Flavors Of Fall

by Emily

Next week is the start of Pumpkin Month!! But first, here’s a collection of “fall flavored” things –

The maple Mars bar was a disappointment. (Mom, sorry, it came as part of a Snack Crate, I cannot get you one).

But the pecan pie granola was a delight, especially paired with a Trader Joe’s caramel apple Greek yogurt!

More apple goodness, this Rave variety was crispy and sweet.

And in other packaged goods new, I obsessively searched for this Oreo coffee creamer for the past 2 months before I finally got my hands on it. <– worth it

Pimento cheese and crackers at Grit.

I put leftover bbq chicken on a yummy salad. With butter lettuce, honey mustard dressing, cashews, and cucumber.

This frozen meal from Trader Joe’s remains the best chile relleno of my life.

My in-laws were in town a few days this week and we had a great time seeing them. Including a trip to Asian buffet. I had really tasty seaweed salad and the best egg tart I’ve ever eaten. Here were my fist and last plates (with several in between!).

24Sep2018

Frozen And Frothed

by Emily

Top five from the weekend…

{1} A variety of fancied coffees.

This combo is still rocking my socks off.

I made a frozen coffee at home in the blender.

And had a much more successful frozen granita at the farmer’s market.

Plus a latte from Snowing in Space with nitro draft espresso!

{2} A birthday cake pop-tart from Wonderment.

{3} Cupcakes and coffee at Sweethaus.

I had a quad iced latte and a cookies and cream cupcake with Oreo pieces baked inside it.

{4} Best brunch in Virginia at Junction.

I had chicken and waffles with habenero maple syrup.

Plus we want to go back and try every cocktail on the menu! The Paloma was out of this world – blanco tequila, Aperol, salted grapefruit cordial, lime.

{5} We made fantastic bbq chicken sandwiches. Chicken roasted with paprika (cooked like this) then brushed with bbq sauce (Stubbs but mixed with butter, honey, and Sriracha) served on a bun with smoked cheddar and Kewpie mayo. Plus roasted green beans.

Have a great week!

21Sep2018

Yum Yums And Cheer

by Emily

I had some real flops in the dinner department this week, and I don’t photograph my work lunches, so most of what I have to share in this post is dessert!

I tried chocolate oat milk in my iced coffee and I didn’t totally hate it.

Wegman’s coffee counter shopping treat, salted caramel cold foam iced latte. Cold foam gets two thumbs up from me, I would get it again on an unflavored latte.

The cookie butter flavor at Red Mango is hands down the best frozen yogurt I’ve ever tasted! Topped with mochi and butterscotch chips.

Homemade tahini cookies stuffed with m&ms. A riff on this recipe because No. 2 Pencil’s cookie recipes are all genius.

Chipotle salads are my favorite restaurant meal at the moment and I’m not even ashamed about it. My perfect combo = greens, chicken, extra fajita veggies, corn salsa, hot salsa, sour cream, and cheese. Eaten at home with a super tasty Dogfish Head Dragon and Yum Yums beer.

This salad was a homemade dinner success! Sauteed broccoli slaw / shredded chicken breast / toasted almond slivers / a food processed sauce of cilantro, parsley, orange juice, lime juice, evoo, honey, and rice vinegar.

17Sep2018

Butters, Brussels, And Broccoli

by Emily

The five best things I ate this weekend were…

The best cup of coffee I’ve ever made myself (and I drank it hot!!). A blend of Trader Joe’s French roast and Brooklyn Roasting Company’s Costa Rican with sweetened condensed milk, topped with vanilla bean powder.

Chocolate peanut butter Shreds cereal. Eaten dry out of the box. They are basically addictive.

Cocoa swirl cookie butter. Also eaten straight out of the container. Can you tell that Adam was out of town this weekend?? 🙂

A meal so nice I made it twice. Roasted brussel sprouts and TJ’s scallion pancakes drizzled in Sriracha and Kewpie mayo.

A quickie version of Oyakodon served with roasted broccoli. I skipped the broth and the sake and took a shortcut with a fried chicken cutlet from the freezer aisle.

14Sep2018

Apple Adventures

by Emily

Nothing this week has been as exciting as our food in New York, but I have had some fun eating through my apple month stash. Here were some recent highlights…

Coffee from Brooklyn Roasting Company.

