It’s beginning to taste a lot like Christmas! Very excited about this year’s ridiculous line-up on on-theme items.
Highlights from this past week include…
Eggnog + Trager Brothers Coffee (<– the stuff from the hospital coffee shop in Virginia that I was obsessed with).
Plus I made an eggnog dalgona coffee!
A very pepperminty breakfast. I was expecting the peanut butter/mint combo to be strange but that Perfect bar was actually amazing.
Greek yogurt bowl with cranberry sauce, cinnamon, and butter rum trail mix.
Still really loving these cocktail hour truffles from Trader Joe’s.
We are even more excited about these buttermints that my parents HANDMADE!?!
Turkey taco night. Corn tortilla with homemade chipotle salsa / sautéed white onion, yellow and orange bell pepper, and poblano pepper / ground turkey / shredded cheese / sour cream / hot sauce. Plus a taco-less pile fillings on the side.
Taco bowl night. Everything from the previous meal plus cranberry sauce and minus the tortilla.
We took a break from tacos with take-out from our favorite Japanese place. Garlic sautéed veggies, tempura veggies and chicken, seaweed salad, edamame, and tofu.
I hope all of my American readers had a safe but satisfying Thanksgiving. Adam and I both worked the holiday but were able to continue our tradition of Thanksgiving night nachos! And thankfully our days ended early enough that we had time to chat with my parents while taking the dog on a cocktail walk and Zoom conference with all of my in-laws in the evening.
We spent a little time talking about things we are thankful for which was an easy assignment for me because I feel like thankful is actually my primary state of being – at least five times a day I thank my lucky stars that I just get to know Adam and Webster, let alone have them both love me back.
By the way, even my non-holiday eats were still pretty much on-theme because the short list of superficial things I’m thankful for definitely includes coffee, boba, sprinkles, ice cream, and pizza! Highlights from the past week include…
Thompson Square Bagels (my favorite in the city) poppy seed with birthday cake cream cheese.
Yogurt bowl win. Plain Greek with peanut butter, cranberry dressing, and granola. Trader Joe’s cranberry dressing (the stuff in the refrigerated section, not the canned one) is the best in the game.
This s’mores kefir was good but not as exciting as I wanted it to be.
Whole Foods has a whole line of specialty holiday ice cream flavors so I am obviously going to be eating ice cream every day for the next month.
Thanksgiving nachos. This year we did Trader Joe’s horseradish and chives potato chips / shredded cheese / duck fennel sausage / shishito peppers / cranberry dressing. Plus roasted brussel sprouts on the side.
And we stayed on theme with maple margaritas.
No pie for dessert, but we did have these festive truffles.
Roasted broccoli and cabbage with spicy cashew sauce and rolled tofu.
We lucked out that Taglio is so close to our apartment because they are currently my favorite pizza in the city. This roasted potato and vodka slice were both 10/10. Plus they have given a ton of food to the workers at Adam’s hospital throughout the pandemic so I am thrilled to support them (multiple times a week!).
Homemade chili topped with sour cream, jalopenos, and pimento cheese. I used duck sausage, black beans, orange bell pepper, poblano pepper, sweet onion, diced tomato, spices, and beer.
Highlights from this week include – truly epic snacks, a mid-week date night with the husband, and homemade dinners featuring fantastic sausages that I found at Whole Foods. I had a weekend comp day and a holiday comp day and was off Monday-Tuesday, which was just lovely!
Our favorite beer was that one that looks like a smoothie – Even More Hydra, a sour ale with blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, marshmallow, and cacao nibs.
The fudge ripple in this 7-11 ice cream is my favorite thing I’ve eaten all year.
Highly recommend these Trader Joe’s crunchy honeycrisp for Apple Month.
What a wonderful weekend we just had! I worked (super long, busy days) Friday, Saturday, Sunday but Adam was off in the evenings too so we made sure to aggressively enjoy ourselves. Tons of NYC restaurants are doing safely distanced / non-exploitative outdoor dining now and we took full advantage.
