Sprinkles And Sandwiches

by Emily

By the time this post goes live I’ll already be on my way to work (wan wan). I’m working Saturday/Sunday because I have Friday/Monday off, and I’m heading in extra-early because we have family visiting and I need to be done and free to hang out in the afternoon. The good thing about visitors is that we’ll probably take them to Ample Hills!

Friday was a boring mix of buying new couch slipcovers and filing our taxes (wan wan), but Monday we’ve got some fun breakfast plans lined up.

A few of my dinners were pretty darn weak, but all of this week’s lunches were exclamation point worthy.

Daytime Eats

This weeks’ coffee – Starbucks espresso blend with skim milk. With a piñata apple.

And a chocolate pretzel protein bar.

Or a wonderfully juice sumo mandarin.

Or a lavender kombucha.

Plus buttered toast.

I also had an Americano with chocolate milk.

Plus Adam and I split a butterscotch latte while we ran errands.

With extra espresso, Adam loved it too.

This week’s tea – Roobios.

Amazingly, this caffeine-free herbal was my favorite tea thus far. With milk and honey it was downright delicious.

I’m still excited by this gum.

The flavor dies in about a minute but who doesn’t love a gum with sprinkles?

Oatmeal bowl. Oats with freeze-dried raspberries and blueberries and peanut butter chocolate chips.

The oats were great, but I ate much earlier in the day than I usually do (and then stayed for an hour of overtime!) and I ended up also getting a guava cheese empanada on the train home.

Yogurt bowl. Plain 2% Greek yogurt with fresh blackberries and pomegranate, toasted pecans, chia seeds, and Heritage Flakes.

Yogurt bowl. Maple Chobani with blackberries, pecans, and Heritage Flakes.

Salad bar. I love the days when the cafeteria does a Greek section; my salad was loaded with falafel, tzatziki, and taboule, plus black-eyed peas, olives, and cucumber.

Friday, Adam and I went to lunch at a new restaurant near our apartment. The meal was underwhelming, but I made a great yogurt bowl for dessert when I got home.

Plain Greek with peanut butter, honey, cinnamon, maple pecan granola, more pecans, and Luxardo cherries on top!

Nighttime Eats

House snacks included cashews – I’ve been making Adam trail mix bags for work and snacking heartily while I assemble them.

And chocolate-covered gummies.

And fun snacks included two girlfriend outings this week. A coworker and I got drinks at Colonie after an outlandishly frustrating work day. Bolivian Rose – Singani 63, Aperol, Dolin dry vermouth, Combier, and a super fragrant lemon twist.

And I introduced a friend to the Korean-style shaved ice at Snowdays.

They had specialty flavors – Thai iced tea! Topped with mochi, sweetened condensed milk, and grass jelly.

The mid-week blahs led to some pretty disastrous meals. Like big salads – baby kale, cashews, chia seeds, pomegranate, and peanut sauce – and horrifyingly cheesy nachos.

Or a sandwich night where the only veggies to be found were a side of baby carrots.

My sandwich – with a butter-toasted brioche, roasted turkey, raw milk cheddar, special sauce, and tons of pickles – was delicious but not the healthiest.

But we went on a really fantastic Tuesday night date at Talde. Now that I know that I like ginger in drinks I could order the Ginger Rose – Four Roses bourbon, Applejack, lemon, and ginger-cinnamon infused grenadine.

The drink was good but the meal was to die for; truly one of the best dishes we’ve ever had. Acorn squash rendang with Malaysian grits, fried shallot, pickled shitake, and a six-minute egg.

The blend of textures and flavors – crispy with creamy, spice with sour – was unbelievably satisfying. Dessert was sweet with salty.

Pretzel-potato chip bars with chocolate ganache.

And we started the week with veggie tofu bowls.

Extra-firm tofu was marinated in stone-ground mustard, lemon juice, honey, and evoo then baked ’til crispy.

Served on top of honey butter shredded carrots, and sautéed brussels sprouts tossed in the tofu marinade.

And ended the week with veggie packed pasta. TJ’s spinach tortellini with red sauce.

We gussied up the sauce with sautéed mushroom and onion and roasted zucchini and graffiti eggplant. I followed the Serious Eats trick of adding pasta water.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Let’s cross our fingers for more warm weather!

