Birthday Staycation

by Emily

I’m running late posting but my birthday weekend was absolutely worth sharing. My parents were visiting, we spent time with one of my oldest childhood friends which feels very appropriate for a birthday, I had four days off of work (and Adam was free a bit too!), and we spent our days walking and eating.

I love when people visit because showing them around lets you take a vacation in your own town. Alphabetically, some of our stops included – Brookfield Place, Bushwick, Chelsea, Chelsea Piers, Greenwich Village, the Highline, the Mayorville petting zoo, Montauk, the Narrows botanical garden, Park Slope, Smorgasburg, and Williamsburg.

Here were the food highlights…

Terremoto Coffee.

Winter rose latte in a complimentary cup.

Bluestone Lane.

My Australian iced latte – with cocoa powder and ice cream – was deeply enjoyed as the days were hot, hot hot.

Corner of Vermont sells the best maple candies I’ve ever had.

And their maple soft serve is delightful.

Lunch in Montauk.

They are famous for lobster rolls but I went with the seafood chili this visit.

Chickpea & Olive at Smorgasburg.

Pulled BBQ jackfruit with Carolina slaw, bread & butter pickles, fried shallots, and horseradish aioli, on a potato bun. This was my first time trying jackfruit and I’m definitely a fan.

Chuko Ramen.

My parents both loved their chicken miso ramen. I topped mine with drippy egg and tons of chili garlic oil.

Montana Trail House.

I had a drink with hibiscus-infused rum! And another with Aperol and grapefruit.

We shared fried green tomato sliders and switchel glazed carrots.

And I stuck with veggies for my entrée and ordered the broccoli gratin.

Mostly because it came covered in pimento cheese.

Mile End Deli.

We started with the peppers and baba ghanoush. When you’re at ME you have to order poutine.

And I always order a turkey reuben.

I love New York.

11Jul2016

A Bunch Of Brunch

by Emily

Chameleon’s Mexican coffee was delightful with a bit of milk. Related – I am in physical pain that I can’t find the Texas pecan near me.

Iced coffee is always good though.

This cup from Colonie was knock-your-socks-off good. There must have been a nitro tap somewhere because it was crazy velvety.

I went for brunch with a girlfriend and we were both blown away by my duck hash. With poached egg, red potatoes, roasted onion puree, and aioli. I’m usually not that excited by potatoes but these were crispy perfection.

Afterwards we went to Grand Army and had {too many!} drinks. We practically tried the whole cocktail menu and everything was fantastic!

Brunch numero dos at Tocolo Cantina. I had the mushroom taquitos – crispy tacos filled with roasted mushroom, corn, and Chihuahua cheese.

This cafeteria lunch wasn’t too bad either. My wrap sandwich had grilled chicken, cheddar, veggies, and cilantro.

Date shake smoothie. Plain Greek yogurt, vanilla almond milk, ice, dulce de leche, and fresh dates.

Lavender caramel. I brought these back from my Philly trip and I wish I’d bought more!

These leftovers eggs were better than they look. With chicken hot dog, baby spinach, yellow bell pepper, and gouda cheese.

A 2nd home-cooked dinner in one weekend?

These – only ok – salmon patties came from the freezer, but I did make the tartar sauce. Mayo, mustard, pickle relish, and dill.

And I assembled the salads myself. Romaine, ranch, heirloom baby tomatoes, pistachios, and an amazing blue cheese from Trader Joe’s.

5Jul2016

Independence Day Eats

by Emily

I hope all of my American readers enjoyed their 4th of July. I had a three day weekend with Adam and a holiday with theme colors so you know I was happy!

Here were the on theme (summer!) eats…

Is iced coffee a summer food? I guess not really for me because I drink it 365 days of the year sun or snow.

Red, white, and blue smoothie. Strawberry / banana yogurt / blueberry.

Watermelon lunch. Chobani, fresh melon, and seltzer.

Boozy root beer float. Root beer beer, dark rum, dulce de leche, and vanilla bean gelato.

Cook out dinner that we totally made in-doors. Turkey hot dogs, oven-roasted corn on the cob, and Eat Live Run’s bbq kale and beans.

I added ketchup for dipping, seltzer for sipping, and a strawberry beer to the meal after we sat down.

See also – Genesee Cream Ale and a giant platter of nachos at a dive bar in Brooklyn.

Trader Joe’s shooting star cookies.

Pop rocks have kind of been our favorite this year.

I’m off to enjoy a four-day work week!

