Best Ever Iced Coffee

by Emily

I survived the less-than-zero-degree weather! My first winter in Buffalo I bought myself a pair of (children’s!) Sorrel snow-boots and they remain the single most essential item in my closet.

I worked Friday, Saturday, Sunday, so my weekend eats weren’t all that exciting. Work was busy-busy so I mostly ate quick, snacky things. The highlights…

Iced coffee with a crispy Pacific Rose apple.

This New Orleans-style cold brew with sweetened condensed milk is officially my favorite coffee combo of all time. I love Grady’s in general and this was perfectly spiced so with the SCM it was insanely delicious.

Sooooo much hot chocolate.

A giant smoothie I shared with Adam – plain Greek yogurt, frozen soursop, mango, and grapes.

Toasted onion bagel with jalopeño-cheddar cream cheese. I ended up scraping off part of my mountain of cream cheese like some kind of tourist.

Watermelon / Sriracha chicken bar / vanilla crispy square.

Maple salmon bar / TJ’s dried chokanan mango / TJ’s seed & bean medley.

The first two nights of dinner I was thanking past Emily for leaving me yummy leftovers. Hot wing pasta.

Hot dish. With ketchup and Sriracha on top.

And Sunday night I finally got around to cooking the meal I had planned for the first night of Hannukah!

I had kind of a bad foodie/good foodie thing going on – my latkes were from a box but my matzoh brie was fried in duck fat.

I sprinkle sugar on mine because that’s how I grew up eating it. And that’s a blob of labne on my latkes that I wished was sour cream. Plus we had roasted broccoli with sumac.

I am off of work today! and we are going somewhere fun for lunch!!

5Jan2018

Hello, 2018!

by Emily

On a personal level, 2018 is off to a great start. Adam’s and my last week of 2017 staycation was deeply wonderful, so I’m starting the year in a damn good mood.

Though perhaps I’ll be less ecstatic today, by the time this post goes live I will already be outside attempting to dig my car out from the foot plus of snow dropped by the bomb cyclone. I work this weekend so thankfully I was already off for the worst of it on Thursday.

Here were the best bites from the year so far…

This week’s coffee – Starbucks espresso roast.

Plus on my snow day I sipped on a super fancy Stumptown Nitro Cold Brew with chocolate milk. Total frothy, creamy, goodness.

Yogurt bowl work lunches are off to a good start. Coffee and Cream Chobani with maple almond butter granola and a Pacific Rose apple and MadeGood chocolate chip granola minis.

Mint Chocolate Chunk Chobani with chocolate Cheerios and chocolate-covered cocoa nibs. This new flavor was surprisingly delicious, just like mint chip ice cream.

Smoked turkey and Swiss sandwich box from Starbucks.

Popping champagne gummies for the new year. I have loved all of the bears from Project Seven that I’ve tried so far.

Yummy vanilla bean French pudding.

Exciting limited edition seltzers tasting. We didn’t like the cola as much as I had hoped – it was too weird to have the flavor without the sweetness – and the unicorn kisses wasn’t magical but was very tasty.

I totally rocked it in the kitchen this week; three meals were 10/10. Like good luck bowls to start the year – forbidden rice / collard greens – sauteed with garlic / hoppin’ john – a slightly bastardized version with orange bell pepper added in.

Hot wing pasta with carrots and celery on the side.

Whole wheat pasta shells / sauteed baby spinach and green onion with fish sauce / shredded chicken breast with cream cheese and hot sauce / sharp cheddar.

Chick pot pie hot dish (loosely inspired by this recipe from Molly Yeh).

Shredded chicken breast / tons of sauteed mushrooms, onion, celery, and peas / roux + caned low fat milk and chicken broth with sour cream, hot sauce, mustard, liquid smoke, and smoked paprika / tater tots!

Hope everyone’s 2018 is off to a good start!

30Dec2017

Book List 2017

by Emily

I know I said that I wasn’t blogging again this year, but I had to pop back in to share my final stats for my yearly resolution – read at least one book each month.

Here were 2016, 2015, and 2014‘s lists.

