After a long, long break, the monthly love list is back. Some of my favourites below are things that I have been enjoying for quite some time. So let’s catch up. Enjoy!

butterboy cookies

When I say these cookies have a choke hold me on me, I am not kidding. Butterboy cookies are, without a word of a lie, the best cookies I have ever eaten. So much so that I accidentally spent over $300 here in four months (yikes). They have an incredible cult following here on the Northern Beaches, with their flagship store down on the Manly Corso. There are five offical Sydney locations, as well as a number of cafes around the city that also sell these babies.

These bad boys have everything you could possibly want in a cookie. They’re chock full of ingredients, they’re gooey, and they’re massive. They also have some pretty interesting flavour combinations. Each month they come out with new offerings, but will keep a core selection of regulars to satisfy their devoted following. My personal favourites have included the banoffee, which is a banana flavoured dough with walnuts, chocolate chips and a gooey caramel centre, and the Black Forest, which is a dark chocolate dough, white and dark chocolate chips, glace cherry chunks and a cherry jam in the centre.

In some ways, I wish I never found these. In another way, it’s one of my greatest discoveries. But if you’re a fan of a good cookie, check these out, you won’t be sorry. Well, your taste buds won’t be, your wallet and waistline might…

outlive by dr peter attia

Now after I’ve just professed my love for the most indulgent cookies imaginable, we’re now pivoting to one of the most influential health books written in recent years. This is a pretty long, involved read, but if you can follow along, you will be greatly rewarded.

As the name suggests, Outlive is about longevity and increasing your quality of life for as long as you can. There is clear delineation set between health span, how long you will live healthily with a satisfactory quality of life, and life span, the overall length of your life. The book discusses some interesting concepts to consider bringing to your own life, including the centenarian decathlon. If you think about the activities you would like to still be able to do when you are 100, these are things you should be working towards now. For example, doing your own grocery shopping at 100. Think about how heavy your typical grocery haul is. If you assume that you lose a certain percentage of strength over every 10 years, calculate how much you should be able to comfortably carry now in order to continue shopping at 100.

Attia also goes into great detail about his Four Horseman, the four diseases that impacts people’s quality of life the most. These are Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, Metabolic Disorders, like Diabetes, and Dementia. He also has written extensively on the importance of quality sleep and maintaining good mental health.

For a book about some pretty clinical topics, Attia brings a lot of his own personal experiences the table. This is someone who has not only studied, and become an expert in these topics, but someone who has the lived experience. His revelations on his own mental health journey are hard to turn away from. His unflinching recounts of his own experiences brings so much richness.

I will be honest. If you don’t have a solid understanding of human biology, you may struggle with this. But if you have any interest in maintaining your quality of life well into your golden years, this book will deliver. I had borrowed this from my local library, and then immediately purchased it. I will be reading this each year.

devita restaurante, manly

My parents were visiting Sydney and staying in Manly, so naturally I wanted to show them a good time. We’d planned to have dinner on Friday night at one of those iconic Manly pubs – you know the type, the ones everyone tells you that you have to go to. Well, turns out iconic also means packed. Add in some miserable weather, and the whole evening was starting to look like a disaster. After wandering around for a bit (getting progressively wetter and more frustrated), we stumbled across Devita Restaurante.

Devita Restaurante is a solid, neighbourhood Italian restaurant, specialising in the tastes of Napoli. The menu is pretty comprehensive, providing a good selection of Italian favourites that everyone will enjoy. Even those with some gluten and dairy sensitivities are taken care of. We ordered Diavola (salami) pizza and veal scaloppina, and both were great. Staff are friendly and attentive, with plenty of space available for a dine in pizza or take away, if you would prefer. Their outside seating area is also dog friendly.

I would happily visit Devita again.

good hang with amy poehler podcast

I know what you’re thinking. “Here we go, Claire’s talking about Amy Poehler again.” And I’m ok with that, because this podcast is worth your time.

A few years ago I had included Amy Poehler’s last podcast “Say More with Dr? Sheila”, which was an improvisational show where Poehler played a therapist (question mark) who worked through various issues with her patients. Now she’s back with a much more grounded, interview style podcast, Good Hang, with her signature irrepressible positivity and thirst for meaningful hilarity.

As the name suggests, this podcast is a good time. It’s a really great mix of interesting and insightful questions, fun jokes and chuckles, and a pretty impressive line up of guests. It starts each episode with a friend of the guest talking well behind their back. Some of the guests include Amy’s great pals Tina Fey, Rashida Jones, Maya Rudolph, Adam Scott and Aubrey Plaza. Other guests include interesting public figures like Michelle Obama, Judge Judy and Ina Garten. There are plenty of inside jokes you are let in on, revealing chats that other hosts may not be able to tap into, and plenty of good vibes. And it ends with a Poehler Plunge, where Amy deep dives into something that’s interesting her this week.

If you’re a fan of Parks & Rec or Saturday Night Live, or anything Amy Poehler, you will enjoy this immensely.

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