Pumpkin King

by Emily

It rained all day Sunday but luckily Saturday was beautiful. One of my coworkers invited me to the UVA-Duke game and we had a wonderful time (bookended by stops at local breweries!).

Five food highlights include…

This cold brew from La Colombe is so velvety! (fyi, the stuff in the cup has half and half mixed in)

Trader Joe’s pumpkin yogurt with vanilla peanut butter.

I saved my two favorite pumpkin beers for last. I typically don’t drink imperial ales but Pumking is the best.

Crispy carrot sticks.

Waffle flavored chicken nuggets(!!!) with roasted green beans and honey mustard.

18Oct2019

A NY Weekend > A New York Minute

by Emily

I spent Friday night – Tuesday afternoon in the city enjoying a New York long weekend with my boys! So much fun! We ate ice cream at least once a day, took long walks around Williamsburg, the Lower East Side, and Long Island City, and had a great night with friends at a delicious dinner (Baoburg – I don’t have photos but it was fantastic!) followed by a trip to Barcade!

Highlights include…

A malted cold brew.

Is one of my favorite things about NYC the ability to find weird and amazing drinks absolutely everywhere? 100% yes. And we took full advantage of that this weekend. New canned coffees from Chameleon Cold Brew, churro and cinnamon dolce.

Strawberry sparkling water and a soursop and sea moss drink.

Cinnamon Coke with rum. <– strongly recommend!

Baohaus‘ spiceland bao is a thing of beauty! 24-hour brined fried chicken served with lemon-garlic aioli, an 8-ingredient Szechuan chili oil, pickled cabbage, crushed peanuts, Taiwanese red sugar, and cilantro. Their menu is limited because the things they do they do exceptionally well.

Great ice cream at Four Winters. They make each cup individually with liquid nitrogen. This was brown sugar speculoos with fudge, biscoff cookies, and extra sprinkles.

Even better ice cream at Caffe Panna, the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten, in fact! I got a cone with housemade whipped cream – panna – on brown butter straciatella and chocolate berry crunch (<– this flavor was the best ice cream we’ve ever tasted).

Plus we got an affagato special – ice cream and espresso with whiskey caramel and cacao nib hazelnut brittle.

Adam and I had an incredible dinner at Case Enrique – a Michelin starred, traditional Mexican spot in Long Island City. I went for the drinks and they did not disappoint. I had a soursop caipirnha!

Plus a tamarind margarita.

We started with the rojas con crema – roasted poblanos with onion, corn, cheese, and cream. Scooped up with tortillas that were out of this world.

And I ordered the mole de piaxtla – mole sauce over chicken and rice.

Dessert! Tres leches, flan, and cafe con leche.

Other fun things… I pulled out this St. Thomas bag my parents got me. It makes me happy every time I reach into my purse.

And Adam bought me this gorgeous bracelet at a shop in Brooklyn.

🙂

11Oct2019

Breakfast Totcho Hash

by Emily

2/3 of what I have to share this week (yes, I did the math) is appropriately on theme for October! Other fun in fall includes… Pumpkin-scented sanitizers.

And an orange-y yellow nail polish (Urbanized by Cirque Colors).

Food highlights include…

The original bests in packaged cold brew – Stumptown and Blue Bottle.

Wegman’s pumpkin pie yogurt with blackberries and maple pecan granola.

Wegman’s pumpkin Greek yogurt with almond butter and honey butter almonds.

A hazelnut, coffee, maca bar and some surprisingly good chickpea-based cookie dough.

Two best pumpkin beers so far this season – coffee Pumpking and Schlafly Pumpkin Ale.

Breakfast totcho sheet pan hash! I baked sweet potato tots, with peppers, onion, cheddar, and scrambled eggs and it was delicious.

It was so yummy it was even good mashed in a container and served leftover.

7Oct2019

Pumpkin And Paw Paw

by Emily

I am headed to NYC next weekend so I kept these past three days especially low-key. I went out for drinks with a coworker, bought a couple of sweaters, and caught up on tv while eating take-out. And that was it! I didn’t even make it to the gym.

Highlights in TV so far include All Rise, Evil, SNL, and The Rookie.

Highlights in food this weekend include…

A paw paw margarita from Vitae.

I didn’t really care for this latte but I loved the new pumpkin pie Perfect Bar.

These seaweed thins are delicious and way easier to eat than typical seaweed snacks (less crumbly and less greasy).

Yogurt bowl perfection. Pumpkin Noosa with blackberries and vanilla almond butter.

Biggest wins so far in Pumpkin Month = Prairie Artisan Ale‘s Basic Becky (an imperial stout with pumpkin, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, coriander, clove, and caraway) and Coolhaus pumpkin pie cheesecake ice cream (pumpkin and cheesecake ice creams with a graham cracker swirl).

4Oct2019

It’s Pumpkin Month!

by Emily

It’s Pumpkin Month! Check out my exciting, gourd-y stash:

Related note – my coworkers know me so well!

This week’s eats highlights were all about burritos, bowls, and tasty take-out…

I go in a bit later on Wednesdays (so my timing works for after-work yoga, which I actually made it to this week, whee!) so I took myself on a breakfast date to Marie Bette for one of their outstanding pretzel croissants.

