November is usually a chill month for me before the craziness of the holidays, but there was so much going on this month and lots of good eats! Here’s what was happening:

  • Krishna was in town from Hong Kong, so she and Jen came over to hang at my place, and I made this Smoky Squash Hummus from Molly Yeh as part of a snack board. I also took my first stab at Lace Bakes Overnight Focaccia, as recommended by my friend Tania. It was good, but not as good as Claire’s, and was too thick. I need to try it again with more dimpling, more rosemary and more sea salt.
  • I dragged my co-worker to Greta for a live watch party of a Raptors game hosted by my favourite podcast, and we had a BLAST! Greta is a more vibey version of The Rec Room, but the reason why it gets mentioned here is that we loved the food!!! Let me tell you I still think of the Dill Pickle Fries on a weekly basis and my mouth starts watering. Need to go back again SOON.
  • A bunch of friends descended on Cherry’s High Dive for drinks this month, and while we loved the leopard print photo booth and the overall vibe, the food was just okay for me. We loved the Curly Fries though! (Why was I so obsessed with fries this month?!)
  • I haven’t been to the Distillery’s Christmas Market in YEARS, but went with my friend Nat this month, and we had such a nice night. It was early enough that there were no lines, and it was wasn’t too crowded to wander around. There are so many food stalls and snacks to eat that I don’t remember from before! We just had hot chocolate and shopped a bit before a quick bite at Mill Street, but it was all so twinkly and magical that I loved it.
  • I finally tried Andrea’s Cookies!!! Have been wanting to have these for literal years, but the original location is kind of a pain to get to. The second location just opened on Ossington, so I headed over after a day-long meeting with a couple of my co-workers to treat ourselves for surviving it! I tried the Chocolate Chunk, Birthday and Chocolate Knafeh, which ended up being my favourite. I liked them, I just found them very doughy. I like a cookie with a crisp edge and soft middle for contrast. I definitely need to go back though to re-test, as I was not into the majority of flavours (which change each week): Red Velvet, Pumpkin Spice and Banoffee. The week after we went had Cookie Butter, Chocolate Hazelnut and Toffee which sound so much better to me!
  • My cutie former co-worker/friend Val works in Yorkville now, so I met her up there for dinner at Miznon and had a Chicken Schnitzel Pita plus the creamiest, dreamiest hummus of the year! I guess it’s a continuing theme this month, because I need to go back here too, to try the Falafel Burger Pita.
  • Now here’s my regular recipe round-up for the month:
  • Stuff I made from the archives: Chicken Shawarma Meatballs, Kale & Couscous Salad with Zesty Lemon Vinaigrette
  • Some of my favourite go-to dishes: Honey Chipotle Chicken Fajitas
  • New things that I tried and liked: nothing this month!
  • Homemade Snacks: Banana Bread Breakfast Cookies, Chocolate Peanut Butter Energy Bites

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

  • I have a lot of complicated feelings towards Vince Carter, but I’m on a healing journey, which allowed me to watch and appreciate his jersey retirement ceremony this month with my friend Andrew. It only took about 20 years!
  • It’s so rare we have a movie EVENT in this post-pandemic era, so I was thrilled to go see Wicked on premiere night in a movie theatre packed with people trying their hardest not to sing along (including my friends). I’m not a full Wicked-head, but brushed up on all the lore beforehand and absolutely loved it!
  • My reading was a bit all over the place this month, but I liked everything I read: DeMar DeRozan’s memoir, The Story of Us (which I missed for my work book club but still wanted to read) and If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English which a friend recommended to me a few years ago.

Flashback!