Last Week’s Top Five

by Emily

{1} Date night in Chelsea.

Last Friday we went on a fabulous Manhattan date after work. The High Line at sunset.

Gansevoort Market for an Oreo whoopie pie(at The Bruffin).

Chelsea Market for Ramen (at Mok Bar). Vegan miso ramen – Kombu shiitake doenjang broth / tofu / triple seasonal vegetable / crispy potato. Made un-vegan with a poached egg on top.

And finally a trip through the Whitney Museum.

The 6th floor was my favorite.

{2} City desserts.

The Fat Witch is making sparkly green Emerald City Witches, aka mint chip brownies.

And Brooklyn Cupcake‘s cakes are on point.

We tried french toast, tres leches, and guava cheese!!

{3} Pota-topia potato bowls.

I got waffle fries with all of the veggies, smoked gouda, and truffle aioli.

We were very impressed. Our mall’s food court has gotten downright fancy.

{4} Pumpkin yogurt bowl lunch.

Whole Foods pumpkin spice yogurt, chia seeds, maple pumpkin seeds, and TJ’s pumpkin o’s.

Fun, but I pretty much hate the texture of regular (not Greek) yogurt.

{5} Pumpkin beer on Halloween.

We spent Halloween afternoon in Williamsburg checking out the fantastic hipster costumes. We enjoyed mead and a Chelsea Brewing Company pumpkin pie beer while playing games at Barcade.

Plus we had a very taste lunch at Sugarburg. <– we will be back!

20Oct2015

Last Week/End’s Best Eats {Pumpkin Beer Galore}

by Emily

I have just not had the blogging bug lately. I’ve been eating yummy foods (duh!) and making some great new recipes but recently I have not been able to make myself sit down and write. This week I have a Redux post due so you’ll be hearing from me at least once. And below is a quick round-up of the very best bites from last week…

Pumpkin beers.

I totally get why Kath is obsessed with Schlafly, it’s amazing. The Leaf Pile was pretty fantastic too.

Yogurt bowls.

More pumpkin. That orange thing that looks like a mini pumpkin is a persimmon.

Lobster rolls.

Luke’s never fails. I took a girlfriend for her very first cold lobster roll and it was love at first bite.

Brooklyn Bagel.

Coconut bagel with pumpkin cream cheese.

Pizza.

TJ’s whole wheat crust topped with bbq sauce, tons of sautéed onions and mushrooms, and two kinds of mozzarella.

Tamarind candy from home.

Perfectly sweet and sour. When I was a little girl I rode horses and we could pick tamarind pods from our saddles and snack our way through Pony Club so the flavor makes me very nostalgic.

Brunch at Thirsty Koala.

Australian coffee = an iced latte with a scoop of ice cream. I also got a stack of Jaffles.

“The Bergs” had cheddar, manchego, goats cheese, fruit chutney on sourdough.

Aka an insanely gooey grilled cheese. Yet another Astoria spot we now love.

It is weird for me to be taciturn, hopefully I’ll have more to say in a few days!

14Oct2015

Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

I know this post is running a bit late but it was a damn good weekend that was worth blogging. We drank, we brunched, we explored – all of the important stuff! Here are the highlights…

breakfast

7-11 iced coffee and a protein bar.

Starbucks iced coffee and a doughnut.

Doughnut Plant‘s pumpkin doughseed is a plain doughnut with pumpkin cream filling and super spicy cinnamon icing. It was interesting.

The best breakfast of all was spread out to include some city time. We got coffee in DUMBO.

Took the train in to the LES and walked two miles west.

To the gorgeous Brookfield place.

Where we headed to famed Black Seed Bagels.

Poppy with honey butter for me. It was wildly disappointing – no chew. But then we spent way too much money on candy at Le District.

And after a quick train ride we had a great walk back to the car through Cobble Hill. We got so lucky with the weather.

lunch

Yogurt bowl at work.

Pumpkin Noosa with a TJ’s pumpkin bar and a snap dragon(!!) apple.

Yogurt bowl at home.

Plain Fage with maple syrup, red grapes, granola, chia seeds, and maple pumpkin seeds.

The day I skipped the yogurt bowl I went big – lunch at Miriam in Park Slope.

I had Burekas, or puffed pastry pocket stuffed with feta & olives, served with poached eggs, labneh cheese, Israeli salad and tahini sauce. Everything was amazing, super fresh and flavorful. We want to go back for dinner immediately.

With ridiculously giant froyo bowls for dessert.

All of the toppings.

dinner

{Friday} Dinner appetizer – Kale chips.

Dinner drink – Rogue Pumpkin Savior, best pumpkin beer so far this season!

Dinner – roasted veggie fall forest gnome food.

Browned mushrooms // shredded chicken // turkey bacon // shredded Brussels sprouts // roasted butternut squash // baby spinach // pecans.

We make some iteration of this dish every fall, it’s one of our favorites.

{Saturday} Dinner appetizer – Shrimp, crab, salmon, and tofu skin fritters from Laverne.

