Chili Cheese Fries Because It’s Still Chilly

by Emily

Seriously, why is it so chilly still?? Over the weekend I dry cleaned our winter coats, packed up our sweaters, swapped boots for sandals, etc, etc, and then Monday morning it was a balmy 30 degrees.

Freezer-burn aside, I had quite a nice week! Tuesday I took a personal day to spend time with Adam post-call and we tried some yummy spots in Bayside. And I’m off again today because I work this weekend.

Here were the highlights from the week…

Chocolate glazed doughnut (from Dough) and a maple iced latte at Browny.

Juicy watermelon wonder kombucha.

Chia pudding. Chia seeds / skim milk / maple syrup / vanilla bean powder / sliced banana.

Peanuts are my favorite snack at the moment.

Dinner out at Maria’s Mediterranean. We got some complimentary bites to start, including the best olives I’ve ever tasted.

Plus we ordered the chips and dip – housemade pita chips with tatziki / melitzanosalata, roasted eggplant puree / and tirokafteri, spicy feta spread.

I got the spanikopita for my entree.

And we tried something fun for dessert – ekmek, a bread pudding-baklava mash up with syrup-soaked shredded phyllo, custard, and whipped cream.

I leaned into the weather and made us big steamy bowls of chili. A loose version of this recipe from Iowa Girl Eats that is our favorite. The baked beans take it over the top.

I topped my bowl with sharp cheddar, plain Greek yogurt, and tons of Sriracha.

Our leftovers turned into cheese fries! Waffle fries / cheese – TJ’s 3 cheese blend / chili / ~~bacon~~ leftover duck. Plus green beans for something green.

And yesterday I made buffalo chicken meatballs. Ground chicken / panade / buffalo sauce / egg / cream cheese / cheddar. Plus sauteed carrots and celery to stay on theme.

It’s supposed to warm up this weekend, woo-hoo!

9Feb2018

Emily Of Sandwich

by Emily

This was a short week for me on the work front, I was off Monday from the weekend (with Adam!!) and off Thursday for a doctor’s appointment. Wear your sunblock, kids – I have to have two moles surgically removed, one on my chest and one on my back, complete with stitches, giant gross scars, and a month straight of no gym and no normal showers. At least I got a good lunch in Manhattan out of the deal?

Highlights…

We finally made it to Doughnut Project! The Malter White was great, malted milk chocolate with a malted chocolate chip mini cookie and cookie crumble.

We got a gift certificate to the Russian Tea Room for Christmas this year and we enjoyed a super fancy lunch. We had vodka, of course.

And caviar.

And I had delicious Kulebiaka for my entree – salmon with slow cooked onions, mushrooms, and vegetables wrapped in pastry, served with braised caraway cabbage and mustard beurre blanc.

Yogurt bowl wins. Greek with fresh strawberries and caramel almond butter.

Strawberry Icelandic style with a fancy tangerine.

Chicken quesadilla from La Esquina.

Best ever ice cream from Ice & Vice. Malted vanilla with sea salt caramel.

Dessert at Vanilla Bean. Banoffee tart for me and a crazy good iced latte.

Caramelized banana peanut butter cups.

It was sandwich week for dinners! Croque Madame – rye bread, smoked turkey, sharp cheddar, strawberry jam, french toasted – with roasted broccoli and shishitos.

Jalopeño popper turkey burgers with smoked gouda and roasted green beans. We didn’t have buns but I’m still counting this as a sandwich.

Asian-style turkey reubens – with gojuchang mayo and kimchi – with roasted shredded brussel sprouts.

5Feb2018

Super

by Emily

Did all my American readers eat wings and gauc and dip last night? I don’t even watch the Super Bowl but I try not to let that get in the way of my buffalo chicken consumption.

Weekend eats highlights –

We actually had dinner reservations at Evelina last night; a little Italian place with no tv, big screen or otherwise. I had a fun Cordelia cocktail – mezcal, malted banana, pressed lime, and Coco Lopez.

We shared two yummy salads to start. Italian radicchio with roasted grapes, almonds, Blue di bufala, and vin cotto.

Roasted beets with Fuji persimmon, house smoked ricotta, and hazelnut.

Sadly our entrees were disappointing. My cacio e pepe risotto with white shrimp was a major letdown.

But that meant that we ended up grabbing pizza on the way home; buffalo chicken is never a letdown!

I worked the weekend so most of my food was in snack form. Two superior combos of iced coffee and chocolate milk.

