Author Archives: Emily

Happy Easter

by

It’s the final day of Adam’s spring break and we celebrated in lazy spirit.  Actually, I had big plans for getting some work done today but our fun last night killed that idea a bit.  What fun you ask?  Oh, that would be around 2am when the upstairs apartment had a plumbing issue and water started pouring into our kitchen!!!  Good times, good times D:

Although 9:30 ended up feeling way too early this morning we made the best of it and went for a walk.

We ended up at Starbucks for a tall, nonfat, iced white chocolate mocha.

A mile of walking was all my leg could take, but it was a pretty day so we took a drive.  Somehow we ended up with a spicy chicken sandwich from Wendy’s for lunch, which was sort of anti-climatic.

This happened a couple of times as well.

TJ’s SunButter is kinda addictive.

We wanted to do Easter-y things so we dyed some eggs.

It’ll be nice to have these hard-boiled fellows around this week.

Plus I made some lemon curd from scratch!

I used this recipe the people from Old London sent me –

Lemon Meringue Tarts, yields 24 tarts

  • 1 box Melba Snacks
  • Lemon Curd
  • Meringue

For Lemon Curd, yield 2C

  • 1T finely grated fresh lemon zest
  • 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1cup sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/2cup unsalted butter, cut into T pieces
  1. Whisk together zest, lemon juice, sugar, and eggs in a 2-quart heavy saucepan.
  2. Add butter all at once and cook over moderately low heat, whisking constantly, until curd is thick enough to hold marks of whisk and first bubbles appear on the surface, about 10minutes.
  3. Immediately pour curd through a fine sieve into a bowl, then chill, covered.

For Meringue

  • 3 large egg whites, at room temperature 30minutes
  • 1/4 t cream of tartar
  • 1/2cup granulated sugar
  1. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar using an electic mixer at medium speed until they hold soft peaks.
  2. Increase speed to high and add sugar, 1 T at a time, beating until meringue just holds stiff, glossy peaks.

Assemble Tarts

  1. Preheat oven to 350F.
  2. Spoon cold lemon curd in a large re-sealable plastic bag and remove any air pockets; knead slightly.
  3. Cut one corner tip off the bag which allows you to squeeze the cold curd onto the toast.
  4. Gently squeeze the lemon curd onto the toast, making sure to have a smooth, flat top.
  5. Add a dollop of meringue decoratively over the filling.
  6. Immediately bake until meringue is golden-brown, 8-10minutes.

My notes –

  • it took waaaaay longer than 10minutes for my curd to thicken; I’m not sure if it was my old stove or if the recipe is wonky
  • we skipped the sieve, I prefer a little texture
  • Adam and I went without the meringue, opting to spread some curd on some Sea Salt Melba Toasts and leaving it at that

Yum!  I might want to tweak the recipe to get it a little thicker, but the flavor was spot on!  And the toasts were a tasty accompaniment.

Evening plans include tv time with the husband and an easy peasy dinner.  Plus, hopefully, an early uninterrupted bedtime!

What ‘Easter things’ did you and your family do today?

How to Train Your Dragon

by

It’s been an amazing day!  However, it’s also been a day when I realize I need to do something about my weekend eating habits, whoops.

Today was the day we switched out our summer and winter wardrobes, and made a huge pile of almost-never-worn stuff to donate.  We were so busy all morning I was actually too distracted to eat.  When we headed to Goodwill (around 2) I did stop in at Dunkin Donuts to buy a medium, nonfat, coconut ice latte.

I had been wanting to try one of these ever since I saw one on another blog weeks ago.  ‘Twas good!

While we were out, Adam and I headed to the movies to make a date of it.  A serving of TJ’s Gummy Tummy snacks made the perfect movie snack.

Plus they are adorable 😉

We saw “How to Train Your Dragon” (not in 3-D), which was shockingly good.  This is now both Adam’s and my new favorite movie!  I love modern children’s movies that don’t sacrifice themselves for adult humor.  This was funny for all ages, had a great message, and was totally adorable.  I’m a definite sucker for movies with any sort of fairy tale element – dragons, trolls, faeries…..bring it on!

