I baked up a storm this month for another charity bake sale, and actually left my home for a quick trip to Ottawa to spend time with my friend Katy and her family. Here’s more on both, plus what I was cooking throughout the month:

  • Bakers Against Racism activated for an emergency bake sale this month to fundraise for organizations providing food, shelter, transportation and medical services in response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. I sold 15 treat boxes and raised $500 to donate to World Central Kitchen, a truly amazing organization that I first heard about on Top Chef years ago. For my own future reference, here’s what was in the boxes: Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies, Brownie Shortbread, Funfetti Cookies (turned out SUPER flat, I was annoyed), Monster Cookie Bars
  • I’ve built up a roster of favourites in Ottawa that are must-visits every time I’m there, and the ones we hit up this time were: Art Is In Bakery (had a breakfast sandwich on their housemade sourdough for the first time and it was INCREDIBLE), SconeWitch (we even got frozen ones to take home to bake ourselves and eat warm out of the oven and they continue to be the best scones I’ve ever had) and The Carp Creamery (had to make an emergency run here when Katy saw on their Instagram that they released their Mini Egg Ice Cream – sweet cream ice cream with lots of chopped up Mini Eggs – worth the trip!)
  • My friend Jess and I won gift cards to the Black Owned Toronto pop-up store at one of our Black History Month events at work back in February, so we took a little after work adventure one day to redeem them. I spent a lot of mine on a few chocolate bars from One More Cocoa and they were delicious. My favourite one was a riff on Chicago mix popcorn: caramel chocolate with pieces of cheddar popcorn.
  • Stuff I made from the archives: Panko Crusted Baked Salmon, 5 Cup Salad (ate this with some BBQ Turkey Meatballs), Kale Caesar
  • Some of my favourite go-to dishes: Pineapple Shrimp Lettuce Wraps (with this Jalapeno Ranch)
  • New things that I tried and liked: Chicken Shawarma Hummus Bowls (already blogged because I loved this so much!), Brown Sugar Honey Salmon with Coconut Pineapple Quinoa (I don’t think I would make the salmon again, but to my surprised I loved the quinoa)
  • Homemade Snacks! (a new category for as long as I keep making them): Raw Chocolate Snack Bars, Pecan Pie Energy Bites

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

  • I read two fantastic books this month: The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris and Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez. I also read a book that’s all over Tik Tok and that my friend at work said is her favourite, but I thought was TERRIBLE: It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover (not even linking it because it’s so bad). Also snuck in Rachel Lindsay’s book Miss Me With That, which was a quick, fun read about her life.
  • More ER for me this month, plus the first episodes of Ozark Season 4.

Flashback!