New York, New York

by Emily

Adam and I drove to New York for a fantastic weekend visit!

We did tons of city walking punctuated by coffees and ice creams // Brunched with friends at Vinegar Hill House // Tried a new place for dinner on Saturday that was just terrible and ended up having the best night ever getting a variety of things from DeKalb Market and eating in bed in front of Chopped // Bought coffee and halvah to bring home to Charlottesville…

Also, I didn’t snap a picture, but we shared a a baklava croissant from Cafe D’Avignon that was the best thing I ate the whole ~~trip~~ month!

Here were five highlights…

{1} Maple Shay from Brooklyn Roasting Co. Espresso (four shots for me!) with ice, milk, and maple syrup.

{2} An iced latte from Terremoto, with housemade rose syrup.

{3} Drinks from Ramona in Greenpoint. We had a frozen mango Thai iced tea with coconut whipped cream and “The Harpooned Heart” – vodka, coconut, almond, vanilla, mint, lime, pineapple, and peppercorn bitters.

{4} Big Gay Ice Cream. I got vanilla soft serve, in a cone lined with Biscoff, topped with dulce de leche, and coated in sprinkles. It was out of this world. The sprinkles were the best part, the best I’ve ever tasted.

{5} The Little Mule combo from Chef’s Club Counter. It was white american cheese, cotija cheese, pickled jalopenos, fried egg, and chipotle mayo. Served on an Impossible Burger. We kind of swooned over it.

3Sep2018

Salty Dog

by Emily

Highlights from the weekend…

A milkshake loaded with doughnut and sprinkles.

It’s apple month now!

I had an exciting apples and honey road trip snack – honey energy drink and crispy -freeze-dried apples – while we drove up to my aunt and uncle’s cabin in Solomons Island, Maryland.

We had a fantastic weekend hanging with my family that included drinking homemade bourbon slushies down on the dock.

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And crabs, and soft-shelled crabs, and my uncle’s best-ever crab cakes. Plus loads of delicious grilled veggies.

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And Webster came with us and got to go on a boat ride!!!

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He loved it and was so adorable and wonderful!

24Aug2018

Buchi, Boba, Bacon

by Emily

Highlights from a yummy week…

Coffee combo = Brooklyn Roasting Co with sweetened condensed milk, shakerato style.

This pineapple + mint Buchi is my new favorite kombucha.

Kung Fu Tea served me a fantastic bubble tea, rosehip milk tea with coconut jelly and boba.

Chipotle salads are possibly one of my top five favorite foods. Romaine, chicken, fajita veggies, pinto beans, hot salsa, corn salsa, sour cream, cheese.

Homemade green curry. Chicken sausage and zucchini / on cauliflower rice / with green curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce, brown sugar, and lime.

Tasty egg sandwiches. Seeded challah rolls with fried eggs, sharp cheddar, turkey bacon, and mayo and gojuchang. Plus the simplest salads – romaine with ranch.

Dinner out at Bebedero.

We had great drinks – a paloma with mezcal, rosemary, and black sea salt and tepache, a fermented pineapple drink.

And I had nachos with cheese sauce and house-pickled jalopenos.

13Aug2018

Dachshund Diaries

by Emily

Top five from this weekend…

{1} It was the seventh anniversary of Webster’s buyday! <– click that link for some amazing baby dachshund photos

We ate some bacon-flavored wet food.

And frolicked in the dog park. There were no other dogs there, so it was basically Webster’s ideal afternoon

{2} We found our new pizza spot – Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie.

Such tasty crust! We had the Annie Oakley – spicy buffalo chicken breast, pineapple, pickled jalapeno, mozarella, and cheddar. I did not know that spicy pizza was what was missing from my life! Plus we had a pink lemonade sour.

{3} Wegman’s bakery bar now has caramel stuffed brownies and cookie dough stuffed brownies and they are damn good.

{4} We also loved this caramel pecan ice cream.

{5} Simple salad dinner. Sweet baby lettuce / baby carrots / pine nuts / ranch / herbed turkey. With homemade cheesy garlic bread.

10Aug2018

Tahini Rose

by Emily

Highlights from this week…

The coffee stand at my hospital makes a fantastic iced latte.

I put rose water and cream (and red food coloring) in my home-brewed coffee this week and it was pretty exciting.

I bought these protein cookies expecting to hate them (but I can’t pass up anything that is supposed to taste like birthday cake!) and was very pleasantly surprised.

Still loving this Trader Joe’s olive medley.

Milk-filled snacks are the best. Israeli chocolates and Korean cookies.

I went to a bbq at my cousin’s house and brought flourless chocolate tahini cookies. Just chocolate tahini, sugar, and egg.

My buffalo blue cheese black bean burgers for dinner.

With roasted broccoli, baby carrots, and a side of ranch.

Plus two super fun summery and fruity beers. Watermelon and pina colada goses.

Buffalo chicken cheese fries = sweet potato fries / blue cheese and cheddar / shredded chicken with buffalo sauce / ranch. Plus roasted green beans.

A salad from Cooking Light. We did arugula, shredded chicken, cucumber, roasted chickpeas, and parsley pesto.

