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LIZ HEATHER

July 3, 2024

June Jaunts 2024

by Liz Heather in Best of NYC, Family, Food, Links, Movies, Personal, Products, Quotes, Recipes


“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Truly a great June. I haven’t eaten as many strawberries as I’d have hoped, so I need to make that happen. Other than that, I might actually be excited about summer? Here’s what went down last month:

  • The best tweets of the month can be seen over here.

  • I started up my Summer Saturdays series again!

  • I finally made my way to Smorgasburg in the city.

  • I recapped how my spring list went.

  • Made this year’s new summer list of things I want to do.

  • I went to visit my parents to celebrate my dad’s 101st birthday (!), which was so great. Always love a spring visit.

Dad’s 101st birthday

Nathan mowing my parent’s backyard

Rome strugglin’

  • Ate an incredible conch salad from this Bahamian place Old Nassau in Toronto. My parents loved the conch fritters, too.

  • Went to Corleone’s in Mississauga for a quick lunch and got the junior meatball. Nothing spectacular but decent.

  • My oldest niece Tianna graduated from teacher’s college!! Beyond proud of this beauty.

My baby!

  • And speaking of Tianna, look at this gorgeous card she drew (below). How on earth did I not know she had this talent?? Really blows my mind (in a good way) when there are still new things to learn about the people who make up the fabric of your life.

Drawn by Tianna

  • Got dinner at Golden Diner and my god, those pancakes aren’t messing around. And that’s coming from a person who absolutely never orders/eats/likes/tolerates pancakes. They also had incredibly crispy home fries, and even the caesar salad was good if not a little too overdressed. Definitely skip the chicken katsu, though.

Pancakes at Golden Diner, NYC

Caesar salad at Golden Diner, NYC

  • I’ll never stop loving dingy carnivals, you know the ones I mean. Where everything it set up overnight. I’m not sure if I had ever rode the Superman ride but it fully rocked my core. (Here’s a great (updated often) list of carnivals in the NYC area.)

Casey at a Queens carnival

  • I watched the new Jiminy Glick clips and when he asked Nick Kroll where he was when “Queen Latifah’s show got cancelled” I fully lost it. So damn funny.

  • Found a lovely little bar inside Hotel Rivington with a $10 cocktail happy hour. Absolutely will return.

  • I promise to stop mentioning it soon (not yet), but I can’t describe how much I love the Scrubbing Bubbles Bleach Cleaner for bathrooms. It makes my life so much easier. (Don’t feel sadness for me for that last sentence, it truly brings me joy!)

  • I made this lemon cake and it sucked! Do you know how depressing it is to make a lackluster baked good? So unbelievably disappointing.

  • My summer go-to dessert recipe? The Magnolia Bakery banana pudding. Gotta remember to double up on the Nilla wafers next time.

Homemade Magnolia Bakery banana pudding

  • The best cubano sandwich ever is at La Cubana in Toronto. I’ll forever love that neighborhood (Roncesvalles).

  • My dear friend Richard made me (a Reno specialty?) spaghetti salad and fruit pizza and both were too good. Nobody cooks for their friends anymore! Can we please bring this back?!

Fruit pizza

Spaghetti salad

Me with Richard & Paul’s dog, Hatcher and their insane view

  • Finally learned how to cook perfect bacon in the oven.

  • Really liked this steak marinade.

  • I read and reviewed Priscilla Presley’s book.

  • Cannot express how glad I am that I took some of the kids to the Ontario Science Center recently. It’s horrifying to think that it might not be there anymore. So many memories in that place.

Rome at the Ontario Science Center

They don’t look thrilled BUT THEY WERE

  • Visited Shukette again and it remains amazing. The only bad thing we ordered were the squash blossoms (they just weren’t crispy and the batter tasted old), but bury me in the toum (whipped garlic).

Whipped garlic (toum) at Shukette, NYC

Strawberry labneh at Shukette, NYC

  • Went to Ray’s Candy Store in the East Village and got an Obama coffee with vanilla ice cream. Fully recommend.

Inside Ray’s Candy Store, NYC

  • Got the tres leche ice cream at Bad Habit (which closes for good later this month) and it’s so smart that they sell freezer transport bags (why don’t all ice cream places do this?).

Tres leche at Bad Habit, NYC

  • Two things I can’t stop making:

    • Hummus Dip: To store-bought hummus, I add chopped red onion, cucumbers, feta and tomatoes. It’s unreal. It’d also be good as a spread on a sandwich.

    • Tuna Salad: To canned tuna, I mix in red onion, dijon, a small amount of mayo, grated garlic, sliced pickles, salt and pepper. Then I put it on top of a bun that’s been toasted with garlic butter and then broiled with cheddar on top. Phenomenal.

