Pumpkin’s Still In Season

by Emily

This post includes three more days of vacation (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday); I eased back into the work-week after my trip. It’s supposed to be in the 20’s in NYC later today so now I kind of wish I was away on vacation again!

Highlights from the week…

Coffee!

Pumpkin spice my grandma brought me from Winans.

Pumpkin smoothie with Greek yogurt, maple syrup, cow’s milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

BBQ at Salt and Bone.

I got a ridiculous but tasty Percocet with aged rum, coco lopez, citrus.

And had turkey breast – 3 hour smoked with a butter sauce – cole slaw, and a few bites of Adam’s potato salad.

Thai food in Sunnyside. Fried tofu.

And drunken noodles that actually had enough veggies for my tastes.

One of our favorite winter traditions is visiting Winter Village at Bryant Park for a thick hot chocolate.

Gooey walnut chocolate chip cookie from Chip in Astoria.

Buckeye straight from Ohio.

We tried something fun from Minamoto Kitchoan – Sakura Gomora, sweet bean and mochi wrapped in a cherry blossom pancake.

Packed lunch – strawberry and rosehip kefir cup with a cupcake crumbled in! Plus a snap dragon apple.

I brought in chocolate cupcakes (from a mix!) with homemade cream cheese frosting and Amy Sedaris sprinkles for a coworker’s birthday.

Yogurt with pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice Cheerios and Frosted Mini Wheats.

Roasted fall salad – quinoa / shredded brussel sprouts / leeks / turkey bacon / sweet and spicy pecans / gold raisins / and oven-fried sage.

One of the co-founders of CHUT UP reached out to my about sampling their new line of condiments and I happily accepted, so those were featured in dinners for the rest of the week. All three flavors are made with minimal processing and no added sugars (and they’re tasty!).

I made a veggie-packed version of chana masala with the addition of celery and orange and yellow bell pepper.

Topped with apple and caramelized onion chutney.

And a dinner for dipping with blue cheese dressing and beet ketchup.

Roasted broccoli and a root veggie mix from Trader Joe’s (carrots, beets, parsnips, and sweet potato).

Baked chicken tenders crusted in panko after an overnight marinate in peri peri hot sauce, minced ginger, lemon, and brown sugar.

23Oct2017

Last Week I…

by Emily

Last week I loved: Webster!

Adam and I can’t believe how handsome he is and we text each other pictures of him constantly but they’re on my phone so they usually don’t make it to the blog.

Last week I watched: Rick and Morty. We’re almost through the 3rd season and it has been fantastic. I think season 2 was the best so far though. I also have been re-rewatching The Office because I’m obsessed. It’s so funny and I love when shows have characters (Jim and Pam) just adore each other with minimal drama. The Micheal Scott seasons are perfectly cringe-inducing – I have really bad secondhand embarrassment anyways and I can barely watch most of his scenes.

Last week I ate: More samples from the healthy brand showcase.

Setton Farms is America’s 2nd largest pistachio producer and their stuff is delicious. We’ve been enjoying chocolate-covered pistachios along with the perfectly salted nut blend.

I also liked the pineapple flavored raisins from Amazing Fruit.

Last week I pumpkined: Four new items! See more below.

Last week I drank: Key lime La Croix. The newest flavor is delicious, and currently my favorite fizzy water.

Last week I listened to: “Bodak Yellow” by Cardi B on repeat. It’s super catchy and a lot of her word-play is very clever. I’ve also been listening to a ton of Betty Who.

Other food highlights…

This week’s coffee combo.

Pumpkin tres leches bubble tea from Teapsy in Astoria.

Pumpkin and salted maple pecan frozen yogurt with peanut butter, marshmallow cream, Oreos, and mochi.

I made a fancied-up version of my Spinach and Artichoke Egg Pie. I precooked the veggies with olive oil, onion, anchovies, and tons of garlic. Plus I substituted cottage cheese because I like it better than ricotta.

