Chocolate-Covered Cherry

by

Highlights from the week included…

I was off on Wednesday (I work the weekend again) and I took myself into the city for Dough Doughnuts. This key lime pie doughnut – enrobed in toasted marshmallow!! – was 100% worth braving the cold.

We’ve been in a pandemic for more than a year now and Winter 2021 already feels too long so I am looking to maximize the joy in my life wherever I can; hence, I declared chocolate-covered cherry the official theme flavor of Valentine’s week and I have been eating the combo left and right!

Chocolate cherry coffee = Trader Joe’s cold brew, luxardo cherries, chocolate milk.

See also – vanilla milk and luxardo juice (plus a bit of red food coloring!) plus espresso blended with hot chocolate mix.

This chocolate cherry smoothie was hands-down the best smoothie I’ve ever made/consumed. TJ’s frozen sweet dark cherries, luxardo cherries, plain Greek yogurt, chocolate milk.

Ruby cacao covered cherries + strawberry and hibiscus chocolate.

Related note – I don’t even like Hershey’s Kisses but these lava cake ones are currently one of my top five favorite products.

10/10 ridiculously amazing cherry truffle ice cream.

All of our dinners this week were tasty and wonderful (and a snap to prepare!).

Meatball subs with roasted green beans. Turkey meatballs – stuffed with garlic, fish sauce, and urfa chili peppers – tossed in marinara sauce on a toasted hoagie roll with mozzarella. Our sandwiches were comically large but neither of us could stop from finishing them because they were so yummy!

Wild mushroom chicken sausages – topped with caramelized onion and yellow mustard / roasted broccoli / Lays chili chips.

Pizza casserole. I made a crust layer out of riced cauliflower (with spices, eggs, and cheese), topped with mozzarella, marinara sauce and caramelized onions, chicken sausage, and turkey pepperoni.

Leftover Madeover

by

I did not watch any Super Bowl (instead I started watching Woke!) but I did eat a giant plate of cheese fries! Other highlights from this weekend included…

Salted Caramel Perfect Bar with an iced coffee.

Iced Phin coffee with maple vanilla salted cold foam.

Ice cream for a snow day. Yes, I ate the pretzel swirl out of the entire pint in less than 5 minutes.

Leftover Thai noodles and chicken stir-fried with eggs and extra veggies (Trader Joe’s frozen stir-fry mix) and topped with Nowon chili oil.

Leftover Thai green beans with soft-scrambled eggs, veggie floss, furikake, and chili oil. <– this was the best thing I’ve eaten all month

Take Me Out

by

It was a take-out heavy week and subsequently we ate some really amazing things! Highlights from the week included…

787 Coffee with sweetened condensed milk.

We retried the cola coffee with great success – espresso, Coke, and scm. Yes, I am furiously looking to get my hands on the newly released cans of Coke with coffee.

One of Adam’s friends delivered us amazing nutella, sea salt caramel brownies.

I obviously crumbled one into plain skyr with some berries and cinnamon.

Chicken nuggets with frozen broccoli wok-sauteed with honey mustard and pickled onions.

Plus a broccoli beer! Other Half double dry hopped IPA.

We ordered a ton of Thai take-out. This was basil fried rice, cashew chicken, and string beans.

Plus the hazy milkshake IPA that Sixpoint clearly brewed just for me!

We checked out Roberta’s new classic burger joint. <– Best! Fries!! Ever!!!

And obviously brought home pizza too. Romaine salad with garlic bread crumbs, dill, mint, and pecorino // Lil’ Stinker – tomato, mozzarella, parmigiano, pecorino, double garlic, onion, pepperoncini // Cheesus Christ – mozzarella, taleggio, parmigiano, black pepper, and cream.

Plus a cup of roasted banana pudding with dulce de leche and espresso wafers.

Winner Winner

by

The highlights from this last weekend were all chicken dinners.

Homemade curried chicken salad with smoked almonds, yellow raisins, and celery with baby yellow tomatoes. This meal was as tasty as it was orange.

