The darkest, dreariest month of the year is now behind us! Rejoice! February went by quickly (thank goodness), and I was knocked down by a stomach bug/flu (again), but did have a few highlights on the food front:

• Superbowl Sunday coincided with my Dad’s birthday this year, so we watched the game together and ate so much good food. I made Heather’s famous garlic bread, my Mom made these ribs, we collaborated on some oven fries, and I brought over these Creamy Lemon Crumb Squares for dessert.
• Did you try the two new flavours of Dairy Milk? There’s a Caramel Corn one and a Cookie Dough one. The texture of the cookie dough is kind of off in that one, but the Caramel Corn one is off the chain amazing.
• My friend from work had a few of us over for a Persian feast (snacks pictured above) and it was INCREDIBLE! He made so much amazing food, and of course I can’t remember the names of each dish but we had, but there was: a chicken dish with jeweled rice, beet dish with edamame hummus, fresh tomato/cucumber/avocado salad, a curry dish I can’t remember the name of and a few more things I’m forgetting. It was all so good!
• I had a catch-up lunch with my favourite doctor at my favourite spot in Oakville: Stoney’s. I’ve had an ongoing love affair with this place for almost 10 years and it better stay open forever. Favourite lunch = Balsamic Chicken Sandwich, but as a salad instead of a sandwich. It’s the best.

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

• The majority of my free time this month was spent with my amazing charity committee Those Girls on our fundraiser for Heart & Stroke Foundation. We threw an awesome event (if I do say so myself), raised lots of money, and had a blast doing it. As my friend Weedy says, charity work is both fun AND rewarding, and that couldn’t be more true in this case!
• I thoroughly enjoyed reading From Scratch: Inside The Food Network. The book is heavy on the details of the business side of starting a new network which can drag on a bit, but it’s worth it just to get the origin stories of how Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray, Ina Garten and Paula Deen (among others) all ended up with their shows.