This citrus medley yogurt from Trader Joe’s is fantastically creamy and sweet, especially with sumo mandarin segments mixed in.

Potato wedges from the cafeteria – gotta get in that blue cheese.

And one morning Adam drove me into work and we went on a breakfast date at the Orwashers in the new Whole Foods 365. Best chocolate croissant of all time!

Random television musings –

My two favorite shows this season – The Good Place and Agents of Sheild
My least favorite new show – 9-1-1
The old show I am loving and tearing through seasons of at a disturbing clip – Cougar Town

Valentine’s freebie FYIs –

If you visit Godiva stores on Sunday, February 11th they’ll give you one free piece of chocolate while supplies last (no purchase required)
Aunt Annie’s is selling heart shaped pretzels buy-one-get-one-free on the 14th if you download their app
Not free and just for New Yorkers – FYI, Doughnut Plant is selling adorable rose shaped doughnuts right now and usually they have heart-shaped ones on Valentine’s

13Jan2018

Spicy Cherry Coke Chicken

by Emily

This past week was extra-strength lengthy. I stayed late at work a few days and had several issues with my train and the end result was that I was home more than two hours late almost every day this week – yuck! I did manage to eat some good dinners still, but I did not manage to get this post up on time.

Best bites {or really should I be writing “superior sips” here because I always start with coffee?!} –

Iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk.

I also had a yummy iced latte from Birch.

And I tried the new blonde espresso from Starbucks. <– quite good, felt like it should be paired with vanilla

Peach Siggi’s with a Cara Cara orange and strawberry granola minis.

Plain Icelandic style yogurt with maple taffy, Page mandarins, and sprinkled donut crunch cereal.

I am a marketer’s dream; I don’t eat cereal all that often, and I hate Captain Crunch, but I still bought this because it was adorable!

Adam and I both had Monday off, so we got to go on a lunch date! Serendipity3.

It was our best meal there to date, we were both swooning over our entrees. I had curried chicken casserole with almonds and many bites of Adam’s sandwich.

We came home with two-full-meals-worth of leftovers and were still almost too full for dessert. Almost. This sundae is the best thing ever – humble (peanut butter) pie / vanilla ice cream / sliced bananas / hot fudge.

Bonus – we stopped at Dylan’s next door before our walk across the Queensborough bridge and bought a candy bar on a whim that ended up being fantastic.

I made a big crockpot of Spicy Cherry Coke Chicken for dinners. Basically this recipe but with Coke instead of Dr Pepper and chicken instead of pork and I diced up my cherries, chipotles, and jalapenos.

Served on a sandwich with brioche bun and mayo.

And roasted zucchini on the side.

And served on top of nachos!

My other dinners were brinners.

Breakfast bowl with sauteed kale with tons of garlic and onion, Trader Joe’s meatless breakfast sausages, and two fried eggs.

Scrambled eggs with tons of onion, chipotle, and sharp cheddar and roasted green beans on the side.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

4Dec2017

Miracle On 9th Street

by Emily

New York City is the best place on Earth and that is doubly true around holidays! Adam and I had a lovely weekend with lots of walking and we explored Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan and saw and ate all sorts of fun holiday and city things.

Like lights in the Lower East Side.

And wild swans in Sheepshead Bay.

Coffees, specialty cocktails, pizza rolls, and other fantastic eats…

Mace’s Miracle Christmas Cocktail Pop-up is officially my new favorite holiday activity! I wish I had taken pictures inside because it was freaking magical.

The specialty cocktails were so fun! I had a Not Even a Mouse – pumpkin spice infused rye whiskey, Budweiser-marshmallow syrup, pumpkin puree, egg, and a marshmallow mouse.

And a Snowball Old Fashioned – gingerbread bourbon, sugar, and pecan bitters.

Iced latte love. Brooklyn Roasting Company.

Orso.

Yogurt bowl win. Plain Greek yogurt with maple jelly and vanilla bean powder with golden kiwi and granola on top.

Ice & Vice double scoop that was truly the best ice cream Adam or I have ever eaten. TBT – earl grey, dark chocolate, and speculoos chip and PSL – pecan, sorghum, and latte toffee.

The Nog at Sugar Sweet Sunshine, pumpkin cake layered with eggnog pudding and whipped cream.

Luda’s Dumplings.

We shared shrimp and loaded potato with garlic sour cream and mushrooms on top.

