Sonic-Style Strawberry Diet Coke {Recipe Copycat}

by Emily

Diet coke with ice and a straw is my number one, all time, top, take only it to a deserted island, favorite food. My favorite-favorite is Diet Cherry Coke (which you cannot find anywhere these days) followed closely by Diet Coke with a splash of Strawberry Crush. Given that information, I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I am completely obsessed with the Strawberry Diet Cokes from Sonic Drive-In.

Whenever we drive within 50 miles of a Sonic I always drag my road trip buddies in for a large one.

Sadly (stupidly) there are no locations in NYC, so I’ve had to wait for my next fix.

I’m not very good at waiting though. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and come up with a copycat recipe to make at home. Please note – I’m using “recipe” pretty loosely here, these strawberries are not exactly complicated.

Strawberry Diet Coke, serves 4

16 oz fresh strawberries, cored and chopped
1/3 cup granulated sugar

Place berries and sugar in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 – 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved completely and the berries have started to weep. Remove from heat and let cool before storing* in a sealed container in the fridge. *Be sure you get the berries and the liquid, that syrup is where a lot of the flavor ends up.

Put ice and prepared strawberries in the bottom of your cup. Pour desired soda on top – you don’t have to use Diet Coke, I guess. Drink with a straw.

Yum! These turned out perfect. If I had crushed ice then they would be just as good as the original.

And you know I had to find a way to involve sweetened condensed milk. See below for a Berries and Cream variation. Even if you’re not a SCM addict, including the vanilla bean paste in the regular recipe would be a nice touch.

Recipe Variation – Strawberries and Cream Diet Coke

After berries have cooled, stir in 1 tsp vanilla bean paste. Once you’ve assembled your berries, ice, and soda, drizzle sweetened condensed milk over the top.

18May2014

Long Week Wrap-Up; The Perfect Date? I’d Have To Say April 25th.

by Emily

Woah! It’s been almost two weeks; this is going to be a loooooong post, and that’s after I cut out a whole bunch of stuff. I left in lots of coffee, dinners in bowls, and tasty medjool dates. I’ve had a bad case of the Blogging Blahs recently and I just can’t get myself to sit down and write. Even though I’m not talking about it much, we have been eating fancy meals and doing fun things. Like spending last Saturday in Manhattan…

On our way to the theatre!

We saw Bullets Over Broadway and loved it. Zach Braff – one of my idols – played the lead and the show was super funny.

Here is some of what’s gone on {my plate} since I last posted – –

breakfasts and lunches

Amazing hot chocolate and a vanilla almond KIND bar.

Smoothie = frozen banana, dates, vanilla almond milk, vanilla almond butter, cinnamon-maple sugar, and vanilla bean paste.

Yogurt bowl. 2% Fage topped with cooked strawberries, chopped date, and pecans.

Yogurt lunch.

Dannon coffee Greek yogurt,

plus dates with sweet and spicy pecans, and an apple.

Super salad. I packed spring mix topped with blue cheese, sweet and spicy pecans, and chopped apple, then added some Italian dressing from the salad bar at work. P.S. The cafeteria was on point this week; I bought several cheesy slices of pizza and had creamy lobster bisque with giant pieces of meat.

Lunch with Au Bon Pain. They sent me some coupons to try out their new late spring menu.

We tried the Sriracha Chicken Sandwich—all-natural chicken with Sriracha sauce, pickled banana peppers, arugula, tomatoes and lemon aioli on a baguette. Interesting, but not too spicy for the husband.

A Lemon and Sweet Cheese CroisBun – flaky croissant blended with butter bun, filled with sweet cheese and lemon curd.

And an Arnold Palmer with their black currant iced tea.

Everything was really yummy, but we were pretty annoyed because the location we chose was out of the new salads, both of which sounded amazing.

[BBQ Chicken Salad—all-natural chicken marinated in barbecue sauce, romaine, roasted corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, three-cheddar blend and light ranch dressing. Fresh Fruit & Baby Kale Salad—fresh watermelon, strawberries, mandarin oranges, feta and sliced almonds on a bed of baby kale and balsamic vinaigrette.]

I will not be going back to that location, but I will be heading to ABP for a salad asap.

drinks and desserts

Many iced lattes with my magic milk straws.

