I’d Have To Say April 25th

This was the most boring week of the month (July includes my trip to Maryland, a trip to Buffalo, a visit from my parents, and my 30th birthday!) but Adam and I kept things fun with lots of little dates.  Honestly, I have more fun going to the grocery store with my husband than I would have doing almost anything with someone else, so grabbing donuts before work with him is pretty thrilling.

breakfast

Breakfast note 1 – I stuck with a coffee combo that worked: Dark Roast Community Coffee with skim milk and fat-free half and half.  The coffee bag says to use 2 Tbsp grounds to 6 oz water and I use 3 Tbsp and my crappy coffee machine and it comes out perfect for my tastes.

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Breakfast note 2 – the GoMacro bars in this post are another former freebie.  The flavors I had this week were my new favorites, they had a lot more texture than the previous ones I tried.

Coffee, cinnamon applesauce, and GoMacro apples + walnuts (morning harvest).  They should have just called this flavor “apple pie” because that’s what it tasted like.

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An aprium – apricot-plum hybrid like a pluot but more apricot than plum – and GoMacro sesame butter + dates (sweet revival).  Sesame butter is a bit sweeter than other nut butters naturally; I’m having a hard time explaining the flavor of sesame butter but it is what this bar tastes like.

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Doughnut Plant date before work.  The fresh lavender flower flavor was tasty but the yeasted doughnut was too big for me for breakfast, I’ll have to stick to the cake varieties unless another really fun flavor pops up.  Adam had the chocolate chip cookie special and was basically swooning.

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Freeze-dried Fuji apple slices and GoMaco granola and coconut (balanced goodness).  The oats gave this a great consistency.

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That pop of pink is a new notebook from Target.  I’m obsessed.  I also bought a new day planner.

lunch

I was all about the sandwiches this week.  Caprese sandwich from the cafeteria.  Tomato, basil, mozzarella, and spinach.

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The plainest sandwich ever, also from the cafeteria.  Turkey, cheese, and mayo on a white roll.  I didn’t even have a fruit, vegetable, or whole grain on the side.  I badly sunburned my knees last weekend, long story, and I was feeling a little under the weather that day.

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Starbuck’s Thai-style peanut chicken wrap.  I was impressed with this, all of the fancy new foods looks pretty good.

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Lunch date at La Bagel Delight.  We spit a poppy seed bagel with lox and dill cream cheese.

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On Friday I did get back to my yogurt bowl roots.  2% Lingonberry & Strawberry Siggi’s with chopped aprium and pluot and KIND peanut butter granola.

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Kids, that granola is ridiculous – somehow it tastes like cookie dough?!

snack

Saturday – July 11th or 7/11 – was 7-11 Day so I got a free small slurpee.  Sour Patch watermelon and Coke were amazing together.  Also, I eat my fair share of sugar but half of a small slurpee kind of makes me want to die so I’m horrified by the existence of that extra-large cup.

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Guava cheese empanada.  I will be so sad if this food truck moves away from my LIRR station.

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Ice cream date.  We got raw egg topped with salted caramel, sesame honeycomb, and Luxardo cherries.

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Morganstern’s ice cream is indescribably chewy, it is truly some of the best I’ve ever tasted.  And I cannot get over those cherries.

Have you seen this cute iced drink promotion at Starbucks yet?  Those ice cube stickers kill me.

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Maple latte.  With a sky-blue straw that made me so happy!

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I took a girlfriend to Nunu so I could try that spicy beer again.  And I forgot to write down the name for a 2nd time.  I enjoyed it, but not as much as I did when it was paired with chocolate; a full pint by itself was a bit much to get through.

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A chocolate chip cookie and a GoMacro cherries + berries (sunny uplift).  I was expecting to hate that flavor but it was actually yummy, the cherries were nice and tart and it had some oat texture.

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That cookie was totally not homemade.

dinner

My family sent me home from Solomon’s with some of my uncle’s amazing crab cakes.

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Best meal of the week.

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We sautéed the crab in a mix of melted butter and evoo.

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Served with a caprese-style salad on the side.

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Red and green lettuce mix dressed with truffle salt, evoo, and balsamic vinegar and topped with Kumato tomato and mozzarella.

Date night in the Lower East Side.  We got bowls at Korilla and they were so freaking good!  Sticky rice, gojuchang chicken, red kimchi, cucumber kimchi, monterey jack cheese, and a fried egg.  Plus Korean bbq and hot sauces.  My mouth was on fire and I was in heaven.