And here were the books I read in 2017…

The list is in chronological order. F = fiction, NF = nonfiction, and M = memoir.

The Sound of Gravel – Ruth Wariner (m)
Big Little Lies – Liane Moriarty (f)
Truly Madly Guiltily – Liane Moriarty (f)
What Alice Forgot – Liane Moriarty (f)
The Husband’s Secret – Liane Moriarty (f)
The Dead House – Linda Fairstein (f)
The Bone Vault – Linda Fairstein (f)
The Last Anniversary – Liane Moriarty (f)
The Kills – Linda Fairstein (f)
Entombed – Linda Fairstein (f)
The Rosie Project – Graeme Simsion (f)
The Rosie Effect – Graeme Simsion (f)
Missing Pieces – Heather Gudenkauf (f)
Free Refills; a Doctor Confronts his Addiction – Peter Grinspoon, MD (m)
After Perfect, a Daughter’s Memoir – Christina McDowell (m)
Chaos – Patricia Cornwall (f)
Three Wishes – Liane Moriarty (f)
Once We Were Sisters – Sheila Kohler (m)
Legal Tender – Lisa Scottoline (f)
Everywhere That Mary Went – Lisa Scottoline (f)
The Light Between Oceans – ML Stedman (f)
Death Dance – Linda Fairstein (f)
Bad Blood – Linda Fairstein (f)
Killer Heat – Linda Fairstein (f)
Lethal Legacy – Linda Fairstein (f)
Dangerous When Wet – Jamie Brickhouse (m)
Rough Justice – Lisa Scottoline (f)
Hell Gate – Linda Fairstein (f)
Silent Mercy – Linda Fairstein (f)
Night Watch – Linda Fairstein (f)
Death Angel – Linda Fairstein (f)
The Weight of Silence – Heather Gudenkauf (f)
Terminal City – Linda Fairstein (f)
Little Mercies – Heather Gudenkauf (f)
Devil’s Bridge – Linda Fairstein (f)
Killer Look – Linda Fairstein (f)
These Hidden Things – Heather Gudenkauf (f)
Two Nights – Kathy Reichs (f)
Scrappy Little Nobody – Anna Kendrick (m)
Mistaken Identity – Lisa Scottoline (f)
Right Behind You – Lisa Gardner (f)
Moment of Truth – Lisa Scottoline (f)
And When She Was Good – Laura Lippman (f)
To the Power of Three – Laura Lippman (f)
You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) – Felicia Day (m)
Deadfall – Linda Fairstein (f)

I read a lot of murder mysteries! I didn’t have any standout favorite books this year but I did really enjoy everything by Liane Moriarty.

What was your favorite book you read this year?

28Dec2017

Soul Mates

by Emily

Today is my tenth wedding anniversary!!!

Fun fact – we got married on our five-year dating anniversary so it’s actually our fifteenth anniversary as a couple.

Somehow it feels both like we’ve been together forever and only a minute. Adam and I started dating at seventeen and married at twenty-two and I feel so grateful that I basically got to watch him grow up, especially because he grew into the greatest person ever. Adam is curious and conscientious and the kindest man I’ve ever met.

We believe that we have the best relationship of all time. We are honest with each other, always, and it means we’ve never had to wonder or worry about where we stand. We love AND like one another. We are perhaps unhealthfully obsessed with each other – Adam misses me pretty much the minute we’re apart and I give myself chest pain at least once a day getting overwhelmed with how happy I am to know him.

It’s almost unbelievable to me that this handsome, funny doctor not only puts up with me, but truly thinks I’m amazing and cool. Being loved unconditionally changes every experience – even ones when you’re not with your partner – and I feel so lucky to be a part of that.

We are both off from work Wednesday – Sunday and there won’t be another post from me this week (this year!) because I’m going to be mooning at my husband instead of looking through my camera. We do have some pretty epic dinner reservations planned though so I will be sharing a bit on Instagram.

Thank you for reading this year, enjoy the rest of 2017, readers!

25Dec2017

A Merry Little Christmas

by Emily

Merry Christmas to all my readers who celebrate! I am actually at work today, but Adam and I had a great weekend making merry.

