August 16, 2025

Summer Saturdays Vol. 11 (Wedding Edition)

by Liz Heather in Summer Saturdays

Big week this week!

BAKING

Our wedding cake! Dark chocolate chip banana!

COOKING

I made a caprese with the basil from my wedding bouquet.

CRAVING

Absolutely nothing. This week was a dream.

DRINKING

Carib! I’m not biased because it’s Trinidadian, it’s really the best beer.

EATING

So many meals out this week: beef tenderloin, pacific snapper, asparagus and onion scrambled eggs, Nando’s. Looking forward to some home meals again.

EXPERIENCING

Pure joy? I don’t believe in your wedding day being the best day of your life, but it was pretty fantastic.

LISTENING

I made a Getting Ready playlist to hear the morning before the ceremony and it’s been on repeat for a couple of days now.

LOVING

…my husband?? I’m sorry, but it’s wild to say that term out loud.

SHOPPING

I got this beautiful Zara purse to use as my wedding purse and then used Velcro to secure Baby Dog’s photo inside.

WATCHING

Currently have the latest Summer I Turned Pretty episode on pause. Did I get married this summer because Belly is supposed to? Even I’m not sure.

WEARING

I guess it would make sense to show the wedding dress here (I will), but truly my night-before outfit was the one I’ve been lusting after since I bought it from Simons a month ago.

You can find last week’s Summer Saturdays Vol. 10 over here.

August 3, 2025

The Best of July 2025

by Liz Heather in Family, Food, Links, Movies, Personal, Recipes, Television

That was the fastest month of all time, yeah? Here’s what happened!

I continued to write my Summer Saturdays series.
The best tweets of the month are over here.
Took my brother and nephews to do an impromptu cake tasting!

Speaking of cakes, are we all aware of how good the La Rocca ones are? I tried their strawberry white chocolate this month and it was delicious. Their best one remains the caramel crunch one, though. Best grocery store cakes of all time.

My niece Tianna and I stayed at Pillar and Post in Niagara-On-The-Lake and it was absolutely perfect. I tried bone marrow for the first time (I see the appeal) and it was a perfect little getaway. (Also, a gorgeous lavender field is only minutes away.)

I was craving green curry (but not wanting to pay $30 for it from a restaurant) so I made one at home with onions, peas, chicken and store-bought green curry sauce and it was insanely satisfying. Also, lasted me a full week. I have to remember to do this again.
The house-made garlic and chive cream cheese from The Cheese Boutique is heavenly.
I’ve been living in this Aritzia burgundy sweatshirt.
Beyond excited for this project.
Nathan and I went to Montreal (best thing about a road trip? McDonald’s $1 any-sized iced coffee + the free DoubleTree warm cookie) and had such a great time. First time trying their bagels and good god - eons better than New York ones. No one told me. Only regret of the trip? Not ordering this onion block from The Cage.

And this should be obvious, but Quebec cheese curds are otherworldly. There is no substitution.

Officially in love with the Montreal brand Mimi and August (thank you, Marla!).

I will always stop at The Big Apple when we pass it on the highway. Right now they have incredible nectarines and apple cheddar bread. (We also stopped at Primitive Designs because why not?)

Apple cheddar bread from The Big Apple in Ontario

Yearning to eat this beef stroganoff with caramelized mushrooms and crispy onions.
Had my bridal shower and it was overwhelmingly nice. I made my favourite lemon sorbet with mascarpone for dessert (I will use any excuse to make these, they’re so good). And these honey jars are such a perfect party favour (note: you do have to fill them yourself, like some sort of sap).

This is really a reminder to myself to never use booking.com again. I’m 40, I should know better. Stop using third party websites for booking anything. They’re all terrible when it comes to changing plans.
These are officially the hottest, most comfortable heels I now own so I should probably buy two more pairs.
I ate the greatest samosas of all time from the Lakeview Farmers Market at Zesty Fusions. Also had an incredible gluten free breakfast sandwich from Gud Daae and a great iced flat white from Delicious All Day Coffee.
Current snack on repeat: Nutella on Dad’s Cookies. I can’t stop.
Some things I watched:
- Fatal Attraction: wow, I rewatch this movie a lot. Might need to look into that.
- A rerun of the Lady Gaga SNL: fantastic. Love her.
- Single White Female: great! Can’t believe I hadn’t seen it before.
- The Bear: I can’t stand how much Eyo says “like.” Other than that, the season was fine? Not enough scenes with Will Poulter.
- And Just Like That: live long enough and you’ll grow to hate Aiden. It’s a blessing that this show is coming to an end. Also, Miranda’s character progression has never made any sense to me.
- I Know What You Did Last Summer: I actually liked it! I won’t ruin the ending, but I truly hated that part of it.