Whilst at the mall I stopped in at Old Navy to buy a cheap, sporty-ish, one piece bathing suit.  I’m seriously going crazy not going to the gym and hopefully swimming will be able to fill the void.  I told Adam today that I’m worried my soul will be broken by the time I’m allowed to run again.  The South Campus gym has a pool, so this week I’m going to try going for a swim.

We couldn’t let the afternoon end, so when we got home from the mall we took a walk around our neighborhood, and came upon this –

La Tee Da has been on my ‘to eat’ list ever since I read about it on Yelp months ago, I had no idea it was right next door.  The menu looked amazing and the restaurant was filled with all sorts of adorable touches.

I had a lot more to photograph but my camera died.  Dinner out wasn’t in our original plans so we were kind to our wallets and decided to split a drink and some appetizers.  We got some amazing (free) bread and evoo.

Belinis are my favorite.

And we ordered the fried artichokes and the eggplant buffalo ‘wings’ –

Yummmmm.  Every single bite was delish.  The concept of eggplant wings seems to be a totally Buffalo concept and it is amazing.

For dinner dinner I made myself a spicy grilled cheese with two slices of Buffalo Wing Sharp Cheddar.

To be eaten while watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer via Netflix.  I would say Adam and I have fully milked his Spring Break, wouldn’t you?  😀

Do you enjoy “kid’s” movies?  What’s your favorite cinematic genre?  I love children’s cartoons and raunchy comedy.

A Banner Day

by

Today turned out a little differently than planned.  All of our fun stuff involved walking and my leg was really hurting so that had to be put off.  It’s just as well, as I slept 85% of the day so clearly I needed some rest.

In the few hours I was up we got some jalapeno nachos –

and I helped Adam do some damage on his Oreos –

Ya know, for fuel.  😉

Unsurprisingly neither of us is hungry for dinner, but we might go out for ice-cream later.  It seems like tomorrow would be a good time to return to the land of the productive.

A Fool for Love

by

Yesterday was a bit ridiculous.  I way overslept, I flopped back into bed and overshot and smacked my head against the wall, plus about five other instances where I was a hot mess.  Basically, I was the fool on April 1st.

We did manage to get to the grocery store though, which meant I could have actual breakfast today –

0% Fage with Crofter’s Superfruit Spread and TJ’s SunButter.

Yummmmmmm.

We’ve got a very low-key day planned, with a few spots of fun on the agenda.  This weekend’s got to be busy though, I basically took a 2nd spring break this week when Adam was on his!

What is your favorite kind of nut butter?  TJ’s SunButter is where it’s at in this house!

Nibble While You Work, da da da da da da da

by

It was another fabulous Spring day!  Sorry for another late post, but it was a busy day too.  I had 8am lab this morning so I packed up breakfast last night.

Cottage cheese and berries in a pre-fab to-go cup.  Last night I topped the last ~1.5serving of cottage cheese with some frozen berries and left it to defrost in the fridge.

This morning I just had to grab and go.

We did a qualitative analysis – a series of tests on an unknown sample to determine what its chemical components are – in lab today and it was actually a lot of fun.  The real fun came when the husband picked me up; we spent a fabulous afternoon exploring.

We dropped the car off for breaks/oil/tires and slowly wandered downtown on the walk home.  We saw several pretty things,

discovered an exciting candy store,

and we got a few fun things to go, like this candy bar I won’t be tasting –

and the husband bought a candy Tiffany’s box.  For $1.50 it was made of white and milk chocolate and stuffed with hazelnuts.

My bite –

(If you are wondering why MY Tiffany’s wedding ring isn’t on my damn finger in the picture it’s because I don’t wear jewelry to labs in which we use strong acids and strong bases)

Later we stopped in at Pearl Street for lunch.  Pearl Street makes microbrews in-house and is a ton of fun.  I love their glass options –

I went with a Split (10 oz) of the seasonal raspberry brew.

And for lunch I ordered the Fresh Apple and Pear Salad.

Apples and pears sautéed in rum and brown sugar served over mixed greens and topped with toasted pecans and fresh goat cheese.

I had brown sugar rum vinaigrette on the side.  However, the salad was so packed and tasty that I went with the fork dip method of adding dressing, rather than dumping it on.  So yummy!  I snagged a few of Adam’s fries and they were pretty tasty as well.

