Tag Archives: cherries

Wonton More

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It was a tasty week, great snacks and even better dinners! Highlights included…

A beautiful latte with espresso, butterfly pea tea, and sweetened condensed milk.

Smoothie success – cottage cheese, frozen banana and cherries, ube extract.

See also – blueberry Greek yogurt, frozen blueberries and grapes, butterfly pea tea.

Still obsessed with these Belli-Welli bars. I finally shared one with Adam, who was not a fan, but I think they taste great.

It turns out my favorite dried fruit is kiwi; the texture and taste of these was so satisfying.

Rainer cherries (swoon) plus Haribo berries gummies.

See also – these Honest gummies are wonderfully juicy and chewy; not the best gummy I’ve ever eaten but hands-down the best fruit snacks.

Creamy lemonade – fresh lemon and lime with sweetened condensed milk and lemon seltzer.

These alcoholic Frescas are a 9.5/10 – perfectly balanced and just sweet enough.

Pinch of Yum‘s bbq salmon plus roasted Japanese sweet potato and roasted cabbage dressed in a mix of honey, rice vinegar, and Caribbean hot pepper sauce.

Korean rice cakes sauteed with tomato sauce and gojuchang, plus roasted zucchini, shredded chicken, and sharp cheddar.

Homemade baked wontons. Our filling was fresh crab and roasted cabbage and green onion with soy sauce, white pepper, and hot pepper jelly. Plus roasted cauliflower and dumpling sauce.

Salad success – baby kale, this dressing, leftover cabbage, baby bell peppers, chicken breast, cashews, homemade baked wonton crips, and furikake.

Homemade baked wonton chips (these are going to become a staple!) seasoned with szechuan pepper salt and togarashi plus baby bell peppers and pimento cheese. Full disclose, I went back for thirds!

Traverse City 2023

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Adam and I had an amazing vacation in Michigan! We ran along the lake, took a ferry to Mackinac Island and admired the flowers, explored downtown, and spent time with friends and met their twin babies!

Our favorite things we ate included…

A perfectly roasty latte from Higher Grounds.

Iced espresso with cherry cold foam from Espresso Bay.

A fantastic s’mores cold foam cold brew from Biggby Coffee.

Rocky road fudge on Mackinac Island.

Ice cream with housemade fudge from Milk & Honey.

Yuzu and Earl Grey macarons from Merlyn’s Patisserie. Also an ube crinkle cookie that was the 2nd best cookie I’ve ever eaten.

The number one best cooke we’ve ever eaten was a peanut butter cookie from Common Good.

The smoked whitefish hushpuppies from Great Turtle.

Everything on the menu at Sugar2Salt, our new favorite restaurant. We liked it here so much we went back the next day! This was The Duck – duck leg confit, duck ham, duck sausage, and a duck egg with applesauce, poached pear, and crispy greens.

The salad from Mama Lu’s with pepitas and gigante beans. Plus a margarita made with creamy coconut.

A cherry whiskey slushee from Traverse City Whiskey Co.

The Pterodact Ale IPA from Terra Firma.

Chilly Chili

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Some highlights from the weekend…

Cherry cheesecake smoothie. Frozen cherries with Greek yogurt, cream cheese, maple, and cinnamon.

Soursop drinkable yogurt.

Candy cane hard seltzer; this was out of season but I loved it and would buy more in a heartbeat.

Bon Appetit’s sheet-pan orange tofu and broccoli. I added toasted cashews and we really enjoyed it.

Turkey chili with white beans, bell peppers, and poblano peppers. I cooked the ground turkey with toasted rice powder and fish sauce and this came out great. I topped my bowl with plain Greek yogurt, pickled jalopenos, and tons of hot sauce and sharp cheddar.

♥♥♥

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Some things I loved for Valentine’s week…

An array of pink and/or chocolate-covered-berry coffees. Strawberry milk with espresso and mocha / raspberry pour-over with chocolate milk / iced coffee with chocolate milk and Luxardo cherry.

Prospector Popcorn’s chocolate strawberry flavor was a 9.9/10. We also had themed marshmallows and conversation hearts.

On-theme probiotics – Pure Love kombucha.

