New To Us

by Emily

Today was fun! I love having visitors because it forces you to explore your own town. We went to several new-to-us spots today and quite enjoyed them all.

Breakfast at Lake Effect Diner.

I’ve put off going for years but now we’ll be going back, soon. I loved seeing this on the menu –

but I actually went with a vegan choice.

Vegan Burger – “house prepared veggie burger with blend of navy beans, barley, oats, vegetables, herbs, and accented with toasted sunflower seeds.”

I ate every bite, sans bun, topped with ketchup and red onion.

I also ate several bites from my dad’s turkey sausage.

I loved that menu was loaded with vegan, vegetarian, and poultry substitute options.

Lunch was consumed at the mall. A piece of pretzel with tons of mustard.

Self-serve froyo, duh.

A little tart froyo, a lot of popping boba.

Plus an orange in the car.

Our main afternoon entertainment was wine tasting.

We went to Schulze, Niagara Landing, and A Gust of Sun and had many tasty pours.

We broke mid-tour to look at Lake Ontario.

Then finished up with a champagne toast.

Adam and I shared at several places so I think I drank a little less than last time.

We ate dinner at AcQua, which was good but not as good as it could/should have been. Bread with butter to start.

x2.

I ordered the shrimp and scallop scampi for my meal.

I gave away 80% of my scallops and packed up 80% of my pasta for Adam’s lunch but adored the giant shrimp (dipped in cocktail sauce).

Dessert was the best thing going.

I ate half each of the last four macarons.

Pistachio, maple and apple, chocolate hazelnut caramel, and strawberry with marshmallow. A delicious way to end the evening!

28Jul2012

Macaron Mania

by Emily

My parents arrived safely last night and today we had a fantabulous first day of visiting. I am crazy tired (those old folks will wear you out!) but I wanted to blog so I’d have all of my memories on record.

My mom and dad spent 5 days in Quebec before coming here and they came bearing all sorts of French Canadian goodies. The best of which…

Macarons! I’ve wanted try a real macaron for forever (real as in not my good but nontraditional coconut attempt) and I squealed with delight when I opened this box.

I managed not to eat any last night but I might have had two for breakfast.

Sea salt caramel and cassis violet. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! They were everything I had imagined and more. I can’t wait to try the rest of them.

I actually didn’t start my morning with cookies, but with yoga. 60 minute hot yoga class. It was led by my favorite instructor but the series was different than usual and it was a lot of fun. We did about a million squats. Then I spent the rest of the day walking around and my legs are about to fall off.

Adam and my parents went to breakfast at Pano’s while I yoga’d and then we met for a walk around the farmer’s market. From there we headed to Nickel City Cheese & Mercantile.

We got bread and cheese to share.

The man at the counter kindly sliced both for us so we could picnic on the benches out front.

Tarentaise and sourdough.

Both were amazing. The cheese was mild with a nutty aftertaste and the bread was loaded with crunchy seeds.

I also ate my Pad See U leftovers in the car.

I didn’t manage to leave much behind last night!

We drove to East Aurora to explore. We walked right into a street festival.

Our main destinations were Vidler’s (a giant five and dime),

and Firefly Cupcakes.

I got the Tropical Pineapple and it was even better than the key lime pie cupcake.

Pineapple cake with coconut cream cheese buttercream.

The frosting was the best part.

Then we drove back to Buffalo to walk on the waterfront.

Our visitors were very impressed with how close you could get to the water.

Cocktail hour was spent at Mixology. I had a Shock Top,

and a cherry lemonade vodka with club soda.

It’s possible no one in our party made it to dinner entirely sober.

For dinner we introduced my parents to Adam’s favorite, India Gate. Paneer pakora to start.

I had 1.5 pieces with lots of tamarind sauce.

For our main meal my mom, dad, and I split three dishes so we could try lots of tastes.

Plate #1 – Naan, chicken makhani, curry chicken, jasmine rice (under the chickens), chana masala, and a pickled okra dish that they gave us on the side.

Plate #2 – More okra and chick peas.

The chana masala was my favorite by far; that is going to be my standing order for now on!

My parents drank tea with dinner and it sounded so good that I ended up getting a skim chai latte when we walked the dog down Elmwood at the end of the night.

I slept terribly last night (I think I got less than 4 hours of sleep all total!) and I’m hoping to pass out the minute this post is published. Can’t wait for tomorrow!

Have you ever tried a macaron?

26Jul2012

Days One And Two

by Emily

My first two days as a 27-year old have been busy/crazy/fun/carb-filled/fantastic. And the third day brings a workout, a shift at work, and night-time plans with friends so I’ll try keep this recap short.

