Tag Archives: chicken

Hawaii 2022

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Adam and I just returned from six fantastically glorious days in Oahu! Best vacation we have taken yet.

Everything was beautiful (of course!), we got incredibly lucky with the weather, we loved our hotel (Hotel La Croix – amazing staff, beautiful views, and perfectly walkable to the beach and downtown), and we swooned over every activity and meal! And we saw a seal!! I did not pack a camera but couldn’t stop myself from Instagramming incessantly.

Some of our favorite activities – – –

Hiking. We went on four hikes this visit. Makapu’u Light House Trail / Kuliouou Ridge Trail / Diamond Head / Ka’ena Point State Park.

We went to Green World Coffee Farm and walked through the coffee plants. We also got a fantastic tour (with tastes) of the Old Sugar Mill Brand Waialua Coffee where they grow coffee and cacao.

Some of our favorite bites – – –

Flavor themes of the week – ahi, malasada, mochi, musubi, passionfruit, poke, taro, and yuzu. I lost my photo but we had a wonderful traditional meal at Helena’s – my first time trying poi!

We walked over to Kona Coffee Purveyors several times. Also to the Starbucks Reserve for this delicious americano con crema with demura sugar and cinnamon.

Guava malasada from Leonards. Also my favorite thing I ate all trip was a taro mochi malasada from a convenience store.

There was a great Japanese store near our hotel and between that and the well-stocked 7-11 I tried some very exciting things.

Passionfruit mochi bar.

Salted cod roe and cheese musubi.

Halo halo.

Local fruits from a roadside stand. Starfruit, passionfruit, and coconut.

Shave Ice! We went to Waiola Shave Ice and Matsumoto Shave Ice. The boring looking one was actually white cake and yuzu (!!!) with vanilla ice cream and sweetened condensed milk.

Poke! So much fresh tuna. We went to Maguro Brothers and Ono Seafood.

Dinner at O’Kims. Fried chicken and purple rice with the best kimchi I’ve ever eaten.

Lunch at Piggy Smalls was our favorite meal of the trip! And dinner at Pig and the Lady was a close second. Twice fried brussel sprouts, tea leaf salad, brisket with pancakes and eggs, great cocktails (Adam had a POG slushie!), and an egg coffee.

A perfect trip!

It’s Starting To Taste Like Winter

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Highlights from this week…

Wonderful yogurt bowl – plain skyr with granola and persimmon.

Milk Bar birthday cake iced latte.

Great horchatta with espresso at For All Things Good.

I pulled pumpkin chocolate chip cookies out of the freezer and they were even more amazing than I remembered.

I’m not ready for eggnog yet (make that – I am always ready for nog but I am not releasing the eggnog floodgate yet) but I have fully embraced peppermint! Like the limited release Wendy’s peppermint frosty.

Or Minter Wonderland ice cream.

Brooklyn Cupcake! Cojito, tiramisu, and guava cheese.

Best iteration yet of the butternut squash we make every year. This year we served it as a warm salad. Roasted butternut squash and shredded brussel sprouts, Trader Joe’s sweet and spicy pecans, dried cherries, and homemade dressing (3 T lemon juice, 3 T maple syrup, 2 T stone ground mustard, 1 T Kewpie, 1 T crystal hot sauce.

A meta dinner win – cobb salad egg salad in endive lettuce cups. Eggs with mayo and mustard, chives, avocado, turkey bacon, and blue cheese.

Buffalo chicken salad (shredded chicken with mayo, Franks, vinegar, blue cheese, and chives) with roasted broccoli and Japanese sweet potato.

Kjun + 53

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This was a weirdly busy and stressfull week and I did not adult very well. I mostly ate take-out and candy and nary a picture was taken. I am also very overdue on laundry!

That said — Adam and I had an impromptu Manhattan date night that was so fantastic I just have to blog about it, photo-free post be damned.

I was supposed to have a doctor’s appointment on the Upper East Side that got cancelled at the last minute leaving us time to try two new-to-us spots that we want to return to immediately!

Kjun NYC – a newish Korean Cajun spot. We had fantastic fried chicken (marinated in buttermilk and gojuchang) that came with pickles, potato salad, and a gojuchang honey sauce. My favorite dish was a take on deviled eggs with soy-marinated eggs, wasabi aioli, and fried chicken skin.

53 – a restaurant with a stunningly gorgeous cocktail bar. Also the most amazing bartender, he was knowledgeable and innovative and when he saw how much we loved our drinks he even gave us a sample of their newest cocktail. We head over heels loved our two drinks. Electric Feels; mezcal with guava, sichuan pepper, calmansi, and Himalayan salt. Coke de Blanc; clarified milk rum and coke punch, rum, champagne, and vanilla.

This upcoming weekend I am scheduled to work but we also have some exciting dinner reservations – I’ll bring my camera!

Pumpkin, Peppermint, Prezels

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Fun things from this weekend – we early voted and it only took a couple of minutes! The weather was gorgeous and we took a bunch of long, beautiful walks.

Food highlights included…

In a fit of out-of-season joy I bought and loved a peppermint mocha ice latte.

Brunch at Emilia’s Bakehouse in Melville. We had great lattes.

And a preztel croissant.

Loved this Aura Bora flavor. They have two new seasonal flavors I am dying to get my hands on.

I also tried and loved two new boozy seltzer cans. The June Shine passion fruit vodka soda has all my favorite things!

