Back At It

by Emily

Big news I’ve been waiting to share – I went back to work this week! I finally found a job that is a good fit for my experience; I’ll be responsible for the ICUs at a hospital in Queens. Great timing, right?! I actually will be able to do some work-from-home days but this week I had to go into the hospital for training.

Food highlights from this week include…

This week’s coffee combo.

I made Adam and myself dalgona coffees and he is smitten now too.

Usually I don’t keep a ton of candy in the house but now that I’m unable to pop out for an ice cream whenever I wish I’ve started building up a stash.

Amy’s chile relleno bowl with hot sauce. <– my 2nd all-time-favorite frozen meal

Trader Joe’s sriracha shrimp bowl with cashews on top. <– my all-time-favorite frozen meal

Brown sugar garlic chicken thighs / on a bed of roasted broccoli and green beans / topped with zhoug and Korean chili flakes.

Egg casserole (very similar to this recipe) with tons of roasted broccoli and mozzarella. Plus turkey breakfast sausage.

We got take-out last night to celebrate the almost-end of my first work week. Pizza loaded with vegetables – broccoli rabe, roasted zucchini, and olives – and garlic knots loaded with cheese.

28Dec2019

Aloha, 17 Years

by Emily

I hope that all my readers who celebrate had a merry Christmas!

Three fun things from this week –

I bought chestnut paste – which basically tastes like Christmas! – and used it in amazing yogurt bowls.

With cocoa granola and fresh strawberries.

These bougie almond butter cups were surprisingly delicious.

We made easy but great pasta bowls: boxed macaroni and cheese / canned smoked trout and anchovies / roasted broccoli and baby zucchini / topped with Kewpie and Sriracha. Plus a side of sauteed baby cauliflower.

Current excitement? It is our 12 year wedding anniversary today! And since we got married on our 5 year dating anniversary, that means we’ve been together for 17 years (aka half our lives!)!! To celebrate, we are heading to Hawaii tomorrow!!!

6Dec2019

Nacho Zip Code

by Emily

My stuff, my husband, my dog, and I all finally live in the same place (New York) again! What a surreal week! I worked Monday-Tuesday, moved Wednesday, and unpacked Thursday-Friday. I am thrilled to be with my amazing family and excited to be back in New York but am deeply mourning leaving Charlottesville, and my fantastic Virginia family and friends, and my unbelievably great job. <– it’s an extremely good problem to have 🙂

My last Cville weekend was low-key because I was a bit under the weather. I mostly watched tv in bed, drank Gatorade, and spent $8 on precut fruit.

Before I knew it it was Tuesday and I was drinking my very last hospital coffee! Sidenote – the coffee stands in the hospital served my favorite iced lattes in Virginia and I am going to miss them greatly.

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Also that afternoon coworkers took me out for coffee and then after work we went to Hardywood for a final round of marshmallow gingerbread stouts and by the time I packed my car I was a drunk, overly caffeinated mess.

My last night my family took me out for nachos – multiple plates! – and margaritas and I got to tell them how unbelievably grateful I am for their hospitality. I lived with my cousin and her fiance for the last 4 months and they could not have made my life easier or more fun. A lot of people thought I was insane for choosing to live apart from Adam and Webster for so long but one of the biggest silver linings of situation was the time I got with my Virginia family.

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And they would be thrilled to know that the very first thing I ate in New York was nachos!

Once we got the car unpacked Adam and I headed to I am Nacho Mama for bbq chicken nachos and fancy honey coffee.

I also had tacos – griddled cheese and salmon.

Last night we had a fancy dinner at our local mall, Tom Colicchio’s restaurant Small Batch.

Little gem lettuce with pecorino cheese, radishes, fried soft-boiled egg, and ceasar dressing.

Local duck breast with honeynut squash, figs, and black garlic.

Chocolate souffle cake with milk chocolate sauce, cookie crumbs, and bourbon-brown sugar ice cream.

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.

Heirloom tomatoes with strawberries, house-made ricotta, basil, red wine dressing and chili flakes.

French fries with tarragon aioli.

Esquites, sweet corn with spring onions, Kewpie mayo, chili corn hot sauce, cilantro, and green onion.

Braised lamb with pasilla de Oaxaca romesco, butter braised leeks, and sweet onions.

Chicken with mojo verde, brown butter, and crispy epazote.

Local coffee.

Basque cheesecake.

20Sep2019

I Needed My Coffee

by Emily

Fun fact – I had an amazing time last weekend! It was fantastic to see my friends and Traverse City is quite possibly my new favorite place (we walked a ton (by the lake!) and drank cocktails with coffee, Mexican Coke, and locally-made vodka, so how could it not be?!).