I started my birthday early in the morning with yoga.

60 minutes of hot yoga.

Adam’s birthday gift to me was a run (he is a million times faster than me so going at my pace is a gift), so I refueled in between workouts at home. A Honey Stinger Waffle at home,

and a G2 consumed during our run.

We did 8 sets of 2:00 minutes running / 3:00 minutes walking; 40 minutes and 3.3 miles.

And then I opened my birthday present from my parents.

They sent a few things, the best of which was this little covered wagon.

Read this post if you don’t get it.

And then I painted birthday nails.

And Adam took me to the mall. I bought underwear. Apparently I’ve reached the age where I buy myself the lame gift. But we also stopped at DQ.

Frozen peanut butter hot chocolate, you complete me.

And then I went to work. On my birthday. Because I’m old. Actually it was no big deal; I was glad to have something to fill my day while all of my friends were working. When I got done at 7:30 a friend picked me up at work at the fun began.

First we went to Starbucks where I spent the cost of a tall iced coffee with skim milk to learn that they no longer give free birthday drinks.

Then we headed to Mixology, a favorite bar.

And then I was drunk. Really. Drinking after a day of no solid food was a bad idea. I had a cake vodka with club soda.

A root beer vodka with club soda.

And two mini drinks that the bartender kindly served us when he learned it was my birthday.

My friends and I had a great time and it was the perfect way to ring in a new year.

I made it to the apartment door before calling Adam to threaten bodily harm if I wasn’t fed immediately. We got me this small bag of chips.

And I shoveled in 75% of this “garbage” calzone – macaroni, onions, mustard, hot sauce, cheddar, and chicken – in a matter of minutes.

It’s possible that I passed out – fully dressed, without retainers or brushing my teeth, snoring – minutes after that, but who can really say?

I got my Wednesday off to a much healthier start.

Green juice from Ashkers. I customized my order and ended up with kale, spinach, cucumber and carrot.

It was delicious.

For a more conventional hangover cure, Adam and I split a bagel.

A toasted everything with lox cream cheese.

It was delicious as well.

For lunch we shared sushi.

Half each of a philly crab roll and a shrimp tempura roll.

He got an extra piece of the tempura roll and I got all of the wasabi. He even shared his seaweed salad with me.

For our afternoon fun we took the dog to the park for a long walk and session of ball throwing. He was ridiculously cute but I somehow deleted all of the photos I took (which might have made me cry a bit).

Dinner was a great salad.

Romaine topped with Jazz apple, sharp cheddar, buckwheat groats, and peanut sauce.

I ate extra cheese and apple in addition to what went on the salad.

Plus buttered toast.

And two biiig spoonfuls of chocolate hazelnut butter for dessert.

This post took so long to write that the 3rd day of 27 has begun. Off to bed I go!

22Jul2012

The Last Three Days I’ve Been…

by Emily

…all over the place! Figuratively speaking. I don’t know where my head is but my meals have been less than impressive; lots of junk food, not a lot of veggies, and I keep forgetting to eat breakfast. Adam was preparing for an important exam and between that, getting used to working, and obsessing over some new books, I’ve felt a little crazy. It is what it is.

Friday

This was a no breakfast day. And I didn’t manage to pack lunch before work either. I ended up grabbing a mix of co-op salad bar.

Cucumber salad, farro salad, vegan pasta salad, and a few dolmas.

Plus a Sweet Leaf Sweet Tea.

When I got home I had chip and dip leftovers.

Plain low-fat yogurt with banana slices and a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk.

And a giant bowl of frosted flakes with skim milk.

I guess I didn’t have it together for dinner either.

Saturday

I ate breakfast! Cottage cheese stirred into a Liberte Coconut Yogurt.

But I packed the stupidest lunch of all time.

A Plum Kids Strawberry Lemonade Yogurt Mashup,

and a Fiber One cookie.

Supplemented with an iced Earl Grey with skim milk.

And the last of my chips and dip when I got home.

Saturday morning Adam took the biggest, 8+ hour, most important exam he’ll take in his entire life (seriously, he’s done nothing but study the past month) so we went out for a celebratory dinner with another couple that night.

I made a small plate from the communal cheese board.

And drank a (giant?!) glass of riesling.

For dinner I ordered the pesto spatzle.

I loved the idea of the innovative pesto (romaine! pistachio! mint!) but sadly didn’t enjoy the execution. You know that I can throw down with some heavy food but this dish was missing some desperately needed acid to cut through the richness. I ate a few bites and figured that my chip appetizer would keep me from starving 😉

Sunday

I started my morning with Harvest Bay Coconut Water,

and chicken salad.

Plus a shake shared with the husband.