Also the cookie dough iced coffee from Dunkin is still great.

And this double espresso over ice – with skim milk and sugar – from Café Dada that filled me with joy.

We are officially giving two thumbs up to Rice Dream’s Horchata.

Adam actually liked it even more than I did.

Still working my way through Buzzfeed’s Frozen Treat’s list; #33 was cholado from Las Americas Bakery.

We got Raspado, shaved ice with homemade fruit syrup and sweetened condensed milk.

Caramel date shake – sea salt caramel gelato blended with dates and skim milk.

Frozen hot chocolate from Tim Horton’s. Please note – they sent me a free coupon so I could sample this new product.

It wasn’t as good as the frozen hot chocolate, but it was definitely delicious. We would plan on purchasing them again this summer. The fudge on top was out of control.

This cookie dough candy was as good as you’d expect it to be. <– i.e. if that sort of thing sounds good to you then you’ll probably like it but if you thought“dear god, why would you dip cookie dough in chocolate” then you’ll probably think it’s too sweet. I thoroughly enjoyed half and then was happy to throw the rest away.

Brooklyn Farmacy is officially our new favorite place.

A family restored the 1920’s pharmacy and turned it into a soda fountain heaven. The music, fixtures, and staff wardrobe are all throw-backs to the ’20s but in a way that is touching and kitschy rather than cheesy (think classy, not Johnny Rockets).

We shared a hibiscus float and a maple egg cream that were both indescribably good.

We practically ordered a second round!

dinners

Farro bowls. Leftover farro tossed with soy sauce and rice vinegar / sautéed shiitake mushrooms and shredded carrots / sauerkraut sautéed with Sriracha and sugar / sliced cucumber / and a fried egg.

Here it is before the egg went down.

Pasta bowls.

Whole wheat linguine / spinach and roasted broccoli / sauce made of a raw egg cracked into the hot pasta plus a splash of milk and huge handful of shredded swiss cheese / topped with panko fried with evoo, smoked paprika, and truffle salt.

Burrito bowl at Calexico. Rice / black beans / guacamole / cojita cheese / avocado sauce / and jalopeños.

Old-school burger and fries at Bareburger. Turkey burger – on a bun! – with pickle chips, tomato, lettuce, mayo, and ketchup. Just like a McDonald’s burger from when I was a kid.

Cheese plate! Assembled entirely of items from Trader Joe’s.

Dates, salmon jerky,

orange slices, pear,

rosemary crackers,

and Italian truffle cheese.

The cheese was an early appetizer for our sushi night.

I got a pickle veggie roll and a non-authentic fried stuff roll. Both were only ok. We had sushi a couple of times over the past weeks and none of it has been very good.

A fancy dinner, after our date at the theatre, at Stone Park Café.

We started with a salad of baby arugula, toasted pecans, artichoke hearts, and blue cheese vinaigrette.

And the scallop and marrow tacos. Uggggh. These were insane.

I had seared Catham cod with Odessa eggplant, baby bok choy, and lemon gremolata. Apparently this was the first time I tasted cod outside of fish and chips?! SPC is one of our favorite restaurants in the city so I know this was good, but I wasn’t a big fan.

Adam’s dinner blew mine out of the water. Butternut squash and thyme ravioli with brown butter, pine nuts, and mixed mushrooms.

Thankfully he was very generous with shared bites.

Are you sick of this post yet? That’s all she wrote!

10May2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; NYC Loves

by Emily

Heeeeey! Long time no blog! Adam’s brother was in town last weekend for a fabulous, whirlwind visit and we’ve been pretty busy ever since. I’ve been bone-achingly tired all week, but it was more than worth it to get to share some of our favorite parts of Brooklyn with my brother-in-law.

It’s been forever – and I have not been photographing 90% of what goes in my mouth – so I’m just going to go through the major highlights from the past week. This post is part Weekly Wrap-Up, part Loves of Late…

Smorgasburg in Williamsburg

Fellow New Yorkers, have you made it to Smorgasburg yet?! If not, you’ve got to get on that! Assembling on Saturdays in the East River State Park and Sundays at Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 5 (DUMBO), this parking lot full of food vendors will knock your socks off. I get legitimate anxiety trying to decide which fabulous things to taste.