No carbohydrate component to that meal so we had potato chips and pumpkin beers, woo-hoo!

We tried pizza from a new place – Frantoni’s. Adam and I shared four things so we could try a lot of the menu. The eggplant slice was my favorite but the buffalo chicken was good too.

I made bagel and lox nachos! Everything bagel chips // TJ’s four cheese blend // hot smoked salmon // green onions // and cream cheese sauce with ginger, soy sauce, and brown sugar.

Plus roasted brussel sprouts on the side.

I made buffalo chicken chili. Tons of sauteed onion, green onion, carrots, and celery // tomato paste and crushed tomatoes // salt, pepper, celery seed, and smoked paprika // shredded chicken breast // black beans // cream cheese.

Have a great week!

16Oct2017

White Gummi Slushie

by Emily

I worked the weekend (and had two weekdays off) so my schedule has been a bit out of whack. It is still basically summer temperatures here so we haven’t moved on to hot chocolate and soups but we have been loving the crap out of Pumpkin Month. Here were some highlights from the past 7 days…

Weekly coffee combo – Black Hand and chocolate milk.

This pumpkin spice kefir is super tasty.

Pumpkin Noosa with a TJ’s pumpkin cereal bar and a SweeTango apple.

TJ’s pumpkin yogurt with pumpkin spice Cheerios and Frosted Mini Wheats and a Starkrimson pear.

Key lime skyr with pomegranate and Heritage Flakes.

Adam and I got a midweek lunch at Sweet to Lick vegan cafe and we are completely in love. We had a terrific hero with bulgogi style setain, gochujang mayo, and pickled vegetables.

Plus the best chocolate chip cookies ever sandwiched around Oreo cream filling!

Detroit Friends potato chips (expo sample). These are some of the very best kettle chips we’ve ever tasted and their company is totally fantastic too – some of the potatoes are grown in a vacant lot in Detroit’s Hope District.

Orange slice candies. There’s a vitamin commercial where a woman squeezes an orange slice shaped gummy and it made Adam and I both immediately want to run out to the drugstore.

Campfire S’mores ice cream.

White gummi slushie from 7-11. We are obsessed, these are so good. I’m not sure what the actual flavor is (pineapple? or maybe white grape?) but they are juicy and delicious.

All-you-can-eat sushi buffet at Mizumi. We love it there, everything is super fresh and expertly prepared. I didn’t snap all of my plates but the highlights included crab cakes, inari, and seaweed salad.

Roasted squash and tuna quinoa cakes with cocktail sauce.

Veggie bowls. Shredded cabbage tossed in this sauce / roasted edamame / marinated hard-boiled eggs (marinated in gochujang, brown sugar, soy sauce, and rice vinegar).

Mexican food at Oak House in Floral Park.

I had a Mezcal mojito.

And veggie fajitas with carrots, onions, squash, peppers, and mushrooms. They had chipotle Cholula at the table and we doused everything with it.

Plus Adam and I split vanilla flan and tres leches cake for dessert.

Have a great week!

29Sep2017

The End Of Apple Month

by Emily

Highlights from this week…

Coffee coffee. More Black Hand magic.

PSA – the maple pecan latte at Starbucks tastes like nothing and we do not recommend it.

I’ve finished out my Apple Month yogurts. Cinnamon apple Chobani with chia seeds, vanilla almond granola, and an applesauce on the side.

TJ’s caramel apple with Heritage Flakes and a SweeTango on the side.

Snacks of note included apple mix candy corn (green apple, caramel apple, and apple pie flavored).

And white truffle chips and baby carrots with garlic dip.

I made bean burgers for dinner. This recipe but with white beans (great northern and white kidney), pesto, and parmesan. With roasted cauliflower and a smoked garlic aioli.

Clean out the freezer night. Veggies and orange chicken from Trader Joe’s.