(Thank you birthday freebie coupons!)

Mid-day I headed to yoga. 60 minute hot yoga class. Love love loved it. This was definitely the high point of the last few days.

Then we had more ice cream; I can’t resist the allure of birthday freebies.

That’s a kid’s size vanilla frozen yogurt with reeses pb cup and cookie dough.

Veggies, chicken, and macaroni were consumed on a shopping trip.

Plus a mug of cocoa at home.

It was delicious but unnecessary. As I wrote up this recap I was fairly disgusted by the amount of sugar (and chips!) I ate over the past three days.

Around 7:00 we hunkered down in the kitchen for a mega cooking session. Three dishes were on the agenda – tonight’s dinner, tomorrow’s dinner, and tuna casserole to freeze for Adam for the week I’m in Ohio. Two out of three worked out. After spending a lot of time making Janetha’s cauliflower crust pizza I covered it in marinara that turned out to be covered in mold.

Uggggh! Adam threw out our dinner and I threw a fit on the floor. I took a giant bite of marinara sauce before I spotted the mold so a lot of histrionic gagging went down.

Then a bunch of other shit happened and many hours later I ate nachos for dinner.

The end.

17Jul2012

I Sure Don’t Act Like I’m Almost 27

by Emily

Did you know it’s my birthday in a week? That’s right, I turn 27 on the 24th.

On one hand I don’t feel like it’s been a year since my last birthday and on the other I can’t wait for it to get here. I’m just so sick of myself lately! I talk to myself in my head ~~like a crazy person~~ like JD and in the past month I’ve head-said “when am I going to grow up?” at least a million times.

I had big plans to work out this morning and instead I stayed up past 2:30 reading a book. And then when I got up at 10 I was almost late to work because I stayed in bed to keep reading. I love that I’m an obsessive reader, I don’t want to ever change that about myself, but I wish I didn’t always feel like I’m not taking care of business.

I have a great life so no year is really ever a bad year, but 26 was definitely not one of my better years. I didn’t cook and clean to my full potential. I didn’t maintain my relationship with the husband to my full potential. I didn’t work out ~~to my full potential~~ basically at all. I didn’t do schoolwork to my full potential. I didn’t blog to my full potential. And when I try to think “just what the hell was I doing all year??” I have no answer. I’m tired of feeling complacent!!!

Basically, tl;dr – I’m looking forward to living up to my potential as a 27-year-old. And living up to my full potential during the next week, because almost-27-year-olds don’t need to wait for some magical start date to clean their apartments.

Now that I’ve ranted, this will actually be a short post. I put in a new retainer last night and that put a major crimp in today’s eating. I brushed my teeth this morning and then kept my retainer in full-time until 7:30. When I left work I had a sore mouth and a growling stomach. F’real Coffee Frozen Cappuccino to the rescue.

It wasn’t very good but it met all of my current needs (cold, soft, has calories) so I drank it.

Adam made me a bowl of green grapes when I got home.

And I made myself a big plate of eggs for dinner.

Into my skillet went –

1 tsp evoo
~ 1 cup frozen corn
big handful baby spinach
2 sliced green onions
2 sprinkles salt
4 dashes Green Tabasco
2 large eggs

Thankfully my eggs were easy to chew and tasty to boot.

I had an Abita Strawberry with dinner.

❤

I’m going to read in bed again but I’m also going to ask Adam to slap the book out of my hands at midnight so I can make it to the gym in the morning.

Rate your current year; has it been one of your best or one of your worst?

8Jul2012

I Swallowed (A Wine Tasting Recap)

by Emily

What a fun day! It included booze, friends, and cookies, so you know it was a winner. I didn’t do the best job photographing but today was one of those days when it is more important to live it than blog it. I guess that’s true for all days really!

I have no excuse for the past two days because I think blogging a recap would have been my most exciting event, sadly. I was lazy not busy. But I do have two new recipes to share this week. Two recipes for two days seems fair.

We had to do a major cleaning job on the apartment this morning but we did find time for a dog walk. Breakfast on the go.

Adam and I split this Mango Noosa Yoghurt (there are two servings per package) and we were both big fans. So thick and creamy!

I read up on the company and I really like their policies. I just wish the ‘gurt was available in low-fat.

Today my friends and I cashed in a big group Living Social deal and hopped in two town-cars for a winery tour. We got picked up at my place so every one came up for some sweet treats first.

We had (unphotographed) “virgin mimosas” of oj and vanilla club soda and I baked two treats. How Sweet Eats’ Chocolate Drenched Coconut Oatmeal Squares.

And cookie dough truffles (recipes is one of the two promised for this week).