Here is just a small sampling of some of the tasty things we tried last weekend. Yellow plum and chai shaved ice from People’s Pops.

Blue Bottle, obvs.

A Bahn Mi chicken hot dog from Asia Dog.

Sugar cane lemonade.

And the boardwalk fries from Home Frite.

{from the website: malt aioli made with Brooklyn Brewery Beer and fries seasoned with hickory smoked salt and malt vinegar powder}

Heavenly.

We also had biscuits, Horchatta, and other things I’m sure I’m forgetting.

Mixology Class at Harding’s

Happily for me, I recently received a media invite to attend the first of Harding’s monthly mixology classes.

Please note – I attended this event free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Here is what they have to say about the class –

Americana-chic Flatiron parlor, Harding’s, is shaking up the first Tuesday of each month with the launch of a new hands-on mixology class series. Starting Tuesday, May 6, Harding’s head mixologist will lead participants through an interactive 1-hour session to instill the building blocks of mixology (for instance, the difference between bourbon and rye, and why James Bond should have ordered his martinis “stirred—not shaken”), fundamental mixology techniques, and the methods behind three seasonally inspired cocktails, each month built around a new theme: … June will illuminate the lighter, brighter side of whiskey. In July, spicy jalapeno and ginger-infused cocktails will most certainly set off fireworks. [August covers infusions and September will go back to the basics with classic cocktails.] Complimentary light snacks will also be provided.

May’s class was all floral pairings – lavender and rosewater – aka it was perfect for me. My thoughts… I loved it! The classes cost $35 per person and I think that price is more than worth it; you have the opportunity to drink a minimum of 10 oz of liquor and Derrick Turner – head mixologist for Harding’s and teacher of the class and creator of the cocktails – was both funny and informative. P.S. The light snacks? Included soft pretzels with dipping sauce.

We learned, among other things, how to use a cocktail shaker, what makes bourbon different from vodka, and how to do a bar pour {8 seconds = 2 oz = 1 pour}.

We made three drinks, all of which were fantastic. For obviously reasons, I’m just naming a few components and not giving the entire recipes.

#1: Suzanne Collins, a Tom Collins with rose water and pink peppercorn. And a candied orange topper.

#2: Roseberry, a whiskey drink with raspberries, rosemary, and lavender. <– this one was clearly my favorite

#3: Maidens Blush, vodka with cherry liquor and sparkling Brut.

And at the end of the class we got to go one-on-one with the other participants in a cocktail making challenge.

My sparkling vodka, lemon, lavender cocktail did not win, but when they saw how jazzed I was about the lavender simple syrup they packaged the rest up for me to take home!

TLDR? Mixology class at Harding’s / more than worth the $35 / go get wasted, in a classy, educational way / then eat soft pretzels.

Frozen Treats in NYC

Have you seen the Buzzfeed article 44 Frozen Treats You Need to Try in NYC This Summer? Uggh. I am determinedly working my way through them one by one. I’ve already crossed off a slightly concerning amount.

This week I conquered #15 – the alcoholic Kelvin Slush from Pork Slope.

They had frozen mint juleps for the Derby. I went back two days in a row and am basically heartbroken that the julep won’t be a part of the regular menu.

#30 – Fruit soft-serve at Chloe’s.

I got a banana and dark chocolate swirl. It was fine, but nothing I would go back for, though Adam loved his strawberry mango.

And #35 – gummy bear cream ice from Ralph’s.

This gummy creamy marriage was everything I was hoping it would be. I normally hate vanilla ice creams but the milky base used here was the perfect complement to the bears.

What is rocking your face off in your city this summer?

3May2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Recipes, Redone

by Emily

Hey there! I’m a few days late with this post because the dog had a vet appointment late Thursday night. He had to get about a million shots – we did all of his blood draws and vaccinations in one fell swoop – but was such a little trooper. He is so freaking cute!

Things were good with the human members of the house as well. I remade two of my old recipes this week with great success. It was a busy but satisfying week at work. And now my brother-in-law is here to play! I’m saving our Friday night fun for Monday’s weekend post, but here is the last week…

breakfast

Tropical smoothie.

