The Best of January 2025
In all honesty, this was the hardest month Iâve had in a very long time so I donât think I can really talk about any of it yet. Iâm taking some time, so give me a few weeks and Iâll do my best to continue the monthly posts as soon as I feel that I can.
Thank you for even coming here, and even more for understanding.
The Best Tweets of January 2025
The Best Photos of 2024
December Dalliances 2024
Love an outdoor bulb
Love an outdoor bulb
The last monthly post of a year that was intense and full of change! Hereâs what went down last month.
The best tweets of December can be found over here.
I recapped how my autumn list of things to do went.
The Presidentâs Choice Elk Crossing ice cream is unbelievably good.
Elk Crossing ice cream
The restaurant Earlâs put out a cookbook and I canât stop making their chicken hunan kung pao.
I found out that the house from the movie The Santa Clause is in Oakville, so I had to drive past it. And look at their perfect decorations.
The Santa Clause house in Oakville, ON
The Santa Clause house decorations
I found a dupe recipe for the Levain dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookies and I truly canât tell the difference.
Levain peanut butter chip cookies
Got a Philly cheesesteak from Gladiator Burger and wow. Will definitely return.
I will fully admit that crumbl cookies are overrated, but their monthly dessert specials are wondrous. Look at this eggnog tres leche (below). Sheâs beautiful.
Eggnog tres leche
I perused the new Half Baked Harvest cookbook and itâs absolutely nothing revolutionary, thereâs a cheeseburger pasta in it for christsake. I still think we should force a limit on how many books a food blogger can release.
I did make these white wine mushroom stuffed shells and they were (as most HBH recipes are) probably too cheesy, but the vegetarians liked them so I guess it was a win.
White wine mushroom stuffed shells
I also made this slow cooker roast and it was so easy and perfect for lunch sandwiches on Christmas day. And secured the greatest (Canadian)grocery store cake: the caramel crunch cake.
Caramel crunch cake
Ate at this great Mexican place The Mule in Hamilton.
The Mule in Hamilton, ON
Some things I watched:
Die Hard - yes, itâs insane that Iâve never seen it before now. So good.
Challengers - LOVED Zendayaâs character. Second favourite movie of the year (first was Anora). Only question was HOW was that hotel bed that big??
Jagged Edge - pretty good. I love this genre of movies (80s/early 90s thriller/mystery).
Carry On - anticlimactic ending, but overall not terrible.
Nosferatu - liked it! Honestly it couldâve just been the fun of who I saw it with, but truly hard to tell.
These little guys (below) continue to make me smile each day.
Would die for them
Some things that Iâm looking forward to this month: Iâm going to start using this first-of-the-month checklist again and Iâll recap my resolutions from last year as well as make new 2025 ones.
If you have any interest in the other monthly roundups of 2024, they can be found here: November, October, September, August, July, June, May, April, March, February and January.
The Best Tweets of December 2024
Autumn List Recap 2024
Ottawa, Ontario
Ottawa, Ontario
Today is the last day of autumn and was it just me or did it feel a year long? Itâs one of the greatest seasons so it felt good to drag on, but man - summer feels like a decade ago. Hereâs how my autumn list of things went!
1. Make pasta from scratch.
Didnât even KINDA do this one. I think you need to be in a very secure place mentally to want to make pasta from scratch?
2. Go to Downeyâs Farm or a harvest festival.
Did it. And I feel awful saying this, but I think Iâm over it? Maybe itâs a temporary feeling.
3. Make a turkey poutine.
Iâm mad that I forgot this one.
4. Make an apple or pumpkin savory dish.
Okay, this is getting embarrassing.
5. See the salmon run.
Didnât even see them swim.
1/5! My take on this low score is that I was busier getting my life together this season so I didnât have much time for small luxuries, so Iâm counting this as a win. But I hope to get at least 2/5 next season, so we shall see. Winter list coming tomorrowâŚ
Navigating November 2024
Gingerbread season >>
Gingerbread season >>
All of the Christmas gifts are bought and under the tree, why the hell donât I do this every year? People are mean in those mall parking lots, so Iâm grateful to be done the shopping portion of the season. Now thereâs just decorating and cooking left, which is kind of the best part. Hereâs what went down last month!
The best tweets of November can be found over here.
I read and reviewed Anna Marie' Tendlerâs memoir Men Have Called Her Crazy.
Got an oil change for $66 with no appointment at Royal Lube (perfect name, no notes) in Mississauga. Am I nuts or is that really good in 2024?
I tried the 10 3 2 1 method and it sucked! Completely did not work for me.
I made these ricotta beef shells that were good, but honestly a lasagna would be more satisfying.
Will never tire of my favourite chicken marsala recipe.