We pretended it wasn’t raining and took a long walk around Manhattan and over the Brooklyn Bridge.

I was very excited to check out the holiday decorations at Chelsea Market and the Oculus and Brookfield Place.

Best bites highlights…

Nobletree eggnog cappuccino.

I also bought a fancy Ronnybrook eggnog and dumped it over ice with a triple shot of espresso, so good.

We had yet to stand in the Dominique Ansel line to try a cronut but when I read this month’s flavor I knew it was time – eggnog caramel!

Crispy, chewy, gooey; they were totally fantastic and worth the wait. Eggnog caramel may be my new favorite thing.

Lunch at Kobrick Coffee. I had a grilled cheese with swiss, shallots, and horseradish maple mustard.

Plus a Strong Island Iced Tea – gin, tequila, rum, triple sec, cynar, Hella cola tonic, lime juice, and soda. The little coffee cup was Adam’s cortadito – a crazy delicious cross between a cortado and a Cuban coffee.

Holiday flavors jelly beans – eggnog, pumpkin pie, cranberry, hot chocolate, and peppermint.

Harpoon Winter Warmer. The pink drinks were my attempt at making a peppermint marshmallow vodka that did NOT work.

Rice and Gold for dinner for a whole jerk roasted duck. Wrapped up with jerk-hoisin sauce, pickled cucumbers, and moo shu pancakes.

We also had cured salmon crudo with onion ash, myoga, jalapeno, and maple bourbon soy sauce.

Charred eggplant with Chinese yogurt, scallion, and crispy shallot that was one of the best dishes I ate this year.

A Bondi Kelly – white rum, luxardo maraschino, lime, and charred pineapple.

And a citrus salad dessert special with cardamom labne and yuzu nata de coco.

We brought home our leftover duck to put on nachos which was the best idea ever.

And our Christmas Eve dinner was snowflake pasta with pesto, red bell pepper, baby kale, and turkey pepperoni.

May your day be bright.

22Dec2017

MadeMerry

by Emily

I was not a stellar food blogger this week. I had several work lunch parties and I didn’t take pictures then. And it was a particularly heinously stressful work-week so adult dinners did not happen – one night I went out for drinks with a girlfriend, one night we ordered in pizza, one night I ate chips in bed and fell asleep fully dressed… you get the gist. I do have photos of a fun box of samples and the exciting ensuing snacks!

MadeGood reached out to me recently about trying their goods. They are a certified organic company that makes granola bars, granola bites, and crispy treats. Their products are vegan, kosher, gluten-free, and free of eight common allergens (dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, egg, fish, shellfish, and soy). PLUS they are made with a vegetable powder made of spinach, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, beets, and shitake mushrooms and the granola products provide 20% of the RDA for vitamins A, B1, B6, C, D, and E per serving.

Normally I am unmoved by snack items with “hidden” fruits and veggies – though I do totally understand why they can be helpful for picky kids! – but in this case I am 100% on board. The MadeGood products all had a savory quality that made them completely addictive! Adam and I both felt that the crispy squares were the best crispy treats we’d ever tasted! And the granola items struck a good balance between chew and crunch. In short – I am a new fan.

Snack attack highlights from the week…

Kanzi apple / chocolate banana granola bar / vanilla crispy square / kale chips / chicken Sriracha Epic bar.

Strawberry granola minis / mixed berry granola minis / raspberry amazin’ raisins.

Apple cinnamon granola minis / chocolate chip granola bar / seaweed snack / Pacific Rose apple.

Malted milk hot chocolate (two pouches because I like my hot cocoa Turkish coffee style) / Lady Alice apple.

I’m sad it’s my last week for eggnog in my coffee.

But I did use plain skim in this Limitless Cold Brew so I could taste the vanilla.

Some non-edible stuff {ranked from least to most exciting}…

It’s Christmas next week.

I am almost finished with Felicia Day’s memoir (and loving it) so I started watching her web-series The Guild and I’m loving that too.

Starting this morning Adam is on vacation for the next 10 days!

Next week is our ten year wedding anniversary!!

