Birthday Doughnuts

Without a doubt, this was the easiest February in recent history. Normally this is my most dreaded month of the year, but with only one -30 day, and no big dumps of snow, I sailed through with my mental health in tact! Had some fun along the way too:

  • The month kicked off with a big 40th birthday celebration weekend for The Brunette Baker! We started with doughnuts from Glory Hole (pictured above), had manis at Her Majesty’s Pleasure, an amazing dinner at Valdez, and capped it off with brunch at Origin (complete with Mark McEwan sighting) the next morning. Happy Birthday Jenny!
  • I went to a birthday dinner for my friend Jen at Barrio Coreano, a Mexican/Korean fusion spot which is part of the Playa Cabana group of restaurants. We had a fixed menu, and got to try their guac, kalbi beef ribs and a bunch of their tacos. My fave was the the chicken kampungki taco, which was fried chicken, chipotle-sesame gochujang salsa and wasabi aoili. Churros and tres leches cake for dessert! This is a winner. Need to go back to try everything else.
  • The Tasty Gardener had some media passes for Winter Brewfest so I went with her and a few other friends to check it out. This is just like the Toronto Festival of Beer (which I haven’t been to in like 10 years), so you buy little tokens/tickets and go around to various stalls where you can try samples from different breweries. I’m not really a huge beer drinker, but I tried a few on recommendations from Heather. My favourite was this sour mango beer, which sounds weird but I think would be excellent on my balcony on a hot summer night. Of course I can’t remember which brewery it was from, so I lose points for that.
  • I brought a big container of Chocolate Caramel Crack for a co-worker’s goodbye party and everyone freaked out.
  • The Oscars went down yesterday and my awards show squad came over to watch and eat. We snacked on this Doritos popcorn while watching the red carpet, and then dove into a re-creation of my Christmas meal, as requested by Nicole: beef stew in red wine, white cheddar mashed potatoes, a green salad, and S’mores Pavlova for dessert. I like the idea of this pavlova in theory, but I want to re-make it with some adjustments and see if I can improve it even more.

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

  • One word: FORMATION. I’m now living each day with the hope that I’m going to wake up to a new Beyonce album.
  • Still working my way through Harry Potters this month, and just started the 6th book, which is my favourite (Horcruxes!).
  • 100% obsessed with Ashley Graham right now. It only took Sports Illustrated 52 years to put a normal sized woman on their swimsuit issue cover, but better late than never I suppose. Of course I’ve now looked through her entire Instagram history, watched her Ted Talk on body positivity and just love everything she stands for. What a babe, inside and out.

Flashback!