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We cooled down at Snowdays.  Black sesame shaved ice with sweetened condense milk, mochi, and Fruity Pebbles.

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We had parked in DUMBO so we got to walk home over the bridge.  It was so hot and sticky but still super fun.

Another day, another bowl, this time a Chipotle date on our couch.

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I got salad with peppers and onions, chicken, mild salsa, green salsa, sour cream, and cheese.  Plus chips and a giant diet coke on the side.  We go to Chipotle so often that the counter staff recognizes us, which is the most embarrassing thing on earth, but we can’t stop!

The opposite of date night, I made this dinner by myself while Adam worked a 30 hour shift.

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My Cheesy Eggplant Bake with diced yellow onion and light Havarti added in so I could use up some leftovers.

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Plus a great salad.

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Red and green lettuce // dressed with lavender salt, evoo, honey, and balsamic vinegar // topped with sweet and spicy pecans, dried bing cherries, and chia seeds.

Any other drink freebie deals I should know about for this summer?

Williamsburg To Washington Square Park

Oh my goodness, what a great weekend!  Adam and I have been making the most of the summer days, and then some.  This weekend we walked around Williamsburg, across the bridge, up to and around Washington Square Park, and back, to the tune of 10+ miles in one afternoon!

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When we weren’t moving this weekend, we were eating.  Here are some of the highlights…

A fancy-schmancy yogurt bowl.  2% Plum Chobani with two varieties of pluot and a dollop of fresh whipped cream.

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The cream was part of a homemade ice cream undertaking (look for more details – and a giveaway! – on Wednesday).

Coffee at Sweetleaf, a Rocket Fuel.

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Aka cold brew with milk, maple, and chicory.  Chicory blended iced coffees are definitely going to play a big role in my summer.

Espresso and macarons at Bakeshop by Woops.

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Kids, this place was so freaking cute.  And our cookies were amazing, chocolate and lavender chocolate.

Honey sesame soy milk box.

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Adam and I tried to split this but the minute I handed it over to him he guzzled the rest of it down!

Cherry Cola Tic-Tacs.

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I am incapable of turning down a cherry cola flavored item.  Fun fact – the last two photos were not actually taken in front of the same wall, I just seek out brick whenever I have the option for a photo.

Rice bowls at Korilla.  Korilla is basically an Asian Chipotle, but it is at least fifteen times more fantastic.

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My bowl had sticky rice, the most amazing gochujang marinated chicken, sweet corn and snap peas, cheese, tons of red kimchi, and spicy but sweet Korean BBQ sauce.  Adam’s rice had bacon and kimchi in it and we were both swooning.

We tried the new limited-time offerings at Ample Hills.

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The pride month flavor was yummy but we had to throw out the sandwich.  I think that Ample Hills generally makes the best ice cream on Earth but those soggy cookies were truly inedible.

A cone from Sundaes and Cones.

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Lavender and black sesame were both great; those are flavors that could be kind of overwhelming but they were sweet and light yet still identifiable.

A quick red curry at home.

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Rice noodles on the bottom // sautéed bok choy, white mushrooms and straw mushrooms, sweet onion and green onion, and sweet red pepper // sprouted tofu cubes roasted with lime, sugar, Sriracha, and liquid smoke // and red curry sauce with lime, light coconut milk, fish sauce, and minced garlic and ginger.

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We both typically say that we don’t like red curries but we loved this so we should give the real version another chance.

Sandwich night on my lonesome while Adam was at work.

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I toasted sourdough slices in the oven with Smart Balance Light and pepperjack and sharp cheddar cheese then sandwiched them around canola oil mayo and Applegate Smoked Sliced Turkey.

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With roasted green beans on the side.

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How are green beans – roasted with cooking spray and salt – so flipping buttery?!

Dinner at The Smoke Joint, our new favorite bbq spot.

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They have Mother’s Milk at the bar, which wins them points.  Adam’s strawberry vanilla bourbon limeade wasn’t bad either.

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Their juicy, tender, chopped bbq chicken comes with a side of pickles and spicy cole slaw.

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And their smoky collard greens are meatless, so I got to try real bbq collards for the first time in my life.

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I loved them!

