Dotted Line

by Emily

My favorite bites this week…

A breakfast date at Dot & Line. I had a maple iced latte and a croissant stuffed with vanilla cream and chocolate.

Breakfast casserole. Like this one, but with extra sharp cheddar, smoked rainbow trout, and the addition of green onions. With broccoli and cauliflower on the side.

BBQ chicken salad. Romaine with blue cheese dressing / green onion / cucumber / pomegranate / smoked almonds / sharp cheddar / shredded chicken with bbq sauce.

Sparkly mint brownie from The Fat Witch. <– best brownies in New York

It’s the freaking weekend!

23Feb2018

Smoked Cheddar To Chocolate Almond

by Emily

Flavor themes of the week: coffee, cauliflower, seltzer, croissants.

White Noise. Iced latte and black sesame and milk frozen yogurt swirl fantasticness.

Home coffee for the week. Starbucks espresso roast with chocolate milk.

Breads Bakery. Smoked cheddar croissant.

Orwashers. Almond and chocolate croissant.

Yogurt bowl. 2% Fage with pomegranate, golden raisins, and luxardo cherries.

Snack time. Soursop yogurt drink / red walnuts and marcona almonds with rosemary / pinata apple.

Kakigōri from a pop-up at Canal Street Market. Japanese-style shave ice with black currant chocolate sauce, smoked almonds, and torched meringue. Toasted meringue is one of my all-time favorite flavors.

Luke’s Lobster. Lobster rolls taste like butter squared.

Pelicana. Korean fried chicken is the best fried chicken, period.

Not a winner dinner. Cauliflower rice / sauteed bok choy with rice vinegar / ground turkey sauteed with chopped kimchi and gojuchang / soft boiled egg. This had so much potential but I ended up stopping halfway through and eating fried chicken leftovers instead.

Another night we were supposed to have cauliflower soup for dinner but I couldn’t deal with the blender so at the last minute I ended up making… whatever the hell this is. At least it was tasty! Sauteed yellow onion and leeks with celery seed and smoked paprika / roasted cauliflower / turkey bacon / sharp cheddar.

Have a great weekend!

19Feb2018

Fresh On The Blog

by Emily

Gotta love a three day weekend! I don’t work today (hence the late post) and my plans include the dog, my bed, and The Office, the end.

My Friday, Saturday, Sunday were all pretty great too. Friday, Adam drove me into work so we had before-work breakfast date and after-work dinner date (plus we basically consider the time driving in the car to be a date too!). Saturday, I met up with girlfriends for brunch and discovered that Bayside, Queens – which is about 10 minutes from my house – is actually kind of great. And Sunday, we had friends in from out of town and we got to show them the magic of Grand Central Whispering Gallery; plus the magic of coffee from Cafe Grumpy!

highlights…

Apertif. I had a croque canard sandwich with duck rillettes, apple, brie, and béchamel.

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F.O.B. A newish Filipino spot in Cobble Hill people have been (rightly) raving about.

We got so much good food! Corn bibingka – rice cake with farmers cheese, kesong puti, and coconut butter.

Overnight chicken adobo and pechay – sautéed Chinese cabbage with chili and garlic.

And Halo Halo – shaved ice with nata de coco, red beans, tapioca, mango, jackfruit, and ube ice cream!

French Workshop. We split something with white chocolate mousse, and hazelnuts, and milk chocolate ganache but there were about a million other things that looked good too.

Joyce Bakeshop. We’ve decided that we don’t love their coffee, but their kouign amann is my all-time favorite pastry. Seriously, I like it more than filled croissants from Union Fair and cronuts from Dominique Ansel, and that bar is set pretty damn high.

Kame Ramen in Nomad. I had spicy chicken miso with sesame oil and a soft boiled egg.

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I did manage to cook one meal at home – loaded baked potato casserole / shredded chicken with bbq sauce / spinach salad with pomegranate, marcona almonds, and Trader Joe’s cilantro salad dressing.

Have a great week!

5Feb2018

Super

by Emily

Did all my American readers eat wings and gauc and dip last night? I don’t even watch the Super Bowl but I try not to let that get in the way of my buffalo chicken consumption.

Weekend eats highlights –

We actually had dinner reservations at Evelina last night; a little Italian place with no tv, big screen or otherwise. I had a fun Cordelia cocktail – mezcal, malted banana, pressed lime, and Coco Lopez.

We shared two yummy salads to start. Italian radicchio with roasted grapes, almonds, Blue di bufala, and vin cotto.

Roasted beets with Fuji persimmon, house smoked ricotta, and hazelnut.

Sadly our entrees were disappointing. My cacio e pepe risotto with white shrimp was a major letdown.

But that meant that we ended up grabbing pizza on the way home; buffalo chicken is never a letdown!

I worked the weekend so most of my food was in snack form. Two superior combos of iced coffee and chocolate milk.

This citrus medley yogurt from Trader Joe’s is fantastically creamy and sweet, especially with sumo mandarin segments mixed in.

Potato wedges from the cafeteria – gotta get in that blue cheese.

And one morning Adam drove me into work and we went on a breakfast date at the Orwashers in the new Whole Foods 365. Best chocolate croissant of all time!

