This past week I came home from vacation and went back to work.  It wasn’t all bad, the end of vacation means I get to see this face –

We made it home in time to celebrate his Buyday.  With steak!

Here are the highlights of what the humans ate this week…

Coffee (coffee! coffee!).  Wicked Joe Coffee sent me some samples.  WJC is a sustainable, family-owned company producing certified organic, fair trade coffees.  They offered to let me try out the goods in celebration of the fact that they are available in 247 Sprouts Farmers Markets nationwide.

I tried both blends (cooked in our drip coffee maker than cooled and served iced) black and with skim milk to taste-test and give them two thumbs up!  I also did some fun, sugary coffee pairings based on the tasting notes to jazz up my return to work mornings.  Wicked French says “bakers chocolate with an unexpected hint of sweetness” so I used fancy chocolate milk.

Big House has “sweet notes of caramel and citrus” so I swirled in dulce de leche.

Yogurt bowls.  Vanilla almond granola / cloudberry peach skyr / and three(!) colors of plucots.

Passion fruit Fage / an apple / and an Rx Kids chocolate chip bar.

I snuck in one last day of midweek vacation with Adam on Wednesday and we went on a lunch date at the gorgeously cool Chaan Teng in Hell’s Kitchen.

I had shrimp and chicken dumplings to start.

And a sweet and spicy cocktail with tequila, tamarind, basil, Szechuan peppercorns, mango juice, lime, and chili.

They had kung pow duck!  With chilis , peppers, peanuts, and jicama.

Snack attack.  We finally got to Astoria to try Chip.  My s’mores cookie was gooey perfection and now I can’t wait to go back.

Cola candies.

Korean Chili KIND bar.  <– I like their savory flavors even better than the sweet

These dried mangos from TJ’s are out of this world good.

If you stretch the definition of “cooked” to its limit, I made five nights of home-cooked dinners!  Turkey and sharp cheddar sandwich on a toasted whole-wheat croissant.

BBQ chicken salad.  Local greens / ranch / baby heirloom tomatoes / pulled chicken breast with Korean bbq sauce / smoked cheddar.

An assortment of freezer items, and eggplant that I actually cooked myself.

TJ’s Thai sweet chili veggie burgers.

Crinkle cut fries (with ketchup and mayo).

Steamed/sautéed eggplant cooked with canola oil, fish sauce, gojuchang, honey, and garlic scapes.

I made pimento cheese twice baked potatoes!

This was my first time making twice backed spuds (or even eating them for that matter) but they came out great.  The filling was a mix of potato / extra-sharp cheddar / diced pimentos / mayo / smoked paprika and cayenne.

Served with baked tofu.

And beautiful roasted purple and orange cauliflower.

The potatoes were great leftover too.

With leftover duck that I chopped up and reheated in a skillet.

And oven-baked okra fries.

Have a great weekend!