If this upcoming week is half as good as my weekend I’ll be all set 🙂

It Was High Time To Hit The High Line

Five favorites from the weekend…

{1}  New yogurt flavors

Siggi’s never lets me down; the new whole milk mixed berries flavor tasted great paired with blackberries and bran flakes for work lunch.

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We also tried some goat’s milk yogurt from Coach Farm.

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The honey flavor was nice – not too sweet or sour – but I always miss the thicker texture of Greek.

{2}  Chipotle, always

Rice bowl with chicken.

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Enjoyed while watching “Criminal Minds.”  I think I’m finally getting Adam hooked on it too.

{3}  Green Juice

Spinach, watermelon, and lemon, from Juice Generation.  Yummy, though it was a little heavy on the fruit and light on the greens.

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The cashier was a boy from Puerto Rico (an island near St. Thomas), it was nice to reminisce with someone from (near) home.  We sipped while we shopped at the new Flying Tiger – so cool!

{4}  Dinner at the Green Table

A small farm to table spot in Chelsea Market.

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Drink: 77 Sour – Breuckelen ’77 whiskey, fresh lemon, local maple syrup, Hella citrus bitters.  It was delicious, the classiest whiskey sour of all time.

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Eat: Vegan “Pho” – napa cabbage, bok choy, tofu, mushrooms, lime, lemongrass, chili oil.  The flavors were great, but I was glad they put Pho in quotation marks because there was not a noodle to be found.  We totally got pizza once we were back in Brooklyn.

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Sweet: Chocolate Hibiscus Trifle – hibiscus Chantilly, pink peppercorn caramel.  The cake bites (which were gluten-free) were dry and terrible, but the hibiscus Chantilly cream was juicy and sweet, just like the apple ice wine I had with it.

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We probably won’t be back – based on the size for price of the entrées – but I’m quite glad that we got to enjoy the drinks and dessert.

{5}  Watching the sunset on the High Line

We got a plum jasmine shaved ice from people’s pops to crunch while we people and sky watched.

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Also juicy and sweet!  We need to get up there more often.

Seoul Food Style

We got to spend time with several Buffalo friends, we went on some great walks, the puppy seems to be feeling a little better, and all in all it was a great weekend.  I’m missing a few shots, but here are most of my favorite eats…

breakfast

Giant iced coffee, always.

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That one has fat-free sweetened condensed milk and skim milk.  The SCM is leftover from a failed recipe trial, but Vietnamese-ish iced coffees are better than hot fudge root beer float popsicles (good in theory but I can’t make it work!) any day.

I tried the milk bread from TOUS les JOUR.

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Nice and vanilla-bean-y.

Another day, another coffee.

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I asked Starbucks to put the marshmallow whipped cream and milk chocolate from the S’mores Frappuccino into my skim latte and they happily delivered.  The taste was good but I was unbelievably ill by the halfway mark, I cannot even imagine drinking a full Frappuccino.

Plus Adam and I split a Pulsin’ maple peanut bar.

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It was vegan and made with pea protein and the nutrition stats were pretty good – 12 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber with 11 grams of sugar.  Not a bad breakfast for a busy morning of errands.

lunch

Lunch in Koreatown.  I set my mouth on fire with a kimchi bun and cooled it down with a (pink!) Harmless Harvest coconut water.

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Afterwards we shared dessert at Grace Street, our new favorite snow spot.

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We shared a machta latte.

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And a black sesame shaved ice with scm, boba, and mini marshmallows.

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Between the tapioca balls and the partially frozen marshmallows, this had so much chew!

“Dinner” for lunch.  We almost never cook a full meal in the daytime so this felt pretty fancy.

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Roasted broccoli with truffle salt,

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and “Cooking Light’s” Farro with Honey-Garlic Roasted Tomatoes.

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We added chopped turkey bacon and rotisserie chicken to the farro to make it a little more substantial.  Also I skipped the thyme (the bacon made up for the flavor), used fat-free feta, and subbed sherry for sherry vinegar.

snack

21st Amendment brews at the Gotham West Market.

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The market space was gorgeous and we want to go back for ramen and/or tacos soon but guys, holy crap, we paid $17 for two cans of beer!!!  At least, after a lot of walking along the piers, they were refreshing.

Can cookies at Schmackary’s become an every weekend tradition?

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This time we split a giant, chewy funfetti cookie topped with cream cheese frosting and tons of sprinkles.