Dinner drink – yummy root beer beer.

Dinner – turkey sandwich, red grapes, and fantastic seaweed salad.

{Sunday} Dinner, drinks, and appetizer were all wrapped up in one – I had beer with chips and dip… while watching bad tv… in bed. It was fabulous.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

9Oct2015

This Week’s Top Five…

by Emily

Eats

{1} My coffee combo.

Grady’s is the best.

{2} This yogurt bowl.

Siggi’s pumpkin / giant red grapes / TJ’s pumpkin o’s, chia seeds, and maple sea salt pumpkin seeds. With a persimmon on the side.

{3} An old-school turkey sandwich. Applegate Farms smoked turkey with mayo, sharp cheddar, and caramelized onions on a brioche bun.

Plus chips and grapes.

{4} Pumpkin pie smoothie.

Pumpkin puree, plain Fage, almond milk, pumpkin pie spice, and maple syrup. We both loved these!

{5} Nacho night.

Chips with low-fat Mexican cheese blend, roasted broccoli, and ground turkey sautéed with onions and red pepper.

Obsessions

{1} Movie I’m oddly excited for: The Krampus.

I am really not a horror movie girl but something about a Christmas horror movie appeals to me, probably the fact that Adam Scott is in it!

{2} TV show I can’t wait to start: Supernatural.

Season 11 started the same day that season 10 finally released on Netflix so our entire plan for this weekend is season 10. If we catch up we can watch the latest season as it airs.

{3} TV shows that continue to rock our world: our line up from last year is still solid.

Chicago PD, Rick and Morty, Fresh off the Boat, and The Middle all started off their seasons quite strongly. We’re also loving Longmire’s Netflix debut. Rosewood, on the other hand, was un-freaking-watchable.

{4} Book I need to buy: Mindy Kaling’s Why Not Me?

I read Is Everyone Hanging out without Me? in about a day and reread it a day later so I know I’m going to love her newest book.

{5} Song I’m playing on repeat:” Jump Into the Fog” – The Wombats.

Bonus: I’ve had ODB’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” stuck in my head all week. <– don’t play it if you’re at work!

1Oct2015

Goodbye, Apple Month

by Emily

Can you believe that it is already October?! Time has felt like it is flying ever since we moved back to the city but this year in particular is booking it. Never mind the fact that I am somehow 30 years old even though I still feel like high school was maybe six years ago tops.

breakfast

I kept this week’s coffee combo simple –

I wanted to be able to get a good feel for this stuff –

This was the perfect month to review* Rigoni di Asiago’s Dolcedì sweetener because it is made of apples! 10 kilograms of organic apples go into 1 kilogram of Dolcedì.

The liquid sweetener is USDA certified organic, gluten-free, vegan, and kosher, and can be used in the same ways you would use table sugar (1 teaspoon of Dolcedì would substitute for 1 teaspoon of sugar, a 1:1 ratio) in hot and cold drinks. It has 15 calories per Tbsp (table sugar has 15 per teaspoon). You can also use it in baking but I haven’t tried that yet.

The liquid is sweet but flavorless so it really doesn’t alter the taste of your drink – unlike honey and agave – and I found that it quickly dissolved completely into solution in my iced coffee. I don’t typically sweeten my drinks but when I do I would definitely use the Dolcedì again in the future.

Along with my sweetened coffees I had bars

and orchard apples.

We were not impressed with the scant variety available for apple picking but these ended up being some of the best apples any of the four of us have ever eaten.

lunch

Plain yogurt with blueberries and pomegranate, sea salt caramel apple granola and chia seeds, and an apple on the side.

Plus I brought in turtle pretzel magic bars for my coworkers and I totally snagged one for after lunch.

The other days I stuck with THIS for dessert –

Omg.

Kodiak flapjack on the go and TJ’s freeze-dried Fuji apple slices.

I hated the pancake cup – it was like choking down raw batter – but those apples are amazing. I shared a taste with two coworkers who said they were the best they’ve ever had.

Plain Siggi’s with blueberries, strawberry preserves, and caramel apple granola and chia seeds.

The caramel apple chia combo has rocked my world this month, though I have had to start carrying floss in my purse to deal with errant seeds.

“dinner”

Dinners this week were exceedingly weak. Apparently our busy weekend of walking wore us out because Adam and I have been unbelievably tired. Like on Monday we got into bed at 7:30 pm tired. And then on Tuesday we took a nap before bed. I guess maybe I do feel thirty!

Monday I ate a Starbucks chicken Santa Fe sandwich on the train.

It was good, and thank goodness because when I got home I ate this strawberry Cow Tail under the covers.

Hence “dinners.”

Tuesday I at least legitimately included some vegetables in my snack-based dinner. Carrots with hummus.

Several rounds of pretzels with string cheese.

And roasted green beans.

This was actually a pretty balanced meal.

And Wednesday I cooked a grown-up dinner.

Can you call heating up a package of TJ’s Palak Paneer cooking?

I had to make the brown jasmine rice and roasted zucchini we served it with so I’m counting it.