22Feb2016

Wonderful Weekend Walking Weather

by Emily

Oh my gosh, thank you so much, New York, for the gorgeous weekend weather! We took full advantage and fit a long walk into our fun on both Saturday and Sunday.

Daytime Eats

My new favorite ridiculous coffee.

Butterscotch latte with an extra shot.

Oatmeal bowl. Rolled oats, chia seeds, freeze-dried blueberries, and toasted walnuts.

Topped with a chocolate coconut peanut butter packet. The pb gets so gooey good on the hot oats.

Drinks in my carts while I did a giant shopping trip.

Green juice with spinach, kale, cucumber, and pineapple.

Sunday was our Brooklyn date. We saw Deadpool (<– loved it! loved that it was just funny, hilariously, and not sad at all) and took another long walk, including some exciting food stops. Iced Vietnamese latte.

It was so warm out that I enjoyed my iced drink whilst walking along in only a tank top and cardigan!!

A “hot dog” at the Smorgasburg Industry City location. Pan con queso is a grilled chunk of marinated white Latin cheese on a hot dog bun, topped with onions, cabbage, crushed potato chips, ketchup, mustard, and guasacaca (cilantro and parsley). It was scrumptious.

Amazing, freshly-made cheese and potato pierogis at Baba’s. These were out of this world, they had the best pierogi dough I’ve ever tasted.

And an ice cream cone to top it all off.

Ample Hills’ salted crack caramel (smoky caramel ice cream with hunks of crack candy) and It Came From Gowanus (salty dark chocolate ice cream with hazelnut crack candy, white chocolate pearls, and orange-scented brownies) in a cookie cone.

Nighttime Eats

I hit up my grocery’s deli for a quick meal on Adam’s overnight shift.

Tortellini salad and crunchy broccoli salad.

Plus lemon rosemary focaccia hummus with baked garlic pita chips and baby carrots.

Best store-bought hummus of all time.

A fancy dinner date at Upland. We really enjoyed our meal here, the menu changes seasonally and we will definitely be back in the summer.

They brought us a potato bread loaf with chive and lemon zest butter.

And we started with the whole crispy hen of the woods mushroom, with cloumage cheese and meyer lemon. This was fantastically meaty and loaded with umami.

Plus a greatcocktail, Bill Pay Buck – Tito’s, Aperol, ginger, and lime. I think that I hate ginger in drinks but somehow this felt very balanced.

And I got the cioppino for my meal, clams, red shrimp, mussels, striped bass, jumbo lump crab, and gochujang. I have been so brave with my seafood consumption lately, this was my first ever clam! (<– I hated it, but at least I tried)

My soup came with a thick slice of butter bread and I ordered a can of Genny Cream Ale that just felt right.

Dessert was the only part of the meal that didn’t blow us away. Devil’s food cake, milk chocolate ganache, and hazelnut praline, sounded good in theory but was just meh.

But we ran into a Woop’s so we had our sugar fix covered.

Good timing too, we found it just before we crossed the bridge back to Queens.

Burger night to end the weekend.

TJ’s brioche rolls are wonderful. We made our burgers with ground turkey, whole-wheat panko, eggs, spices, and browned shallots, cooked in a pan with evoo. Topped with pickle slices, raw milk cheddar, and Sir Kensington’s special sauce. So delicious we had to go back and split a second one!

With an easy salad of baby kale, pomegranate, pecans, chai seeds, and lavender salt / lavender honey / evoo / balsamic.

If the upcoming week is half as good as my dinner I’m in for a good time!

16Feb2016

Won’t You Be My Valentine? ♥

by Emily

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekends and Valentine’s Days! Clearly President’s Day is the real MVP of this month though, love a three day weekend*! *technically a one day weekend, I worked Saturday and Sunday, but you get the idea, and now I have a three day week, which is even cooler than a three day weekend.

Here are the bites highlights from the weekend…

TJ’s Hibiscus Tripel. A new favorite beer.

Enjoyed during a super romantic Valentine’s dinner of Chipotle.

Thai-style nachos.

Sriracha waffle chips / roasted broccoli / chopped yellow bell pepper / shredded chicken breast tossed with red curry, gochujang, and spices / and tons of cheese.