We’ve been loving fruit-infused water lately; having a big jug in the fridge makes me much more likely to pour a glass.

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This week was lime and mint and last week was mint and grapefruit, which was even better.

Corn was popped.

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Enjoyed while Netflixing approximately eight billion old episodes of “Criminal Minds.”

A girlfriend and I had planned on going to Rice to Riches ever since the first summer we moved here and Monday the time was finally right.  I got a cookie cream rice pudding with mocha crumbles.  We both liked the pudding but thought it would be more enjoyable served in a bowl instead of a trough.

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My fancy cup was a skim cortado from Happy Bones, so that was fun.  And we took a great walk across the Williamsburg Bridge.

dinner

Our friends’ adorable baby girl just turned one and they invited us to her Doljanchi, a Korean 1st birthday party tradition.

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The buffet was great,

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but the best thing ever was getting to catch up with all of the med school friends (and their babies!) that we’ve been missing.

Saturday night we had an absolutely amazing dinner at The Marshal, a Hell’s Kitchen farm-to-table spot that focuses on seasonal, local goodies.  Bonus – the waitstaff are all insanely cute!

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I got an Earl’s Tea to drink – chilled Earl Grey Tea, Peace Vodka, Catskills Provisions raw honey, lemon, and orange cream bitters.

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We started with scallops – bourbon planked herb crusted Massachusetts jumbo scallops with caramelized lemon and assorted local herbs.

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And Arcadian Pastures deviled eggs – ramps-infused yolks, micro-wasabi, and crispy duck prosciutto.

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None of the appetizers really knocked our socks off (good but not the best ever) but the duck prosciutto was definitely smoky and amazing.

Our meals, on the other hand, were mind-blowing.  Adam got a bacon-wrapped pork loin that he loved so much he didn’t speak for the rest of the meal and I did a trio of farm sides.

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Roasted Bulich Farm snow while mushrooms, herb butter, Upstate white wine // Sautéed Lancaster Farm dandelion greens, red pepper flakes, grapeseed oil, Finger Lakes white wine // Satur Farms sweet potato and kale au gratin.  The gratin was out of this word; it was so rich I couldn’t even finish it.

We were too stuffed to do more than pick at dessert, but we couldn’t skip it!

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Bittersweet chilled chocolate fudge in NYC honey with honey comb, bee pollen, and Blue Marble vanilla ice cream.

The Lower East Side has always been my Manhattan haunt of choice, but lately Hells Kitchen has been rocking our socks off!  NYC readers, what’s your favorite neighborhood?

Homemade S’mores Milk and Weekend Brooklyn Love

Adam and I had a pretty great weekend… in spite of me misplacing my – expensive! – favorite sports bra and spending half of Saturday in mourning.  Seriously – I don’t change at the gym, I didn’t pack it on a trip, and we are very careful to check the machines for runaways when we do our laundry – where the frick is it?!!  But when we weren’t checking and rechecking literally every drawer in the house, we did manage to have some fun.

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highlights…

Homemade S’mores Milk

It’s official, I’m a genius.  I put it in coffee, obviously.

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S’mores Milk, makes 2 cups

Inspired by Tosi’s Cereal Milk.  This recipe requires you to strain the solids out of the milk, you can use a fine mesh sieve but I used my French Press and that worked really well too.  Smooshy marshmallows will not work for this, you need crispy ones; if you can’t find the Mallow Bits I recommend picking the marshmallows out of Lucky Charms!

  • 2 cups skim milk or milk of choice
  • 1/3 cup Jet Puff Mallow Bits
  • 4 squares graham crackers, crumbled
  • 2 Tbsp hot chocolate milk
  1. Place all of the ingredients together in a container and stir to combine.  Cover and store in the fridge for 8 – 16 hours.
  2. Strain, discarding solids.  Milk can be stored, covered, in the fridge for up to 1 week.

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Cheesy Spicy Eggs

Coming up somewhere just behind coffee, diet coke, dulce de leche, and popcorn, corn cooked in scrambled eggs is one of my favorite meals.

This plate was TJ’s frozen fire-roasted corn, chopped spinach, and sliced shishito peppers (<– so much spicier than I was expecting!) cooked in coconut oil with eggs scrambled in and chunks of Kerrygold Skellig sweet cheddar tossed in at the end.

