The Friday Five, 12/21/18: 5 things I've been up to this week

This has been a very busy week, and today is my last work day before I essentially get a week off work for the holidays, so I'm looking forward to doing some relaxing (and, of course, seeing lots of movies!).

"The Porky" sandwich and onion rings, at Loaded Links, Troy

What I've been up to this week:
  1. Eating lots of good food, both at restaurants and via cooking. Last Friday, my boyfriend and I went to Loaded Links in Troy for dinner—I hadn't been back since my blog post, and he had never tried it. I had The Porky for my hot dog, which includes BBQ pulled pork, bacon aioli, tomato, and green onions, and he had The Gold Standard (smoked bacon, cheddar cheese, roast tomato, arugula, and garlic aioli). We also got their beer-battered onion rings, which continue to be among the best I've had in this area.
    On Saturday, before a show at the Fox, we introduced a friend to Mr. Kabob Xpress, in Troy, which is always tasty. And on Monday, I got to try out Seasons 52, also in Troy, for the first time, which was delicious—you can read about that here.
    I've also been cooking a lot this week: I finished up a Dinnerly box, and started on Home Chef. For Home Chef, I made steak with fingerling potatoes and green beans last night, and pork with a pistachio gremolada, and a side of corn and zucchini, on Wednesday night. 
  2. Seeing movies. On Sunday, I took myself to see Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse for the SECOND time, this time in 3D at AMC John R, and it was just as good as the first time; I highly recommend this movie, and would give it 4 out of 5 stars. On Wednesday, I saw Mary Poppins Returns and was a little disappointed; I'd still give it 3.5/5 stars, and Emily Blunt was fantastic in it, but it wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. 
  3. Attending and throwing parties. On Friday night, my boyfriend and I went to a friend's housewarming (technically, apartment-warming) party. On Saturday night, I hosted my 2nd annual white elephant/holiday party, which is always a fun time but also a lot of work to prep and set up for—after the show at the Fox that day, a friend and my boyfriend luckily helped me clean my condo and also prep some cooked food that I wanted to serve. I had about 20 people over my condo (which for me is a lot!) and it was a fun time.
  4. Walking out of a show at intermission. On Saturday, we went to see A Charlie Brown Christmas at the Fox Theatre. By intermission, I was pretty bored and a friend I went with was taking a nap, so we decided to leave, especially because we had to prep for my party later. I think if you have kids, the kids might have liked the show, but it was definitely geared more towards the younger set versus adults. 
  5. Playing with Alexa. A friend told me that you can now take a Harry Potter quiz on Alexa, so we played with it after we went to Seasons 52 on Monday. You can read about how to do that here.
Interior of the Fox Theatre, Detroit - gorgeous!

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