Summer Favourites
Summer Bucket List
There are so many things I want to do this season, so I’m just gonna spitball here and see what happens. This isn’t a must-do list. This is a how-about-this list for all of the summer days coming up.
Go lane swimming in the mornings
Ride a bike (ideally along some sort of waterfront path)
Lose count of how many heirloom tomatoes I eat
Tan on my roof
Eat the Red Hook Tavern burger in Brooklyn
Consider any of these soft serve options: the soft serve from L’Industrie, the vegan tahini soft serve at Seed + Mill in Chelsea Market, try the I’m-sure-overhyped Myka Greek Frozen Yogurt or go back to Madison Fare (which has a West Village location now too) for their incredible tart frozen yogurt
If I’m anywhere near Rockaway Beach, get this incredible frozen pina colada
See some waterfalls in Hamilton, ON
Make Nanaimo bars
Ask Marla’s mom to make date squares again
Go to the lighthouse museum on Staten Island
Make this L’Artusi mushroom ragu again and freeze it for my pregnant friend
Start to research for Europe trip in the fall
Drink the insane sounding sangria at the Skydome
Finish making my own seasonal address labels
Watch any of these movies or any of these episodes
Take the ferry and go to Centre Island in Toronto or Rockaway in Queens
Lofty list, right? I think so. Happy second day of summer!
Above: me this summer, ignoring that entire list
May Favourites
April Favourites
It’s annoying to talk about weather, but I can’t help myself and I’m not sorry. To put it plainly, these temperatures are bullshit. It has been cold, windy and wet for what feels like weeks. I’ve never been moodier. Someone said it’s perfect autumn weather and that’s too obnoxiously true. If something doesn’t change soon, well there’s nothing that can be done. So that’s fun.
Spring Sundays has been going strong.
The best tweets and threads of the month can be seen here.
Tried the lemon meringue pie M&Ms and they were weird and good, but taste nothing like an M&M.
Decided to never to to Tim Hortons again. The quality of everything at Second Cup is better and it’s fully Canadian, so the choice has been made. It’s fun to make declarative statements sometimes.
Loved Emily Lycopolus’s cookbook A Rising Tide: A Cookbook of Recipes and Stories from Canada’s Atlantic Coast. I’d never even heard of Jonah crab or hot milk cake, so I intend to eat/make them soon.
I can’t get over how well my basil plant is doing (this is growth from only three weeks).
Basil, week one
Basil, week four
I will always make these blueberry bran muffins because they’re perfect and I can never find a bran muffin anywhere. I store them in the fridge, then slice in half and heat up and if you’re feeling fancy then added some salted butter on top.
Blueberry bran muffin
The Best of March
Why don’t they make sky bridges anymore? Nothing better.
I compiled the best tweet tweets/threads of the month over here.
I finished up Winter Wednesdays and started Spring Sundays.
I heard a tip for making extra crispy wings: sprinkle them with baking soda and then dry them out in the fridge before air frying. Well, I went a bit overboard and added too much and they tasted like metal. Probably the grossest thing I’ve ever made. It was honestly a little alarming that Nathan still ate them all? Sometimes I think I’m a great cook because of how much he likes my food, but then something like this happens and I think… oh no.
I had a happy hour drink at Castell Terrace in midtown (remember when a $12 drink was the not-happy-hour price?) and the service was better than the ambiance, but I’d go again if I found myself desperate in Times Square.
Another new midtown find: Dutch Fred’s. Uncomplicated and not expensive.
Loving my new spring seasonal plates (as shown below by Irene).
I went to Malaparte in the West Village and I think I’m done with village restaurants at 7:30pm. The noise level in here was ridiculous. The food was fine, but my head throbbed from how loud the space was. Never again. I really can’t tell if this is just a “welcome to your 40s” situation (it is) though because I looked around and every 20-something year old looked like they were also in hell.
The chicken salad cup from Daily Provisions is a perfect small lunch, how am I only learning this now.
I took Nathan to Kim’s Video because everyone who loved video stores should go and it made me realize how much I miss browsing for movies.
Nathan and I saw Dog Day Afternoon with Jon Bernthal on its first night of previews and it was fantastic. Nothing that man can’t do.
So you know how I like to peruse the cookbooks at Barnes and Noble for recipes (sometimes I buy, I swear), well the cookbook for Levain Bakery is sealed up in plastic. So of course that filled me with a special kind of rage to now stay away from the company.
I went on a tour of the Woolworth Building and it was everything that I wanted it to be and more. Had no idea that it was Woolworth who basically invented the whole "five and dime” concept for a store.
The Best of February
Welcome to March! I’m back in New York and I’m elated to be here for the beginning of spring. I happened to be walking through Times Square last night and you know how people who live here get so mad at the slow walking tourists? I absolutely hate it when people get mad at those guys. I get it, it’s frustrating to have to change your own pace to accommodate someone else but I think we could all stand to calm down a bit. It’s also New York: the mecca of tourists. Can we let them live? Can we maybe allow them to stop and look up at a building they haven’t seen before? Christ.
Wedding Gown Rejects
I have never (and will never) watch Say Yes To The Dress*, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t love seeing women try on wedding dresses. I find it enthralling. I love seeing the dresses they hate, the ones that fit weird, the ones that are too dramatic, the ones that are absolutely not worth their price tag, the ones that make no sense. The rejects are almost more exciting than the chosen wedding gown itself. So if you’re like me and you want to see what my rejects were, then welcome! (Side note: I meant to post this months ago, but we’re in a never-ending hellscape so sometimes things fall through the cracks.)
*Don’t get me started on the network TLC, cannot loathe a channel more.
Let me start by saying, if you’re engaged - please make an appointment at an Anthropologie Bridal location. They’re less stuffy than the hardcore bridal shops and a lot more relaxed but still high end.
Was it insane to consider a short, butter yellow wedding dress? Hear me out: no. I still love this dress, but I realized that it’s much too casual and twee for such an important occasion. Would’ve been a sweet reception outfit, though.
Hard to really tell, but this soft pink House of CB dress was a legitimate contender for about twenty minutes. I love draping so much, but I really think it’s meant for much taller women. I’m not wrong.
"It's hard to replicate true love" is way too sweet/sad a thing to say in a post-game interview. Love these guys.
