Breakfast highlights from a lovely weekend…
Homemade maple vanilla matcha latte.
Hometown Bakeshop. We shared a great egg sandwich – over-medium eggs on a cheddar biscuit with cheddar, turkey bacon, and smoked aioli.
Plus a funfetti scone.
I had a cafe con leche with condensed milk! Plus a pink flamingo – mezcal with guava and lime.
And shredded beef for breakfast, with sweet plantains, avocado, and black beans and rice. This was almost as good as the Cuban food of our Miami days!
Some highlights from the past week…
Ben and Jerry’s new tiramisu ice cream is 10/10.
Caribbean-inspired snacks. Guava paste + mozarella cheese. And hibiscus things.
Breakfast for dinner. Avocado toast (on rye, with turkey bacon) and fruit salad (blueberries, strawberries, mandarin, and banana). Plus a Bloody Mary! P.S. No, this single slice of toast was not enough dinner. I had other items planned but I had my cocktail before I started cooking and I ended up eating the tiramisu ice cream instead!
Big salads. Trader Joe’s herb salad mix with balsamic fig dressing, baby corn, blue cheese, peanuts, chickpeas, and ground black garlic.
Pasta night. Udon noodles with sautéed shitake and oyster mushrooms with cream cheese, lemon, and gojuchang; topped with kelp granules. Plus roasted baby cauliflower.
A take on okonomiyaki with roasted cabbage and turkey bacon. Topped with Sriracha, Kewpie, furikake, and bonito flakes.
For a week of easing back into real life from vacation the past 5 days weren’t too bad! I even managed to cook a few dinners. That said, work has been insane and I am not sad that I’m heading into a three day weekend!
Highlights from the past week include…
Coffee combo – Hudson Roastery with sweetened condensed milk.
See also – we are head over heels for this dulce de leche instant coffee.
Really enjoyed this energy tea; I’ve been loving mint drinks since December.
See also – we made green Thai tea iced lattes.
We also made fruity matcha spritzers. Matcha with key lime La Croix and fresh lime and orange juice.
Berry (beary!) milkshake – Thai tea ice cream mochi blended with vanilla almond milk and frozen strawberries and grapes.
Yogurt bowl – vanilla yogurt with peanut butter, chia, and granola.
These apple pie rice cakes have milk powder in them and a great sweet/savory thing going.
Vegan pepperoni-inspired jerky + everything seasoning chickpea snacks. Both were good but not my favorite. But a nice snack paired together.
Layered halvah. P.S. We also bought halvah-crusted pecans and they were insane.
Leftovers and lettuce wraps converged for the perfect dinner. We used butterhead lettuce to wrap ground turkey sautéed with gojuchang with celery, peanuts, quick pickled cucumber and carrot salad, and pickled radish. Plus leftovers from great take-out we got over the weekend – kimbap and Korean fried chicken.
It’s possible we over-purchased fried chicken… we snacked on it all week long!
A quick and easy dinner – chicken burgers from the freezer with sautéed bell peppers and green onion, mashed avocado, a fried egg, and fantastic hot sauce from back home.
The best dinner of the week/month/new year! I made buffalo chicken meatballs (with ground turkey since we were shopping during a winter storm, hot sauce, cream cheese, and blue cheese) with sautéed carrot and celery, and homemade garlic bread (garlic, butter, spices, and tons of parmesan baked on everything ciabatta rolls).
Last week of 2021! Here were some highlights…
The week after Christmas is still an acceptable time for eggnog coffee.
See also – I made a chestnut iced latte. Strong espresso plus half and half with chestnut paste, sugar, vanilla bean, cinnamon, and mace.
This grape kombucha was wonderfully juicy.
See also – rainbow sherbet Hi-Chews.
Whole Food’s peanut butter and jelly bites plus mandarins.
Christmas dinner leftovers – roasted brussel sprouts with duck sausage, sharp cheddar, and chili flakes.
We might actually be addicted to Roast Sandwiches. I’ve been getting take-out from them at least once a week the past month and I think about their roast beef sandwiches constantly. This was a bbq chicken crunch wrap.
Sautéed maple sriracha kale with an herby bean salad. Great Northern beans with green onion, turkey bacon, garlic oil, Sichuan pepper salt, and tons of fresh mint and cilantro.
An even fancier salad. Sautéed kale with garlic and balsamic vinaigrette topped with roasted beets, deglet dates, pomegranate, honey goat cheese, and crumbled beef bacon.
