All of the Christmas gifts are bought and under the tree, why the hell don’t I do this every year? People are mean in those mall parking lots, so I’m grateful to be done the shopping portion of the season. Now there’s just decorating and cooking left, which is kind of the best part. Here’s what went down last month!

The best tweets of November can be found over here.
I read and reviewed Anna Marie' Tendler’s 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 don’t like that city), but I’m happy to report that the Wegman’s 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.

Hot take: suburban Targets are too big. It’s enough already.
I got a tub of white chocolate raspberry butter from a holiday market and it’s changed all of our lives, it’s so good. (It’s made me want to make a bunch of different butter combinations for the holidays, so I’ll report back.)
Love a seasonal flavour and these (below) are pretty great.

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 wasn’t a superfan so maybe I’m not the key demographic here. It definitely could’ve been edited/shortened, but I did love Kate’s explanation of the finale.
- The Martha documentary on Netflix - loved it. Yes, she’s a bitch (with the way she talks to her staff) but she’s insanely rich so I don’t see why that’s surprising. Nice people aren’t exceedingly rich, it’s that simple.
- The Weekend Away (Netflix) - not terrible!
- Anora - best movie of the year, hands down.
- Cast Away - god, it’s still such a great movie, especially this monologue.
- The John Mulaney SNL - okay, the man is not funny. I’d say it’s bewildering that he’s so popular but so many famous comedians are terrible…? So this makes sense?
- Bowen Yang in this Shrek sketch is so goddam funny, I’ve watched it five times.

Some things I’m looking forward to this month: cannot wait for that first snowfall, there’s a maple syrup museum I want to take the kids to, already bought my bayberry candles for Christmas Eve, I’d love to make homemade ricotta after watching Ina do it and I will definitely be watching some of these movies.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Liz Heather (@lizheather)

If you’ve got any interest in reading last month’s roundup, you can see what went down in October over here.