Chicken marsala over tres leche mashed potatoes
I took a day trip to Buffalo (and woof, I really donât like that city), but Iâm happy to report that the Wegmanâs ultimate chocolate cake remains the greatest cake in the history of grocery store cakes.
I made tres leche mashed potatoes and they were phenomenal. Making them again for Christmas.
Tres leche mashed potatoes
Hot take: suburban Targets are too big. Itâs enough already.
I got a tub of white chocolate raspberry butter from a holiday market and itâs changed all of our lives, itâs so good. (Itâs made me want to make a bunch of different butter combinations for the holidays, so Iâll report back.)
Love a seasonal flavour and these (below) are pretty great.
Turkey Dinner Lays
Some things I watched:
Perfect Days - pretty long, but liked it.
Getting Lost (the documentary about the show Lost) - look, I was a fan of the show but I wasnât a superfan so maybe Iâm not the key demographic here. It definitely couldâve been edited/shortened, but I did love Kateâs explanation of the finale.
The Martha documentary on Netflix - loved it. Yes, sheâs a bitch (with the way she talks to her staff) but sheâs insanely rich so I donât see why thatâs surprising. Nice people arenât exceedingly rich, itâs that simple.
The Weekend Away (Netflix) - not terrible!
Anora - best movie of the year, hands down.
Cast Away - god, itâs still such a great movie, especially this monologue.
The John Mulaney SNL - okay, the man is not funny. Iâd say itâs bewildering that heâs so popular but so many famous comedians are terribleâŚ? So this makes sense?
Bowen Yang in this Shrek sketch is so goddam funny, Iâve watched it five times.
Some things Iâm looking forward to this month: cannot wait for that first snowfall, thereâs a maple syrup museum I want to take the kids to, already bought my bayberry candles for Christmas Eve, Iâd love to make homemade ricotta after watching Ina do it and I will definitely be watching some of these movies.
If youâve got any interest in reading last monthâs roundup, you can see what went down in October over here.
Unreal sunset
The Best Tweets of November 2024
Men Have Called Her Crazy By Anna Marie Tendler - A Review
The only thing better than reading a comedianâs memoir? Reading the partner/ex-partner of a comedianâs memoir. Truly. I donât know why exactly, but the partner of someone whoâs had immense success/fame is usually ten times more interesting than the famous one. Practically always. And this memoir was fantastic. I had known so little about Anna Marie Tendler before reading this (I knew that she was John Mulaneyâs beautiful ex-wife, that she designed lampshades and seemed like she wouldnât have liked me in high school) but Iâm grateful to have found this book. Favourite parts ahead.
âI cemented my role in relationships as a pleaser, a convincer, a girl, who, well into adulthood, would contort and conform to the desires of a man, overlooking his easy dismissal, and dampening her self-worth, all to be lovedâ - OOF, it that wasnât me for all of my dating life.
The parallels of our two lives are fucking eerie (I know thatâs interesting to no one other than me), but itâs weird that we both heard about 9/11 in a high school chemistry class. (I also agree with her about hot firefighters but thatâs, like, a universal thought that youâd have to be a comatose to disagree with, so I wonât count that commonality.)
The entire part about her longterm therapist being so horrid to her was nuts to read. I loved it mainly because therapists are such trusted people and itâs insane to me that none of the terrible ones ever really get talked about that much.
âWhy are women so fucking ashamed of ourselves? I blame men.â Perfect line. Wish it was the title of the whole book. I get why it wasnât, but really wish it was.
Talking about a web series she did: âI simply got to show a weekly guest how to do one makeup trick and asked them to share a ghost story or paranormal encounter. When the web series aired, it was met with backlash from women, mostly moms, who insisted that a show about makeup was antithetical to the very ethos the website touted - that girls were smart - and the decision was made to stop making episodes. May we never forget that females cannot be intellectual and aesthetically minded at the same time.â I love this woman.
Itâs crazy how much I agree with her thoughts on motherhood: âMy reservations about motherhood have been shaped by my feelings about men, their general incompetence, their propensity toward selfishness, and their inability to empathize with the female experience. My obsession with equality in relationships restricts me from balancing the weight of what men put into child-rearing versus what women do. I wonder if it can ever be equal. I feel instinctually it canât, while also recognizing that instinct might be wrong.â
âI know mothers feel excluded from life too. I guess thatâs the paradox of being a woman: no matter what path you choose, chances are youâll feel invisible.â
âIâm momentarily aroused by the memory of a man properly doing a chore.â Good god, thatâs funny.
The entire chapter on her losing her dog Petunia made me weep, but Iâm a human being with a HEART sue me.
Such an inspiring memoir, I canât recommend it enough. Read it immediately. And the fact that she didnât mention her marriage in detail at all speaks such volumes - sheâs not defined by that part of her life and that is made extremely clear with what she chose to share. Sheâs an incredibly strong writer so I sincerely hope she continues to publish. Absolutely love this woman.