Brunch at Butter & Scotch, aka the restaurant that’s decorated like the inside of my heart.

I had biscuits with mushroom gravy and an egg on top.

The NameShake.

Birthday cake slice (the leftovers were still moist 24 hours+ later, fyi) and a Unicorn Treat – a brown butter cookie drenched in sprinkles!

The space was adorable, the music was wonderful, and as we were rolling ourselves to the door the waitress brought us a chocolate chip cookie to go since we had been so excited about everything.

Dinner at Thursday Kitchen.

You have to get a light-up booze-filled capri sun! I went with strawberry.

The menu is tapas style so we got to taste a lot. Everything was so interesting, and perfectly spiced. Pan-seared plantains with Korean chimichurri, honey ricotta, roasted pistachio, dried cranberry, and crispy plantain crumble.

Duck confit empanada with dill crème fraiche, cumin, and pickles.

Gnocchi with Korean chili pepper sauce, garlic aioli, parmesan, and crispy seaweed.

My homemade dinners weren’t bad either. I made vegetarian “rice” and beans casserole.

Riced cauliflower / pinquito beans / onion and bell peppers (yellow, orange, and green) baked in evoo / red enchilada sauce / sour cream / shredded cheese. I topped my bowl with more sour cream and some Cholula sauce plus beet and goat cheese cassava chips.

An epic take on cheeseburgers and fries.

Roasted green beans and butternut squash.

Cheeseburger roll ups! Crescent roll dough / ground turkey sautéed with chopped onion and pickle relish / mayo and ketchup / shredded cheese / brushed with garlic butter.

Happy 1st week of December!

27Nov2017

Thanksgiving Week

by Emily

I always have a lot to feel thankful for and last week was no exception. With working two weekends in a row and Turkey Day my schedule worked out perfectly for lots of fun free time with the husband! We had a great time in the city on his post-call day and were able to drive to Pennsylvania Thursday evening to spend the holiday with his family.

Highlights…

Fancy coffees –

Noble Tree iced latte at Nickel and Diner.

Stumptown Winter Cheer.

Vietnamese cold brew.

Fun city restaurants –

Supermoon Bakehouse!

So cool. We tried a banana split sundae twice baked croissant – caramelized sous vide whole bananas, banana caramel sauce, creme patissiere, and chocolate almond creme, topped with chocolate fudge, banana caramel, dehydrated banana, gold leaf, and torched meringue.

And a Golden Boy Doughnut – golden turmeric brioche filled with mild chocolate salted caramel, rolled in sugar and topped with a chocolate shard – aka the best doughnut I’ve ever eaten.

Crazy good ramen at Ganso. A girlfriend and I went after work one night and it was so fantastic that I went back with Adam the next day! The first time we shared blistered shishito peppers.

And I had triple shrimp ramen – with shrimp paste chicken broth, thick Sapporo noodles, chili-fried shrimp, dried shrimp, garlic chives, and moyashi sprouts.

The second time we had wings and beer.

And I had the Tori Shio – Japanese sea salt-chicken broth, toothsome Tokyo noodles, crispy chicken thigh chashu, ajitama egg, and greens.

On-theme eats –

Pumpkin yogurt with Heritage Flakes and a ~~mini pumpkin~~ persimmon.

Fruit and nut yogurt with toffee bits, pecans, and orange raisins.

A pre-holiday plate on Tuesday night.

Crock pot cooked turkey, Trader Joe’s cornbread stuffing, cranberry dressing, and roasted green beans.

Plus a cranberry beer!

Our Thanksgiving tradition…

Stuffing nachos! With turkey, cranberry, and lots of cheese.

Plus broccoli that I pretended was green beans.

My actual Thanksgiving plate.

Our contribution to the meal was peanut butter, butterscotch, toffee candy.

Have a great week!

5Aug2017

New Noosas

by Emily

I’m free (again)! After a short return to work I’m back on vacation for the next week, woo-hoo!

Honestly? I need a vacation. I was only back at work three days but I stayed late for more than an hour on Thursday and Friday and now I’m tuckered out.

Thankfully I had a few exciting things to get me through my week. Like a luscious line up of fun new beverages: Black Hand nitro cold brew / Secret Squirrel Vietnamese iced coffee / La Colombe triple draft latte / Maeil caramel macchiato / Harmless Harvest strawberry coconut water.

And an extra exciting package of product samples from Noosa.