Chocolate-covered cherry smoothies. Frozen cherries with chocolate milk and plain Greek yogurt.

Note to future Emily – I did not love the plum version of this hard seltzer.

However, this caramel peanut butter candy bar flavor from Jeni’s is possibly my favorite ice cream.

We loved this cozy dinner. Chicken salad with Candy Snap grapes and smoked almonds / roasted brussel sprouts / roasted delicata squash.

Easy lox toasts. Toasted rye with butter, cream cheese, furikake, gochugaru, and smoked sockeye salmon.

We enjoyed our veggie in green smoothie form – fresh tangerine, frozen spinach, mango, and banana, with water, honey, and key lime juice.

Saucy, Spicy, Stupendous

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I’m late on this post but we had too many wonderful things last week not to share! Mostly lots of very (very, very, very) good restaurant meals. Three different days I got to take a super-long city walk (including a Central Park date with the husband!). Highlights include…

Coffees with brown sugar syrup.

A tamarind Americano from Le Phin.

Breakfast at Ursula. We shared a strawberry chamoy pastry.

And a sopaipilla with grassfed beef, green chile, refried pinto beans, and cheddar.

Breakfast at the Blue Light Speaky Cheesy pop-up. The workers could not have been more wonderful here and everything was fantastic! We shared a sandwich with pesto scrambled eggs, goat cheese, blueberry jam, and arugula; a maple lavender latte (<– topped with orange zest, which apparently is my new favorite thing); and an iced Getaway Latte with sweetened condensed milk, cinnamon, and vanilla.

Malted berry smoothie. Frozen cherries and strawberries with Greek yogurt, chocolate almond milk, and malted milk powder.

Yogurt bowl – vanilla skyr, pecan granola, chia seeds, blueberries, and cherry plums (<– both Adam’s and my new favorite fruit).

Cookie dough granola (<– amazing, the flavor is spot on!) with blueberries and chocolate almond milk.

Lunch at Bahn (<– best meal of the whole week!). Iced Vietnamese egg coffee.

Summer rolls with shrimp and mung bean sauce.

Rolls with crispy shrimp, beef jerky, green mango, Sriracha, and egg yolk cream.

Noodle salad with sizzling butter beef.

Dumplings from Mimi Cheng. Their monthly special is a collab with Pecking House and is stuffed with buttermilk twice-fried chicken and topped with the best chili crisp I’ve ever tasted.

Homemade(!) grain bowls. Farro with pesto, chicken pesto sausage, fennel greens, and sauteed celery and baby orange tomatoes.

Adam forgot his credit card at BKNY Thai so we went back sooner than we were expecting to. A serendipitous mistake because our take-out was 11/10. Fish cakes / dumplings with ground chicken, shallot, peanut, and preserved radish / beef Pad See Ew with extra Chinese broccoli.

Omekase at the Chemisty Room at Sushi Lab. We ate at the counter and the service was impecable. I only took a few photos but everything was delicious and gorgeous.

Dinner at Wen Wen. My daiquiri with rum, Cachaça, and birds eye chili was perfect and balanced.

We had numbing celtuce salad with garlic, red vinegar, and Sichuan pepper.

Hot honey popcorn chicken.

Cold sesame noodles with cucumbers and egg ribbons.

Beef noodle soup with pickled mustard greens and a 16-hour oxtail broth.

Sandwich Week

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This is a delayed post because we got back from vacation and both immediately had crazy work schedules including weekend coverage. But I declared last week “Sandwich Week,” which meant that all of our take-out was actually on-theme!

First – vacation was amazing. Truly one of the best weeks of our lives. We road-tripped to Provincetown Cape Cod –> Boston –> Portland, Maine –> Hudson, NY –> home. We got lucky with beautiful weather, admired astonishingly pretty flowers/landscaping, and ate some of the best meals of our marriage. I don’t have a single photo to share but I will link to some of our favorites.