Some things I’m looking forward to this month: OH I WONDER.

You can read last month’s roundup over here.

June 2, 2025

The Best of May 2025

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

This has been the longest spring of all time and I’m not complaining. Here’s what went down last month.

The best tweets of the month can be found over here.
I finally reviewed last year’s Met costume exhibit (this year’s 2025 exhibit review can be read over here).
Bought/love this travel box for jewelry. Also got these great swim trunks for Nathan (love non-bland menswear).
A bunch of new candles came out at Trader Joe’s so obviously I’m on it.

Got this great quilted sweatshirt for $10 on sale at Banana Republic Factory.
Made this sausage, pesto, ricotta pasta on repeat for a few nights. Also made this bread pudding with vanilla sauce for a friend’s birthday that really turned out well.
I visited the new Printemps (french department store) in the city, which is really lovely. The design of the space is worth seeing if you’re in the area. Keep in mind that practically nothing is priced under $100.

We went to Ruta in Astoria, which is probably the best Mexican in the neighborhood by far. Their deep red salsa will fix you.

Here were my favourite Met Gala looks this year:

So I tried a retinol night serum on my face and I was warned that some flakiness might occur but this was next level flake city. I had to stop. I also do not care about the benefits of retinol, so let’s never speak of it again.
The chain Toasties in the city? What garbage! Never again. How do you mess up lunch?
I can’t stop texting this image to people (below).

I was looking for a new (not drugstore) mascara and I found a fantastic one - the Glossier Lash Slick. In love with the wand, it catches every single little hair.
I tried the Trader Joe’s strawberry gluten free muffins and they were okay, but nothing can top their GF cinnamon coffee cake ones.
I was invited to see Mel Robbins at The Beacon (with a very lovely new friend) and I’ve got to be honest. This woman is… just not for me. I’m happy that people seem to get something out of what she says, but I just can’t. Wellness can’t be bought and I will die on that hill.
Marla came for a visit and it was a blast. She stayed at The New Yorker hotel (which was old, wonderful and perfect), we did a million things in 48 hours and ate at Modern Bread & Bagel approx. twenty times. It was perfect.

Was so, so pleased that she agreed with me about how incredible the tart frozen yogurt is at Madison Fare.

Madison Fare frozen yogurt with raspberry

She also treated us to a Broadway show (this woman cannot be stopped in her generosity), so we saw Real Women Have Curves. And it was good!

I poached some salmon in a coconut cream sauce and it didn’t come out that great, so I think I’ll just stick to baked salmon.
I think I’m suffering from Pinterest-aesthetic-brain-overload because I was on such a mission (for some reason?) to find a perfect black cardigan to layer with some outfits I have - and I found one at Uniqlo. But once I tried it on I realized how very basic-white-woman it is and put it back. It can be very hard to fight these things that the internet tells me that I’m supposed to have. (I did buy this great baseball t-shirt, though.)
I went to Edith’s for the tahini iced coffee and it was very good. I also tried a bite of their chicken caesar and it was nothing special. Main reason to go here is definitely the coffee.

Edith’s tahini iced coffee in the West Village, NYC

I got a lash lift and it’s only week one, but I can see the appeal of getting them done. I’ve been using Nulastin for a few months and I’ve been seeing length, but they’re not very curly so I guess we’ll see if this makes a longterm difference or not.
We went to visit the town where the original Friday the 13th was filmed (it’s just under two hours from NYC) and it was so much fun. I’ll do a full post on it here soon. We also went to a wedding in the Poconos and it was such a great weekend.