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C’est Cheese in Port Jeff

C’est Cheese is always worth the drive up Port Jefferson for dinner.

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We shared a beer sampler.  The Framboise was my favorite.

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A cheese plate.  Adam loved the Tallegio and I was all about the 7-year Gouda.

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And a grilled cheese with blue cheese and a raspberry-cranberry relish on marble rye.  The cheese and jam combo made for the best bites of the night.

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Snacky in Williamsburg

This weekend one of my lifelong best friends celebrated her 30th(!!!) birthday.

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After the party, the husband and I had dinner at Snackys, one of my favorite Williamsburg spots.  We shared a seaweed salad and a Chinese big bun stuffed with pickled vegetables.

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And did rice bowls for dinner.  I know the photos aren’t much, but my Spicy Korean BBQ Chicken Bowl was great, yummy sauce and big bites of kimchi.

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Our 1st Smorgasburg of 2015

NYC people – if you haven’t done Smorgasburg yet you need to get your life together.  They added a few new vendors this season and it is happy, foodie, perfection.  We couldn’t find the Snowday truck but you can bet I’ll keep an eye out from now on.

We got lattes at Brooklyn Roasting Company.

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Buns from Bite Sized Kitchen.  I got red curry chicken with peanuts, cilantro, and fried garlic and shloots (topped with loads of sweet chili sauce).

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And beer-battered cheese curds with truffle cheese sauce from Curd’s the Word.

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Remember this post?  The stupid sports bra is the fourth item I’ve ever lost… which would be a really good track record if 2, 3, and 4 hadn’t all been within the last year!

Pig & Khao & Bao

New York gave us weather in the upper 40’s two days in a row and we had a fabulous weekend!  We went to two new (to us) restaurants and adored them both.  Here is a wrap-up of my favorite bites and sips, not including several more cups of coffee, several more cups of ice cream, and a windy but wonderful walk across the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.

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Carolina Honey Argo Tea.

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This tea was honey perfection; I loudly “Mmmmn’d” at least five times before we had finished it.  And bonus – Adam and I adore reusing the bottles.

Iced latte from Brooklyn Roasting Company.

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A gorgeous espresso over skim milk, with raw sugar and a splash of cream.  We fought over it on the subway.  I also got another Maple Shay and learned that they will make it with skim milk and that it is even better that way.

Shaved ice at Snowdays.

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We shared a sweet cream with salted caramel, fruity pebbles, grass jelly, and mochi.  Snowdays is Adam’s favorite iced dessert option and mochi are my favorite iced dessert topping.

A stop at Sugar, Sweet, Sunshine.

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I actually passed on the cupcakes in lieu of puddings –

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Banana and chocolate chip cookie.

Baohaus rocked our socks off.  Their lighting scheme was dim with shades of yellow, so I couldn’t get a good shot, but the buns were outstanding.

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I got an Uncle Jessie: Organic fried tofu served with our Haus Seasoning Salt, crushed peanuts, Taiwanese red sugar, cilantro, and Haus Sauce, and we shared a Coffin Bao: A large fried bao stuffed with our fried chicken topped with chili condensed milk syrup, crushed peanuts, Taiwanese red sugar, and cilantro.  Chili condensed milk syrup is pretty much my love language!

Pig & Khao was even better.  Adam says this was the best meal he’s had in months.

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I had Vietnamese coffee.

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And Shan noodles: ground chicken, turmeric, peanuts, fermented mustard greens, rice noodles.

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Every dish had umami out the wazoo.  I poured a bit of Adam’s chili oil – for dipping with his steak and eggs – into my broth and the burn was so worth it!

Green eggs at home.

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Scrambled with fresh arugula and TJ’s fire roasted corn.  Instead of toast, I had ice cream.

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Jimmy Fallon can laugh at his own jokes, I don’t care, this is the best Ben & Jerry’s of all time: Caramel & Chocolate Ice Creams with Chocolate Cookie Swirls & Gobs of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough & Peanut Butter Cookie Dough.  Funny fact – I thought I hated iced cream up until a year or two ago.

I made a new salmon dish – Sweet and Spicy Cilantro Baked Salmon.

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Recipe linked here.  I was pleased enough with how it came out to make a recipe page.

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With TJ’s Cruciferous Crunch (kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, green  and red cabbage) sautéed with leftover cilantro sauce and Wegman’s Thai peanut sauce.

