the fish to the veggies.

Tip of the Week: Be Thankful and Celebrate

This week’s tip: Be thankful and celebrate.

Last week’s brief hiatus from blogging helped me make a little extra room in my life to get ready for a very important moment. This Saturday, I had the incredible opportunity of officiating the wedding of one of my best friends.

Looking back on the experience, my heart is bursting with joy. 

Share Seven Smiles… Take 2!

A few weeks ago I suggested the idea of sharing seven smiles by giving a random gift every day for one week. I was really excited about the idea when I wrote the blog post… but then my week got so busy I didn’t even take it seriously myself!

This week is going to be another busy one: I am officiating my friends’ wedding a week from tomorrow (!), and the pace has picked up at work. So, I decided that it might be a good week to give myself a break from blogging and focus on preparing for my friends’ wedding in my free time. Instead of writing anything new next week, I plan to participate in the campaign to share (at least) seven smiles.

It would mean the world to me (and hopefully a lot to some people in your world, too!) if you joined me. Next week, I will be posting 7 shareable images to my blog’s Facebook page to spread the love. Here’s how you can participate:

Tip of the Week: Cook with Friends

This week’s tip: Make (and enjoy!) a delicious, homemade meal with friends.

Whether it’s a one-on-one occasion to catch up with a close friend, an intimate dinner party with a small group, or a big pot-luck gathering, getting together with friends over food is a great way to boost your happiness (and depending on the food you make, maybe your health too!)

Here are five reasons to consider putting a dinner-date with a friend on the calendar:

The Azorean Adventures Begin

They say money can’t buy happiness — but it can buy amazing Groupon deals that get you a 7-day stay and round-trip flight to the Azores!!! And… that makes me very happy. 😉 I adore traveling — it is the one thing I allow myself to “splurge” on, and it’s always worth it. Research shows that spending your money on experiences rather than material things can have a much more profound affect on your happiness!

I write to you feeling slightly sleep-deprived but incredibly blessed to have arrived today in Ponta Delgada, the capital of São Miguel, which is the largest of the group of Portuguese islands known as the Azores that pepper the middle of the Atlantic ocean. My very good friend and travel companion Katie and I are making our second visit to Portugal this week and could not be more excited.