1Jul2016

Weekly Wrap-Up

by Emily

Loves of Late

Family time: My parents were taking a quick vacation in Philadelphia this week and I took a mini road trip and drove up to spend the day with them! I love the Magic Garden mosaics.

TV: Rizzoli and Isles is on it’s final season and we have been loving it. It is the most unrealistic of the cop shows that I enjoy but it’s also very funny and heartwarming. All seasons are streaming on Hulu and I highly recommend going back to the beginning and giving it a watch. Also, the first three episodes of Documentary Now. Adam and I thought the 1st season went quickly downhill but the very first episodes are comedy gold.

Coffee: the beans we bought at Birch are fantastic, even when brewed in our crappy coffee pot at home.

Every time I go to Reading Terminal I hit Old City Coffee.

Also in Philly, I finally tried La Columbe.

Stuff: My new planner! I love new planners in general because I’m a dork but this one has shiny cut outs on the front. (from Blue Sky, fyi, but I couldn’t find it listed on the website)

I also just bought a shirt with cut outs on it, apparently that’s my summer trend.

The day I visited my parents we walked around the city all day and it was just so darn hot that we ended up buying me a new outfit so I could take the world’s most refreshing shower before dinner.

Eats

Coffee, duh! More cups than were shown above, obviously.

Terrible picture of the yummy pecan pastries a coworker brought it. She cut back on sugar which can leave baked goods overly tough but these ended up tasting like a pastry-scone hybrid.

Yogurt bowl – plain Greek with chopped red plum, granola, chia, and sprinkles.

Oatmeal bowl – with dark chocolate cacao nibs, chia, and coconut butter. Plus an apple on the side.

Chia pudding. The fizzy coconut water was horrible, btw.

When in Philly, (chicken) cheesesteak.

Pocky stick snack.

Turkey cheese roll ups.

Dinner at Devon Seafood with my parents.

I had the bouillabaisse.

Chipotle night, midweek road trips tire you out. My burrito was stuffed with chicken, pinto beans, peppers, cheese, sour cream, corn salsa, and lettuce.

Best for last, the one thing I actually cooked myself!

White quinoa / red lentils with lemon, tomato paste, and ginger / roasted zucchini and garlic sautéed mushrooms.

Have a great weekend!

23Jun2016

Similar To Cake By The Ocean

by Emily

I’m mashing last weekend’s post into this week’s – and we’ve done a lot of good eating! – so I had to filter down to only the most delicious things. Here are the best bites from the top five categories…

{1} all the coffee!

We ordered The Unicorn at Box Kite, obviously.

We went to Birch Coffee and loved it so much that we went back at the end of the day to buy a bag of beans.

Then went back again a few days later for another latte!

Locally roasted coffee that comes in cups with trees on them is just too exciting. And there were birch trees etched into the sidewalk out front!

{2} protein-packed salads

Beans, eggs, and lots of fish. At Whole Foods – spring mix with tangerine vinaigrette / salmon / two kinds of bean salads / parmesan / and a hard-boiled egg.

At the cafeteria – romaine with blue cheese / veggies / corn / kidney beans / cheddar / egg. Plus my coworker brought me a giant piece of baked salmon and I tossed that on top too.

At the cafeteria when I worked last Sunday and pickings were getting slim – I did the best I could with fried fish and a steamed vegetable mix.

It wasn’t bad, but I did buy a train snack that night.

{3} killer sandwiches

Breakfast: egg and cheese on a croissant with turkey bacon.

Lunch: do taquitos count as sandwiches? I’m including them either way, because this lunch was too good not to share. Tortaria knocked our socks off. Adam and I split a platter with mahi and cauliflower (and pork for him). Plus spicy fries and tons of guacamole. And a tamarind agua fresca.

The sauces sitting on the tables – green salsa, blended salsa, and something creamy and smoky – were astonishingly good. And that ridiculous quantity of food (why include chips and fries in the same deal?!) cost less than twenty dollars.

Dinner: cod bahn mi at a new Vietnamese/taco spot in Park Slope.

Don’t question it, the combo worked, I went with a girlfriend who got tacos and we were both very pleased.

{4} sweet stuff

~~Cake by the ocean.~~ Cookies by the Hudson. We got giant chocolate chip walnut cookies from Levain and enjoyed them in Riverside Park.

Tropical smoothie at home. Frozen mango and soursop with guava paste and vanilla almond milk.

Ben & Jerry’s Empower-Mint flavor is yummy and it supports an important cause.

Siggi’s yogurt with berries and shredded halvah.