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This was worth dirtying up the food processor for.

Crossing my fingers that the weather stays “warm” this week.

Doughnuts And Coffee; Weekend Wrap-Up

coffee, coffee

So, you know how we’re obsessed with coffee?  Like, problematically obsessed?  I might like it as much as Diet Coke.  This post is going to include a coffee brewer review.  Adam, who drinks at least two cups a day, prefers his hot.  I get iced 95% of the time, but when I’m home I’ll drink it hot if it’s fresh.  Long story short – even though I mostly stick with cold-brew in my French press, we do in fact need a more traditional brewing option in the house.  So when iCoffee offered to send me an Opus Single-Serve Brewer to review, I said “yes!”

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Please note – this product was sent to me free of charge to review.  I was not provided with further compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

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According to the company, the iCoffee system uses steam to help create a nice, smooth, non-bitter flavor.  A patent-pending SpinBrew needle spins, steams and stirs the coffee inside of the single-serve cup, creating a mini-French Press effect that cannot be achieved by other brewers.

The Opus has a “Dial-a-Brew” control which allows you to customize strength and taste by choosing any brew size between 4 and 12 ounces in half-ounce increments.  It can brew 10 ounces in less than 60 seconds, so it’s nice and quick.  The drip tray is magnetic, so it can pull out to accommodate my tall go-cup.

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They sent me a few cups to get me started.  Adam had one of the Marley Coffees and loved it.

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The Opus is cool because it is compatible with all k-type cups, including K-Cup, RealCup, OneCup and all private label cups (unlike the Keurig system that only uses K-cups).  That said, I find single use cups to be insanely wasteful, the reason I accepted the brewer to review is because it is compatible with a reusable iCup.

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I have made a few cups that way with the coffee we already had at home (marshmallow flavored!) and it’s all worked out quite well.  I could see how the cup could have the propensity to break but replacements are only $12.95.

In short – we are fans!  We would rate the system 4.5+ out of 5 and plan on giving it a permanent spot on our countertop.

copycat Chipotle bowls

Another thing we’re obsessed with?  Loaded rice bowls from Chipotle.  After making (multiple!) weekly Chipotle runs for the past several months it was time for us to finally make our own at home.

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So many layers of flavor!  Including:

  • jasmine rice with chopped cilantro and lime juice stirred in
  • sautéed mushroom, onion, and green pepper
  • corn sautéed with chopped jalopeño
  • black beans reheated with cilantro and lime juice
  • chicken that was marinated with lime juice, sugar, and green tomatillo salsa
  • shredded cheese, light sour cream, and homemade guacamole

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So darn good!

And round two the next night – topped with green Tabasco – was just as good, maybe even better.

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Plus we split a Warlock.

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And a Mokaccino TCHO bar that we brought home from Blue Bottle in San Francisco.

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Roasty good.

coffee and doughnuts

On Sunday we did a bit of a walking brunch around Chelsea in Manhattan.  Stumptown Coffee –> Doughnut Plant –> Blue Bottle Coffee –> Doughnuttery.  It was great fun!

We shared cold brew and an espresso at Stumptown.

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It was my first time at the Ace Hotel, which is stunning.

Then made our way to Doughnut Plant.

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We shared a hazelnut chocolate doughseed which was only ok.

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And I got a Tres Leches filled caked doughnut that was amazing.

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Best doughnut I’ve eaten all year.  The filling was definitely reminiscent of Tres Leches and the doughnut had a great, crisp crust.   I’ve been wanting to go get this flavor since last summer and it did not disappoint.

Doughnuttery ended up not appealing to us, but we did enjoy another cold brew from Blue Bottle.

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I told you we have a coffee problem!

city living

We may not have gotten Doughnuttery, but it brought us into Chelsea Market which we loved the crap out of.

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It was gorgeous (Christmas decorations!),

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and there were so many tasty things that we want to try.

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We’ll be back.

Instead we headed uptown to Xi’an Famous Foods for hand-pulled noodles.

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Flipping yum!  I went with the vegetarian spicy noodles and they rocked my socks off.  The chew was out of control.

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Meanwhile Adam was positively swooning over his pork bowl.

Then we went to Rockefeller Center and stared at the tree.

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I ♥ New York!