Doughnut Plant Valentine line.

Honey glazed with bee pollen.

Yogurt bowl for work breakfast. Fig and lemon yogurt, blueberries, and chia seeds and toasted walnuts.

How great is it that I had a heart-emblazoned coffee mug to stay on theme??

Rainbow bagel.

With strawberry cream cheese.

Have a great week!

8Feb2016

A Week Of Super Bowls

by Emily

I was a bit under the weather last week, nothing too bad, mostly a lot of coughing and headaches, but I just didn’t have it in me on Thursday to blog a recap. I was not too sick, however, to eat a bunch of yummy stuff that’s worth sharing. Last Monday through Sunday, here are the highlights*…

*highlights within the highlights, I obviously drank more coffee than this

coffee

Caramel-flavored Chameleon Cold Brew! With half & half. I adore CCB, it’s so smooth.

Served one day with citrus seltzer and a sumo mandarin.

This wins for my all-time preferred citrus, it is sweet and firm, and there are seeds but they are big enough to pop out easily.

oatmeal

In homemade instant bowls for work (just add hot water!).

Rolled oats, chia seeds, dry milk powder, freeze-dried raspberries, and toasted walnuts.

And smoothies.

Vanilla almond milk + chia seeds + oats + frozen banana + brown sugar + cocoa powder.

old-school-style cafeteria lunches

Sliced turkey and cheese with a less than healthy “veggie” side.

My school didn’t actually have a cafeteria (I graduated in a class of <40 and we had iguanas running the halls) but this is how I imagined the lunches would have been.

pepperoni-ish pizza

Oh. My. God. We sliced up a TJ’s turkey summer sausage and put it on the best homemade pizza we’ve ever had.

Usually I try to overdo it with pizza – lots of veggies, too much cheese – and the crust ends up soggy, but this was a crispy masterpiece. With a simple side salad.

sugar

Haribo salty licorice.

Cake pop flavored gum. There are sprinkles in it!

We finished this month’s Skoshbox the day it came.

Tj’s dark chocolate mini cookies.

These hearts were way better than I was expecting; usually I don’t buy boxed cookies because I’m a pretty great cookie baker myself but there is no way I could make chocolate shortbread this crunchy.

fancy booze in Brooklyn

Adam met me after work for a fantastic Friday night date in Boerum Hill. We started at Grand Army for cocktail hour.

My Alabaster Cavern – blended scotch, Lustau East India Solera, cinnamon, lime, coconut, pineapple, and bitters – tasted like a fancy painkiller. We liked the space and the vibe (they have a penciled drawing of ET as Mr. T on the wall) and will definitely be back.

The drink menu at Colonie was no slouch either. My Empire State Sour was American whiskey, NY apples, lemon, egg white, baked apple bitters, and cinnamon.

Best drink of 2016. That line of cinnamon stayed in place on top of the egg foam and made every sip smell delectable.

We shared two wonderful, duck-based dishes. Cavatelli with duck ham, béchamel, and soldier beans.

And wheatberries, mushrooms, and arugula with a duck egg on top.

I know the pictures are hard to see, but those black bits? Were crispy mushrooms. I don’t know how to describe the flavor (truffle? earthy?) but they were the single best thing I’ve ever tasted.

dinner bowls

I did not watch the game yesterday, but I have been eating some delicious bowls of dinner. All but one include broccoli because apparently it’s our favorite.

We made a variation of our black-eyed pea mix. Roasted broccoli, edamame, gochujang, smoked almonds, and cheddar.

A super bowl on Sunday. Orecchiette with roasted mushroom and baby zucchini, tossed with browned butter and Italian four cheese blend, topped with a sprinkle of smoked paprika. Served on a bed of roasted green beans.

Best bowl of the week – farro with ginger, garlic, lemon, gochujang, evoo, and salt and pepper / mackerel with stone ground mustard and a bit of mayo / roasted broccoli / toasted walnuts.

This was technically a lunch bowl. The cafeteria had a baked potato bar.

I swear there was a potato underneath all of that cheese and broccoli.

dog love

I feel like Webster’s adorable mug hasn’t been on the blog much lately, but I have been snapping pictures of him for Instagram. These are some of the best ones:

Related – a girlfriend surprised me with this darling dachshund scarf.