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Not so fun fact – I spilled an entire coffee yesterday morning and ruined everything in my purse including my dayplanner/brain and camera. The only thing that’s really missing from this post is the fun lunch I ate at the farmers’ market with my coworker yesterday, but I’m not sure what my plan will be for this weekend since I hate taking photos on my phone.

Here were the highlights before the flood…

Grady’s Cold Brew really is the best, and I say that even I smelled like it all day at work.

Berry breakfast. Cereal and milk with blueberries.

Yogurt bowl 1 – Fage, blueberries, vanilla peanut butter.

Yogurt bowl 2 – Trader Joe’s vanilla skyr, red plum, walnut butter.

I finally ate my first fresh apple of the month, a crunchy Pazazz apple.

I had the day off on Tuesday and I took myself to breakfast at Quality Pie. Tortilla with egg, chicken, queso, and salsa verde.

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Graeter’s makes my new favorite s’mores ice cream. It contains no palm oil and the marshmallows are unbelievably soft.

Related – sadly I can’t recommend this; the texture was actually great but the only flavor present was coconut.

I am still obsessed with these seaweed chips. BBQ is even yummier than the original flavor.

This is the easiest dinner on earth but it tastes soooo good. Throw Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi on a baking sheet with some turkey pepperoni, bake at 450 for 20 minutes, top with pizza sauce.

Super salad – romaine, champagne vinaigrette, maple roasted walnuts and cranberries, chopped celery, vegan “chicken salad.”

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10Sep2019

A New York Weekend

by Emily

I spent a long weekend visiting my boys in New York and had the best time ever! I walked a ton, caught up with friends, ate all the things, slept with Webster pressed up against my ribs, and got to hold my husband’s hand while we talked about his new gig – perfect!

Highlights included…

A 7 mile walk down through Chelsea and across the bridge into Williamsburg.

Iced lattes! Terremoto and Cafe Leon Dore.

Danish chocolate cinnamon swirl at Ole and Steen.

Brunch with a former coworker at Penelope. I love taking people there because they are always blown away by how cute it is. And my croissant sandwich with scrambled eggs, cheddar, and pesto was delicious.

Lunch at the new Xi’an Town. Cold fried hand ripped noodles with veggies plus cucumber salad.

Dinner with friends at Gertie. I had the blue plate special – rotisserie chicken, local green beans, and schmaltzy fried potatoes.

A half pound pink velvet cookie stuffed with cream cheese frosting from City Cakes.

The best thing we ate all weekend = ice cream from Spoons. Vanilla soft serve blended with sprinkles and Fruity Pebbles and topped with torched marshmallow!

23Aug2019

BLT FTW

by Emily

Life highlights from the past six days –

I survived my 2nd week without my boys. Adam has been super sweet about sending me a million photos of the most handsome dog in the world!
I’ve had a ton of TPNs at work lately and I realized the other day just how comfortable I feel managing them now – I will never stop being grateful for this job opportunity, I have grown so much as a clinician the past year.
I saw, and loved, The Farewell. Such a sweet, funny movie; I can’t recommend it enough.
I went to a free yoga class with one of my coworkers and loooooved it! I had forgotten about just how much I enjoy yoga. I haven’t been in several years and it seems my balance has gotten much worse but my flexibility has gotten much better – I got myself into camel pose easily and comfortably.

Food highlights –

All of the coffee.

Hey Day Cold Brew.

Black and white ~~milkshake~~ cold brew – Grady’s with vanilla bean powder and chocolate milk.

Still obsessed with this chocolate chip cookie dough Perfect Bar that seems to only be sold at Trader Joe’s and has no internet presence.

This mango and nut mix is perfectly spicy-sweet.

This yogurt bowl was amazing. Strawberry quark with pluots, maple cashew butter, and homemade chocolate chip cookie.

I had a great assortment of gummy candies for the movie, lots of cola options.

These s’mores mochi have graham cracker ice cream and and a marshmallow center and all three of us thought they were fantastic.

Raspberry Short Kate! Hardywood‘s newest IPA brewed with milk sugar and raspberry.

Whole Foods hot bar – kale salad, cabbage crunch salad, carrot and harissa salad, breakfast potatoes, chicken sausage – with a side of chicken and waffle chips.

A swoon-worthy sandwich – local heirloom tomato, turkey bacon, and kewpie mayo on a bun.

BLT salad. Sweet baby lettuce with champagne vinaigrette, heirloom baby tomatoes, bacon, Dubliner cheese, and hickory smoked peanuts. Plus spicy roasted okra that my cousin made.

Leftover salad with delicious crab cakes that my cousin made.

Trader Joe’s frozen scallion pancakes with mayo, sriracha, and a side of roasted green beans.