Three Day Weekend Wrap-Up

I give the last three days an A+!  I had a very inconveniently timed doctor’s appointment on Friday and it made more sense to take a vacation day than try to fit the travel time into a work day.  Serendipitously, Adam had switched some shifts with a coworker who was going to a wedding and he had most of the three off as well.  Yippee!

I’m going to do this post old school, stream of consciousness style, though there are some holes as this definitely does not show every single thing that I ate…

Friday, once I had finished up with the dermatologist and Adam had rested up from his overnight shift, we headed into Manhattan.

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Our destination was Krispy Kreme, and these limited edition Ghostbusters donuts.

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I ain’t afraid of no donut!  They were filled with marshmallow crème and were actually kind of amazing; maybe my favorite donuts I’ve ever tasted.

We wandered around Penn Station, then did lunch in Koreatown.  We had a(n impulse-bought) Groupon for food and booze at Boss Lounge.

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I ordered a Pinch Me, which had Grey Goose, lychee, and grenadine.

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Adam and I shared a kimichi and cheese roll.

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As well as seaweed and tofu salad.

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The tofu was silken and strangely sweet.  The husband loved it.

Afterwards we explored Koreatown a bit more.  We split a kimchi bun from a food court we want to go back to asap.

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Tried whatever the heck this was?!

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The top is mango and red bean but we couldn’t identify the white – chewy and gelatinous – stuff.  Neither of us could bring ourselves to swallow it!

And had a coffee popsicle from Tous les Jours for dessert.

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Every single thing we’ve tried from TlJ has been awesome.  Adam took home cheese buns that he adored and I’m kicking myself for not buying a milk bun.

For dinner, we made our way over to Hardings’s.

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Whiskey sour made with fresh lime, cane sugar, and egg whites!

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Adam had yummy, crispy salmon and I did a fun combo of appetizers.

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Pumpkin pie soup with spiced whipped cream.

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And kale salad with chickpeas, Marcona almonds, shaved sunchokes, and lemon vinaigrette.

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Ahaha, I didn’t realize until I reread the menu to write this post that those white shreds were sunchokes and not really stale parmesan.

Afterwards we trained it over to Lexington (and Dylan’s Candy!), then walked back to our car across the Queensboro Bridge.  It was a lovely nighttime walk but my calves are sooooo sore now!

We were parked in Long Island City and we stopped at The Baroness for a nightcap on the way.

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We want to go back for a cheese plate immediately, but for now we shared a cute beer sampler.

Saturday was supposed to be spent at Smorgasburg, but yucky, rainy weather scared us back to Long Island.  Instead we ran local errands – groceries were shopped and both of our cars now have changed oil.

We had baked potatoes for brunch.

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I swear that there is a potato under there.  Topped with butter, sharp cheddar, turkey bacon, leftover kale salad, jalopeño, sour cream, and a fried egg.

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We poked the yolks into our buttered potatoes and it was pretty great.

We spent the evening cuddled on the couch with GIANT plates of nachos.  I also ate this licorice mix.

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We are now completely caught up on new fall tv.  The Chicago’s (PD and Fire) are my favorite so far.

We had more to-do’s to check off on Sunday, and headed back into the city so I could buy a winter coat.

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Train fuel = toasted everything bagel with jalopeño-cheddar cream cheese.

We considered getting Chobani but the line was too crazy, so instead we got froyo.  Pumpkin pie and praline topped with caramel, toffee, Butterfinger, yogurt chips, and mochi.

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Our bowls were tasty, and even better, free.  The last time I was at Yogurtland I was a hot mess and I dropped my credit card into my yogurt and the cashier felt so bad for me that he gave me a handful of vouchers for free yogurt.

I had several coffee this weekend (duh!), but the best was actually from 7-11.

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Cinnamon coffee with pumpkin pie creamer and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

I ate fruit salad while I prepped a batch for the upcoming week.

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And we made big, hearty bowls for dinner.

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Sprouted red jasmine rice // frozen spinach sautéed with bbq sauce, browned mushrooms and tons of onions // red lentils cooked with cumin, turmeric, smoked paprika, curry powder, and more sautéed onion // sour cream and Sriracha on top.

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We ate our warm meal while we worked on the winter-y activity of swapping out our summer wardrobes.  I still don’t have a ton of cold weather gear but I am excited to have my boots back out.

Back in the “old days,” blog posts always ended with a question:

Have you swapped out your summer and winter wardrobes yet?