Here’s to a great week!

25Jan2016

Last Week’s Top Five

by Emily

{1} Coffee, always.

Highlights include Starbucks while I grocery shopped last Monday. The coffee was only ok, but getting to leisurely sip and shop on a weekday? Fabulous.

Even better – a triple nonfat iced latte from the Stumptown in the Ace Hotel.

It’s a neat spot and the espresso is fabulous, I highly recommend making a stop if you’re near Penn Station.

{2} Ramen with some of my favorite people

My Maryland aunt and cousin came into town for a quick visit and I met them at the train and needed to provide food, warmth, and NYC awesomeness – enter Chelsea Market for Ramen at Mok Bar.

I got the ginger chicken ramen (Roasted ginger chicken broth, pulled chicken, cucumber and garlic chive kimchi) with an egg on top and we shared a few varieties of kimchi on the side.

They are used to the cold, and are a walking family too, so they were totally down with a chilly 2+ mile stroll through Chelsea/LES to meet Adam.

Including a stop at Sokerbit!

{3} Dinner at The Vandal

The Vandal is a new (ginormous) restaurant in the Bowery. The menu is a mix of “street food” from a myriad of cultures and the décor is graffiti-style art on every wall. There’s a coffee cart in the dining room and a bar in the basement. It’s a fun spot. My aunt has a family friend who is involved in the opening.

Highlight of the night – my cousin was trying to describe who Chris Santos was to Adam just as Chris Santos walked up to our table to say hello. It was hilarious and he was very sweet and friendly.

We shared everything so we could all taste lots of drinks and dishes. The drinks menu is divided into Bright, Spiced, and Barrel-Aged and we ordered one from each section plus a yummy bottle of Spanish wine.

My drink was the best, The Intervention = Gentleman Jack whiskey, plum, Aperol, lemon, and Spanish bitters.

We ordered a few meat dishes that I didn’t eat. Plus shrimp arepas with purple slaw and chipotle cream and cauliflower with picada sauce, olives, and hazelnuts.

Wild mushroom pizza with caramelized onion.

And brussels sprouts elote.

All of the dishes were fantastic but the pizza (recommended by Chris Santos himself!) and cauliflower were everyone’s favorite. It was a wonderful night.

{4} Americanized Halo Halo

My sweet Filipino coworker knows I’m in love with palm seeds and she brought me in giant jars of palm seeds and halo halo topping (boiled, sweetened mix of beans, coconut, jackfruit, etc).

I’ve been putting it on pretty much everything, including this ridiculous sundae.

Toasted almond gelato, halo halo, sweetened condensed milk, frosted flakes, and rainbow sprinkles. I didn’t have shaved ice but otherwise it was pretty close to the real deal!

{5} Blizzard bowls

I didn’t do the best job of stocking up on food before the storm and we spent most of the weekend eating chicken nuggets. I did manage to get it together for one healthy (yummy) meal.

Steam/sautéed shredded green cabbage and shredded chicken cooked in peanut sauce, topped with fried shallots and fresh cilantro. Shredded cabbage is so quick and easy, I need to remember to use it more often.

I hope all my East Coast readers are staying warm and safe!

16Jan2016

It’s All Greek To Me!

by Emily

My four-day workweek helped ease me back into real life after vacation. I was also assisted by copious amounts of sugar, coffee, and alcohol. And thanks to the holiday, next week is short too, wahoo!

daytime eats

Cereal and ~~milk~~ coffee.

Coffee, Fiber One bar, Pink Lady apple.

Latte and a tangelo.

We got to sample some of the new desserts that are going to be sent up to patients on their birthdays.

And our cafeteria’s brownies are always to die for.

I don’t even really like brownies but these are terrifically fudgy.

Loaded veggie pizza.

Cafeteria-assembled Mediterranean salad. Romaine and ranch topped with marinated cucumbers, taboule, chickpeas, and cheese; plus a falafel, pita chips, hummus, and a pickle.

Oatmeal with chocolate hazelnut butter and a side of fresh melon.

This was my first time trying steel cut oats and I really enjoyed them.

nighttime eats

Leftover pineapple turkey chili pulled down from the freezer.

Topped with pickled jalapeños and apricot stilton. With buttered toast and a side of baby carrots and hummus.