Crushed pineapple, frozen banana, toasted coconut, and vanilla almond milk. I should have added nutmeg to this because that’s what I put on my piña coladas.

Fancy fruit salad.

This salad was insane and I need to make it again immediately. Blackberries, minneola, lime juice/zest, maple syrup, toasted coconut, and hemp hearts.

Plus a Blueberry Oat Almond THINaddictive.

The thin was part of a sweet box of samples that Nonni’s sent me.

Their sweet and crunchy biscotti almond thins – which have only 100 calories per package and less than 2 grams of saturated fat – are out in two new flavors: blueberry oat and banana dark chocolate. I was a fan of both.

lunch

Asian and apples.

My Pad See Ew leftovers were still great cold.

With Brown Sugar Sea Salt Seaweed Snacks and a Lady Alice apple.

I made my own to-go oatmeal bowls this week! 1/3 cup of rolled oats and 1 Tbsp of malted milk powder, plus toppings. I took them to work in glass Tupperware and then put enough hot water (for the tea in the cafeteria) in the bowl to just cover the oats. By the time I got back up to my department they were perfect! I will probably still buy the packaged ones as well, but this was a very exciting development.

Berries and cream oatmeal = white chocolate chips and freeze-dried strawberries.

The rest of my fruit salad was wonderful at lunch.

Crushed pineapple,

fruit salad,

and a peach Fage,

were all stirred together into a tasty bowl.

Homemade oatmeal part deux.

Crushed pecans, dark chocolate chips, and toasted coconut.

Plus an apple.

snack

Afternoon espresso when I really wanted candy.

I compromised by putting an obscene amount of sugar into my coffee.

Honestly, I had terrible bedtime habits all week and my afternoons took a lot of coffees. Made even more exciting by the Cookies and Cream Magic Straws from my Easter basket.

A Banana Dark Chocolate Almond THINaddictive.

I was expecting to like this flavor the most but ended up preferring the blueberry; this was good but the banana was a tiny bit fake tasting.

Pink Lady. I have been loving apples recently.

We made milkshakes.

Café Latte Frozen Greek Yogurt, chocolate milk, malted milk powder, and ice.

And speaking of milk, I ate about a million cookies this week.

Don’t forget, you have until Monday to enter my giveaway.

dinner

My first recipe redo.

Shallotta Salmon Burgers. They aren’t orange fyi, that’s just bad lighting.

Shredded Brussels sprouts cooked with coconut oil, crushed pecans, chopped celery, and swiss/gruyere cheese.

I added too much oil to my veggies and they were good but a little ridiculous.

My other recipe redo was my Healthy Spinach Pesto.

A total success, stirred into pasta with broccoli and tons and turkey bacon.

I’m off for family fun time! xoxo

28Apr2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; Oh, Sugar, Sugar

by Emily

I don’t have a ton to share from this weekend but every thing I do have a photo of was super tasty. My sweet tooth was certainly satisfied by the past three days!

Greek yogurt, strawberry, and chia from The Epic Seed.

The packaging here was very neat. The flavors were tasty, and I plan on buying this again, but I think I would have preferred this with regular, thinner yogurt because it was very thick and a bit difficult to eat.

Strawberry milk slush from Kung Fu Tea.

Adam took one sip and declared “this is the best drink I’ve ever had!” We both loved it and want another immediately. The texture was perfection; a great replacement for the granitas we used to adore in Park Slope.

Easy dinner at home.

A sandwich – smoked trout mashed with miracle whip and smoked paprika, on rye pumpernickel swirl with swiss cheese, cooked in butter – with baby carrots on the side.

A trip to Momofuku Milk Bar‘s Williamsburg location.

We shared a cereal milk shake that was fine but not too exciting. Corn flakes don’t exactly do it for me, I want the bottom of a bowl of Lucky Charms.

And a slice of crack pie.

This was teeth-achingly sweet, aka fantastic.

And next-door to Milk we discovered a tiny, hole-in-the-wall Thai spot that is our new favorite.

My tofu Pad See Eiw was chewy and wonderful. The tofu was perfectly seasoned.

While we were in Manhattan for the Green Fest (<– more to come on that tomorrow) we discovered H Bake Shop.