Some things I watched:
- Final Destination Bloodlines - not as awful as I expected! The beginning scene was the most memorable/best part.
- And Just Like That (newest season) - okay, this was the craziest part of the first episode:

…what the hell? Were we all supposed to think that is a normal thing to say? Infact this insane sentence is making me want to do a deep dive on ALL of the wildly dumb things these women have said over decades and we all have just eaten it right up and accepted as normal! Madness.

Some things I’m looking forward to this month: I really want to go to Modern Bread & Bread for their night menu, I want to make this chicken Diane recipe at home, I think I’m going to start doing my Summer Saturday posts again starting this week (the season starts when I says it does) and I might have to pre-order the Jaws popcorn bucket (below).

You can read last month’s roundup over here.

Just a reminder that you should take way more photos of your friends everywhere

August 4, 2024

July Jiffs 2024

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

I might have to stop complaining about how I’m not a summer person because this past month was such a memorable one. Here’s what went down last month!

Nathan made Variety’s 10 Comics To Watch list this year!
I continued my Summer Saturdays series because apparently I’m obsessed with summer?
The best tweets of the month can be found over here. I also made a list of my favourite summer tweets.
I wrote about my favourite caesar salad dressing recipe in honour of its 100th birthday.
I tried the soft serve from Seed + Mill and it was unbelievably good. Top three in NYC, hands down.

Soft serve from Seed + Mill, Chelsea Market

I finally got to go lane swimming in Mississauga and it was all that I’d hoped it would be and so much more. Fuck Eric Adams for cancelling the lap swims in NYC for yet another summer.
The watermelon sangria at Bite is summer in a glass.
I finally visited the food hall at Queensboro Plaza and the options looked pretty good! The chicken caesar wrap at Bobwhite Counter was decent, but it’ll always amaze me when places don’t make their own croutons. It’s one tiny little step that makes or breaks it.

The coronation chicken salad at Nomad Sandwiches is too good. Cold, curried chicken is not on enough menus in this city.
I just saw an ad for this, but Arby’s has a burger now?? Am I the only one this offends?? Their whole thing is that they DON’T do burgers?? That roast beef and cheddar is better than any fast food burger, what the hell is going on? I can handle a lot of things (really I can), but this crosses a line.
A reel told me to squeeze lemon on top of watermelon, so I did and it was fantastic.
I went to Canada for a little bit since the kids are off for summer break and I think I’m onto something here: yardwork is fun when it’s not your own house.

I used a screwdriver to do this and I’m kinda proud of that fact?

One of my most beloved hobbies? Before/after photoshoots, apparently.

Went to Blue Mountain on a small trip with my family and it was perfect. We swam so much (once in the rain, and I hope everyone swims in the rain at least once in their life) and we also rode the Ridge Runner Mountain Coaster (something that’s been on my list for years), which was so much fun. I also won’t disclose how many times I went to the frozen yogurt place Menchies.

Before the Ridge Runner Mountain Coaster

On the drive back from Blue Mountain, we found a farmer’s market-type store in hopes of finding some sponge toffee and dreams can come true.

Ate at Lucia in Toronto and it wasn’t anything special, which was a bit disappointing but the company was everything I wanted so that made up for it.

Made these ricotta meatballs that turned out great, if not a bit too soft.
We went to Ribfest and I tried my first blooming onion. It was absolutely unreal. How did it take me this long to try one. Also got an oxtail poutine and (finally) the tri-colour popsicle I’ve been waiting on since last summer.

There are cathedrals everywhere for those with eyes to see

I wanted this so badly, I didn’t even care how bad my nails looked

The passport office in Mississauga is such a nightmare, it literally took four hours to get renewed (and that’s only because I showed up two hours before it even opened).
Tried this soft foot reel I saw (below) and it worked pretty well! I think you have to do it multiple times a week to really see longterm results, though.

Went to Spirit Tree Estate Cidery again with my niece Tianna and it remains great. Their daily soup is the main attraction here (we got the seafood chowder).

We also went to Activate again and I think I enjoyed it even more than last time. Obsessed with the hoops room. Makes me wish I had a basketball net.

