Breakfast highlights from a lovely weekend…
Homemade maple vanilla matcha latte.
Hometown Bakeshop. We shared a great egg sandwich – over-medium eggs on a cheddar biscuit with cheddar, turkey bacon, and smoked aioli.
Plus a funfetti scone.
I had a cafe con leche with condensed milk! Plus a pink flamingo – mezcal with guava and lime.
And shredded beef for breakfast, with sweet plantains, avocado, and black beans and rice. This was almost as good as the Cuban food of our Miami days!
Weekend highlights…
We were snowed in Friday and Saturday (and ate a million snacks and cuddled in bed catching up on The Great North!) but Sunday we were able to take a trip into Brooklyn to marvel at Industry City.
We made ube dalgona iced lattes.
And bought a dulce de leche iced latte from The Flour Shoppe.
Vanilla skyr with Trader Joe’s mixed nut butter, granola, and banana. Related note – I also had a yogurt bowl with nut butter and chopped up peanut butter cups and it was fantastic.
The very first thing I did in preparation for the winter storm was panic-buy my favorite ice cream.
Kinako mochi.
Cake in a jar (chocolate cake and 4 leches!) from Parva Bakeshop.
I tried all of the beef at Hometown BBQ. A smashed burger and a brisket taco!
Roasted zucchini with parmesan / soft-scrambled eggs / rye toast with strawberry jam.
For a week of easing back into real life from vacation the past 5 days weren’t too bad! I even managed to cook a few dinners. That said, work has been insane and I am not sad that I’m heading into a three day weekend!
Highlights from the past week include…
Coffee combo – Hudson Roastery with sweetened condensed milk.
See also – we are head over heels for this dulce de leche instant coffee.
Really enjoyed this energy tea; I’ve been loving mint drinks since December.
See also – we made green Thai tea iced lattes.
We also made fruity matcha spritzers. Matcha with key lime La Croix and fresh lime and orange juice.
Berry (beary!) milkshake – Thai tea ice cream mochi blended with vanilla almond milk and frozen strawberries and grapes.
Yogurt bowl – vanilla yogurt with peanut butter, chia, and granola.
These apple pie rice cakes have milk powder in them and a great sweet/savory thing going.
Vegan pepperoni-inspired jerky + everything seasoning chickpea snacks. Both were good but not my favorite. But a nice snack paired together.
Layered halvah. P.S. We also bought halvah-crusted pecans and they were insane.
Leftovers and lettuce wraps converged for the perfect dinner. We used butterhead lettuce to wrap ground turkey sautéed with gojuchang with celery, peanuts, quick pickled cucumber and carrot salad, and pickled radish. Plus leftovers from great take-out we got over the weekend – kimbap and Korean fried chicken.
It’s possible we over-purchased fried chicken… we snacked on it all week long!
A quick and easy dinner – chicken burgers from the freezer with sautéed bell peppers and green onion, mashed avocado, a fried egg, and fantastic hot sauce from back home.
The best dinner of the week/month/new year! I made buffalo chicken meatballs (with ground turkey since we were shopping during a winter storm, hot sauce, cream cheese, and blue cheese) with sautéed carrot and celery, and homemade garlic bread (garlic, butter, spices, and tons of parmesan baked on everything ciabatta rolls).
…And we made the most of it with tons of decadent and/or on theme snacks! I worked the holiday weekend but Adam and I were both off Christmas Eve so we got to spend time cuddling the dog, took a trip into the city to enjoy the light display at Hudson Yards, and drove around our area in the evening admiring decorations. Highlights included…
Peppermint cold brew with eggnog.
Stumptown’s salted maple iced latte.
This layered red and green smoothie was more successful in flavor than artistry. Ube, strawberry, grape layered with matcha banana.
The fanciest yogurt bowl – plain skyr with cinnamon, chia seeds, strawberries, nougat halvah, and chestnut paste!
Green juice and a candy cane.
Mint sparkling matcha.
Eggnog iced matcha latte.
Is there anything more luxurious than freshly made fruit salad? This was golden pinepple, strawberries, and mandarins.
This crab dip was a 6.5/10 but these crackers were a 9.5/10.
Peppermint chocolate crinkle cookie from Chip.
Repeat of my two new favorite beers. Cinnamon marshmallow cola sour ale from Evil Twin and an eggnog double IPA from Abomination Brewing.
Lunch at Dante in the West Village. It was worth sitting outside on one of the coldest days of this month! We split steak with salbitxada and a baby kale salad with beats, butternut squash, goat cheese, and hazelnuts. Plus fancy cocktails.
Avocado toast plus a quick pickled cucumber salad. Toasted sourdough, mashed avocado, a fried egg, and chili flakes.
Sautéed cabbage with peanut lime sauce and five spice candied peanuts (very loosely based on this recipe).
Roasted brussel sprouts (with chili flakes and smoked paprika) plus Christmas nachos! Kettle chips with extra-sharp cheddar, green onion, and duck sausage.
Highlights from this weekend include…
Chia pudding with eggnog and cinnamon and fresh strawberries.
Comfortland‘s eggnog croissant. <– my favorite seasonal item of this year
Earl grey pour-over coffee.
Topped with cinnamon vanilla ube cold foam.