Venezuelan take-out from White Maize. I got a sweet corn pancake stuffed with cheese and shredded chicken.

And we got a Papelon (raw sugar limeade) to make amaretto sours out of.

Plus we picked up ice cream from Malia while we waited for our food – spiced peanut crunch and rose with roasted cinnamon almonds.

The Whole Food’s buffalo chicken pizza is the best pizza (meal??) in New York City.

Crisp

by

I bookended this week with two weekends in a row at work which meant I had Tuesday-Wednesday off and it was just lovely. New York has been too cold for venturing into the city to sound appealing but I did read two books and finish watching Schitt’s Creek!

Food highlights included…

We tried two new apple varieties. Evercrisp > Cosmic Crisp.

We also tried two great, new-to-us gummy candies. The Sour Patch Kids are officially my all-time-favorite cola candy.

An Irish-cream cold brew (enjoyed this far more I was expecting too!) plus espresso-spiked s’mores.

A sweet and spicy mango cocktail.

We found our new favorite Chinese take-out spot and tried a bunch of dishes. Garlic baby bok choy / spicy crispy chicken / rice cakes with cabbage and shredded chicken / scallion pancakes.

One set of ingredients cooked two different ways. First eggs soft-scrambled with maple-smoked cheddar with chicken breakfast sausages and kale sautéed with tons of garlic and gojuchang.

Then all of the above baked into an egg casserole. Plus leftover scallion pancakes. This was the best meal of the week!

Mediterranean Cruise

by

I’m late posting from last week but our meals were too good not to share! We did a theme week – Mediterranean! Here were the highlights…

Coffee with Turkish spiced coffee sugar.

I expected to love the date & walnut ice cream from Adirondack Creamery and was pleasantly surprised by the Trader Joe’s halvah.

Panzanella. Lamb sausage / baked sprouted tofu / roasted eggplant / baby tomatoes / crumbled feta / kalamata olives / garlic flatbread.

Naanchos! Homemade baked flatbread chips / sharp cheddar / feta / lamb sausage / roasted eggplant / pickled red onions.

Plus a sour IPA with milk sugar, peach, hibiscus, and lemon peel.

Tuna pita melts. Tuna salad with pickled red onions and sharp cheddar in the whole-wheat pita that I practically deep-fried in butter. Plus roasted zucchini with sumac.

Tasting plates. Multigrain pita crackers / red, orange, and yellow bell pepper / smoked almonds / salami / roasted garlic hummus / kalamata olives / stuffed grape leaves.

I Made A 3×2

by

Five weekend highlights – – –

One time in DC we had an iced espresso with cola that we’ve wanted to recreate for years. This attempt used Coke, half and half, and Dalgona-style espresso! It was good, but somehow not sweet enough?!

This cold brew with amaretto needs no further tweaking.

I obviously had to impulse-buy these Oreos. They were good, but honestly neither Adam nor I were as impressed as we were expecting to be.

Pimento cheese with chips and pretzels. <– eaten while we watched the entire part 3 of Disenchantment

All the pizza (vodka / buffalo chicken / rosemary potato!) with roasted cauliflower.

Gingerbread and Marionberry

by

No post last weekend because Adam and I were both off and we wanted to spend every second together. We did some fun exploring, including a quick trip to Montclair for sourdough doughnuts and bon bons and hot chocolate.

Highlights from the week include…

Super cute coffee cans.

Cookies and cream creamer!

The best yogurt I’ve ever tasted. It was basically pudding (but better!).

We managed to snag a can of Hardywood‘s Gingerbread Stout.

I made a boozy chocolate peanut butter shake.

Giant pasta bowls – whole-wheat rotini // garlic marinara sauce zhuzhed up with more garlic, fish sauce, and spices // ground turkey // caramelized mushrooms and onion // roasted zucchini.

Sheet-pan hash – potato // onion // poblano pepper // green bell pepper // orange and purple cauliflower // duck fennel sausage.