New York, New York

by Emily

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

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

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

Here were five highlights…

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

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

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

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

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

7Sep2018

What I Wish I Was Eating

by Emily

I didn’t do the best job of photo taking this week, so instead let’s talk about food a bit. For funsies, 10 items I’ve been obsessing about recently –

coffee – always
plucots – I feel like my summer season of plum eating was way too short this year, I didn’t eat a single dinosaur plucot
Insomnia Cookie – we’ve been getting cookie delivery way too often recently! But their s’mores cookie is chewy and loaded with marshmallows and I’m smitten
grilled romaine lettuce – my aunt served this last weekend and it was mind-blowingly good
chicken and waffles – I need to go back to Mother’s Ruin for their Cholula glazed version asap
bubble tea – this winter I think I want to try to make an eggnog with boba happen
cheesecake – I haven’t actually eaten cheesecake in months and months but it keeps popping up in my online scrolling and always sounds so delicious!
okonomiyaki – I haven’t been able to get my Americanized version out of my mind
cookie butter frozen yogurt – we had some last week at Red Mango (with mochi and cookie butter drizzle!) that was just fantastic
homemade ice cream – another item that’s been dominating my online reading, mostly because Stella Parks keeps being the best at what she does

And here were the highlights of what I’ve actually been eating…

Coffee for the week = TJ’s French Roast.

I’m still having a moment with trail mix, I seriously eat at least one bag a day! I guess that probably should have been on my obsessions list!

Other snack specials included this new flavor of Luna Bar.

And really tasty french onion dip my aunt sent home with us.

The most exciting thing on earth, however, is that they sent us home with crab cakes!! Eaten with roasted brussel sprout and aioli.

I made a great casserole. Shredded chicken, black beans, cauliflower rice, onion, bell peppers, and green salsa, topped with an amazing tortilla chip and cojita cheese crumble.

What foods have you been obsessing about recently?

31Aug2018

Okonomiyaki And Almost Green Papaya Salad

by Emily

Loves of late – “Making It” (again), I am sad this season is almost over. Also “Stan Against Evil;” I just learned that the 3rd season premiers on Halloween and I could not be more excited.

Flavor themes this week – cream cheese, salmon, bacon, cabbage, coffee (always)

Here were the highlights…

Coffee = cold pressed Brooklyn Roasting Company.

On the snack front, the hospital cafeteria stocks a big variety of yummy trail mixes and I am obsessed with them.

And this month’s Snack Crate was from Japan and it was super exciting.

Jalopeno popper chicken. Chicken baked with a topping of cream cheese, jalopeno, cheddar, and turkey bacon. Plus roasted green beans.

Salmon strata. This recipe, but I subbed in cream cheese for cheddar and added dill. Also I added an extra egg and used fat-free half and half in place of a 1/2 cup of milk which made the custard extra creamy. Pro tip – we used Trader Joe’s white whole wheat and it was perfect. Plus cherry tomatoes and roasted zucchini.

Frozen salmon burgers (which frankly weren’t that good) on a delicious slaw. I made green papaya salad but with cabbage.

Americanized okonomiyaki, I used russet potato with turkey bacon and sharp cheddar.

28Aug2018

Weekend Things

by Emily

4 things I loved this weekend that weren’t food:

{1} Clothing – the anthropomorphic pizza t-shirt from Roberta’s that is officially my favorite thing I’ve ever owned.

{2} TV show – “Making It,” aka the best reality show ever created. It’s super talented crafters making amazing projects that are rife with puns and have a million creative details plus unscripted Nick Offerman and Amy Poehler saying hilarious and supportive things.

{3} Buds – these splendid flowers from Trader Joe’s. I don’t even like roses but these take my breath away.

{4} Movie – Crazy Rich Asians. This film was stunningly gorgeous, uproariously funny, and so darn touching that a moment towards the end brought the whole theater – including Adam and I – to tears. Go see it!

4 edible things I loved this weekend:

{1} A two-tone vanilla rose smoothie. Banana, Greek yogurt, coconut milk, and vanilla bean // with strawberries, plums, and rosewater.

{2} Coffee themed snacks. Chocolate-covered beans from Shenandoah Joe’s. <– I am obsessed

A quad iced latte with a truffle.

Kung Fu Tea oreo slush with tapioca and coffee flavored popping boba.

{3} Tacos from Brazos. We shared grilled tilapia with red cabbage slaw, avocado sauce, radish, and lime / mashed potato, yam, mushrooms, cilantro, spicy honey, and jalopenos / and chicken with black beans, roasted corn, avocado, and jack cheese.

{4} Brunch at Fry’s Spring Station. They improved upon fried chicken and waffles with smokey pimento cheese and candied pepper honey.

24Aug2018

Buchi, Boba, Bacon

by Emily

Highlights from a yummy week…

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

This pineapple + mint Buchi is my new favorite kombucha.

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

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

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

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

Dinner out at Bebedero.

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

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

17Aug2018

Pizza Pizza

by Emily

Flavor themes from the week – cherries and cheese. These were the highlights…

Brooklyn Roasting Co coffee. After this I have one last tin left from NY… guess we need to take another trip soon!

It was a good week in snacks, thanks in part to a fun package full of goodies from my parents. Including cherry cola Mike & Ikes and delicious chocolate-covered dried cherries.

Two new to us snacks, salted caramel Somersaults (<– best flavor yet!) and Sweet Sapphire grapes.

Another new flavor, sesame bbq chicken Epic bar.

I cooked salmon for dinner one night. Roasted coho topped with a vegan scallion pesto – food-processed pine nuts, parsley, sauteed green onions, and evoo. Plus homemade cole slaw. The sauce was great, but sadly the salmon was fairly flavorless without it.

The rest of the week dinners were all about pizza! I loosely followed this recipe for pepperoni pizza macaroni and cheese. Whole wheat shell pasta > macaroni pasta. Pro tip – any time I make macaroni and cheese (or any roux thickened sauce) I always substitute low-fat condensed milk for the recommended liquid. The results always taste fantastic and it means we don’t have an open container of whole milk in the house which is great because both Adam and I dislike it. Plus roasted zucchini.

Meat lovers pizza. Frozen crust from Trader Joe’s / we added tomato paste while we sauteed some chicken sausage and added that to our marinara sauce / topped with turkey pepperoni and turkey bacon / plus mozzarella and cheddar. With roasted green beans.

What is your favorite pizza topping? Apparently mine is bacon!

13Aug2018

Dachshund Diaries

by Emily

Top five from this weekend…

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

We ate some bacon-flavored wet food.

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

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

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

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

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

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

10Aug2018

Tahini Rose

by Emily

Highlights from this week…

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

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

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