Went to the Asian Night Market in Mississauga with Harmeet and we got the cold noodles, which were spicy/great. Afterward we went to the Mexican restaurant in the food hall section of Square One (La Carnita) and had such a terrible experience. The short ribs we ordered were awful and our waiter absolutely hated us. And then we went next door to Farzi Cafe, where the drinks were fine but insanely overpriced. What the hell is going on at Square One?
I finally got Baby Dog in a kiddie pool and she could actually doggy paddle. It was the cutest thing anyone has ever seen.
I just learned about the ready-made sandwiches at Lazar Bakery in Mississauga and my lunches will never be the same again.
The foam soaps are the main reason I go to Bath & Body Works, but their bar soaps last such a long time. If you live in the United States then you should definitely get their app - they give you at least one free item every few weeks.
Baskin-Robbins rainbow sherbert continues to solve all.

I know it’s early, but the pumpkin pie M&Ms are outrageously good.

Some things I watched:
- The Bear (season three): Cons first. Okay, I hated the first episode but it’s the weakest one of the whole season. Some of the dialogue is so badly written, it’s hard to watch sometimes. Why the hell was John Cena in it? He isn’t a good actor, let’s cut the shit. Now pros. Ebon is flawless. The Napkins episode was so well written. Jon Bernthal is such a great actor. The Al-Anon support group scene was so good. My jaw dropped at Josh Hartnett making an appearance, I’ll continue to love his renaissance. And I know I’ve complained about the overacting of Jamie Lee Curtis from last season, but I thought the birth episode was the best one of the entire season. That whole episode just captured mothers and daughters so well and how we see that our mothers fail us so much because our expectations of them are too insanely high so when they fall flat of those expectations, how crushing it can be to realize that they’re just human. That episode alone is why I’ll keep watching the show. I do think that a lot can be done towards the development of characters so that we have the time to care about them in the ways that the writers want us to, but there are these pocket episodes that are just so alarmingly true and good. It’s a fantastic show with absolute faults, but the reviews of this season were way too harsh.
- All of the Naked Gun movies (rewatch): Okay these movies really hold up well. It was too much fun to watch them with the kids who actually really laughed and enjoyed them too. Romeo even referenced one scene weeks later to laugh about it, my heart swelled to say the least.
- Blowout: It started out interesting and then took a sharp turn, hard pass.
- Sabrina (rewatch): I was on a Harrison Ford kick and would’ve settled for anything, so this was nice to see again.
- Twisters (theatres): I really wanted to hate it, but it was a party.
- Creep (rewatch): Still great!
- Mulan (live action): Rome insisted on us watching this and it wasn’t bad! I’m pretty anti-live-action, but this was surprisingly good.
- I Know What You Did Last Summer (rewatch): Love a summer horror movie. There needs to be more seasonal horror movies.
- The Craft (rewatch): I always forget how much I hate the bug stuff at the end, but it’s still a solid 90s movie.

Some things I’m looking forward to this month: my dear friend Marla is coming to visit (!), cannot wait to see Trap next week, I’m keeping my eye out for any corn based seasonal dishes at the restaurants I love and I can’t wait to start preparations on this year’s costume…

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

July 3, 2024

June Jaunts 2024

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

— 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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?!

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.

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).

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

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?).

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.

June 13, 2024

May Musings 2024

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

It has officially been six years of doing these monthly roundup posts since I started them in May of 2018. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE. If there’s a lesson here, it’s that change is truly possible. I never would’ve thought I’d be doing these consistently for that long, so that’s wild to me. Thank you to anyone and everyone who has ever even read one. Here’s what went down in May!

The best tweets of the month are over here.
I reviewed the hip hop jewelry exhibit at the Natural History Museum.
I saw the new rooftop installation at The Met.
Vulture wrote about Nathan’s special twice this month and I couldn’t be prouder.

The New York Times also loved Nathan’s newest special Down With Tech!
I made this one pan pepper steak with added mushrooms that I will absolutely do again.
My favourite Met gala looks:

The hair, the makeup, the dress = all of it is perfection, she just needs to leave Justin to fully become perfect in this moment

The back of Mindy Kaling’s dress is HIGH ART

The author of my favourite book, Paul Auster, passed away so I think a re-reading of Mr. Vertigo is in order soon.
I visited the newly opened Paramount Theatre in Brooklyn to see Belle & Sebastian (they were great) and what a beautiful venue.