With a dollop of goat’s milk yogurt on top. And my final La Brea Bakery review* on the side – flatbread.

They were all good but this was our favorite bread so far. It had that perfect naan texture, fluffy yet chewy. And the flatbread includes sprouted whole wheat flour (along with white flour) which made the flavor just a bit more interesting. A+.

P.S. Now it’s October it is finally Pumpkin Month!!!

*These products were provided to me free of charge to review. I was not provided any additional compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

19Sep2015

This Week’s Top Five

by Emily

{1} Coffee.

I know this gets repetitive but coffee is just so freaking good!

The winner this week was the double espresso with ice and cream from a coffee shop near my hospital.

{2} Chocolate with pretzels.

I brought the toffee candy to work and my co-workers lost their minds over it. We did too; it was a good thing I got it out of the house or I think Adam and I could have finished the tray in a day or two.

Also yummy pretzel chocolate from Lindt.

Yes, I had dessert every evening this week.

{3} Apple month stuff.

Apple-pear pouch. I sprinkled the SuperSeedz on a pretty killer salad from the cafeteria salad bar.

Salted caramel apple granola (with chia seeds) on my yogurt.

And this apple explosion lunch.

Caramel apple oatmeal, TJ’s freeze-dried apples, and Salty Road caramel apple taffy.

{4} Loaded baked potatoes.

These bowls were fantastic.

Baked potato / roasted broccoli with green onions / homemade baked beans / topped with plain yogurt, sharp cheddar, and green Tabasco.

For the baked beans: Sauté tons of white and yellow chopped onions. Add sliced turkey hot dogs, pinto beans, and tomato sauce and let things cook for awhile. Then season with brown sugar and Gochujang.

They were so yummy I ate the leftovers cold.

{5} Dinner at Mile End.

Mile End Delicatessen is my new favorite deli, which is a big deal because the place I grew up going to had a pickle bar! MED did have tasty hibiscus beer…

And poutine made with smoked chicken gravy.

And roasted cauliflower with caraway honey, harissa paste, and toasted pistachios. This had the best texture, crunchy on the outside and silky soft in the middle.

I ordered the turkey reuben for dinner.

Did not disappoint.

{Bonus} New CDs.

My parents are amazing, and they send us mixed tapes all of the time. They both made new ones recently so this is how my mother labeled them –

Lol!

12Sep2015

This Week’s Top Five

by Emily

{1} My coffee combo.

Community Coffee with cocoa powder, maple cinnamon, cream, and milk.

The cocoa doesn’t really mix in with the cold coffee but it’s still good.

Now I want to do a coconut-cocoa coffee next.

{2} Bars.

Most nights this week I was soooo hungry when I got home and having these to grab saved me from some major hangry fits. Not that we still didn’t go get Chipotle instead of cooking two nights in a row.

{3} This lunch. Trimona plain yogurt with Heritage Flakes, chia seeds, and chopped emerald beauty and honey punch pluots. <– how great are those names??!

Plus a bourbon brown butter caramel and a salty caramel apple taffy for dessert.

{4} This fancy Thursday night dinner.

I sautéed spinach with minced ginger, garlic aioli, and evoo, then tossed in gnocchi and roasted zucchini.

Topped with this hot smoked sockeye from Trader Joe’s.

Best meal of the week! The salmon was wonderful; I love hot smoked because it has a similar flavor to lox but not the slimy texture.

{5} Caramel apple Peeps. OMG.

These were seriously delicious; are all Peeps this yummy?? They were puffy and not too chewy and they had a perfect balance of sour dust to sweet caramel fudge. I’m awarding this best purchase yet for Apple Month.

10Sep2015

Royal Weekend; Highlights

by Emily

Normally I am a Brooklyn girl, but over the three-day weekend I spent some time loving Queens. One day for Flushing and one for Astoria. Also Adam and I both had Monday off and we spent the day eating our way from Chelsea to SoHo!

Here are the highlights, minus several ice cream stops and several more coffees…

Doughnut date!

Chocolate salted caramel from Dough and a latte from Blue Sky.

Fancy yogurt bowls.

Plain Siggis + 2 types of plucot + chia seeds + crumbled graham cracker pie crust.

The crust was leftover from a failed s’mores cookie batch I attempted last week.

Brunch with a girlfriend at Burnside Biscuits. We both got Salty Dogs.

And I got a classic (duck fat!) biscuit with a sunny side up egg and sharp cheddar.

Related:: Adam and I went to Sweet Chick for a dimly lit dinner and had duck sloppy joes. Also two different cocktails with sherry!

Sandwiches at BEC = bacon, egg, and cheese.

I got a Junior with turkey bacon.

Sandwiches at Blue Ribbon. I got the pulled bbq chicken with cole slaw on top.

BRFC feels pretty chain restaurant/fast food but the sandwich was delicious. The bun was meh (I rarely eat the bun on a sandwich like this anyway) but the chicken was juicy with some perfectly charred crispy bites.

Presso Coffee is the cutest and their maple lattes are on point.