Not gonna lie though, the big diet coke we picked up on the walk home was my favorite part of lunch 😀

All total we walked ~2miles in beautiful weather and it was an absolutely perfect afternoon.

Once we got home, I spent a couple hours working on Anthropology.  I was having a major snack attack; sometimes nibbling on something helps me to keep my focus, but I’m not sure you can call these snacks brain food.  Pb M&Ms (these are gone now, thank God),

and a vegan blondie I brought home from ‘Snice.

We had gym plans but our “long” walk left my leg feeling like today was not the day to brave the gym stairs, and I’m in a bit of a funky mood so making dinner didn’t sound fun.  So now we have plans to shower, eat popcorn, and cuddle up in front of Buffy.  Sounds like the perfect evening to follow a perfect day.

Do you snack while you work?  Does it improve your focus or serve as a distraction?

New York, New York

by

My apologies that this post is delayed, but I knew it was going to be a loooooong one.  On Monday, after a weekend in PA with my in-laws, Adam and I traveled “home” for a day in New York City.  I grew up in St. Thomas, went to college in Miami, and currently live in Buffalo, but the 2 years and I spent teaching in East New York and living in Park Slope are the ones I am always homesick for.

It rained, hard, all day but nothing was able to dim our spirits.  We ended up not being able to do the trip we had originally planned – on the agenda was a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge – but it was a fabulous day nonetheless.  We skipped all of the tourist stuff, and instead did all most of our favorite things to do when we lived in the city. 

Physically it probably wasn’t the healthiest day: we walked too much on my hurt leg and ate way too much sugar.  But mentally it was just what I needed.  I Love New York.  All of the reasons people complain about the city – the crowds, the noise, people walk too fast, you can’t drive – are all of things I love best about it.  I adore the crowds of people, and it helps that I’m naturally a fast walker and a walk lover.  I think New Yorkers are friendlier than the rest America and the ‘concrete jungle’ is my definition of beauty.  I was obviously raised to love the beach, and I can see the magical quality of the dessert and the allure of the fairy-like sense of the forest, but the city is where I feel most with serene.  I love the buildings, the gardens, the graffiti.

Adam and I got into the city around 10am.  As soon as we hit the Verrazano Bridge we both started to smile.

We actually parked the car in ‘our spot’ in our old neighborhood for the day.  We didn’t have a car until we moved to Buffalo so when we lived in Park Slope we did a lot of walking.  Most days when I got home after school I would walk the 8+ blocks from my subway, then the 8+ blocks the other direction to Adam’s subway, and then back home, in addition to the walk in the morning and making at least one trip out at night.  7th Ave feels more like home to me than our apartment did!  So our first item one the itinerary was a long walk down 7th Avenue.

We stopped at Pinos pretty much the second we got out of the car.

Pinos used to be our spot for pizza, we had it at least once a week for two years.  In fact, it was such an institution that I mentioned watching Scrubs and eating pizza in my wedding vows!  I split a plain slice with the husband.

And he saved me his crusts to dip in my diet coke.

Delicious!

I think Park Slope is one of the most beautiful spots in the city.  There are so many interesting and beautiful things to look at.

Just to give you an idea of how much we walked, we covered 2.5miles before we even left our neighborhood!  All that walking made us thirsty, so we headed to ‘Snice, our favorite vegan spot.

We split a vegan malted milk-less shake before we headed to the B Train.

Then we headed uptown for a walk in Central Park.

We were statues for a little bit,

before we headed inside Whole Foods for a break from the weather.

I managed to resist the pull of the salad bar but we did a little sampling.  I had about 4 shot glasses worth of food, but was told I couldn’t use my camera in the store?!

Next we headed to Delancy.  We cut the ambling a bit here because we had a mission – Sugar, Sweet, Sunshine!  SSS is our favorite spot in the city.  They have cupcakes – delicious, crumbling, innovative, wonderful cupcakes, for a $1.50, unheard of in the land of Magnolia Bakery.  We always used to bring our visitors here.

Honestly I could not decide on my flavor, I ended up getting two!  It took a lot of willpower, but I cut them in half and shared with Adam, ultimately eating only one full cupcake.

Strawberry with cream cheese frosting.

This was a seasonal flavor that I’d never tried before and I am so glad I decided not to skip it.  Cream cheese frosting is always a favorite, but what made this was the actual chunks of strawberry in the cake.

