Soup’s Up

Highlights from this week…

Whole Foods’ Spring latte special is brown butter cookie – good but not excellent.

Meanwhile, Partners‘ Spring latte special is mojito and it is a 10/10.

I added butterfly peaflower tea to this smoothie (with frozen peaches, banana, soursop, and vanilla almond milk) to make it pretty and ended up with greige.

I was much more successful with frozen blueberries, banana, almond milk, and butterfly peaflower tea.

BelliWelli birthday cake flavored probiotic bar.

I feel like I should give another shout-out to this rapidly dwindling bag of Zapp’s Voodoo seasoned pretzels.

Passion fruit sips; hard seltzer and kombucha.

I had a day off this week and I walked 7 miles roundtrip from Penn Station to the Seaport for this burger and fries. The signature smashburger with gojuchang aioli, American, miso-caramelized onions, and garlic parmesan butter and waffle fries with red miso cheese sauce.

Monday I hadn’t gone to the grocery store for the week yet but we cobbled together a pretty good dinner. Chips and guacamole from our local burrito place.

Bitchin dip with mini sweet peppers (and cucumber slices).

And these Fillo’s walking tamales – Adam liked them, I thought they were underseasoned.

Tuesday I went to the fish counter and whipped up this Southern feast. Fried catfish (breaded in a mix of flour and cornmeal with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika); collard greens sauteed with green onion, lemon, and garlic; and hushpuppies. Then I doused my plate in honey, lemon, and Crystal hot sauce.

And Wednesday I made a giant batch of soup. With evoo, salt and pepper, garlic, yellow onion, celery, zucchini, carrot, potato, diced tomato, harissa, chicken broth, and chicken breast.

Bean, Banana, Bap

Highlights from the week…

Dessert-y yogurt bowl. Vanilla skyr with condensed milk, strawberries, banana, cornflakes, and sprinkles.

These jelly beans really do taste like Froot Loops!

We got chips and quesadillas from Chipotle with their new chicken al pastor and it was actually pretty great.

We went to Long Island Pekin this week for duck (sans camera) and it blew our minds! I ate leftovers with other leftovers and it was a great meal.

Bibimbap-inspired veggie bowls. Riced broccoli sauteed with white pepper and sesame seeds / crispy tofu shreds – extra-firm tofu that I shredded, tossed with evoo and gojuchang, then baked / bean sprouts / gojuchang / cucumber / sauteed baby shitake mushrooms and green onion / fried egg.

Roasted cauliflower with crispy white beans – tossed in evoo, cornstarch, furikake, gochugaru, and ranch seasoning then baked.

Butter Me Up

Some highlights from this tasty week include butterscotch, butterfingers, and butternut squash…

I bought this Monin butterscotch syrup for coffees (and ocassionally Diet Cokes!) and have really been enjoying it.

I also made an ube Vietnamese iced coffee one day.

Another fun beverage – sparkling pomelo iced matcha.

Creamy peach smoothie; frozen peaches and banana with plain skyr and cottage cheese. I will definitely be adding cottage cheese to my shopping list more often.

Voodoo-seasoned pretzel sticks.

We made Butterfinger-inspired no bakes and they were 11/10. Just crushed corn flakes with salt, peanut butter, melted butter, honey, and melted chocolate.

Many of this week’s dinners paired perfectly with dipping sauces. Baked french fries / buffalo chicken meatballs – ground chicken, egg, panko, a splash of half and half, buffalo sauce, shredded gouda, sliced green onions / roasted zucchini tossed in smoked paprika and Trader Joe’s ranch seasoning blend.

Oven-fried extra-firm tofu – marinated in pickle juice and breaded with crushed voodoo pretzels. Plus roasted baby cauliflower.

I had some leftover restaurant/take-out veggies saved in the freezer – spicy baby cauliflower from a Chinese place and garlic Chinese broccoli from a Thai place – which reheated quickly. With Trader Joe’s chicken and cilantro mini wontons.

Smoky broccoli salad – it was so good I gave it a recipe page! – with roasted butternut squash.

Sweet Ting

Some highlights from the weekend…

Blueberries with my 1st plum of the year.

I got my hands on a pink Ting!

One of Adam’s work friends gave us a mini cookies and cream bundt cake from a new cake place. It was good, we want to go try another flavor!

Dinner date a Kinya Ramen. We shared crabmeat fries.

And their special house Old Fashioned.

And I got spicy chicken ramen.

Best dinner of the week/month – savory cottage cheese bowls with chili crisp, fried egg, and cherry tomatoes sauteed in butter and evoo.

I got my greens in in smoothie form; spinach with banana and soursop.