  • Some things I watched:

    • What Jennifer Did: Jesus! How did I not hear about this awful story?

    • I Saw The TV Glow: wow, did I hate it. Especially since the reviews made it seem incredible.

    • Meg 2: The Trench: couldn’t get through more than half an hour, just an abomination.

    • The Cannonball Run 1 & 2: I watched these movies over and over as a kid and I was feeling nostalgic this week so I put them on and OH MY GOD I finally figured out why I’m obsessed with finding the right zippered jumpsuit. (See the scene below.)

  • A gentle reminder: your beach body is already here.

Some things I’m looking forward to this month: I can’t wait to finally go lane swimming I feel like I’ve been talking about this for months I’m so sorry if you’ve heard me say it a million times, the cheeseburger dumplings have returned to Mimi Cheng’s so that’s definitely on the list, I can’t wait to see my family a ton next week when I visit again, I’ll probably watch at least a few of these summer classics and these summer vacations movies, Nathan has some crazy big news later this month that I’m so proud of and I’d really love to finally get Baby Dog in a kiddie pool to see how she likes the water.

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

TAGS: June, June Jaunts, June Jaunts 2024, Liz Heather, Baby Dog, Nathan Macintosh, Tianna Heather, Romeo Heather, Maya Heather, family, Stanley Heather, Hassina Heather, The Cannonball Run, cleavage, jumpsuit, jumpsuit origin, strawberry, strawberries, F. Scott Fitzgerald, summer quote, birthdays, parents, mowing a lawn, playground, Old Nassau restaurant Toronto, conch salad, best conch Toronto, Corleone's Mississauga, meatball sub Mississauga, Nipissing University, art, garden art, Golden Diner, Golden Diner NYC, best pancakes NYC, caesar salad NYC, Queens carnival, Superman ride, Jiminy Glick, Queen Latifah, Hotel Rivington, best happy hour NYC, scrubbing bubbles foaming bleach cleaner, lemon cake, Magnolia Bakery, banana pudding, best banana pudding recipe, Nilla wafers, best cubano sandwich Toronto, Roncesvalles, fruit pizza, spaghetti salad, Richard Darby, cook bacon, cook perfect bacon, Priscilla Presley, steak marinade, best steak marinade, Ontario Science Center, Shukette NYC, astronaut suit, squash blossoms, toum, whipped garlic, strawberry labneh, Ray's Candy Store, East Village, Bad Habit, East Village ice cream, tres lech ice cream, Obama coffee, NYC ice cream, hummus dip, tuna salad, best tuna salad recipe, best hummus dip recipe, canned tuna idea, canned tuna recipe, What Jennifer Did, I Saw The TV Glow, Meg 2, zippered jumpsuit, zippered romper, carnivals NYC, beach body, beach body ready


February 8, 2024

January Jewels 2024

by Liz Heather in Beauty, Best of NYC, Family, Food, Links, Movies, Personal, Products, Recipes, Television


The first month is over!

  • I compiled my favourite photos of 2023.

  • I made a list of the very best of 2023.

  • The best tweets of the month can be found over here.

  • I recapped how my 2023 resolutions went.

  • I made my 2024 resolutions.

  • I reviewed the new costume exhibit (Women Dressing Women) at The Met.

  • I started writing a small weekly update entitled Winter Wednesdays.

  • I made a brioche french toast with homemade Nutella whipped cream that was unreasonably good. It was surprisingly hard to find a bakery that had ready-made brioche, but Whole Foods made this possible (unfortunately).

  • For new years day, I made this pork tenderloin with a honey garlic sauce that I’m absolutely going to make again this week.

  • My nephew Rome really got into this book of final last words, so he kept reading them aloud all month and this (below) is one of my favourites.

  • I visited the new (and finally open) Central Library in Mississauga and it’s so disappointing. The layout is terrible, the kids area is practically nonexistent, the shelving is appropriate for toddlers, the parking garage uses pay parking before 6pm and even the entrance is so badly designed that the front librarians have to wear their winter coats because of the breeze coming in from the main doors.

