This was a bit of a weird August for me; I wasn’t living at home for the whole month, until I was, in a very PTSD way. Allow me to explain:

  • I was at Lydia’s for the first week of August doing my annual housesitting/catsitting duties, where of course I ordered from her (and now my) local fave: The Olive Press. I have to say though, it wasn’t as good as I remembered which was too bad.
  • The second week of August I was staying at my brother’s house with my 16 year-old niece while he and my sister-in-law were away, and the little two were staying at my parents’ (a bit of a divide-and-conquer approach if you will). I asked Charlotte what she likes to eat, and she said basically anything, and loves pasta. So here’s what I made for our dinners: Zucchini Quesadillas (“these are actually really good”), Rigatoni alla Vodka (except I couldn’t find vodka, but did dash out to grab basil growing in the backyard after Char reminded me it was there), and some delicious breakfast sandwiches on everything bagels (and then she was at work one night, and we ordered the pizza the last night after her siblings came home).
  • After that I was home for a few days before leaving for Calgary for five days to see Danielle and baby Ellis, which you can read all about in that post. Truly epic eats!
  • And then, instead of closing out the end of August being happy to get back into my routine and home, I got COVID on the last day in Calgary and then was basically housebound in a very upsetting, 2020 flashback/lockdown way for just over a week. It was pretty brutal and I was stressed it would impact my sense of smell/taste, which it did for a couple of weeks even after I started to feel better.
  • No recipe round-up this month because the only time I really cooked was for Charlotte! Excited to make a Fall Cooking & Baking List though and get back to it in September.

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

  • I forgot to mention this in July’s recap, but it was so good I watched it again in August at Lydia’s house: The Bear (Season 2). It’s even better than Season 1 and I am obsessed. It feels like a fictional version of Top Chef if you followed one of the contestants home to start their own restaurant. Best show of the year, I already know it.
  • My reading this month was hit and miss again, but the ones I really enjoyed were Hook, Line and Sinker (a sequel of sorts to It Happened One Summer) and Sunshine Nails. I was SUPER disappointed in Same Time Next Summer, especially after I loved Nora Goes Off Script so much.
  • When I was trapped on the couch being sick and miserable, I watched all these ’90s movies I had saved on my PVR: The Pelican Brief, The Client, Double Jeopardy, The Fugitive, A League of Their Own! All so good! When those ran out, I caught up on the latest season of And Just Like That, which was such a big mistake that I started watching the original Sex & The City from the beginning which was an excellent decision. I haven’t done a re-watch in years and it is still so amazing.

Flashback!