Caramel + Apple Noosa. <– Noosa is always tasty but this would have been a billion times better if the two flavors were just mixed together and not “split” side by side

Apple chips with chocolate peanut butter dip.

Freeze-dried apples.

This week’s trail mix obsession was homemade – dried apples, yogurt covered pretzels, roasted peanuts, and honey roasted peanuts.

I made chilaquiles(ish) for dinner. Sauteed yellow and orange bell pepper with green salsa, cotija, and tortilla chips, topped with a fried egg and Cholula. This was so good I ate leftovers the next day and they were still yummy.

Greek(ish) salad night. Baby romaine, ranch, olives, adorably tiny baby heirloom tomatoes, roasted chickpeas, and dolmas.

10Sep2018

New York, New York

by Emily

Adam and I drove to New York for a fantastic weekend visit!

We did tons of city walking punctuated by coffees and ice creams // Brunched with friends at Vinegar Hill House // Tried a new place for dinner on Saturday that was just terrible and ended up having the best night ever getting a variety of things from DeKalb Market and eating in bed in front of Chopped // Bought coffee and halvah to bring home to Charlottesville…

Also, I didn’t snap a picture, but we shared a a baklava croissant from Cafe D’Avignon that was the best thing I ate the whole ~~trip~~ month!

Here were five highlights…

{1} Maple Shay from Brooklyn Roasting Co. Espresso (four shots for me!) with ice, milk, and maple syrup.

{2} An iced latte from Terremoto, with housemade rose syrup.

{3} Drinks from Ramona in Greenpoint. We had a frozen mango Thai iced tea with coconut whipped cream and “The Harpooned Heart” – vodka, coconut, almond, vanilla, mint, lime, pineapple, and peppercorn bitters.

{4} Big Gay Ice Cream. I got vanilla soft serve, in a cone lined with Biscoff, topped with dulce de leche, and coated in sprinkles. It was out of this world. The sprinkles were the best part, the best I’ve ever tasted.

{5} The Little Mule combo from Chef’s Club Counter. It was white american cheese, cotija cheese, pickled jalopenos, fried egg, and chipotle mayo. Served on an Impossible Burger. We kind of swooned over it.

7Sep2018

What I Wish I Was Eating

by Emily

I didn’t do the best job of photo taking this week, so instead let’s talk about food a bit. For funsies, 10 items I’ve been obsessing about recently –

coffee – always
plucots – I feel like my summer season of plum eating was way too short this year, I didn’t eat a single dinosaur plucot
Insomnia Cookie – we’ve been getting cookie delivery way too often recently! But their s’mores cookie is chewy and loaded with marshmallows and I’m smitten
grilled romaine lettuce – my aunt served this last weekend and it was mind-blowingly good
chicken and waffles – I need to go back to Mother’s Ruin for their Cholula glazed version asap
bubble tea – this winter I think I want to try to make an eggnog with boba happen
cheesecake – I haven’t actually eaten cheesecake in months and months but it keeps popping up in my online scrolling and always sounds so delicious!
okonomiyaki – I haven’t been able to get my Americanized version out of my mind
cookie butter frozen yogurt – we had some last week at Red Mango (with mochi and cookie butter drizzle!) that was just fantastic
homemade ice cream – another item that’s been dominating my online reading, mostly because Stella Parks keeps being the best at what she does

And here were the highlights of what I’ve actually been eating…

Coffee for the week = TJ’s French Roast.

I’m still having a moment with trail mix, I seriously eat at least one bag a day! I guess that probably should have been on my obsessions list!

Other snack specials included this new flavor of Luna Bar.

And really tasty french onion dip my aunt sent home with us.

The most exciting thing on earth, however, is that they sent us home with crab cakes!! Eaten with roasted brussel sprout and aioli.

I made a great casserole. Shredded chicken, black beans, cauliflower rice, onion, bell peppers, and green salsa, topped with an amazing tortilla chip and cojita cheese crumble.

What foods have you been obsessing about recently?

3Sep2018

Salty Dog

by Emily

Highlights from the weekend…

A milkshake loaded with doughnut and sprinkles.

It’s apple month now!

I had an exciting apples and honey road trip snack – honey energy drink and crispy -freeze-dried apples – while we drove up to my aunt and uncle’s cabin in Solomons Island, Maryland.