Random television musings –

My two favorite shows this season – The Good Place and Agents of Sheild
My least favorite new show – 9-1-1
The old show I am loving and tearing through seasons of at a disturbing clip – Cougar Town

Valentine’s freebie FYIs –

If you visit Godiva stores on Sunday, February 11th they’ll give you one free piece of chocolate while supplies last (no purchase required)
Aunt Annie’s is selling heart shaped pretzels buy-one-get-one-free on the 14th if you download their app
Not free and just for New Yorkers – FYI, Doughnut Plant is selling adorable rose shaped doughnuts right now and usually they have heart-shaped ones on Valentine’s

2Feb2018

May The Schwartz Be With You

by Emily

^^^ That’s a Spaceballs quote for my title because this post includes a lot of meatballs!

Best bites this week…

Coffee combo from heaven, Birch cold brew roast and chocolate milk.

Even better, chocolate milk with a Grady’s cold brew.

Yogurt bowl wins. Chobani mango with blueberries and doughnut cereal.

2% Greek with blueberries and a big scoop of MaraNatha caramel almond butter.

Important note – this is my new all-time favorite nut butter. If you eat it straight out of the jar (as I’ve been doing all week) it tastes like delicious frosting!

Ball! I made a batch of baked turkey meatballs with sage, lemon, and whole wheat panade.

Served on lemon pepper broccoli rice / with gussied up tomato sauce – with tomato paste, shredded sweet onion, garlic, anchovy, and oregano.

Plus we made toasted meatball subs! With smoked gouda and Parmesan.

And a side of roasted broccoli.

I also did another round of hot dish. This time an Asian take with shredded turkey, ginger, gojuchang, peas, shiitake mushrooms, bok choy, and sweet potato tots.

And you can never go wrong with pizza. What am I even going to do when I don’t live walking distance from buffalo chicken?!

I work the next three days but I hope everyone else enjoys their weekend!

29Jan2018

You Do Win Friends With Salad

by Emily

Weekend highlights…

**Brunch at Freeks Mill a gorgeous, airy, much lauded restaurant in Gowanus.

Paloma – Cimarron Blanco tequila, lime, contratto bitter, grapefruit, preserved lemon, salt.

I had the puntarelle salad with anchovy vinaigrette, grana cheese, and a soft boiled egg.

Plus Shishito peppers with honey and salt.

We want to go back for dinner!

**Coffee and treats at Abboutsford Road, a fantastic coffee shop and roastery in Gowanus staffed and owned by handsome, friendly Aussies. I had a yummy iced latte plus bites of a cheddar chive biscuit and lamington (chocolate cake, raspberry jelly, coconut) cupcake.

I also had a ridiculously delicious cup of strawberry iced tea.

***Tea cake at Charlotte Patisserie.

Macadamia nut cake filled with salted caramel and covered in milk chocolate.

**Cheese plate. A crazy simple cheese plate, but a good one nonetheless. Roasted green beans / baked whole wheat tortilla chips / smoked gouda / sweetened dried lemon.

Plus chocolates from Dylan’s.

**Homemade Caesar salads with salmon.

Romaine tossed in homemade dressing <– not worth the effort / crispy cheese bites for croutons / dijon and brown sugar baked salmon.

26Jan2018

Quesadillas, Chilaquiles, And Burritos, Oh My!

by Emily

As I flip from one classical musical references in my title to another in my opening line… This week these were a few of my favorite things –

Favorite breakfast – This incredibly excitingly pink coconut water.

One of my coffee combos – Birch Cold Brew roast with vanilla cashew milk. <– good idea in theory but the mouthfeel and taste were both sort of “empty” to me and I ended up having to add a splash of cow’s milk.

Favorite yogurt bowl – Vanilla & Cinnamon Chobani with Brown Sugar Cinnamon peanut butter. Plus a Kanzi apple.

Favorite snack – an assortment of nuts and dried fruits from Trader Joe’s.

Pears, persimmons, and sweetened dried lemons plus TJ’s nut and seed medley.

I can’t choose one favorite dessert, they were all so good! We were surprised by how tasty these TJ’s churro bites turned out to be.

I made a batch of snack attack brownies! This recipe, minus marshmallow, plus crushed potato chips, pretzels, and m&ms.

And I was killing it in the dinner department this week. Baked burritos – whole wheat tortillas / shredded chicken breast / sauteed onions and orange and yellow bell peppers cooked with cumin / shredded sharp cheddar cheese / TJ’s double roasted salsa.

Chilaquiles, mostly from scratch.

I made chips out of the whole wheat tortillas / cooked in salsa and diced tomatoes / with leftover onions and peppers / shredded chicken / lime / cheese / topped with a sunny side up egg and a dollop of plain Greek yogurt.

Egg and cheese sandwiches with homemade sausage.

Whole wheat hamburger buns toasted with mayonnaise / cheese / fried egg / turkey sausage made with smoked paprika, fresh sage, and maple syrup.

Plus roasted green beans.

And yesterday I had a late doctor’s appointment in the city so I grabbed dinner at La Esquina. I had a ridiculously delicious chicken quesadilla with salsa verde.

I am off of work today with a three-day weekend and we’ve got super fun dinner plans tonight, woo-hoo!

22Jan2018

Good Coffee, Bad Coffee

by Emily

Weekend coffee round-up: The cold brew roast from Birch is fantastic.

This Vita Cafe vanilla coconut water coffee is pretty darn good.

And the vanilla iced latte from Panera is no good, terrible, very bad. <– it was so sweet it was practically caustic, and that was with “light on syrup” and extra espresso!

Saturday, Adam and I spent the day in Astoria. We finally got to check out the Museum of the Moving Image, which had a great Jim Henson exhibit running.