It was actually a pretty good meal, but cocktail hour was better – calamansi lime juice with club soda and vodka.

Last night we did a dinner date in Brooklyn at LaRina. 10/10, we adored it! Housemade pastas, an innovative menu, a great interior/vibe. I had lemon gigli with duck ragu.

And we had fantastic panna cotta with salted caramel for dessert. YUM!

Have a sweet weekend.

5Sep2017

Cinnamon And Marshmallow In My Coffee

by Emily

I have eaten some very yummy things over the past four days! Adam and I both worked the holiday, but first we got to spend almost two full weekend days together!!! Good times.

Things [literal things] that made me happy this weekend…

Thanks to all of Target’s cheap “back to school” goodies, we have a jazzy new shower curtain and bedspread.

The sheets underneath are pretty happy-making too.

A Saturday trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Such a fun way to spend a morning. We were expecting things to be sparse due to the season but there was still a ton of beauty to admire.

As of last Friday, it’s Apple Month.

This spiced apple bourbon hand soap is currently the best smelling thing in our house!

Culinary highlights…

I haven’t eaten anything apple yet but I did cram some pretty fall-forward flavors into my coffees. Cinnamon.

And toasted marshmallow.

Though I also had a very summer-y Australian iced coffee with Wandering Bear cold brew and vanilla Curious Creamery ice cream.

Cheddar-chive biscuit and a matcha iced latte at Annex.

Brunch at Maison Premiere. We had a pastry assortment that was out of this world.

Maison Jungle Bird – Hamilton Black Rum, Cruzan Black Strap Rum, pineapple, Campari, and sugar cane.

I had the duck confit hash with bell pepper and poached egg. <– not as good as Colonie, sadly

While at the Garden, we had lunch at the Yellow Magnolia Café. (<– newest venture from the chef/owner of Wilma Jean)

I had wonderfully crispy, lemony fried chicken. Served with habanero honey, collard green slaw, and delicious wild rice. I suspect that there was honey butter in the rice because I don’t even like wild rice.

We took a long post-lunch walk for coffee and ended up also getting ice cream for dessert – blueberry with blue velvet cake from Little Cupcake Bakeshop.

Friday night I met a girlfriend in the Lower East Side for dinner and drinks. Sizzling noodles at The Tang.

I ended up with way too much food because I also couldn’t resist the Chungking Express salad – romaine, soft-boiled egg, honey, black vinegar, and chili oil.

How fantastically ridiculous are the drinks at Mother of Pearl?! My daiquiri – with Campari, grapefruit, and rosemary tincture – was tasty to boot.

We made an oldie but a goodie – buffalo blue cheese black bean burgers. Served with raw carrots and celery the first night.

Our citrus-y sip-while-you-cook line up did not contain any winners, we hated both of these drinks! <– normally I wouldn’t include this in a “highlights” section but they both sound so good in theory that I wanted to make sure I warned you

Sunday night I got fancy with a Southern dinner.

Pan-fried catfish! I made a spice rub with salt, pepper, cayenne, cumin, brown sugar, and smoked paprika and cooked the fish for 3.5 minutes on each side. Drizzled with a lemon butter pan sauce.

Plus sautéed collard greens with shallots, toasted coconut, and avocado (plus lemon, rice vinegar, and liquid smoke).

Flavor themes of the weekend – Campari / eggs / coffee / collard greens.

25Aug2017

Sandwiches And Scottie Dogs

by Emily

Bites from this week…

I had an exciting product sample to review – Nocciolata Dairy Free Organic Hazelnut and Cocoa Spread. It’s organic, vegan, and made without palm oil.

The spread tastes like Nutella but better – it’s creamier and the sweetness has less bite. I ate many a spoonful this past week!

I also enjoyed it in an excitingly neon strawberry smoothie. Frozen strawberries / pitaya / cow’s milk / chocolate hazelnut spread.

And in yogurt bowls with Greek yogurt and a trio of plucots.