Birthday cake croissant from Union Fare. It’s topped with ground sprinkle dust and filled with sprinkle-studded pastry cream!

It was also just one of the best croissant we’ve ever tasted.

{5} hearty homemade dinners

Spanish flavors reigned supreme on the home front this week. Tomato garlic crock pot chicken served with brown rice tossed with garlic, tomato paste, raisins, and chopped olives. Plus roasted broccoli.

I also made fantastic enchiladas.

Whole Foods’ roasted garlic green chile enchilada sauce costs a ridiculous $4+ per can and it is soooo good. Our filling was ground turkey breast cooked with TJ’s vegan chorizo and tons of roasted yellow squash and zucchini. Plus cheese galore.

10Jun2016

Destination City

by Emily

this week I loved…

Neutrogena Revitalizing Lip Balm. It took me forever to find a balm with both tint and spf but this one fits the bill perfectly!

A blog book review. Dawn Lerman’s My Fat Dad was sent to me free of charge to try/read for the blog. Her chapter on moving to New York City walked the reader through the different cultural food neighborhoods in a way that made my mouth water.

Living in a destination city. I had two different sets of friends visiting NYC for work trips this week. It was fantastic to get to catch up with them! However, I went out after work for dinner and/or drinks multiple times and I am flipping exhausted.

P.S. My favorite bar (Pork Slope in Park Slope) now has $1 jello shots, clearly I backed the right horse!

this week I ate…

Vietnamese-ish iced coffee.

A killer smoothie – with banana, blueberry, and avocado. So creamy.

Poppy seed bagel with olive cream cheese.

Oatmeal bowl. With cookie butter and a pixie tangerine.

Greek yogurt bowl with Cheerios and plums. I also crumbled a brownie in there (see below) and it was pretty fantastic.

Taboule salad from the cafeteria.

Whole Foods hot bar. Lots of veggies, rice with black beans and cheddar, and broccoli mac and cheese.

I needed a 2nd coffee snack more than once.

Turkey jerky.

Best ever brownies. Just this recipe without the fluff.

Baby carrots with great feta dip.

I had Thai food in Williamsburg with Adam and a girlfriend. Drunken noodles with mock duck that were as spicy as they were delicious.

We cooled our mouths down with soft-serve from Milk Bar. Fruity pebble soft-serve(!!) with fudge sauce and sprinkles.

Indian at the Grand Central food court. And yes, I realize that is a lame spot to take an out-of-towner.

Starbucks sandwich for a quick dinner on the train and then I went straight to bed!

I did make dinner at home one night! Whole-wheat vermicelli noodles with ginger and garlic chicken, shredded cabbage, bell pepper, and a tahini lime sauce. With cashews on top plus tons of Sriracha after the picture.

We snacked on a servings’ worth of cashews and sliced bell pepper while we cooked.

Good friends, good eats, it was a good week!

3Jun2016

It’s Time For BBQ And Hot Dogs

by Emily

Here were this week’s top three…

{breakfast}

Killer breakfast sandwich. Turkey bacon, egg, and cheddar on a croissant. If I could get the cafeteria to scramble me an egg with peppers to put on a sandwich I’d be in heaven.

Coffee always makes the top of the list! Black Hand with chocolate milk.

With a Lavender Love kombucha.

{lunch}

Yogurt bowls for the win. With blueberries and chopped nectarine and modest variation in toppings. 2% Fage with Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes.

4% Siggis with pecans, chia, and cookie butter.

Passionfruit Chobani with Heritage Flakes, pecans, and chia.

{snack}

This kettle corn is some of the best packaged popcorn I’ve ever tasted, it is super crispy.

Another sweet and salty, a pixie tangerine with a chicken Wilde Bar.

My coworker brought me in a grass jelly drink to try after I raved about the jelly at Boba Guys. It was good! Not very sweet at all and mildly grassy in a pleasant way. I mixed it with vanilla soy milk.

{dinner}

Our cooking took place indoors and up North but we still made the most of Southern bbq flavors for two of our meals this week. Nacho night! Carolina bbq chips, sharp cheddar, pulled turkey with bbq sauce, pinto beans, red onion, and roasted broccoli.

A similar concept on salad – arugula with ranch / bbq turkey / pinto beans / red onion / cucumber / bell pepper. With corn on the cob. This was a fun dinner but it desperately needed some crunch and we ended up dumping kettle chips on our salads to act as de facto croutons.

Hot dogs in scrambled eggs sounds low-brow but tastes amazing. Our eggs included ‘dogs, red onion, arugula, and cheddar. With avocado and roasted asparagus on the side.