Webster’s 12th Buyday

Highlights from this week…

Yesterday was the 12th anniversary of Webster joining our family! He is the best. We spent the day hanging out and he celebrated with a peanut butter pup cup from Seacliff Shave Ice.

The humans shared one with cola and butterscotch, with vanilla ice cream, topped with condensed milk and mochi.

Southdown Coffee granita iced coffee.

I also had a variety of coffees from home this week.

We got a bunch of good snacks from Fine Fair Supermarket, including this great tres leches cake.

Trader Joe’s snacks. The ube mochi were fantastic, they were so marshmallow-y!

I loved these new Happy Hour tequilla seltzers.

This guava Mtn Dew was way too sweet but delicious mixed with golden rum.

Dinners this week – 1) Involved a lot of take-out (I was a bit under the weather and also take-out is great). 2) Involved a lot of cauliflower (I got excited about the options at Trader Joes and ended up buying three varieties. And also cauliflower is great).

Roast Korean BBQ French Dip special; shortrib, white cheddar, caramelized kimchi, crunchy onions, and spicy mayo on ciabatta. With roasted baby cauliflower.

Taco Bell came out with a birria taco (“grilled cheese dipping taco”) and I obviously had to try it. I also bought a back-up burrito in case it wasn’t good but I ended up really liking it; the red sauce was obviously not consume but the meat had a good texture and there was tons of cheese. Plus roasted cauliflower and broccoli.

Jalopeno popper turkey meatloaf (with Trader Joe’s hot and sweet pickled jalopenos and tons of sharp cheddar) plus roasted rainbow cauliflower.

Walking tacos (but Adam convinced me to serve them in bowls instead of out of the bag). I made mine with crumbled Fritos / plus ground turkey sauteed with red sauce, baby heirloom tomatoes, and white onion / cheddar / avocado.

Mac and three cheese muffins. With Goodle’s whole-wheat curveballs. I swapped parmesan for extra cheddar and added pickled jalopenos. Plus roasted zucchini.

Boozy And Frothy

An eclectic but wonderful line up of things from the past week…

Late July street corn seasoned tortilla chips. Good but not great, I would buy them again but definitely wouldn’t eat them with salsa.

I am glad I bought these mini bottles of insanely flavored whiskeys from Skatter Brain because the resulting cocktails were perfect. Sidenote – I learned while writing this post that that is how you pluralize whiskey.

Birthday Cake Shake – Vanilla cake whiskey vigorously shaken with amaretto, fresh orange juice, sugar, and an egg white.

P.S. I used my egg yolk to make a fantastic mug brownie. I topped it with Ben & Jerry’s newest flavor (vanilla ice cream with salted caramel, graham cracker swirl, and cookie dough) and swooned.

Peanut Butter and Jellies – Peanut butter whiskey (plus a bit of vodka for balance) with blueberry jam, Luxardo cherry, and strawberry seltzer.

Related – I love passionfruit and this Truly hard seltzer was just great.

Roast take-out sandwich (bbq brisket with onion rings and jalopeno slaw on a pretzel roll!!) with a mountain of roasted green beans.

Spicy salmon sushi bake that we adored. With leftover brown rice and a blend of canned and hot smoked salmon. Plus a cucumber salad.

Best meal of the week – Trader Joe’s Thai Vegetable Gyoza (yum!) / sauteed bok choy / homemade turkey meatballs with panade, hoisin, and gojuchang / homemade Sriracha mayo and dumpling sauce (yum!).

Fellow Northeasterners, stay warm this weekend!

Apple Month

It’s September, aka Apple Month! Here is this year’s themed-food haul –

P.S. I started yesterday morning with an apple crisp macchiato from Starbucks and it was perfect!

My favorite eats this week were mostly fun beverages and eclectic dinners. Highlights included…

A yogurt bowl with blackberries and my newest nut butter obsession – oaty nut butter from Fix & Fogg.

The grapefruit lime is my favorite of this non-alcoholic tepache.

Yuzu brown sugar sparkling iced matcha.

We tried the newest Coke flavor – Dreamworld. It was a bit too fruity for me; I preferred the Starlight and would much prefer if they would just bring back Diet Cherry Coke.

Tangerine sparkling soju. <– we were not expecting to enjoy this as much as we did

Caramel apple margarita!!

Egg casserole with crusty bread, chicken soup sausage, sauteed mushrooms, roasted zuchinni, and gouda. Plus a side of blackberries.

I wanted leftover rice for dinners so I ordered a bunch of Thai food! This bowl was chicken pad see eiw, cashew chicken, and shrimp dumplings.

Salmon roll bowls. Thai sticky rice, baked salmon, spicy cucumber salad, avocado, roasted zucchini, Kewpie, Sriracha, and furikake.

Fried rice with onion, bok choy, chicken sausage, eggs (plus aromatics and seasoning).

Pesto, Pasta, Peanut Butter

Highlights from the week…

Smoothie A – frozen cherries with plain skyr and chocolate milk.

