I tried to soak up as much of summertime as I could this month, while also preserving my baking mojo for my big Wedding Cake project at the end of the month. Here’s what was happening:

  • My co-worker and I went out for lunch at the beginning of August to Maro’s, which I forgot how much I love. I think I got take-out from there once last summer, so it’s been far too long. I tried something new and had Zulaikha (pictured above) which is spiced chickpeas topped with fried eggplant, crispy pita strips, and garlic yogurt. It was so delicious scooped up with fresh pita. I need to have this again stat, or try to re-create it at home.
  • Lydia invited me to go on a Costco run with her, and would you believe I’ve only been one other time in my life? We went on a Thursday night about an hour before it closed and it was still SO BUSY. Truly a wild experience. I didn’t buy too much except a bag of Doritos the size of a small child and a gigantic bag of chocolate chips.
  • My friends and I went on a hike up in Milton on the Bruce Trail and I made us these Lemon Zucchini Poppy Seed Muffins as a road trip snack (any car ride longer than 30 minutes is a road trip to me). After our hike, we went to West Avenue Cider House for refreshments. Weirdly they don’t do flights, so I only tried one cider, but it was a watermelon margarita cider, and was delicious. They also have a cute little market on-site where I picked up a loaf of sourdough and some wildflower honey, which I can’t wait to use in some Honey Tahini Challah.
  • I used my sourdough for many, many rounds of Tomato Toast and BLTs which is peak August eating for me. I wait all year for those juicy Ontario tomatoes!
  • Now that I’m back in the office a couple of days a week, I’ve been reunited with my one true love: Me Va Me. I missed it so much!!! I started with Chicken Shawarma, then switched to Falafel and they’re both even more delicious than I remember!
  • I really only baked one other thing this month, was a “30, Flirty & Thriving” Birthday Cake for my work bestie! She loves cookies and cream and chocolate mint, so I made this cake with a mint buttercream and more Oreo crumbles and sprinkles on top.
  • After Emma’s Wedding Cake was successfully dropped off, Heather and I went for an epic feast a Mesa in Hamilton, and it was absolutely amazing. We had mango margaritas, guac and barbacoa enchiladas, and I already need to go again.
  • Because of my self-imposed baking hiatus, this was the first summer since I’ve had this blog that I didn’t cycle through all the in-season Ontario fruit (strawberries, blueberries, peaches) and post new recipes! To be honest, I didn’t really have the inspiration to do this either, and no new recipes were really catching my eye anyway. I hope I’ll get back to it next Summer.
  • And now the regular recap of what I was cooking this month, broken down into three categories:
  • Stuff I made from the archives: zip
  • Some of my favourite go-to dishes: zilch
  • New things that I tried and liked: nada
  • So I didn’t really cook much this month. I was housesitting at Lydia’s for the first week of August, and then I was just eating a lot of Tomato Toast as mentioned above. The one new recipe I did try was Smitten Kitchen’s Zucchini Butter Spaghetti, but like every other zucchini recipe on the planet, do you really even know it’s in there? ZUCCHINI HAS NO FLAVOUR! I don’t know why I try to convince myself otherwise each and every August.

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

  • It was time for my annual Disney+ binge at Lydia’s house, and I watched ALL the Marvel content (WandaVision, Falcon & the Winter Soldier, Loki). I thought WandaVision was fantastic, but could have passed on the rest. I also watched my old favourite show Pitch on Disney+ and I explained at length to the cats why it was so good and what a shame it is that it only lasted one season.
  • I read a bunch this month: One Last Stop (good, but dragged a lot and could have been at least 300 pages shorter in my opinion), The Guncle (cute), and While We Were Dating (LOVED!!! So obsessed with all of Jasmine Guillory’s books!)
  • My Love Island obsession continued this month and was mainly fixated on Alana and her awesome hair. I started to Google “wavy hair tutorials” which led me down a rabbit hole into the world of Curly Girl YouTube. I found Manes by Mell right away, watched this tutorial, and now have a bathroom full of sulfate free shampoo, curl cream activators, gels and serums. I am in SHOCK at how her method and these products bring out my natural waves, and they actually look defined and healthy instead of frizzy and messy. Life-changing!

Flashback!