I am off part of next week too so we can celebrate together!!!

18Dec2017

It’s Beginning To Taste A Lot Like Christmas

by Emily

Eggnog, peppermint, and rugelach, oh my!

Adam and I spent the weekend eating all of the holiday things! We did an eggnog tour of Brooklyn one day and then a Brooklyn holiday ice cream tour the next. I learned that even if you share and leave a lot of leftovers you can still tire of eggnog very quickly, and I’m probably someone who enjoys eggnog more than the average reveler. I also affirmed that no matter how many twinkly lighted and tinsel bedecked holiday pop-ups I encounter, I will still clap my hands in glee every time.

Alphabetically, here are some Brooklyn spots celebrating with holiday pop-ups and/or themed items:

16Handles. Peppermint froyo with Oreo and hot fudge.

Ample Hills.

There were so many holiday choices we had to get a flight to taste them all! In the front row – Eggnog with rum / Festival of Lights cream cheese ice cream with raspberry rugelach / Candy Cane.

Bearded Lady.

BL Eggnog – bourbon, spice, a whole egg.

Brooklyn Cupcake. Coquito cupcake. <– not a seasonal item actually, it’s on the menu year-round

Ladybird Bakery. Eggnog mousse tart. <– this was more visually appealing than anything, 5/10.

Leyenda. <– most festive stop of the weekend, 2nd only to Miracle on 9th Street

Coquito Ho Ho – Resposado Espolon tequila, Oloroso sherry, Braulio, coconut cream, cinnamon, egg.

Oddfellows. Eggnog and Santa’s Cookies milk sorbet with chocolate chip cookies.

And here were the highlights of my less festive eats…

We were pretty pleased with this 7-11 cold brew can. Made with skim milk and minimal sugar and it had way more flavor than anything we can get from the thousand Dunkin Doughnuts near our apartment.

Brunch at Forest Point. We need to come here more often because it’s amazing. Oban Sour – Moto Whisky, Mizu Lemongrass Shochu, yuzu-maple cordial, lemon, pimento dram.

I also had hummus, Israeli cucumber salad, fantastic grilled naan, harissa, and perfectly poached eggs.

Lunch at Lion’s Milk. We shared a sandwich with black olive paste, toasted sesame oil, and kasseri cheese. Plus Turkish coffees.

Tofu bowls for dinner. With mint lime kombucha.

Roasted buckwheat and kobucha squash with roasted elephant garlic / roasted zucchini / baked garlic brown sugar tofu / Sriracha. Except apparently neither Adam nor I like buckwheat one bit; we ate off our toppings and had cheese and crackers instead.

I try to have every healthy dinner include a protein, carb, fat, and veggie, and technically these meals fit the bill. Smoky honey chips with melted sharp cheddar and carrots with hummus.

Homemade onion dip (with turkey bacon and sharp cheddar!) with roasted broccoli and TJ’s cheesy tree crackers for dipping. I also dipped baby carrots and kettle chips but they didn’t make a nice forest.

I shredded two large sweet onions and spent 50+ minutes caramelizing them and it was well worth it.

Especially because I sipped this peachy and delicious Shiner Bock Holiday Cheer while I cooked.

Two more nights of Hannukah and one week ’til Christmas!

15Dec2017

Oh, Christmas Tree

by Emily

Adam and I checked off one of my favorite holiday activities this week – heading to Rockefeller to gape at the tree. We also really enjoyed most of the department store window displays this year.

Best six things I ate this week…

1. Eggnog iced coffee.

2. Praline éclair from Éclair Bakery.

3. Brown sugar latte from Stumptown at the Ace Hotel.

4. Cake batter cookie dough. <– reassurance for folks who baulk at the $7 price tag, two of us couldn’t eat this in one sitting, so if you can keep it cool enough to eat again later you do get a fair amount of bang for your buck

5. Tofu bowl at Chikarashi. A bed of rice with greens, marinated cucumber, seaweed salad, and insanely delicious fried silken tofu.

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6. Tres leches cake. I made it for Adam’s birthday, and used eggnog instead of heavy cream as one of my three milks!