Smoothie B – frozen mango and blueberries with plain Greek yogurt, key lime juice, and honey.

I 100% topped skyr with a chopped-up Reese’s cup. Plus nectarine, chia seeds, and honey.

The Flowers of Life Kombucha did not impress – vaguely tasted like ginger and was not at all floral – but Adam and I both enjoyed the Concord Grape.

Sparkling yuzu matcha. I still can’t beleive that I only started liking matcha in the past few years.

I made egg casserole with shredded mozarella, roasted zuccini, and chives. And I made homemade dumb bread! Served with golden nugget madarin.

Leftovers (topped with chili crisp) with yellow heirloom tomato with salt and Korean chili flake.

Whole-wheat spaghetti with a homemade spinach and pesto sauce plus shredded chicken and extra parmesan and pine nuts.

Trader Joe’s frozen Tteok Bokki (rice cakes in spicy sauce) with chicken, zuccini, and mozarella.

Marshmallow, Marzipan, Matcha

It was a low-key but tasty weekend! Highlights include…

Iced matcha lattes. I can’t believe that I wasn’t a matcha fan until so recently.

(P)Pb&J toast. Toasted whole wheat bread with mixed nut butter and a mix of strawberry jam and poppy seed filling.

An almond-y yogurt bowel. Vanilla skyr, fresh strawberries, maple almond butter granola, and chopped marzipan.

S’morenola! Aka granola s’more nachos aka my new favorite snack. I broiled vanilla bean marshmallows and chopped chocolate on granola. It was wonderful, and yes, I ate it with milk.

This single-sheet pan dinner was so easy and so filling. I roasted Seemore chicken parm sausages with Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi and kale gnocchi, then tossed with red sauce.

Buffalo chicken casserole. We baked together whole-wheat rotini pasta, ground chicken cooked with buffalo sauce, sautéed onion and celery, roasted cauliflower rice, cheddar, and blue cheese.

Destination Charcuterie

Adam and I are both off this Saturday and Sunday, so obviously it’s going to be the best! weekend! ever! Highlights from the week include…

Crispy waffles from Costa Nova. Mine was stuffed with peanut butter, marshmallows, and banana.

Grimm’s Destination Neon double IPA was an absolute delight.

Black sesame ice cream with all the toppings.

Baked cabbage and shrimp with lemon, pepper, and fresh dill (similar to this recipe).

Egg casserole with vegan chorizo, kale, and sharp cheddar (similar to this recipe).

Cheese plate night! Roasted yellow cauliflower / ruby chocolate covered cherries / salted dark chocolate almonds / smoked beef salami / truffle cheese aged in ashes / triple cream blue cheese.

Crisp

I bookended this week with two weekends in a row at work which meant I had Tuesday-Wednesday off and it was just lovely. New York has been too cold for venturing into the city to sound appealing but I did read two books and finish watching Schitt’s Creek!

Food highlights included…

We tried two new apple varieties. Evercrisp > Cosmic Crisp.

We also tried two great, new-to-us gummy candies. The Sour Patch Kids are officially my all-time-favorite cola candy.

An Irish-cream cold brew (enjoyed this far more I was expecting too!) plus espresso-spiked s’mores.

A sweet and spicy mango cocktail.

We found our new favorite Chinese take-out spot and tried a bunch of dishes. Garlic baby bok choy / spicy crispy chicken / rice cakes with cabbage and shredded chicken / scallion pancakes.

One set of ingredients cooked two different ways. First eggs soft-scrambled with maple-smoked cheddar with chicken breakfast sausages and kale sautéed with tons of garlic and gojuchang.

Then all of the above baked into an egg casserole. Plus leftover scallion pancakes. This was the best meal of the week!

Pumpkin Spice And Everything Nice

Highlights from this week include…

Phin-brewed Cafe Du Monde chicory coffee with sweetened condensed milk is obviously my new favorite thing of all time.

Pumpkin Noosa with papaya and cocoa granola. Was pleasantly surprised by how well these three flavors paired together.

Yummy candies my parents sent us from back home – tamarind balls and guava hard candies.

Be sure to grab yourself a bag of these cinnamon pretzels the next time you’re at a 7-11.

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale is one of our original pumpkin favorites.

And this limited release Stone double IPA was pretty great too.

Cheese plates for dinner! Bartlett pear / homemade spiced candied walnuts / maple-smoked cheddar / papaya / durian chocolate and milk chocolate / Manchego / garlic naan crackers from Trader Joe’s.

Egg casserole – with broccoli, green onion, shallot, TJ’s turkey summer sausage, and maple-smoked cheddar – plus beer cheese kettle chips. Inspired by this recipe.

Whole-wheat matzoh brei with roasted brussel sprouts.

A great take on sheet-pan fried rice (loosely based on this method) with cauliflower rice (seasoned with soy sauce, fish sauce, rice vinegar, and gojuchang), peas, green onions, and sausage.