  • I’ve mentioned this already, but I can’t stop myself from trying to remember the old days of Square One (the mall in Mississauga). I’ve found a few photos that triggered some things in my brain and for some reason I need to write them out here so that I don’t accidentally forget them again. Do you remember when there was the movie theatre where Goodlife is now, next to The Bay? And the toy store Toys Toys Toys next to the theatre? Or the swinging ship boat ride infront of The Bay? Or all of the water fountains in the two-level food court! A giant Burger King used to be where Earl’s is now and people would wait inside it because that’s where the buses used to stop. The slushies at Woolco (that closed in1994) are cemented in my brain as the best in the world. The pretzel stand outside of Walter’s Music and down the isolated escalator from that parking lot that was next to Sears. And the Biway, Everything For A Dollar and Grand & Toy in that same Walter’s hallway. The giant HMV that used to be next to Donato. The Marks and Spencers that had a huge clothing area and then a separate grocery area. The greeting card store (my first job!) Your Expression that was around the corner from where the TD is now. The PJ’s Pets (the pet store) that used to be where Bulk Barn is now, with their rows and rows of fish tanks. Oh my god the It Store, Le Chateau, Jacob (where Wilfred is now), Diana Sweets, Black’s Cameras, Music World, Green Earth (that store with all the spiritual items and wooden figures), the coat check at Customer Service, Starstruck Entertainment, that Victorian store that used to be outside Walmart where the Tim Hortons is, the La Vie En Rose that was hidden away, the West 49 store, the restaurant that was in the space where Chipotle is now, Glamour Shots, Pegabo, Spencer Gifts. And if you’re truly insane and you want to see video footage of the mall from the 90s, I found one.

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  • I made this chocolate brownie cake for Maya’s 13th birthday and it was incredible. I made it with chocolate cream cheese icing, which only elevated it.

  • Ate at Torrisi and yes it was fine, but absolutely not worth the money. The ham appetizer and the dessert were the only things that were unique and fantastic. I think I’m vowing to actively not go to trendy places this year, they almost always disappoint.

  • In love with the thin pizza at Emmett’s on Grove and how they abnormally slice it. Fully recommend.

  • Once every few years I’ll add a new makeup product to my routine (or update something that I’ve already been using), and I really love the Selena Gomez Rare Beauty contour stick (in Happy Sol). I’ve retired my NARS contour powder for it. I did try the Fenty contour stick but couldn’t find the right colour for my face.

  • I’m TikTok’s biggest critic, but I love this (below).

  • Discovered the holy grail of at-home waxing strips.

  • Started using Palmer’s Cocoa Butter at my parent’s house because of the dry air and I’m not sure that it’s the best lotion but it absolutely smells the best.

  • I’ll always give a new restaurant a chance, but the lunch special at Thai Villa is truly nothing special.

  • Went to the new Hamburger America and it was good!

  • Some things I watched:

    • Air: fine, but easily could've been a Wikipedia read instead of a movie.

    • No One Will Save You: hated it so much.

    • Speed: still amazing. Tianna kept accidentally calling it “Fast” hahahah.

    • The Morning Show: I stopped at the first episodes of season three. Season two really turned me off, especially when season one was pretty great. The writing overall isn’t very good, so it’s a bit of a mystery why I kept watching. I think I was just desperate for something new to watch. Other season one thoughts: the music choices are terrible and corny. Why is the adolescent daughter Lizzy played by an actress who seems 40? And you might not agree with this, but Mindy Kaling is a bad dramatic actress.

    • Destination Wedding: I watched fifteen minutes and it’s the worst written movie I think I’ve seen in years. Had to abandon. (And this is hard to admit since I love Keanu.)

Baby Dog, January 2024

Some things I’m looking forward to this month: my annual boycott of the superbowl, I’m going to try and see Back To The Future on Broadway, my friend Dave is in a movie that’s playing at the Angelika so we’ll go see that and I’d really love to finally finish the Mel Brooks book I’m reading.

If you’ve got any interest in reading last month’s roundup, you can read what went on in December over here.

TAGS: Liz Heather, January, January 2024, January Jewels 2024, Best of January, Best of January 2024, yellow roses, brioche french toast, pork tenderloin, great pork recipe, Mississauga Central Library, worst library Mississauga, Square One, 90s Square One, Square One mall, Square One Shopping Center, Square One Mississauga, old Square One, vintage Square One, vintage Square One Mississauga, Square One 90s photos, Square One movie theatre, chocolate brownie cake, chocolate cream cheese icing, Maya Heather, Emmett's on Grove, best pizza NYC, Selena Gomez, Rare Beauty, contour stick, best contour stick, Happy Sol, Veet, best wax strips, Palmer's Cocoa Butter, Thai Villa NYC, Hamburger America, Air, Air movie, No One Will Save You, Speed, The Morning Show, Mindy Kaling, Destination Wedding, monthly post, monthly roundup


August 18, 2014

Family Video

by Liz Heather in Personal


Sometimes I don't talk enough on here about how great my family is. Expect that to change.

This is my brother Gary and his sweeter than life son (my nephew) Camden (with a brief appearance by my beautiful niece Maya). 

TAGS: family, Camden Heather, Gary Heather, Liz Heather, best of YouTube, kids, babies, yikes, Maya Heather