29Jul2019

Good Birthday And Goodbye

by Emily

Goodbye – I am going to be signing off of the blog for a bit, until mid-August. We are going to be doing a lot of traveling with questionable internet service – our motel to New York to St. Thomas to New York then back to Charlottesville – and I don’t want to deal with my camera. I will be sure to include any and all ice cream consumption on Instagram.

Good birthday – I turned 34 this week! The unstoppable passage of time was celebrated with fantastic cocktails and sushi at Ten with my cousin and her fiance and even better tapas and margaritas at Little Star on a date with the husband. Also my brother-in-law was in town this weekend and we had a great time showing him around.

Random highlights from the week…

Not a lot of “food food” to share this week because of our current living situation but I do have all sorts of:

{excitement in coffee}

A trip to Stand Up Coffee in Orange, the space is super cute and they give you a stick of peppermint gum!

Chameleon Cold Brew.

Getting a quad iced latte with my Starbuck’s birthday freebie is my favorite tradition. Plus glittery nails!

Quad iced latte from Sugar Shack. Plus an ube doughnut.

{excitement in cocktails}

A motel-made hibiscus vodka soda!

Related – I found the newest hibiscus flavor of La Croix.

The margarita at Little Star comes with a mezcal chaser.

[excitement in local cuisine}

I tried a very elevated version of the Southern favorite tomato sandwich, Quality Pie‘s heirloom tomatoes and remoulade on sourdough. Amazing!

Also the chef brought us out some blistered tomatoes with sea salt that basically took our breath away.

22Jul2019

Life Updates, Part Deux

by Emily

I briefly shared some of our personal life excitement a few months ago but I am definitely overdue for an update! FYI:

{1} Adam is only a fellow for another 9 days and then he’s going to be an attending in New York. (Woo-hoo!)

{2} We move out of Charlottesville to the city next Thursday.

{3} Adam has a tiny window of break-time between his two jobs and we’re taking a quick vacation back home to St. Thomas!

{4} I’m actually not moving to New York… for the moment anyway. The time frame is still unclear but I’m staying in Charlottesville for a bit before I join the husband, my current job was just too good to walk away from yet!

{5} Our apartment lease was short and I am off of work today because we’re moving into a motel for the next week and a half.

Phew! You guys are all caught up now!

This past weekend Adam had his last weekend coverage call in Culpeper. I went with him for support/to hang out in the hotel and watch cable tv. We ate take-out and snacks, so I have a few exciting snacks to share…

Coffee!

Mocha on mocha.

Raven’s Nest is our favorite coffee in the state of Virginia.

This watermelon rose kombucha was a total winner.

Exciting yogurt flavors.

Snacks on snacks.

Local bbq – smoked chicken and hush puppies, cole slaw, and fried okra.

National Ice Cream day was Sunday.

Cake from the Salvadorian bakery.

Rompope (aka eggnog!) popsicle.

5Jul2019

5 + 5

by Emily

Five random life updates –

{1} We took some stuff to Goodwill last weekend and now we are living in an empty apartment (minus a blow-up bed and all of my clothing). Literally the only things in our living room are boxes of seltzer!

{2} Last weekend was the first time in 5 weeks that Adam and I were both home and not traveling. Phew!

{3} This weekend we’re on the move again – we are heading to Solomon Island Maryland to spend some time with my family, including my youngest cousin who I haven’t seen since Thanksgiving!

{4} We finally saw “Late Night” and loved it. If it’s still in theaters in your area I recommend going if you haven’t already.

{5} Then we watched “Always Be My Maybe” on Netflix and loooooooved it! It’s officially our new favorite movie. Super funny and touching. Ali Wong is one my favorite comedians and she was fantastic as a leading lady.

Five things I ate and loved the last week –

{1} Yogurt bowl. Wegman’s chocolate Greek yogurt with pluots and Nature’s Path coconut chia granola.

{2} Dehydrated rainbow carrot snacks from Trader Joe’s.

{3} Cheese tea (aka bubble tea that you sip through foamy layer of milk and cream cheese sprinkled with salt) with strawberry heart jelly.

{4} Marshmallow! We shared a cup of carnival cake and marshmallow at Kirt’s Ice Cream. And I was living my best life with this snack combo – Kilwin’s caramel chocolate marshmallow with iced coffee.

{5} BBQ. No Limits Smokehouse is a new-ish spot in Belmont and it’s wonderful. I had a fried chicken sandwich (<– super juicy!) and collard greens, plus we got smoked mushrooms that were my new favorite savory thing I’ve ever eaten!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: about

Back At It

Aloha, 17 Years

Nacho Zip Code

Quality Time

I Needed My Coffee

A New York Weekend

BLT FTW

Good Birthday And Goodbye

Life Updates, Part Deux

5 + 5