Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cake

Another month in quarantine. The weirdest part is that it’s starting to feel normal. Here’s what I was up to at home:

  • I was SO HAPPY to have a baking project to work on right at the beginning of the month! My friend/co-worker Nat C. ordered a Cinnamon Toast Crunch cake for her boyfriend’s 30th birthday. It felt so nice and normal to work on this cake over the course of a couple days. Even better was that I got to see Nat (from a 6ft distance of course) when she came to pick it up and we had a great catch-up visit.
  • Kristine and I had a FaceTime Cinco de Mayo Happy Hour and I made myself a Fresh Mango Margarita, using that recipe as a base, replacing strawberries with mango, obviously. Miss celebrating together, but this was fun in a pinch.
  • After having this pinned for years, I finally made these Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies from Smitten Kitchen. They were actually just okay for me; quite fussy and messy to make, and the chocolate dough dried out really quick. There are lots of other great chocolate peanut butter treats to be had, so I’m fine letting these ones go.
  • I guess I was on a SK dessert kick this month, because I also made her Salted Caramel Pretzel Blondies. These have homemade caramels in them, and I wondered if that step would be worth it, but spoiler alert, it totally was. I saved half of them to share with Kristine, along with some of the best brownies.
  • Every morning I listen to the CHUMFM morning show and they were having a segment called “We’re Open” where small businesses could call in and let everyone know that they were open and how they were adjusting service. This led me to A Bit of Home and an order of just an obscene amount of Cadbury chocolate for quarantine treats.
  • And now the regular recap of what I was cooking this month, broken down into three categories:
  • Stuff I made from the archives: more Sweet Potato & Black Bean Taco Bowls (although I make it a little differently now, so maybe I should update this), Creamy Tomato Soup (with Grilled Cheese, natch)
  • Some of my favourite go-to dishes: I’ve made these Peanut Noodles a few times now and really like them, yup the Soy Ginger Eggs with Rice and Pickled Cucumbers again, Turkey Tacos with Tahini Ranch Salad (forgot how much I LOVED that Tahini Ranch Dressing!), more Crispy Tilapia & Broccoli Crack and these BBQ Meatballs
  • New things that I tried and liked: BA’s Shrimp Scampi Pasta with Garlic Breadcrumbs (OMG the crispy breadcrumbs on top are EVERYTHING), Gaby’s Chickpeas in Tomato Sauce (although I would make homemade sauce next time), Sweet Potato Gnocchi (my co-worker made this for our team at Christmas and it was delicious!)
  • I finally ordered take-out this month! First up, a Greek feast from Colossus.

Other non-foodie things I was obsessed with this month:

  • Netflix continues to be life right now, and this month I watched Mindy Kaling’s new show Never Have I Ever (LOVED IT!!!), plus Ozark Season 3, Dead To Me Season 2 and Michelle Obama’s Becoming Special. I also started re-watching Happy Endings on Amazon Prime; I think I only caught episodes here and there back when it aired and it’s so funny and worth the re-watch.
  • I had my most fun night in quarantine blasting the Nelly vs Ludacris Verzuz battle on Instagram Live while I danced around cleaning my kitchen, drinking wine spritzers and texting with Kristine reminiscing about our 20s. I can’t pick a winner between these two!
  • If you need re-useable fabric face masks, I ordered mine from Quartermoon Crew and am really happy with them.
  • As mentioned last month, my reading has really slowed down while at home. I read Jennifer Weiner’s new one Big Summer which was pretty fluffy and predictable. Rodham is on deck next and I can’t wait.

Flashback!