We got the Lilac, a berry cupcake with lavender frosting.

This was fabulous, the first cupcake ever to rival the greatness coming out of Sugar, Sweet, Sunshine. The price was a teensy bit higher than SSS, but this was also the prettiest dessert I’ve ever had.

What’s missing from this post? Another migraine (boo!), grocery shopping with giant coffees, a burger for Adam and fried pickles for me from SmashBurger, lunch at the Green Fest, and a trip to the movies for the newest “Captain America” (we liked it!).

What was sweet about your weekend?

25Apr2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Eggs And Easter Candy

by Emily

I’m bouncing back from a bad migraine this afternoon so this post might be lacking my usual witty prose (<– just go with it). I don’t want to think that too much sugar may have been a potential trigger for the migraine, but it will probably be hard to convince you otherwise once you finish the post 🙂 Also, upon completion I am forced to note that 90% of these pictures are pretty god-awful. The food was yummy though, I swear!

lunch

Oatmeal Monday.

Apple on the side.

Quaker Summer Berry Oatmeal,

topped with Reese’s eggs.

I read the egg carton further that night and discovered that they contain trans fat, dun dun dun! – so I had to throw the rest out. My only hard and fast nutrition rule is never eat trans fats.

Spicy Sandwich Tuesday. A whole wheat Sandwich Thin with Applegate Farms Herbed Turkey, Fontina cheese, strawberry jam, and pickled jalopeños that seemed to have retained a lot of their heat.

I cooled down with cinnamon applesauce.

And crunched through kale chips.

Worst. Photo. Ever.

Egg Salad Wednesday.

This batch of egg salad was made with tons of caramelized onions, miracle whip, smoked paprika, and raisins. It was fabulous stuffed inside a Pocket Thin.

With the rest of the kale chips and an apple.

Leftovers Thursday.

See more of this casserole down in dinners.

With a wonderfully crisp Lady Alice apple and Haribo colas.

Last of the Egg Salad Friday, aka today.

This time with a slice of Fontina.

dinner

Stir fry night.

Served on top of packaged Kung Pao noodles.

My ‘fry contained edamame, bamboo shoots, straw mushrooms, and pineapples, cooked in pineapple juice and green curry paste.

I usually try to put too much into my stir fries and I end up hating them; this simple version was fantastic.

Stir fry leftovers.

My veggies, plus steamed sweet potato chunks, and fish sauce and soy sauce, cooked in evoo, with an egg at the end.

A winning new recipe.

Turkey Reuben Casserole.

Click here for the recipe.

Plus spinach and baby kale sautéed with evoo and dried blueberries.

Let’s be real, I pretty much choked down those greens.

Chipotle post-migraine.

Brown rice with peppers, chicken, lettuce, cheese, and lots of mild salsa.

snacks, aka Easter candy

I made a Cadbury Cream Egg Cream. What?!

It actually didn’t work all that well, I felt like my eggs got burnt in the microwave, but I salvaged it with a bit of chocolate milk. Adam and I were both pretty pleased with the final result.

Speaking of candy eggs, these Ferrero ones from my basket were sure gone in a hurry.

Just like a Rocher but without the nut in the center.

Grape Crush licorice.

When I veered away from the Easter goodies my snacks went horribly awry. I got an email from Dunkin that a Coolatta would earn me 25 bonus points and, sucker for loyalty rewards that I am, I had to get one.

Disgusting. It wasn’t homogenous at all; the coffee, milk, and sweetener separated into terrible layers.

That was a bad note to end on, but overall it was a tasty week.

23Apr2014

Insta-Wrap-Up; VI

by Emily

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! Whether you celebrate or not, the start of spring is always a nice time for family fun and lots of chocolate. Our nieces were so adorable hunting for eggs. Most of the family decorated some of the hard-boiled variety – versus the candy filled plastic kind – as well. Check out this great egg Adam made –

Other Virginia fun included a quick trip to the farm just down the road from Adam’s parent’s house. We got to pet the goats!

Here is some of what you missed on the food front during my skipped weekend post…

This egg really did taste like a slice of mushed-up cake.

The strawberry diet coke at Sonic still rocks my face off. After I finished my drink, I poured a new can of soda over the leftover berries and ice and was thrilled all over again.