I tried cottage cheese for the first time and it wasn’t terrible! I still say that “cottage cheese” is the most disgusting thing it could have been named, though. I made this fake chocolate mousse with it and Nathan ate every last bite. I also made a fake “ice cream” with cottage cheese + frozen blueberries that was actually good. I won’t pretend to tell you it tasted like real ice cream, but it was surprisingly edible.

Cottage cheese + frozen blueberry ice cream that’s not actually ice cream, I can’t lie to you

We had a huge Baby Dog scare where she tore a ligament in her leg and our vet was an absolute nightmare with prescribing her these insanely strong pills that made our lives a living hell for a week. Thankfully she’s back to normal and better than ever. We also started her on these cataract eye drops that may actually help her sight, will report back on these in a few more weeks.

I tried the new chickpea pasta from Trader Joe’s and I like it better than Banza (it’s cheaper, too). Also tried their new, incredible honeycomb candy.

Love this essay by Glynnis MacNicol and I can’t wait to read her upcoming memoir entitled I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself.
Embarrassed to say how much I love the Shake Shack lettuce wrap.

The white chocolate macadamia cream at Starbucks is a problem. I’m really in the macadamia era of my life. No one tells you that your late-30s era is intensely boring?
There’s nothing sadder than disappointing soft serve. Marvel: do better.

Truly in love with the shortbread foam hand soap from Bath & Body Works. (Don’t forget their annual sale is going on right now.)

Loving the entire ButterBliss line at Target. How is it so damn soft??
Tried the new sandwich place Nomad, which is incredible. Took me 39 years to understand that I truly love coleslaw. Again, terrible name choice. Beginning to learn that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover? What a concept?

Quick note: if you ever shop in store at Staples, you should really look up their online prices vs. the in-store price when you’re there. The in-store price is almost always wildly more expensive than the same item listed online and if you show the cashier when you’re checking out - they’ll price match it for the lower price.
So I was on a morning walk and I found a lost cat! It was wild and the owners were so sweet about it.
Saw Mary Jane with Rachel McAdams on Broadway with Nathan and it was great.

There is an exhibit of old literary posters right now at The Met that is absolutely beautiful.

The latkes at Modern Bread and Bagel remain the best in NYC.

Got the new summer scents from Mrs. Meyers and they. are. incredible.

Seasonally scented cleaning products? FUCK ME UP

Took Baby Dog to Central Park and she loved it, even if you can’t tell by this forcibly posed photograph.

I love a street fair because you’ll always find something unique. Creepy-faced magnets? Forever yes.

Completely forgot about my love for rainbow sherbert.

Some things I watched:
- The Idea of You (Amazon Prime): low maintenance and intensely watchable. The line, “People hate happy women” PERFECT. And Michael Showalter directed it?? What the hell? That’s great.
- How Stella Got Her Groove Back: it’s pretty gross that the main love interest is a 20 year old boy. And the real life story that it’s based on is AWFUL (spoiler alert: he was actually gay and married her for a green card!!).
- Under The Tuscan Sun: still great.
- Twister (the Helen Hunt one): such a great movie. There’s really no need for the remake. Best part? The sheer amount of twisters in the movie. That may seem like a dumb observation, but it really isn’t. It’s just so fast-paced and there’s basically another twister every ten minutes or so.
- Dream Scenerio: good! Some of the abuse scenes are hard to sit through, but as a whole a really good movie.
- The Danny Meyer episode of Ina Garten’s show: I was not aware that he basically invented eating at the bar instead of at a table in a restaurant (was also not aware that it needed to be invented??) and I must make the pasta (orecchiette with broccoli rabe and sausage) that he made for Ina in that episode.
- Emily in Paris (season two): can you tell how desperate I am in finding new shows to watch? It’s not a good show. I hate all the singing, I had to fast-forward those scenes. But I did love these pink shoes.

Some things I’m looking forward to this month: finishing off some final spring activities, writing my summer list, I need to dry clean and officially pack away my winter coats, I’ll start doing my Summer Saturdays weekly series again, excited for the new season of The Bear at the end of the month and I’d love to find some new strawberry recipes to make the most of the season.