Noosa yogurt is already pretty much angel pudding, so when they offered to let me try their new line of Noosa Mates (yogurt with premium mix-ins) I jumped at the chance.

They were even better than anticipated! Loved them all. I was happy with the portion of both yogurt and toppings and each one has between 240-270 calories. Banana Chocolate Peanut with Guittard chocolate chips and salted peanuts.

Honey cranberry almond with pepitas and granola.

Coconut almond chocolate.

Maple ginger with candied ginger and gingersnap crumble. I wasn’t expecting to like this because I think that I think that ginger is too spicy, but it was delicious! The candied ginger was chewy and delightful.

Honey pretzel peanut.

I ate some fun stuff on my free days too. Like doughnuts (which were just awful, but how cute is that pink wall?!).

And a trip to Red Hook.

We had key lime pie from Steve’s.

And crab sandwiches from Brooklyn Crab. Snow crab roll with Cholula-orange aioli.

Alaskan king crab roll with warm butter and chives.

Plus cole slaw.

And a Passion Paloma with mescal, passionfruit puree, and grapefruit soda.

Plus we stopped at Baked for coffee and brought home a grasshopper bar for dessert later in the week.

After a long span of eating every meal out, I was excited to make us a fancy dinner.

Smoked turkey kielbasa with onions and bell pepper.

Plus pommes aligot <– super cheesy potatoes. I loosely followed this recipe. I had to lighten up a few ingredients to accommodate what we had in the fridge (less butter, 2% milk instead of cream, low-fat three cheese cheddar blend) and it was still insanely yummy.

I served my leftovers piled all together in a bowl with smoked paprika maple mayo on top.

By the end of the week I was so exhausted by my three days of work that I got Chipotle instead of cooking anything! Rice / sautéed veggies / chicken / pinto beans / corn salsa / spicy salsa / sour cream / cheese.

Have a great weekend!

30May2017

Llamas, And Pigs, and Humans, Oh My!

by Emily

Three-day weekend highlights, including lots of new “bests”…

Unicorn smoothie! The layers were acai and pitaya with coconut water and plain Greek yogurt.

Bananarama smoothie. Frozen banana, plain Greek yogurt, a hot chocolate packet, and Banana Wave Banana Milk. <– free product review alert: the banana milk is a vegan milk made of banana puree, soy, oats, and other ingredients. One serving contains as much potassium as a small banana as well as 29 vitamins and minerals and 1200 mg of omega-3 fatty acids. One cup has 150 calories, 4 grams of protein, and 5 grams of added sugar.

Black bear, aka Otha‘s coffee concentrate with housemade chocolate milk. This shop was adorable and we want to go back immediately.

Du’s Donuts. Adam’s all time favorites.

Lunch at Llama Inn.

I had soft-boiled eggs with delicata squash, charred scallions, pumpkin seeds, and chimichurri sauce.

We got our own desserts, flan for Adam and key lime pie for me. Best key lime pie of the decade, it was enrobed in toasted meringue!

Lunch at Pig Bleeker. We had a Salty Spritz – vodka, St. Germain, and apricot, with a salty white wine rinse, and a Champagne Sherry Cobbler that was the all-time best drink we’ve ever had – Fino sherry, fresh citrus, and champagne.

I got a fried chicken thigh sandwich with Pig Beach mustard sauce, house pickles, mayo, and hot sauce. The meat was smoked before it was fried and it was by far the best fried chicken I’ve ever tasted.

Durian mochi.

Malter Chronkite from Mister Dips, a malty chocolate-dipped cone.

Spicy crunchy tuna sushi bowl. Brown rice with ginger, rice vinegar, seaweed, and black sesame seeds / canned tuna fish and smoked trout with Sriracha and mayo / quick pickled cucumbers / fresh avocado / panko and fried garlic toasted in butter / Sriracha on top.

Chopped romaine salad with honey mustard dressing, dill, sautéed mushrooms with garlic, shredded chicken, crumbled blue cheese, and homemade raisins.

I am on Saturday/Sunday so I’ve only got two days of work before a day off, woo-hoo!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: banana

Chili Cheese Fries Because It’s Still Chilly

Emily Of Sandwich

Super

Weekend eats highlights –

Random television musings –

Valentine’s freebie FYIs –

Spicy Cherry Coke Chicken

Miracle On 9th Street

Thanksgiving Week

New Noosas

Llamas, And Pigs, and Humans, Oh My!