Great new flavor from Chip – a brown sugar cookie made with apple butter, stuffed with a caramel apple filling, and topped with cinnamon sugar.

Desserts in Astoria. Baklava and Knafeh.

Thai food in Astoria. I got extra-spicy drunken noodles with extra veggies and mock duck.

Plus we shared great crab rangoon.

Trader Joe’s pumpkin-shaped pasta with homemade meat sauce (pizza sauce with ground turkey and ground chicken, garlic, salt, pepper, urfa pepper, smoked paprika, and three cheese blend). Plus rainbow cauliflower.

Squash The Competition

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Can you beleive we’re in November?! Highlights from the first week…

I ended October with a homemade Frankenstein tea latte. Matcha with ube.

And I started November with cookie butter cold brew from Dunkin’. <– swoon, by the way

Two bougie snacks, one win. We really loved the Blue Stripes Cacao chocolate covered cacao beans (we’ve liked everything we’ve tried from this company so far, actually; Adam is in love with their cacao waters). I expected to love the cookie butter because this company makes my favorite peanut butter but it had an overwhelming coconut flavor that I did not care for.

The cookie butter was not terrible in a yogurt bowl.

But I much preferred this yogurt bowl with chocolate sunflower seed butter (plus plain skyr, blueberries, and vanilla granola).

We both 10/10 love these honey mustard pretzels.

An easy but delicious Trader Joe’s frozen items dinner – chicken goyza potstickers with gojuchang vegetable stir fry.

Homemade meatballs – a blend of chicken and turkey with tons of garlic and parmesan – with roasted kobucha squash. Plus a maple Sriracha dipping sauce. It turns out that kobucha squash is my favorite thing and I want to eat more immediately.

Roasted delicata squash (this recipe) with egg salad. The egg salad was loaded up with dill pickles, smoked paprika, horseradish, yellow mustard, and mayo (Kewpie + boring).

Screamsickle

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Highlights from the past week include…

Chobani pumpkin spice Greek yogurt with strawberries, granola, and chia seeds.

Noosa pumpkin yogurt with blackberries and granola.

See also – I really enjoyed this Elleno’s Greek yogurt with lemon curd.

As much as I love potato chips I also really like things that are pretending to be potato chips. Wilde’s chicken chips (this chicken and waffles variety is my favorite).

Biena’s Hawaiian bbq chickpea and veggie crisps.

Local pumpkin beers. Bronx Brewery’s Tattooed Pumpkin IPA (7.5/10) and Blue Point’s Big Mother Pumpkin imperial pumpkin ale (8.5/10).

Also local, also for spooky season – Sixpoint’s Screamsickle orange and vanilla hazy DIPA (8.5/10).

A fun date night – Adam and I went out to For Five Coffee for these tasty churro pancakes with dulce de leche drizzle, chocolate pearls, and horchatta ice cream.

Pumpkin Month pasta. Trader Joe’s butternut squash pasta with roasted zucchini, Seemore’s chicken kale pesto sausage, and Sauces n Love pink pesto sauce. [note to future Emily – we did not like the pink pesto!]

Fantastic noodles and veggie bowls. Whole-wheat vermicelli / nom choc / chicken breast cooked in the crockpot with soy sauce, rice vinegar, lime, ginger, and honey / roasted brussel sprouts / chili crisp.

Turkey reuben inspired sheet-pan hash. We loved this! Roasted potatoes and cabbage with smoked turkey, sourkraut, and homemade 1000 island dressing.

Gourdgeous

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This week’s highlights were… pumpkin snacks and random dinners.

I made Hummingbird High’s pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. They are insanely good.

Siggi’s pumpkin spice skyr with blackberries and granola.

Trader Joe’s vanilla bean Greek yogurt with pumpkin puree, maple syrup, chia seeds, blackberries, and grnola.

Pumpkin pie smoothie. Pumpkin puree with milk, plain Greek yogurt, frozen banana, maple syrup, cinnamon, and mace.

Trader Joe’s scallion pancake / canned salmon with mayo and Sriracha / roasted zucchini / all topped with Kewpie, Sriracha, and furikake.

Roasted cauliflower and chicken salad – shredded chicken breasts, mayo, yellow mustard, honey mustard dressing, and roasted almonds slivers with Sichuan salt.

Breakfast burger sandwiches. Whole Foods’ plant-based burgers, gouda, and a fried egg on a whole-wheat bun with blueberry jam. Plus leftover cauliflower.

Maple Ice Cream

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I hope all of my readers and safe and not having horrible weather! If the rain isn’t too terrible in NYC this weekend Adam and I have some fun plans for tomorrow.

Highlights from this week included…

Greek yogurt bowl with chia, maple syrup, granola, plucot, and blueberries.

Apple snack plate. Apple pie rice cakes, dried apples, apple cider caramels, and smoked almonds.

Butterfly pea tea and matcha iced latte.

I impulse-bought some very fun desserts for the week. Refridgerated creme brulee! It came with little packets of crunchy sugar for the topping.

This Trader Joe’s salted maple ice cream was great; wonderful consistency.

Yummy homemade chicken congee. With brown rice, chicken thighs, and vinegary greens (kale and red chard sauteed with soy sauce, gojuchang, and rice vinegar). Topped with crushed peanuts and tons of chili crisp.

Buffalo chicken pasta salad. Whole-wheat pasta / chicken sausage / blue cheese / sauteed carrot, celery, and green onion / sauce made out of mayo, vinegar, and Frank’s buffalo sauce.