P.S. Starting tomorrow Adam and I are both on vacation together for a week!
Happy Hanukkah to my readers who celebrate! Highlights from this week include…
My new favorite citrus – Kishu Mandarins. They are as juicy as they are small and adorable.
Fat Orange Cat double IPAs.
The most “me” beer I’ve ever purchased – Evil Twin’s cola sour with marshmallow and cinnamon.
A fun thing for this December – we bought a marshmallow advent calendar. Our first two flavors were cranberry and maple pancake.
My parents sent us an assortment of mint candies, including homemade buttermints!
A take on the New York Times’ cheesy white bean bake – I added shredded chicken, onion, chili flake, and urfa pepper.
Trader Joe’s cheese blintzes. Topped with cranberry sauce and a brown sugar vanilla yogurt sauce.
Chicken burger, roasted broccoli and cauliflower, and Trader Joe’s latkes and cauliflower latkes.
Takeout from Roast – chicken taco sandwich / roast beef melt / crispy chili brussel sprouts – with leftover latkes.
What an odd-feeling week; Adam and I came back from vacation and then immediately both went to work on Saturday, then it was a holiday week which always feels special even though we both worked, and tomorrow we are heading to Pennsylvania for a belated holiday celebration with all of my in-laws. But first, tonight we are meeting out of town friends for Her Name is Han, which should be quite fun.
Highlights from the week include – mostly things that were on-theme!
I want to say I don’t have a limited/seasonal release item problem but this year I stockpiled things that were on-theme for Thanksgiving, so you tell me. My Christmas collection is also pretty robust.
I needed special coffee to ease back into work so I pulled out Hudson Opera House Espresso beans from our last trip to Hudson Roastery.
Perfect Bar’s new chocolate toffee flavor was yummy (still can’t compete with the cookie dough one though).
See also – I liked Barebell’s holiday crisp even better. I couldn’t totally identify the flavor profile – coconut? – but it was creamy and delicious.
Yogurt bowl. With pumpkin seed butter, cranberry sauce, and maple and almond butter granola.
Peanut brittle Reese’s?! I actually loved these (still not as good as the pretzel cups!).
Homemade bbq turkey and black bean chili. Topped with cheese, cranberry sauce, and Trader Joe’s hot and sweet jalapenos.
Plus herbed stuffing veggie chips.
Salads. Sweet baby lettuce with black garlic balsamic vinaigrette, Trader Joe’s maple roasted almonds, smoked turkey, and roasted butternut squash.
Plus a mix of stuffing chips; we much preferred Trader Joe’s to the Whole Foods version.
Nachos! Stuffing chips with cheese, cranberry sauce, and smoked turkey.
Adam and I both had a full week of vacation off together so, of course, we went home for a visit! We ran downtown along the water, got up early to walk on the beach, had dinners with family and friends, and just generally enjoyed every single moment! I got my wedding dress out of storage without telling Adam and surprised him on the beach where we got married, which was super fun. And some food highlights included a coconut mint fraco with condensed milk, mahi from a food truck at Coki, and salmon patties from Ashley’s at the airport.
Highlights from this past week include…
Iced latte with ube cold foam!
Very into these chocolate peanut butter squares at the moment.
I even put one in a yogurt bowl – with vanilla bean yogurt, cinnamon, banana, and plum.
Yogurt bowl with plain Greek, pumpkin seed butter, pumpkin spice granola, and gumdrop grapes.
This week’s sparkling matchas – yuzu and mango.
This week’s pumpkin beers – the seasonal ale and imperial stout from Southern Tier.
These veggie crisps are great at baseline and even better with homemade guacamole.
I had orange juice in the house for the first time in years so I took the opportunity to make creamsicle milkshakes.
I made an amazing sundae with the guava and soursop ice creams from this fantastic line. Plus sweetened condensed milk, multi-grain Cheerios, and Luxardo cherries.
Brussel sprouts roasted with grapes, turkey kielbasa, white cheddar, and sweet and spicy pecans.
This citrus rice – I skipped the carrots and subbed almonds for cashews – with sautéed fennel and kielbasa. This was our first time cooking fennel – I used the bulb and the fronds – and we loved it.
One-tray sheet-pan hash – potato, sweet potato, red onion, bell peppers, sharp cheddar, and pinto beans, topped with guacamole, sour cream, hot sauce, and heirloom baby tomatoes.
Eating Chalk 