Both were big hits! HSE is basically a genius; I subbed in unsweetened coconut but otherwise I left her recipe alone. Adam complained about helping me bake on Saturday night but after he tasted the goods he shot me death-eyes when I tried to send friends home with leftovers! I ate two of each all total for the day.

Then we were off for three hours of wine tasting.

We hit up three wineries, all of which had a great selection. Between the seven of us there was a large range of preferences. Rachel likes super dry and I like super sweet so the two of us ended up swapping glasses a couple of times. I don’t really drink wine so it was nice to have little tastes to see what I like; I even tried a couple of reds! The craziest ones were Schulze Wines’ crackling sweets.

I especially liked Niagara Landing’s Rosebud line and even came home with a bottle.

And I paid $2.50 extra at one spot for this mini glass of ice wine.

All total I had 13 tastes and I didn’t spit once! I probably should have though, it wasn’t an insane amount of alcohol but all 13 were sweet and I felt pretty sick by the time I got home.

I ate a mac and cheese muffin (the 2nd recipe),

and then crashed hard on the couch.

When I forced myself up two hours later I knew there was no way I would be cooking the soup on my meal plan. Instead we went to Moe’s.

My vegetarian burrito had rice, black beans, sautéed mushrooms/peppers/onions, cheese, corn salsa, and guacamole. It was just what I needed.

I’m feeling loads better now. But I am hoping to turn in early because I’ve got a busy to-do list for tomorrow.

Have you ever been to a wine tasting? Did you spit?

5Jul2012

Stone Soup

by Emily

Long time no blog. I’m glad to be back, but my days away were glor-i-ous! I spent 70% of Monday – Wednesday curled up in bed. I ate pizza and lots of chocolate. I watched the first season of “Flashpoint.” And I read five (250+ page) murder-mystery novels. Like I said, glorious.

Back-in-the-world-Thursday started with a trip to the gym. 40 minutes on the stationary bike at level 7 random. Followed by stretching that was not enough because my right hip has been killing me all afternoon.

I ate half of this NuGo Dark Chocolate Pretzel with Sea Salt bar on the walk home.

Summer is the only time when I could drive to the gym and park, but why get in a car when I can walk? If I’m not in a time-crunch I’d rather move my legs. And Buffalo State’s recent landscaping makes it a lovely walk indeed.

The 2nd half of breakfast used my new favorite smoothie ingredient.

This Vanilla Chai Vega was stupid good. I haven’t had a chai latte in forever and I feel an iced one in my immediate future. For my smoothie I blended the Vega packet with 1 cup of Silk Vanilla Almond Milk and a large frozen banana.

It didn’t taste green and the 15 grams of protein kept me full all morning.

I hurried through errands – Lexington Co-op, Goodwill, Wegmans – so I could meet a friend for a walking date this afternoon. I picked her up on Elmwood and we set off for the (new) Buffalo Cakery.

I brought Adam a cupcake but went with ice cream myself. A small cup of candied apple and salted caramel.

Sadly the flavors weren’t great together and I had to throw out my cup halfway through when things got melty. The 4 miles of walking were hot-hot-hot but also just what I needed.

I cooled down with a Tusker when I got home.

And I was glad for ac this evening because my meal was hot and spicy. I borrowed components from the rest of the week’s dinners for a stone soup of sorts.

In a small pot, I heated up 1 tsp chipotle oil. I sautéed ~1.5 cups chopped bok choy and 2 sliced green onions with the juice from half a lime and 1 Tbsp fish sauce. I added ~1 cup frozen corn and 1.5 cups chicken broth then covered and boiled for 5 minutes. Then I took of the lid and stirred in 1 large egg, juice from another lime, and a big squeeze of Sriracha.

The end result was an odd mash-up of Thai and Mexican flavors but it worked.

I should have made dinner bigger though because it ended up being a 2 dessert evening. The last Tbsp of so of Biscoff, straight from the jar.

And 5 marshmallows and 1 Tbsp chocolate chips, microwaved until gooey.

Tasty, but I would have been better off with an extra egg in my soup.

I’m off to watch more “Flashpoint,” but hopefully not for too long; we’ve been up past 2 am every day this week and I’m hoping to break that pattern. Night!

5Jul2012

Our Outer Banks Vacation

by Emily

My first trip to the Outer Banks was a raging success! We saw, tasted, and experienced so much. Adam’s family has traveled to OBX in the summers for ages and it was great to finally see the setting of so many family stories in person.

We got home from our trip on Sunday night but I haven’t been blogging because I took the last few days to decompress. I’m excited to post again today but I needed some time sans camera. Trying to recap my whole vacation seems silly at this point, so I’ll just share some of the highlights.