The husband and I tried the vanilla date shake frozen yogurt at Yogurtland and we very impressed with it. There was just enough creaminess to back up the date flavor.

Heading back further in time…

How awesome is this Buffalo street art? All of the traffic light boxes along Elmwood were painted.

This good advice comes courtesy of Ashker’s Juice Bar.

Here are Webster and I on one of our first warm day walks.

And here is the evidence I’m compiling for my potential divorce proceedings. You’ve got to take grammar/spelling/syntax issues seriously!

Finally, back up to present… Spring has sprung!

Is the weather getting nice where you live?

18Apr2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Have A Hoppy Easter

by Emily

Who else has been hitting the chocolate eggs this week? Easter candy abounds! We are spending the holiday with my in-laws – all three of our nieces! – so I’m going radio-silent on the blog front this weekend to focus on family time. I’m planning on skipping my weekend post, I’m not even packing a camera, and I’ll be back with a weekly wrap-up next Friday.

breakfast

Iced Americano with chocolate milk.

I tried the cafeteria breakfast.

Scrambled eggs with turkey and veggie sausage. The coffee cup held wonderful Cisse milk chocolate vanilla bean hot chocolate.

lunch

Oatmeal.

Quaker Honey and Almonds with Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter.

And an apple.

Plus I snagged this delicious, thick!, strawberry lemonade from the cafeteria.

Egg salad.

We made awesome egg salad for lunches this week; medium-boiled eggs, finely chopped celery and green and red pepper, miracle whip, pickle relish, mustard, and dill. Packed in a whole wheat pocket thin.

Plus wasabi seaweed and grapes.

The next day was chicken salad. A whole wheat bagel thin with chicken salad, fontina cheese, and pickled jalopeños.

Plus an apple to take away some of the heat. Peppers were the perfect addition to that sandwich.

I packed cookies, but I put them aside for a treat my coworker brought it, an Easter bun with cheese.

snack

Easter candy, duh.

Juicy bears.

Cafe Dada iced coffee that the husband sweetly delivered when he picked me up from work one day.

Cookies.

Cereal bowl.

This was a sample of Graham Crunch from Cascadian Farm with vanilla almond milk.

Very tasty. This stuff is just begging to be made into cereal s’mores bars.

I made my new favorite milkshake for Adam and myself.

Coffee frozen Greek yogurt with chocolate milk and toasted coconut.

Bubble teas from Kung Fu Tea. Coffee milk tea for me.

dinner

Dinner at a diner.

I got an eggplant parm panini.

It was yummy but ridiculously filling.

And then we had pie!

Cream pie! My slice was banana cream.

It was flipping fantastic.

Chicken salad.

Big piles of Nana’s chicken salad.

With roasted green beans.

On Wednesday we went to Williamsburg for dinner with a girlfriend. She took us to Snacky.

It was fantabulous. The space was adorable and the menu was all my favorite things. Adam and I split a salad with seaweed and sesame dressing.

And I got a rice bowl with spicy bbq miso chicken, plus kimchi and a fried egg.

I swooned my way through that bowl. It was perfect, exactly my favorite meal.

And we made similar(ish) bowls for dinner at home the next day.

A hash of chopped sweet potato, browned mushrooms, sliced spinach, green onions, and smoked trout with rosemary and smoked paprika. Topped with a fried egg.

Put an egg on it!

Have a great weekend!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: berries

Sonic-Style Strawberry Diet Coke {Recipe Copycat}

Long Week Wrap-Up; The Perfect Date? I’d Have To Say April 25th.

breakfasts and lunches

drinks and desserts

dinners

Weekly Wrap-Up; NYC Loves

Smorgasburg in Williamsburg

Mixology Class at Harding’s

Please note – I attended this event free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Frozen Treats in NYC

Weekly Wrap-Up; Recipes, Redone

breakfast

lunch

snack

dinner

Weekend Wrap-Up; Oh, Sugar, Sugar

Weekly Wrap-Up; Eggs And Easter Candy

lunch

dinner

snacks, aka Easter candy

Insta-Wrap-Up; VI

Weekly Wrap-Up; Have A Hoppy Easter

breakfast

lunch

snack

dinner