Pistachio.

This.  This cupcake is my favorite thing on earth.  I don’t even really like cake, usually I lick the icing off of cupcakes and am done with it, but the cake part of this is even better than the icing.  It is pistachio perfection.

In an absolute sugar/love cloud we hopped on the F Train and headed down to Cobble Hill, an artsy little area of Brooklyn.

As we walked around we spotted a bar with an Abita sign (my favorite) so we stopped in for a beer.

I drank most of my Christmas Ale, then switched with Adam and polished off his Turbo Dog.

Our real destination in the The Hill was Trader Joe’s.  My parents requested 10gagillion #s of unsulphered dried fruit and we picked up a few staples for ourselves as well.

Carrying multiple jars of TJ’s Sun Butter = so worth it!  I also bought a honey Greek yogurt to get a little protein into my day.

And we stopped in at Starbucks for some calorie-free rehydrating.

Our final stop was back to Park Slope for dinner with Lana, one of my oldest friends.  We hit up Beet.  If you read my old blog and saw all the Thai food we ate at Mango, Beet is its brother restaurant.  I love how funky all of the restaurants are in the city.

And Beet was totally artistic; my diet coke had a straw wrapper rose in it and Adam’s scallop fried rice came in the shape of a star.

I ordered the Pad See Eiw with veggies and tofu.

Buffalo has been totally unable to satisfy my Thai cravings, but this hit the spot!  The Pad See Eiw I’ve had since we moved can’t even compare to how good this is!

We were sad to say our goodbyes to Lana, but it was 9pm and we had a 7+ hour drive ahead of us.  You know how that turned out already, but I will add in the fact that Adam drove the entire way home and basically deserves ‘Best Husband of the Year.’

All in all, it was a fabulous day in the city.  The husband and I both gave it a 100%.  The rain might have been frustrating, but the temperature was perfect and we were comfortable all day.  It sucked that my leg hurts, but I managed to walk a TON.  We did exactly what we wanted to do and came home feeling invigorated.

Have you ever been to NYC?  Love it or is it not for you?

Slept Through Breakfast but Ate Brinner

by

We pulled into Buffalo from NYC at 4am this morning, which meant the whole day has felt a little ‘off.’  [A trip recap is coming tomorrow, I swear!]  I got out of the car and into bed, and slept until 11 to get my 7hours.  I have a ton to do this week, and we can’t pick up groceries until Thursday, so I’ll warn in advance that my meals might be a little bit, ahem, interesting.

One of the items on our monster to-do list is switching out our summer and winter wardrobes.  That means I’m trying to wear all my fun sweaters this week before they get washed and stored.

I adore the ruffling on this one!

Although my favorite outfit detail is the little yellow crystals in the pearl necklace my mommy made me.

I needed to do lunch on the go so I grabbed an orange twist Mix1 drink.

I also snacked on a White Chocolate Chip ThinkThin bar during Anthropology.

I bought this because I read a really good review of it (Chelsea Handler, in one of the health/fitness magazines) but it didn’t really take care of my hunger.  I practically ran to buy a snack before my next class.

Hot chocolate and a carrots, celery, and ranch cup.

I had to unpack from this weekend after Chemistry so dinner didn’t happen until after 9o’clock.  I snacked on a handful of dried fruits while I worked.

And then the husband was a total superstar and took care of breakfast for dinner brinner.

He made me two sunny side up eggs,

and we split a cinnamon raisin bagel (from NY!).

I ate my bagel dry because I used it to sop up the yolks, yummy!

I was feeling a bit empty (I really didn’t eat enough today) so I made myself a little sundae.

Cyclops Greek Style Frozen Yogurt topped with Crofters Superfruit Spread and Suzanne’s Vegan Ricemellow.

Tomorrow is another crazy day, with an 8am lab, so it’ll probably be another late post.  I promise to get up a nyc recap though.

Are you good at making eggs?  I cannot do sunny side up, and it’s my favorite.  Thankfully the husband is great at it.

Back in Buffalo

by

It’s been a whirlwind, but we made it!  The husband is on spring break but I’ve got class, and tons of homework, so I probably won’t be posting until tonight.  And my NYC recap won’t be until tomorrow, but it’ll be fun!