I was majorly thanking my past self for saving some chili for a future quickie dinner.

Scrambled eggs made for another easy night.

Filled with broccoli, cauliflower, shredded chicken breast, and three cheese blend.

Mediterranean salad at home. My cafeteria version was good but this was the better of the two; the crispy chickpeas took it to the next level.

Baby romaine with TJ’s feta dressing / roasted zucchini / hard-boiled egg / crispy chickpeas / taboule / and feta cheese.

TJ’s chile relleno with cheesy eggs and buttered toast.

This was an arbitrary assortment of foods but it worked.

Adam brought me home a giant salted caramel macaron from our favorite spot in Grand Central Station. He was on an “away” rotation at NYU that ended yesterday so this was the last of the midweek Manhattan treats.

I paired a cocktail grapefruit with a sticky toffee beer that was only so-so.

And chocolates (nonpareils and dipped gummy bears) with a Dino S’mores Imperial Stout.

Never mind the fact that the label is a mouse in a dinosaur costume making a s’more (<– !!!!!), this stout is brewed with graham flour, fluff, vanilla, and cocoa nibs, and it tastes like a freaking toasted marshmallow. ♥♥♥♥

P.S. Have you seen the Tatum on Tatum episode of Lip Sync Battle? I laughed so hard I’m pretty sure I scared the neighbors!

4Jan2016

1, 2, 3 / 366

by Emily

We are four days into 2016 and I’ve yet to have a weekend day – my Christmas four-day weekend and an upcoming vacation (yay!) meant that it was my turn to work both the holiday and Saturday and Sunday. <–worth it! The weekend coverage shifts – and subsequent week days off – are one of the main “perks” of my new inpatient position. And clinically the last few days have been fascinating, lots of malnutrition, bowel obstructions, and parenteral feeds.

The only downside to the extra busy days (and terrible weekend-menu cafeteria food) is that there’s no #newyearnewyou around here, instead it’s been lots of junk food and zero gym time. You win some, you lose some.

daytime eats

I opened the year with an extra shot of espresso in my iced latte, a good way to start anything.

Plus an apple with cheese. My apple selection this weekend was Piñata and Pink Ladies, all of which were exceptionally juicy and crisp.

Saturday breakfast was all about the cartons – a winter cheer cold brew and an Icebox Water. The water was a freebie product review. It’s really hard to characterize the taste of water (unless you dislike it for some reason, Dasani tastes like carrots to me and I think it’s terrible) but I will say that I found this one enjoyable/refreshing and definitely inoffensive.

Obviously the ideal would be that people would refill reusable water containers but Icebox Water does offer a more environmentally sustainable option to bottled waters. Each BPA-free carton is 100% recyclable (and made of 76% less plastic than traditional bottles).

Sunday was my busiest day and thankfully my biggest coffee. Plus strawberry champagne(!!) seltzer.

The cafeteria is only partially open on the weekends and the offerings are grim. I relied mostly on packaged foods from home for lunches.

Plus gross cafeteria pizza that went unphotographed.

nighttime eats

You have to eat black eyed peas on the 1st.

I made my favorite BEP recipe – beans / chopped green pepper / smoked almonds / chopped Dubliner cheese / green Tabasco / plus the new addition of shredded chicken breast.

With a big pile of green beans roasted with shallots on the side.

Saturday we gussied up some long-ago leftover leftovers. I made my artichoke and mushroom pasta ~~unhealthy~~ great again by pan-cooking it in lots of evoo and adding an obscene amount of Sriracha and mozzarella cheese.

This was better than the original dish.

Sunday, Adam met me after work for date night. Fonda did not disappoint. I spotted the Rosalita margarita on Instagram and knew that it would be fantastic.

I was right! It’s a hibiscus margarita with a hibiscus salt rim, swoon.

We split a salad that was scrumptious – avocados, roasted carrots, toasted pecans, soft goat cheese and romaine hearts drizzled with a lime mustard vinaigrette. I swear, there was more avocado than lettuce!

As well as fried sweet plantains with sour cream and queso fresco.

Adam got chicken enchiladas and I got a vegetarian chile rellano.

