S'mores Cupcakes

Dare I say August almost felt like a normal Summer month? I ate tons of fresh tomatoes and peaches, had a few pool days, and soaked up as much sun as possible. I blogged a lot too, but here’s a short recap of what else was happening:

  • My beloved Aunt Mary celebrated her 80th birthday this month, and we had a small family party for her in my parents’ backyard. I made a loaded potato salad (will post about that soon to remind myself of it for next Summer!) and S’mores Cupcakes. I switched it up a bit from the other S’mores Cupcakes in the archives, and went with a graham base, marshmallow filling and milk chocolate frosting. Huge hit!
  • It was also Kristine’s birthday this month, and I made a treat package of Cinnamon Toast Crunch Squares and Coffee Toffee Chocolate Muffins for her. Both got good reviews!
  • I got to meet Nicole’s new baby Julian (apparently his big brother is already telling him about all the birthday cakes I’m going to make him!) and brought Nicole some Lactation Cookies. Jury’s out on if they actually helped in that department, but she said they were delicious and she ate them all in a couple days.
  • Nicole’s friend Christine ordered a Unicorn Cake for her daughter at the beginning of the month, and I’m pretty much a pro at crafting the horn and ears out of fondant now!
  • And now the regular recap of what I was cooking this month, broken down into three categories:
  • Stuff I made from the archives: I didn’t make anything from the archives this month! Hooray for the mental capacity to try new recipes!
  • Some of my favourite go-to dishes: Just sliced tomatoes on toasted sourdough with garlic mayo, on repeat, all month long.  I also made this Barefoot Contessa Shrimp Scampi Linguine again, and levelled it up this time by adding Garlic Breadcrumbs from this recipe (still trying to avoid Bon Appétit, but dammit I wanted those crunchy breadcrumbs and couldn’t remember exactly how they did it!)
  • New things that I tried and liked: This Lemon Herb Pasta Salad is perfect picnic material…although I ate it at home and not at a picnic. I can never think of good salad combinations on my own, and I normally don’t like fruit in my salad, but this Blueberry Cucumber Salad was a great Summer salad. I LOVED these Caramelized Pork Tacos (except I used chicken), and they were so tasty with pineapple/cucumber salsa.  I made the Beef Kofta and Rice & Orzo Pilaf from the Oven to Table Cookbook, and ate it with hummus and a little tomato/cucumber salad, and it was outstanding. But my hands down, favourite meal of the month was this Coconut Curry Salmon, as recommended by Danielle. It was my first time cooking salmon and it went very well. I could feel the Omega-3s coursing through my bod after.
  • Take-out: I house-sat/cat-sat/fish-sat for Lydia and her family for a week at the beginning of the month and it was so fun to see a new variety of restaurant options pop up on Skip The Dishes and Uber Eats. Except I just ended up ordering Olive Press (twice) because it’s so good.

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

  • Lydia has Disney+ over there! I watched Black is King, Hamilton, The Lion King (the new one from last Summer) and Avengers: Endgame. Bliss!
  • I actually read THREE books this month! Well, two and a half. I finished Sex & Vanity by Kevin Kwan, but it was just okay for me. Not nearly as good as any of the books in the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy. Next was Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory, which I loved. It was a little predictable, following the same formula as her first four books, but nonetheless enjoyable. Finally, The Planet Byn Bookclub™ read The Heir Affair. I had a few problems with it, and it took a while to get going, but still a good Summer read. Next up: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.
  • I finished Schitt’s Creek and bawled my face off at the end!!! I was nervous about this show at the beginning because so many people hyped it up to me, and I felt like it wasn’t that funny at the beginning, but it got better with each season. I also binged the new season of Selling Sunset and just screamed at my TV half the time because I hate Davina so much. Other than that, I basically watch NBA playoff games every night, which made me so happy. Raptors had their first sweep in history! It brought me so much joy.

Flashback!