This Trader Joe’s breakfast burrito – with eggs, cheese, chicken sausage, and potato – was pretty great.

And this adobo chicken burrito from Whole Foods wasn’t half bad either.

Pumpkin spice latte from La Colombe.

Pumpkin spice bar with pumpkin jellies! Those gummies were such an exciting find from H-Mart.

Lunch from the food trucks/farmers’ market that sets up at the hospital. I got nachos with spicy chicken.

Roasted shredded brussel sprouts with hot smoked salmon, pumpkin seeds, spicy peanut vinegarette, and zhoug.

Roasted broccoli slaw with sesame ginger baked tofu, honey butter almonds, spicy peanut vinegarette, cucumbers, and zhoug. And when the zhoug ran out I topped it with sriracha.

30Sep2019

A Perfect Weekend

by Emily

An ideal weekend would involve time with my boys, but this weekend did include several (quite yummy) snack items from the Perfect Snacks company! Also a trip to the Farmer’s Market, an afternoon of day-drinking with my cousin, and a Sunday shift at the hospital. Also, apparently, me being way too excited about everything I ate.

Highlights…

Cinnamon bears with espresso is the best combo.

Whole Foods uses a chocolate powder – versus a syrup – in their iced mochas and I am obsessed with them.

This local cold brew – with chicory, cinnamon, and lavender! – was pretty good too.

Still obsessed with this chocolate chip cookie dough bar that has no internet presence (they seem to be sold exclusively at Trader Joe’s?).

Breakfast biscuit from Ace with pimento cheese, a sunny side up egg, and jerk chicken.

Perfect for Apple Month – a caramel apple cocktail from Vitae! Vitae Golden Rum, Zirbenz Pine Liquor, lemon juice, salted caramel syrup, and cinnamon apple cider.

Still obsessed with the IPAs at Hardywood.

These new peanut butter cups are extra-strength delicious! They aren’t overly sweet and they don’t contain any palm oil, my two requirements in peanut butter cups. They’re still not a “health food,” but compared with Resse’s they do have an extra 3 grams of protein and 10 grams less sugar.

The last of my superior salad mix – romaine with Greek feta dressing, chorizo seitan, honey butter almonds, celery, and zhoug.

27Sep2019

Superior Salads

by Emily

Fun things from this week: It’s Friday! // I have plans to see my boys again in less than 15 days! // Yesterday I went to Hardywood with a coworker for happy hour and free pretzels and pimento cheese. // I finally made it to the farmer’s market that sets up on the hospital grounds and had a really excellent iced mocha with macadamia milk. // The weather is starting to get a bit cooler but still isn’t cold yet.

Highlights included…

Local nitro cold brew with maple.

Nothing beats Stumptown.

Strawberry lingonberry yogurt with chocolate peanut butter is a pretty great combination. Plus a Pazazz apple.

Bars on bars.

I had some really excellent topping ingredients on hand so I made this a week of salads. Honey butter almonds and zhoug are fantastic on their own and even better when paired together. Especially with a fun variety of proteins!

Romaine / Greek feta dressing / zhoug / honey butter almonds / baby tomatoes / chorizo seitan.

Romaine / champagne vinaigrette / zhoug / honey butter almonds / celery / vegan chicken salad.

Romaine / champagne vinaigrette / zhoug / honey butter almonds / baby tomatoes / turkey pepperoni. <– pro tip: if you bake pepperoni at 350 degrees for 15 minutes it turns into pepperoni chips!

23Sep2019

Quality Time

by Emily

It was the best weekend ever; my boys came to visit me!!!!!

The three of us had just the absolute best time. It helped that we ate and drank such yummy things but mostly it was great to hold Adam’s hand while Webster sat in my lap.

We really made the most of Charlottesville too, we went to our two favorite restaurants and our two favorite drink spots, walked a ton downtown, ran at Riverside Park, and even went to a polo match with a group of my coworkers.

Highlights (including some random things I ate on Friday) include…

An Apple Month breakfast, Trader Joe’s caramel apple yogurt with cinnamon cereal.

Brunch at Quality Pie. We split an egg and cheese biscuit and salmon with scrambled eggs and cream cheese on rye.

Also a chocolate chip cookie.

Hail Merry cookie dough bites.

Beers at Hardywood. Tropic like it’s Hot sour with dragon fruit, blueberry, passionfruit, and pineapple // Tropication IPA // The Great Return IPA // Raspberry Short Kate milkshake IPA brewed with milk sugar and fresh raspberries.

Cocktails at Vitae. S’mores = smoked rum, chocolate bitters, marshmallow simple syrup, orange, and a graham cracker rim.

Hawaiian take out from Mochiko. Mochiko fried chicken with cucumber kimchi, slaw, and rice. Plus a passionfruit shortbread bar.

A simple salad at home. Romaine with champagne vinaigrette, celery, cashews, and curried chicken salad.

Dinner at Little Star = the best meal of the weekend and also maybe the best thing I’ve eaten in 2019. We ordered all of the things but it was serendipitous that we overordered because now Adam has dinner for tonight after his long drive.