Pumpkin Nice Latte

by Emily

How are we more than halfway through October? And less than three months away from the end of 2016?? I can’t handle it! Here was this week…

I had leftover sweetened condensed milk from a recipe so I put it in TJ’s coffee concentrate. Then I spent the entire morning certain I was going to die but also overcome with glee.

This Target brand salted caramel hot chocolate is delicious. Apparently I was into my morning sugar this week.

Yogurt bowls for lunch. All on theme, thank you. Chobani pumpkin with pecans and pumpkin spice cheerios and frosted min wheats. Plus an Asian pear.

TJ’s pumpkin yogurt with more cereal and an apple.

Noosa pumpkin with pumpkin spice granola and pumpkin seeds.

TJ’s caramel apple yogurt with Heritage Flakes and sliced almonds. This was the best of the apple yogurts, fyi.

It was a snack-heavy week, here were the highlights –

Related – a new pretzel shop opened right above my train and it is a problem.

Most dinners this week were weaksauce. Adam and I both get a bit bummed out as the weather cools down and we’ve had a hard time motivating ourselves in the kitchen. Case in point – I ate nachos two days in the row.

At least these nachos had turkey breast on top. And eggs with spinach in them on the side.

Another night I made a super simple turkey and cheddar toasted sandwich.

Inspiration did finally come, in the form of a box of lemons. Limoneira sent me a sample of their citrus. Limoneira Company is a 124 year old international agribusiness dedicated to sustainability. Their lemons are quite tasty, almost sweet.

I made Lemon Brown Sugar Chicken. Served with roasted broccoli and lemon pepper cauliflower rice.

Also Dulce de Leche Lemon Popsicles.

Cross your fingers for me that the weather’s nice in NYC today, if there’s no rain I’ve got a fun activity planned.

11Oct2016

Best Of The Weekend

by Emily

Best coffee – The Voodoo Child at Sweetleaf.

Iced (super strong) coffee concentrate with condensed milk and housemade sweet cream.

Best new restaurant – Butler Bake Shop and Espresso Bar.

The infinitely Instagramable new Williamsburg coffee spot boasts a Michelin-starred pastry chef.

We got a caramel sea salt cookie next to an Intelligentsia Americano.

Best beer – Wick for Brains was a great first pumpkin sip of the season.

Enjoyed at Barcade while Adam and I teamed up to kick butt at the seasonally appropriate Golly Ghost game.

Best dessert – scoops from OddFellows‘ new “Passport Program.” October’s flavor inspiration is Asia.

We tried Thai Iced Tea and Ube with miso butterscotch.

Best dinner – a Jewish-Japanese feast at Shalom Japan.

Forget best dinner of the weekend, this was one of the best meals of the year!

We shared three different appetizers because we couldn’t narrow down our choices any more. Roasted cauliflower with anchovy and pickled raisins.

Tuna belly toasts that were the best bites of the night.

And Sake Kasu challah with raisin butter.

For dinner I ordered the dish that got us in the door – Matzoh ball ramen topped with a foie gras dumpling and soft-boiled egg. The ramen was 10/10 fantastic and the matzoh ball ended up being the best I’ve ever eaten.

Dessert was chocolate banana challah bread pudding with crème fraiche and whiskey caramel.

The service was almost as good as the food, which was so good I swear we would have ordered another round of every dish if we hadn’t been so full!

26Sep2016

This Is The Past Week

by Emily

The week since I last posted included – a 6 am-start work day with a blissful 3 pm return home // a limp, due to a minor biopsy on one of my toes // a free trip to the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum thanks to a Smithsonian “Museum Day” promotion // a one day weekend with a Sunday at work // two trips to the Gotham West Market // the return of most of my fall tv shows! // dessert once a day at a minimum // tons of cuddle time with Webster // etc, etc.

{highlights}

My current coffee favorite – espresso on ice with a chocolate milk carton.

Harmless Harvest coconut water with a peanut butter chocolate chip Zing bar. Two thumbs up x2.

Maple brown sugar Peeps. I know I’m disgusting but I kind of loved these, they are gritty in the best possible way.