  • Cape Cod: Bookstore (great lobster rolls and view) / Scott’s Cakes (yellow cake with pink buttercream only, best I’ve ever tasted)
  • Portland: Bao Bao (our favorites – bang bang chicken salad, crab rangoon spring rolls) / Crispy Gai (wonderful Thai, plus cocktails) / Duck Fat (duck on duck on duck poutine) / HiFi (all-time best doughnuts) / Izakaya Minato (amazing crudo and okonomiyaki) / Time and Tide (inventive lattes)
  • Hudson: Breadfolks (all-time best pastries) / Gracie’s Lunchonette (our favorites – pink horchatta iced latte, tuna melt with freshly baked tuna) / Kitty’s (Adam’s favorite meal of the week; our favorites – potato chips with dip and salmon roe, crispy broccoli) / Lil’ Deb’s Oasis (caribbean/eclectic, one of my favorite restaurants on earth)

Second – Some non-sandwich highlights from the past week…

This week’s coffee combo.

It’s stone fruit season! I will be snacking on nectarines, peaches, plums, and plucots for the foreseeable future.

Malted blueberry smoothie. Frozen blueberries with chocolate milk, plain Greek yogurt, and malted milk powder.

I scored cake-flavored beer that wasn’t a stout and loved it.

Boozy cherry coke slushy – frozen cherry coke cubes, frozen cherries, Luxardo cherries, and vodka.

Breakfast for dinner with freezer-staples the night we got home. Hashbrown and Trader Joe’s gojuchang veggie mix with soft-scrambled eggs.

Plus a brinner cocktail with decaf iced coffee, amaretto, coffee liquor, and sweetened condensed milk.

Finally – SANDWICH WEEK! Definitely a little inspired by Trader Joe’s sourdough bread.

Roasted sliced turkey, turkey bacon, strawberry jam, honey dijon. Plus roasted green beans.

Soft-scrambled eggs topped with smoked salmon salad. That green pile in the back is sauteed shredded brusell sprouts with shallots and dried cherries.

Heirloom tomatoes, gojuchang mayo, smoked sliced turkey, turkey bacon. Plus baby cucumbers with Bitchin Sauce.

Shake Shack cheeseburger and fries. We also shared an oreo funnel cake milkshake that was surprisingly delicious.

Take-out from Roast – aka our ultimate sandwich experience. Their roast beef melt is my all-time favorite. With fries and roasted green beans.

Turkey cheeseburger-inspired trail mix. Meat stick, cheddar moon cheese, dill pickle flavored almonds.

Turkey cheeseburger-inspired salad. Local lettuce with honey mustard dressing, baby tomatoes, dill pickle almonds, dill pickle slices, turkey meatballs (seasoned with dill pickle juice and yellow mustard), sharp cheddar, and homemade croutons with furikake.

<3

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No one is surprised that I had a stash of on-theme goodies and declared a Valentine’s Week flavor. Here were the things I stockpiled (the kombucha was a standout!).

Related note – Adam bought me an egregious amount of fancy chocolate. And surprised me with beautiful flowers and gigantic brisket sandwiches.

Flavor of the week – chocolate covered cherry! Coffee – iced with Luxardo cherries and chocolate milk.

Chia pudding – chia seeds with chocolate almond milk, brown sugar, and dried cherries. Topped with dried hibiscus, Luxardos, and a chocolate peanut butter protein bar.

Smoothie – frozen cherries with Greek yogurt and chocolate milk. This was fantastic and I need to make it all the time.

Not on theme, but I loved this dinner too much not to document it – a soft-scrambled egg sandwich with peso mayo on toasted sourdough with roasted cauliflower.

Show Me Potato Salad

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Five highlights from the past seven days –

{1} A Cherr-Bear smoothie! Yes, I think I’m very clever. A remake of the smoothie I adored for Valentine’s – frozen dark sweet cherries, plain Greek yogurt, and chocolate milk.

{2} A fruit and nut yogurt bowl. Vanilla bean skyr topped with (frozen, reheated) blueberries, halvah, yellow raisins, and nut and seed trail mix.

{3} Whole Foods buffalo sauce soy nuggets and baby carrots, served with an array of dipping sauces.

{4} We made an epically good warm potato salad. Roasted potatoes and celery, hard-boiled eggs, cornichons, dill, mayonnaise, and whole-grain mustard. Plus honey maple smoked salmon.

{5} I made our tastiest no-churn ice cream to date!

Black sesame with layers of fudge sauce and whole-wheat matzoh toffee.