3Aug2018

Hell Of A Halvah

by Emily

Highlights from this week…

It’s really lovely to have a husband who arranges me flowers and buys me cupcakes when I’m cranky! Related note – it’s also really nice to live walking distance from Sweethaus because apparently they are our favorite cupcakes on the planet.

Random drink assortment from work, the lemon rose blossom water was surprisingly delicious.

Weirdest/most exciting snack award goes to – this Japanese candy we brought home from NY. It was like a fun dip but with a cola flavored lollipop and fizzy milk powder.

Fantastic product sample – Absolutely Gluten Free sent me their newest snack item: TahiniBARs. Halvah is a candy made of sesame paste and it is both Adam’s and my very favorite treat.

The TahiniBARS come in vanilla, pistachio, and cocoa nibs. They are certified kosher, dairy free, and gluten free. Each serving has 100 calories.

We LOVED them! They absolutely stacked up to the halvah I grew up eating and the artisinal varieties we’ve had in NY.

One of my favorite ways to eat halvah is crumbled up in yogurt, so one day I made an absolutely ridiculous snack – plain Greek yogurt / vanilla TahiniBAR / Soom chocolate tahini spread / red plum and green pluot. Delicious.

We had some tasty dinner too. Like bbq chicken fried rice. Fried rice / carmelized red onion / shredded rotisserie chicken / fresh corn / collard greens cooked with rice vinegar / bbq sauce / eggs.

Jalopeno popper pasta, loosely inspired by this recipe. We used whole-wheat shells, turkey bacon, no cream, and less cheese; plus I topped mine with panko. With roasted zucchini.

Leftovers with an assortment of baby wines. I do NOT recommend the rose.

Homemade buffalo chicken dip / scooped with baby carrots and potato chips / celery sauteed with butter, salt, pepper, and celery seed.

I’m trying out a recipe that sounds super fun this weekend, so please cross your fingers for me that it turns out!

27Jul2018

Supermoon And Sprinkles

by Emily

It was my birthday!

The day itself was pretty ho-hum – I worked an extra-long day, it rained like crazy, the cupcake shop I planned on visiting closed early without warning – but it’s always nice to have survived another year! And my pre-birthday trip to New York was pretty fabulous; I am glad I got my good weather then.

Highlights from the week…

Pathetically, I ate this strawberry Airhead as my birthday-day dessert.

But later in the week we splurged on this $9 pint of marshmallow and violet ice cream. <– best ice cream I’ve ever tasted, including the stuff I ate at a Jeni’s in Ohio last fall

Lately in coffee, I’ve tried and been disappointed by several packaged options.

At least I fulfilled my favorite birthday tradition – freebie Starbucks quad iced latte with sprinkles on top.

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I made a cocktail with this dream team –

We got salad bowls at Chipotle with so much cheese on them it was almost too much, almost.

My birthday dinner was our first – mightily successful – trip to Beer Run. They’re kind of famous for their nachos.

And I had a salmon bahn mi (with pickled strawberries!) that was pretty good.

Plus a key lime brown sugar margarita and a key lime pie tart ale.

Yesterday we slow-cooked a delicious dinner. Brown sugar garlic chicken thighs. I added smoked paprika, but otherwise followed the recipe. With roasted broccoli with crock pot drippings and Sriracha.

Less than 12 hours to the weekend!

23Jul2018

A New York Weekend

by Emily

We just had the best! weekend!! ever!!! Or at least that’s what Adam and I told each other multiple times each day. It’s my birthday tomorrow (the 24th) and he took me back to New York to celebrate.

We got super lucky with the weather and managed to do a million fun things, including try out a few new restaurants that we missed going to before the move, eat all the ice cream, and drink all the coffee (and put ice cream in our coffee!).

Here were the highlights…

Staying in Williamsburg in the Pod hotel, which was adorable and totally big enough for us. And they had games and a bar in the lobby with Grimm Icing on the Cake on tap.

Brunch at Fausto, our new favorite spot. I had a cocktail with ontratto aperitif, aperitivo select, grapefruit, and tonic. Polenta with braised duck, poached egg, and pea greens. And hashbrowns with chili aioli.

Quad, non-fat, iced lattes from Black Brick.

Aussie iced coffee from Sweatshop. Basically a quad, non-fat, iced latte with a scoop of ice cream in it.

West Side Story from Paper Plane Coffee = guava, sweetened condensed milk, and espresso. It was surprisingly delicious, and pink!

Running along the East River.

Lunch at Sauvage. We split baked eggs and a salad with arugula, charred corn, pistachio, and whipped chevre.

Smorgasburg! We got fantastic okonomiyaki and a scoop of mint ice cream with toasted Swiss meringue on top. <– my favorite iteration of marshmallow of all time

Ice cream at Milk Bar. I got a babyquake (aka mini blizzard) with birthday cake truffles and the best sprinkles.

Stocking up on Japanese goodies at Midoriya.

Buying an adorable bear t-shirt for me and a succulent pin for Adam at Brooklyn Flea.

Dinner at Dez. We shared cauliflower and crispy capers and chimichurri and I had a chopped vegetable salad with roasted potato, crispy eggplant, a seven minute egg, umbah, zhough, and tahini.