Iced hibiscus apple cider at Argo Tea. I was limping through Manhattan on an especially hot day at this hit the spot.

Sushi burrito. Stuffed with brown rice, tofu, spicy tobanjan mayo, carrot and daikon pickles, seaweed salad, and red pepper. Their marinated silky tofu is the best tofu I’ve ever tasted.

Hail Mary. Root beer and rum for Adam and housemade cherry cola with whisky for me.

We shared two veggies – fried green tomatoes,

and fantastic charred greens (with anchovy crumbs, plum molasses, and buttermilk).

Mostly we were there for dessert.

“Mile-high” funfetti cake with salted caramel buttercream and giant housemade sprinkles!

Bareburger. I got a collard greens Caesar salad and buffalo chicken bites.

Last night we made a Southern-flavors-inspired buttermilk-laced feast. Apple cider for cooking fuel.

Oven-fried buttermilk chicken tenders and roasted green beans with homemade honey mustard.

Buttermilk pie in a Biscoff cookie crust.

YUM!

20Sep2016

Extra-Long Weekend

by Emily

My long weekend plus 1 (Friday through Monday) was an absolute delight. I got a full day off with the husband and most of three days in Ohio with my grandma. Four days of good food and great company!

Friday, Adam and I headed to Mizumi for all-you-can-eat sushi buffet.

I had that plate x 10 thousand. Not only was it plentiful, this was the best tasting sushi I’ve had yet in Long Island.

Late that afternoon we attempted to take the dog into Brooklyn for a picnic.

I’m married to a doctor, so we made it about ten minutes before Adam got called back home to do something for work. Just as well, because traffic was brutal. A couple of hours later we left Webster at home and had a people-only dinner at Hail Mary.

It was too dark for pictures but we’ll be back soon because the meal was amazing. A high point was my housemade cherry cola with whiskey.

My Ohio visit was perfect. It’s always great to see my grandma and I managed to get in time with my aunt and uncle and a cousin and her fiancé too.

Nana is a fantastic cook and everything I ate at her house was delicious (and beautiful).

Plus we enjoyed some good meals out, including personal pizza with basil and green olives.

And wonderful spinach quiche.

We went out for several lattes, explored cute Ohio towns, and took in a movie (“Sully,” because it didn’t occur to either of us until afterwards that a movie about a plane crash probably wasn’t the best choice a day before my flight!).

And now I’m home safe with my boys, and only have four days to go in my work-week.

16Sep2016

Palm Seed Fun

by Emily

This post is running a little late because I am too – I have the day off! Working last Sunday earned me a long weekend today. It’s actually an extra-long weekend because I’m off Monday as well, I’m going to Ohio tomorrow to visit my grandma. Today, I’m going to have some fun with Adam and Webster.

Highlights from this week…

I didn’t snap any iced coffee photos this week, but I promise it was consumed in substantial quantities. There’s a chance I stayed up far too late watching Road Rules on YouTube one night. <– not worth the exhaustion, that show spent way more time on relationship drama than I had remembered.

Apple oatmeal, with an Asian pear.

My Filipino coworker brought me in some palm seeds and I bought them to good use. Chia pudding with palm seeds and banana.

Yogurt with palm seeds, Luxardo cherries, Cherrios, and an orange.

Another treat from the Philippines, polvoron, or powdered milk candy. They were fantastic, crumbly and milky in such a pleasing way.

More candy, Justin’s peanut butter cups (I’m still obsessed with these) and a milk popping candy. Sparkling water and diet coke are two of my favorite things and when you drink them together – as in at the same time, not in the same cup – they both taste even better.

Other snacks included apples we picked ourselves.

And the best microwave popcorn we’ve ever popped. This tasted almost as good as stove-popped.

We kept dinners super simple this week. Leftover smoked trout casserole, eaten cold out of the pan.

Salmon salad sandwiches – canned salmon with mayo, mustard, and pickle relish – on toasted TJ’s quinoa bread.