Rock Star

Some highlights from the weekend…

Boba Guys‘ dirty banana milk – Korean banana milk with espressso and boba.

Some treats from Frenchette. A buckwheat chocolate chip cookie plus their pastry stuffed with blood orange curd.

10/10 good vegan gummy candies.

Beef rice roll from Joe’s. <– this was our favorite thing this weekend

We got great take-out from Rokstar Chicken. Their new honey butter boneless chicken plus truffle fries plus roasted green beans from home. Also – for dessert we got their cream cheese bites and they were chewy and wonderful!

Omakase at Genki. We did the 17 piece seating and it was fantastic. Adam’s favorite was the sea bream and mine was the Toro.

Burrito Dreams

Adam and I had a really lovely weekend. There were storms Friday night into Saturday morning but afterwards the weather cleared up nicely so we could enjoy some walking dates. We covered a lot of ground, including walks across the Williamsburg Bridge and Queensboro Bridge. Also a trip to the Guggenheim for the Nick Cave exhibit.

Highlights included…

Sawada Coffee‘s iced latte with hojicha.

Doughnut Project‘s maple cruller is our favorite doughnut in the city.

Lucky Kings Bakery‘s fried mochi stuffed with red bean paste and rolled in sesame seeds. This was amazing.

Banana pudding at Baonanas. Cookies and cream and ube.

Drinks at Dante. Our favorite was this Amalfi Limonata – malfy lemon gin. limoncello, lemon curd, lemon juice, and limonata soda.

I 100% planned last week’s meals so we would have leftover ingredients for homemade painkillers. Pineapple juice, fresh orange juice, and light coconut milk with sweetened condensed milk with dark rum.

Brunch at Loulou. I had a Remy – tequilla, Lillet Rose, and homemade grenadine with lime and sparkling grapefruit.

Also a gruyere omelette.

Lunch at Tacombi. Horchata / hibiscus agua fresca with mezcal and chile.

Corn esquites.

Breakfast taco with eggs, pico, and Oaxaca cheese. <– best dish of the meal

Birria tacos.

Dinner at Super Burrito. We ordered all of this week’s specials with ground beef – burrito, crunchwrap, and nachos. We loved it here!

Epic homemade burrito bowls. Roasted cauliflower rice with roasted onion/bell peppers/poblano pepper, sharp cheddar, double roasted salsa, chicken and chile verde sausage, crispy tortilla strips, and pickled jalopenos.

Green Moose, Guava Juice

Highlights from a yummy week…

The Hanoi roast is definitely my new favorite bean from Nguyen Coffee Supply.

Coconut breakfast bar.

Key lime skyr with passionfruit, banana, and chia seeds; plus granola halfway through.

These guava crackers were weird in a wonderful way; super thin and crispy and a bit sweet.

Fun drinks – tasty spiced hibiscus bissap tea and soursop nectar.

I enjoyed my soursop in a margarita!

See also – rum and coke slushies. Frozen coke ice cubes blended with Cruzan rum and fresh lime.

We made some really great dinners, all of which received a healthy dousing of hot sauces. I stuck with these three for a Caribbean theme.

Coconut rice and beans – brown rice cooked with coconut milk, dark kidney beans, onion, ginger, habanero, and spices / curried fish cakes – canned tuna and salmon with egg, panko, mayo, and Jamaican curry powder / rainbow chard and celery sauteed with some fish sauce and rice vinegar.

Sauteed zoodles with pineapple pulled chicken (a loose take on this recipe).

Roasted kabucha squash with a very loose take on callaloo – frozen kale with coconut milk, onion, garlic, ginger, habanero, turkey, bacon, fresh crab, and spices.

♥♥♥

Some things I loved for Valentine’s week…

An array of pink and/or chocolate-covered-berry coffees. Strawberry milk with espresso and mocha / raspberry pour-over with chocolate milk / iced coffee with chocolate milk and Luxardo cherry.

Prospector Popcorn’s chocolate strawberry flavor was a 9.9/10. We also had themed marshmallows and conversation hearts.

On-theme probiotics – Pure Love kombucha.

Chocolate-covered cherry smoothies. Frozen cherries with chocolate milk and plain Greek yogurt.

Note to future Emily – I did not love the plum version of this hard seltzer.

However, this caramel peanut butter candy bar flavor from Jeni’s is possibly my favorite ice cream.

We loved this cozy dinner. Chicken salad with Candy Snap grapes and smoked almonds / roasted brussel sprouts / roasted delicata squash.

Easy lox toasts. Toasted rye with butter, cream cheese, furikake, gochugaru, and smoked sockeye salmon.

We enjoyed our veggie in green smoothie form – fresh tangerine, frozen spinach, mango, and banana, with water, honey, and key lime juice.