Highlights include…
Homemade frozen pain-killers, enjoyed on a long walk with Webster. Coconut milk, orange juice, frozen pineapple, nutmeg, and dark rum.
Drinks and dessert at Freeman’s Alley. Bananas foster with a spicy margarita and a jammy vodka cocktail with elderflower and raspberry.
Dinner at Wayla, aka our new favorite Thai spot. They have Thai iced tea with oat milk.
We had a couple good cocktails, including this Hanabi Milk Punch which was my favorite drink I’ve ever been served. Naked Turtle Rum, Blackwell Rum, strawberry, star anise, cloves, genmaicha, and Singha soda.
Lump crab fried rice
Tua Pad Prik Khing – wok-fried long beans, crispy tofu, and galangal chili paste.
Dinner at Glasserie. I had a hibiscus margarita. Also a Hemingway daiquiri that knocked my socks off.
We shared a bunch of plates, each one better than the last. Olives and pickled peppers // labne, honey, and griddled bread.
Roasted lamb with potato and grilled scallions.
Tzatziki with trout roe and potato husks. <– my favorite dish of the weekend
It was a very low-key weekend (I slept for ten hours Friday night!?) but I did manage to clean every inch of our apartment yesterday, a very overdue and satisfying task.
Cheeseburger fries! Ground turkey sauteed with tomato paste, fish sauce, and yellow mustard, baked on top of curly fries with sharp cheddar, green onion, and chopped dill pickles.
Curry chicken salad with baked green beans. The chicken salad came out great – it was packed with sauteed celery, toasted cashews, and yellow raisins.
Today is my 1st day back in at the hospital after a day off and a two-day stint of project days at home. I had to recertify in ServSafe and I had a big task to work on (updating the Nutrition Department’s Clinical Practice Guidelines to be more current/evidence-based) so my boss let me work from home, which was lovely. I got to leisurely brew Phin coffee and sip while I worked! Plus I ate a million snacks. <– Normally I sit in the ICUs and wear an N-95 for most of the day so I took full advantage of having a free face!
Highlights included…
The company that makes the instant espresso we love for Dalgona coffees also makes a really good espresso roast.
Plain Greek yogurt bowl with blackberries, peach, cashew butter, and a chopped up Bueno Bar. <– I realize it is ridiculous to stir a candy bar into your lunch but this was breath-takingly good and I’m glad I did it!
Vanilla skyr yogurt bowl with blackberries, black plum, cashew butter, coconut chips, and starry sprinkles.
Adam and I had to go into Manhattan for a doctor’s appointment so we stopped by Bibble and Sip for a cream puff. A cream puff topped with crème brûlée and filled with milk tea cream and boba!
Still obsessed with Hal’s caffeinated cola seltzer.
Adam and are both head over heels for these dinner mints. We made it through 12 years of marriage before we realized we are both fans of these guys!
This soursop ice cream was possibly the very best packaged ice cream I’ve ever tasted.
I topped this cheese enchilada meal with more cheese, sour cream, and Crystal hot sauce and it was 10/10. P.S. I highly recommend Amy’s frozen meal options, this one is good even if you aren’t over the top about it.
There’s a newish poke place in our neighborhood that lets you add a thousand toppings. This was white rice with crabcake, tofu, eel sauce, spicy mayo, cucumber, shiitakes, shredded carrot, string bean, green onion, tamago (shredded egg omelet), oshinko (pickled veggies), inari (tofu skin), garlic crisps, and lotus chips.
Blistered green beans – sauteed with garlic, ginger, and chili oil – with Trader Joe’s mini chicken and cilantro wontons.
We officially went back at the hospital full-time this week and I’m not going to lie, the transition was rough. Sitting in the ICUs means I have to wear an N-95 mask all day long which comfortwise is a big change from charting in my kitchen next to an iced coffee. Thankfully I had a few days off mid-week so I was able to ease into it.
Highlights…
This week’s coffee combo was Starbucks cold brew with the super marshmallowy Chobani chocolate oat milk.
Eating Chalk 