My most complicated night involved potato vareniki which cook in about 5 minutes. Tossed with shredded rotisserie chicken / sautéed celery / garlic kale / and a sauce made of cream cheese and chicken stock.

I’m off to go start my day off!

10Sep2016

It’s Apple Month!

by Emily

Can I show off my apple-themed haul?? I’m quite excited about it.

And fittingly, we are driving upstate to go apple picking this afternoon.

So far the gum has been my favorite, though I haven’t tried any of the ciders yet. I went out for drinks with a friend last night and had a regular (red apple) Angry Orchard that was unpleasantly sweet so I’m hoping green apple has some tartness to it.

Apple pie bar and a Gala apple.

Caramel apple bar with green apple sparkling water and some honey peanut butter. With an Asian pear.

Caramel apple pie cheesecake from work.

I did eat a few things that weren’t apple-flavored. Like a giant plate of buffalo chicken pizza! With salads from the Whole Food’s bar, Caesar, kale, and corn.

Blueberry cheesecake smoothie. Frozen berries, vanilla almond milk, cream cheese, and lemon syrup.

Green bean dinner bowl. This turned out way better than I was expecting, especially because the green beans were a bag of fresh beans that got tossed into the freezer last week when they started getting old. They would have been too mushy roasted, but were perfect with an egg on top.

Sautéed green beans tossed with turkey bacon, mustard, and lemon juice // pan toasted whole-wheat panko // fried egg // smoked paprika.

Everyone go eat an apple!

5Sep2016

Semi-Vacation

by Emily

Adam has been on vacation for the past two weeks which means that, even though I’ve been at work most of the days, it feels like I’ve been on vacation for the past two weeks. Nice! Husband time is the best and getting to see him immediately before and after work (versus him going in while I’m asleep and coming home after dinner is made) is better than any white sand beach.

I mostly spent the past week making googly eyes at Adam. But also, per usual, we walked and ate a ton when I wasn’t busy at work. Here were the top ten eats for the week/end…

{1} Caramel coffee at home.

{2} Coconut coffee from Konditori.

{3} Brunch at Colonie. Duck hash for two.

With aioli, a poached egg, and the best fried potatoes.

{4} Drinks at Grand Army.

The best round included this Under the Sea – Batavia Arrak agricole rum, navy-strength rum, absinthe, cinnamon, coconut, lime, and blue curacao.

{5} Fruity beers at home.

We recently discovered that we adore New Belgium and their watermelon lime ale did not disappoint.

{6} Key lime pie.

Adam explored the North Fork one day – and loved it – and brought me home some of the best pie.

{7} Mamey ice cream.

I made a sundae with maple peanut butter, granola, and sprinkles.

{8} Ice cream with apple cider caramel. Ample Hills is celebrating Roald Dahl this month.

Enjoyed September 1st to celebrate the first day of Apple Month.

{9} Buffalo chicken quinoa bowls.

I stirred sautéed onion, carrots, and celery into quinoa and topped it with fancy blue cheese and buffalo chicken dip.

{10} Seafood extravaganza at Littleneck. We shared lobster and crab rolls.

The very best dish of the night was this charred broccolini.

With anchovy, lemon, and chili flakes.

{bonus} Dinner at Oiji. I didn’t take a single picture but Adam and I enjoyed one of our favorite meals of all time there. Among other things, we had a transcendent mushroom salad and honey butter chips that blew our minds.

29Aug2016

Road Trip Adventure

by Emily

Two of our favorite people recently moved out of Brooklyn for Traverse City, MI and our last three days were spent on an epic journey road tripping to their gorgeous wedding. We spent two full days in the car and only one day in Michigan but it was totally worth it to see one of my oldest childhood friends get married.

We were a bit worried about the 30+ hours we had to spend driving but it honestly ended up flying by. We had my fully-stocked i-pod, a funny book on tape, and brand new scenery outside our windows. Plus we are stupid in love with each other and probably could have just talked for 28 hours (I definitely fell asleep towards the end!) and had a good time.

Five out of six meals Friday and Sunday were eaten in our car, mostly junk food. Here were a few of the culinary highpoints…

Apples with peanut butter.