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

May 1, 2024

April Activities 2024

by Liz Heather in Advice, Beauty, Best of NYC, Food, Ideas, Links, Movies, Personal, Products, Quotes, Recipes, Reviews

The best tweets of April can be found over here and the best NYC earthquake tweets are over here.
Loved this part from a NYT newsletter about the eclipse written by Elizabeth Dias: “For a nation pulled apart by every manner of division, the eclipse also offered a moment of unity, however brief. It was a reminder to everyone, on the same day and at the same time, that life can be magical. That being alive is a collective experience. That there is something astonishing about being part of the greater story of things.”

In Nathan news, he was on The Tonight Show for the third time promoting his new special (Down With Tech), and Vulture wrote two pieces about him and the new special (!) - so he’s had a great month.

I made this asparagus soup and it’d be a better recipe if it were strained, but it was perfectly fine. I think this is another one of those foods that tastes better when it’s a special at a restaurant.
I tried and finished a bottle of “hair growth support” powder and it didn’t do much. Can someone please remind me never to cut my hair again?
Loving the acne spot treatment from Bubble.
Am I waiting for the August Nordstrom sale to buy a coat that I basically already own but in a different colour? Obviously.

My other coat in the background: “…GIRL”

Made this New York Times couscous and why can’t I seem to remember that their recipes are very blah? It’s as if it were AI generated. Oh no, are recipes going to be created by AI in the near future? Oh my god they are, aren’t they.
I made the switch to Redken shampoo and conditioner and Nathan and I both have seen a huge difference. My hairdresser passionately convinced me that I should stop buying cheap shampoo and it really was great advice.
I made this dark chocolate strawberry yogurt bark (below) that’s pretty fun if you’re desperate and don’t have ice cream.

I saw the new Diane Von Furstenberg line at Target and the kids section is beyond cute.
I know I won’t shut up about Wegman’s, but are we all aware of how good their individual cookies are? And their slices of chocolate cake? And their family-sized protein powder with 1 gram of sugar?? The deals are almost infuriating.
In NYC restaurant talk: the pasta at Ci Siamo was phenomenal (better than Lilia), the cocktails are better than ever at Manhatta, the kale caesar at Fumo is incredible, the fried chicken at COQODAQ is overrated but their chicken curry is outstanding (I also loved that they had house wines, BRING BACK HOUSE WINE + HOUSE WINE PRICES), the malt vinegar skinny fries at Motel Morris are perfection and the vodka parm at Compton’s in Astoria is only okay (again proof that TikTok famous sandwiches contain more hype than flavour).

Snack I can’t stop eating: hummus mixed with feta and chopped red onions (dipped with either sliced cucumbers or carrots or pita chips).
Saving my money now for the new Lemax phantom castle that comes out this Halloween.
I met Harrison Ford (!) near Columbus Circle and he was very kind and extremely handsome. And I’ve never seen such a confident stride in my whole life. Man’s a stud.

I’ve been making this spinach wrap (below) for weeks and can’t get over it. I’ve been topping it with shredded chicken and either buffalo sauce or tzatziki sauce.

Spinach & egg wrap with shredded buffalo chicken

In my quest to dress better, I bought these perfect gingham pants.
SNL had two especially good sketches this month: Jumanji and The Engagement.
I visited The Pastry Box in the East Village and it was ridiculously good.

Some things I watched:
- Albert Brooks: Defending My Life (HBO) - it was fine, I was hoping to like it more.
- Quiet on Set (HBO) - nuts. Parts of it are really hard to watch.
- Past Lives (Prime) - heartbreakingly good, just loved it.
- Late Night with the Devil (AMC+) - I liked the style of it, but the ending was sort of ruined for me inadvertently. Hard to say if it was actually good.
- Alien (in theatres) - Nathan and I saw the 45th anniversary screening of it (I’d never seen it before) and it was fantastic. Weird that I’d never seen it and weirder that I loved it?

Some things I’m looking forward to this month: I’m seeing Belle & Sebastian at the new Paramount Theatre tonight, I’ll definitely go see the new fashion exhibit at The Met, I might try to see I Saw The TV Glow at the Angelika and I really want to get to Smorgasburg sometime this month before it gets too hot to enjoy.