This was a month of full of fun and absolute indulgence in all forms! That’s what happens when Thanksgiving, your birthday and Halloween all fall in the same month:

  • I got dragged at work last month when I was describing how KitKat is my hands-down, top-tier, go-to chocolate bar, and was called BASIC by numerous so-called friends. When I asked Jess to counter with what she thought was a better, non-basic option, she name checked Twix, and I filed that away for her birthday this month. I made a Twix-inspired cake for her, which was a mash-up of a bunch of difference recipe components: brown butter cake layers (with shortbread crust), caramel filling and milk chocolate frosting. Obviously I had to put Beyoncé lyrics on top, and this cake was a huge hit.
  • For Thanksgiving this year, I followed my formula and legit just made everything in this post, with the addition of that Easy Apple Galette.
  • Krishna and I went out for a little birthday dinner to Le Swan and had a lovely time. It’s a super cozy and cute little French Diner where half of the menu is classic French food and the other half is classic diner food. We ordered a little bit from both sides of the menu, plus some celebratory bubbles, and it was fabulous.
  • My birthday fell on a Monday this year, which is no fun at all, so I scheduled the day off work and booked myself into The Pearle on Sunday night to relax, enjoy the pool, eat tacos from Burro and watch the Love is Blind Season 5 reunion. When I woke up on my birthday I ate Sunshine Doughnuts for breakfast and then headed to the spa for a massage, then relaxed after and finished my book in the lounge. Just a wonderful day overall!
  • The Libra Gang (minus 1, because she got sick) convened at Grey Gardens for our birthday celebrations and had the best time. I should have written down everything we had, because the menu changes all the time and I can’t remember everything now! But just know it was all fantastic and this is a fab option for a special occasion dinner.
  • After 5 years, Heather is moving on from Hamilton, so we had to have a Farewell Tour of Treats! We started with a visit to Dear Grain, where I got a loaf of sourdough, cheddar sourdough croissant and chocolate chip sourdough cookie (do you sense a theme here?). We followed that up with brunch at Motel, where we both had the Cheesy French Toast and shared the Champagne Pancakes, and you know I love any place that offers me housemade iced tea with three sweetness options (sweet, semi-sweet or unsweetened)! We finished up the day by visiting DSRT Co. and Lady Glaze Doughnuts!

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

  • I had an absolutely unprecedented streak of 5 star reads this month! Everything I read was FANTASTIC. Seriously, this has never happened to me before. Here’s the rundown: Tom Lake, Opinions, The Love Hypothesis, Glossy, The Woman in Me.
  • Alexis and I went to see Lauryn Hill (with a bonus Fugees reunion) and all the rumours are true. Yes, she didn’t come on until 10pm. Yes, she switched up all the arrangements on her songs from Miseducation. Yes, she didn’t have any new material. But you know what, we still had a fab time and loved hearing all our faves from The Score too (just without Pras!).

Flashback!