Non-yogurt lunches came from the cafeteria (and were tasty as all get out). Toasted sandwich – cheesy focaccia / mayo / spicy chicken / cheddar / tomato / spinach – with sweet potato fries.

Bean and veggie quesadilla – with pinto beans / mozzarella / bell peppers / onions / corn / and tomato.

This week’s work snack was candy – Japanese milk chews and black licorice.

My coffee (former freebie) was 10/10. This is less roasty than what I usually go for but still totally swoon-worthy, it isn’t the slightest bit bitter or sour.

Adam was gone every night this week and I am unable to make myself adult if no one is there to see it so dinners were convince foods and/or nachos.

I’m scheduled to work the next five days but feeding myself a vegetable is definitely job #1 for the weekend.

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!

24Jul2017

Freedom!

by Emily

I’m on vacation! Friday was my last day of work for 11 glorious days! I prepped for vacation by eating all of the ice cream last week 🙂

For a work-week this past week was not a bad one. Adam and I were off together on Wednesday and got do some Lower East Side wandering. And over the weekend we did some Long Island exploring. Plus I met with friends for brunch. And ate all the aforementioned ice cream.

Last week’s flavor themes: (Stumptown) coffee // ice cream // cheese // corn // egg. Highlights…

Brunch at The General Greene. I had the farro bowl with pesto, roasted sweet potato, avocado, and a poached egg.

Black Brick Coffee just might be our new favorite spot. It’s a neat space and my Stumptown latte was ridiculously good.

Trader Joe’s new coconut cold brew coffee is pretty tasty, especially with chocolate milk.

Vanilla bean yogurt with blackberries, granola, and chocolate tahini.

Plain Greek yogurt with black plum and Oreo cheesecake.

Sandwich with curly fries. Spicy chicken / mayo and mustard / lettuce / pickles.

Because I don’t eat enough nachos at home, they were a special in the cafeteria this week. Pinto beans and cheddar with olives, corn, bell pepper, and onion.

Our Long Island exploration took us to both Farmingdale and Babylon. We had a flight of craft beers at Lithology. My favorite was the honey rye with rosemary, followed closely by the sour farmhouse ale.

We also did lunch at Swell Taco.

My burrito was giant and packed with grilled chicken, refried pinto beans, rice, veggies, salsa fresca, sour cream, and Monterey jack.

I’ve seen multiple foodie instagrammers try to say that Ben’s compares with Levain <– NO. PSA – this was not good. These cookies were greasy and terrible and I threw mine out after two bites and still had a stomach ache.

We checked out the Filipino goodies at Johnny Air Mart and snacked on calamansi soda and Polvorón shortbread.

Bubble tea from Vivi. Grapefruit Yakult with crystal boba and coconut jelly.

Brigadeiro Bakery taught me that I actually don’t like ice cream as much as I think because apparently brigadeiros are my favorite dessert. <– they are a condensed milk candy so that’s not that surprising

Stumptown coffee soft serve with sprinkles and cookie dough at Scoops.

Birthday cake soft serve with sprinkles at Milk Bar.

Cookie dough with toasted coconut soft serve at Stew Leonard’s. This was both the best soft serve and the best edible cookie dough we’d ever tasted.

Sweet milk and browned butter pecan ice cream at Malai.

BBQ chicken salads. Baby romaine with ranch / cheddar / cucumbers / leftover cole slaw / shredded chicken with Korean bbq sauce.

Bean and chicken bowls. Sautéed onions and green pepper / cheddar / shredded chicken with cilantro sauce – cilantro, roasted jalapeño, canola oil, honey, and salt / pinquito beans from Susie Q.

The beans were a kit sent to me to review. They came with a premixed seasoning packet (mild red chili, onion, garlic, and select spices) so they were a snap to prepare, and much tastier than canned beans. They kept their shape after cooking and were firm but not chewy or mealy. <– I would buy these with my own money