Roasted poblano pepper filled with carrots, zucchini, corn kernels, pickled jalapeños and Chihuahua cheese. Served with a roasted tomato guajillo sauce, pickled onions and Mexican crema. Stuffed chiles are my favorite Mexican dish and this was the best version I’ve ever had.

With Kahlua tres leches for dessert.

We both want to go back immediately. I’ve got my eye on the brunch menu.

Snacks for the week included fancy popcorn from my stocking.

And cookies. David Lebovitz’s chocolate chip cookies really do deserve all the veneration they’ve gotten in the food press. I made a batch for a NYE party and both the party-goers and my co-workers lost their minds over them.

Recipe notes, because you know I always have to change something: I used salted butter, skipped the nuts and doubled the chocolate instead – a mix of semisweet and milk chocolate chips, and refrigerated the cookies as preformed balls instead of slice and bake logs. I don’t think my changes hurt anything, in fact I’m pretty sure the nut for chocolate swap was an improvement!

I also made a less lauded but still terrific peanut butter (chocolate chip) mug cookie.

My year is off to a sweet start!

19Dec2015

Last Week’s Top Five

by Emily

There has been a lot of excitement since last Saturday. We had three days of weather so warm I could hold my iced coffee in bare hands while I walked in my sandals.

Last Sunday I comfortably walked the dog in shorts and a t-shirt!

And Adam celebrated a birthday.

His parents came for a birthday visit and we had a great time showing them the tree at Rockefeller Center and the fantastic holiday lights all around Manhattan.

Here are some of the food highlights…

{1} Pineapple Turkey Chili

By Tuesday the weather was back to normal* again and it was cold enough for Chili. *global warming winter normal, it’s still 50 in December

I made my pineapple turkey recipe.

We gobbled it up topped with shredded cheese, sour cream, and pickled jalapeño.

{2} Holiday Fails

It was bound to happen sooner or later, I had not one, but two, holiday themed food flops.

This years soy nog has way too much soy milk aftertaste for me and the candy cane flavor (in spite of the adorable chips of candy cane) was the first Adagio tea I thought tasted like dirty water. You win a lot, you lose some.

{3} Restaurant Burgers

Any time we have Long Island visitors we take them to Bare Burger. Adam’s parents loved it.

I got a Wiki Wiki on a turkey patty – gouda, duck bacon, fried onions, and pineapple relish.

The burger was great, and they had a very exciting local brew – chocolate egg cream stout!

We also took them to Thistle Hill. I got a falafel burger.

With tzatziki and hot sauce and salt and pepper fries.

{4} Dinner at The Gander

We are both obsessed with duck, so The Gander quickly made it to the top of our dinner date list.

The space was gorgeously done up for Christmas – with lights and a giant gingerbread house – but too dark for me to take a passable picture. Ignore my bad photography though, the food was on point.

We started with local burrata with butternut squash and toast.

And I ordered the Glasgow Punch, which came from a tap; scotch with citrus and clarified milk. This was one of the best drinks I’ve ever had, it smelled smoky in an amazing way.

We split two pastas for dinner. Gnocchi with shishito peppers and cheddar.

And tubetti with duck confit and a duck egg yolk. <– best dish of the night

Plus cauliflower with capers and anchovies.

Dessert was salted cajeta cake with maple lace tuiles and pistachio gelato.

Everything was delicious and you could taste the care that went into each dish.

{5} Birthday Ice Cream Cake

This was my first attempt at an ice cream cake and I was a little nervous but it came out great. Whenever Adam and I go to a Cold Stone-style ice cream place we always get coffee with Oreos and peanut butter, so that’s what I put together for his birthday.

An Oreo crust / with a peanut butter layer (I basically make flattened buckeye candy) / a coffee ice cream layer / and a bunch of Oreos, mini Reese’s cups, and sprinkles for topping.

Yum! It was gone by the end of the weekend!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: booze

Sprinkles And Sandwiches

Daytime Eats

Nighttime Eats

Wonderful Weekend Walking Weather

Daytime Eats

Nighttime Eats

Won’t You Be My Valentine? ♥

A Week Of Super Bowls

Last Week’s Top Five

It’s All Greek To Me!

daytime eats

nighttime eats

1, 2, 3 / 366

daytime eats

nighttime eats

Last Week’s Top Five