See also – a delicious slice of ube tres leches.
Fries with spicy tuna salad, chili flakes, green onion, and furikake.
We have a loaf of Trader Joe’s sliced sourdough in the house so I, of course, planned sandwiches for every dinner! Maple smoked turkey with cheddar and honey mustard. Plus lemon mustard roasted green beans (roasted green beans tossed in honey mustard, garlic oil, and lemon juice).
Roast beef with cheddar and horseradish mayo. Plus roasted zucchini and smashed potatoes with garlic oil, cheddar, and paprika.
I didn’t mean for this plate to be so yellow, but it was the best meal of the week! Golden pineapple / roasted orange cauliflower / soft scrambled egg sandwich with tons of smoked salmon salad.
This post includes highlights back through last weekend; it was Adam’s birthday and I didn’t want to waste his time blogging. We had a wonderful weekend including great weather for two days of long walks in Brooklyn, lots of delicious meals, a trip to Sundays in Brooklyn’s Snow Days in Brooklyn winter pop up (which included egg nog soft serve and a Dark and Snowy cocktail, among other things), and a drive-through holiday light show.
Highlights…
Breakfast at Ursula. We split a pine needle mocha(!!).
And a cream cheese frosting stuffed cinnamon roll(!!!).
And I had a sandwich with scrambled egg, cheddar, and green chile on housemade brioche.
Chestnut and vanilla iced latte from Nerd Be Cool.
A Christmas yogurt bowl – Trader Joe’s eggnog Greek yogurt with kiwi, pomegranate, and granola.
See also – plain Greek yogurt with honey, cinnamon, granola, kiwi, pomegranate, and fresh mandarin.
We went to Oddfellows for a scoop of coquito ice cream.
And Brooklyn Cupcake for a coquito cupcake. Plus flan and guava cheese, since it was a birthday!
We really loved this chocolate mint sparkling water.
Trader Joe’s Thai tea mini ice cream mochi.
These chip-stuffed Reese’s cups were just as good as I thought they would be! Completely worth the months of gas station stops to search for them.
We were also pretty pleased with these Dove truffles.
I ate an obscene amount of take-out this week but here were two really good “homemade” dinners. Chili cheese fries plus roasted romanesco.
Cold silken tofu with chili oil (I used urfa pepper paste with garlic oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, white sugar, and scallions) plus sautéed eggplant, bok choy, and red bell pepper with ginger and peanuts.
Favorites from this week included – tons of peppermint, eggnog flavored drinks, citrus, Asian-inspired dinner bowls…
Peppermint mochas with Copper Cow.
See also – La Colombe peppermint mocha latte with a chocolate mint Perfect bar.
Eggnog Nutrament and a Lady Alice apple. This is such a childhood throw-back treat for me.
Still loving the Kishu mandarins and also this satsuma was juicy and seed-free.
Sesame seaweed sheets.
Milk Bar candy cane ice cream. You’ll never go wrong adding marshmallow to peppermint.
Very surprised by how good these seasonal white chocolate pretzel m&m’s were. I shared them at work and my coworkers were all also impressed.
My mother-in-law bought us chocolate covered pretzel sticks that are also dipped in caramel!
This egg nog beer was obviously the most “me” booze I’ve ever purchased, but also one of the best beers I’ve had all year! Abomination Brewing‘s Fog Nog – a double IPA brewed with lactose and spices.
Trader Joe’s sriracha shrimp bowl frozen meal. Topped with tons of extra sriracha, Kewpie mayo, and maple almonds.
Salmon roll inspired bowls. Farro topped with spicy salmon salad (canned fish with mayo, sriracha, and rice vinegar), sautéed zucchini spirals, chili flakes, and furikake.
Udon noodles // sautéed celery, bok choy, and green onion // sautéed ground turkey // stir-fried with egg and a homemade sauce including tomato paste and spicy bean paste.
A take on this cheesy rice porridge. We added extra broth and shredded chicken and topped it with urfa chili paste.
Trader Joe’s spicy Mexican-style riced cauliflower stir-fried with eggs and garlic olive oil. Plus roasted green beans and garlic knots.
Highlights from this past workweek – – –
Yogurt bowl with blackberries and a salted caramel cookie.
Best (non-coffee) drinks of the week – calamansi sparking water (7/10) / lemon rose sparkling tonic (9/10) / imperial IPA (8/10)
A new-to-me apple variety – Senecacrisp.
I had an evening appointment in the city and I got to check out Marvelous by Fred and their Merveilleux (aka floofy piles of whipped cream and meringues). I tried coffee and seasonal chestnut.
I enjoyed these vegan ice cream bites even more than I was expecting to; something about the chocolate was very satisfying.
These smoky, crunchy yellow peas are also pretty addictive.
BBQ rice bowls – brown basmati rice / sautéed kale with yellow onion and passionfruit vinegar / roasted zucchini / ground turkey with bbq sauce, Korean chili flake, and brown sugar / avocado.
Leftover rice stir-fried with garlic, evoo, fish sauce, rice vinegar, and Sichuan pepper salt / with turkey summer sausage / green onion / a gourmet mushroom blend / kumato tomatoes / and egg.
P.S. By the time you read this we will be on vacation! Adam and I have seven straight days off together!! Woo-hoo!
