Back At It

by Emily

Big news I’ve been waiting to share – I went back to work this week! I finally found a job that is a good fit for my experience; I’ll be responsible for the ICUs at a hospital in Queens. Great timing, right?! I actually will be able to do some work-from-home days but this week I had to go into the hospital for training.

Food highlights from this week include…

This week’s coffee combo.

I made Adam and myself dalgona coffees and he is smitten now too.

Usually I don’t keep a ton of candy in the house but now that I’m unable to pop out for an ice cream whenever I wish I’ve started building up a stash.

Amy’s chile relleno bowl with hot sauce. <– my 2nd all-time-favorite frozen meal

Trader Joe’s sriracha shrimp bowl with cashews on top. <– my all-time-favorite frozen meal

Brown sugar garlic chicken thighs / on a bed of roasted broccoli and green beans / topped with zhoug and Korean chili flakes.

Egg casserole (very similar to this recipe) with tons of roasted broccoli and mozzarella. Plus turkey breakfast sausage.

We got take-out last night to celebrate the almost-end of my first work week. Pizza loaded with vegetables – broccoli rabe, roasted zucchini, and olives – and garlic knots loaded with cheese.

10Apr2020

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee*

by Emily

*please read the title to the tune of the Brady Bunch’s “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!”

It was an exciting week in home entertainment for us – I started watching Schitt’s Creek, and of course fell in love, and borrowed my mom’s Prime log-in to binge watch all of Absentia.

It was also an exciting week in home caffeination – I had a different (fancy!) coffee drink every day.

Highlights include…

Dalgona coffee! Here is an explainer. I used instant espresso powder and looooved it.

Lavendar latte.

Vietnamese coffee made with a phin filter.

Lavazza espresso.

2% plain Fage Greek yogurt with blueberries, candied walnuts, cinnamon, and maple syrup.

With blueberries, cinnamon, maple, candied walnuts, and maple walnut granola.

If you think the dog doesn’t get his own yogurt and berries bowl you’re crazy.

Soft-scrambled eggs with mozzarella and Korean chili flakes / tater tots with Sriracha, Kewpie, and furikake / baby carrots.

Egg and cheese onion bagel with soft-scrambled eggs with mozzarella plus Sriracha and mayo.

The Starburst soda pop flavored jelly beans are pretty darn good, especially the cola and lime flavor.

Number 2 Pencil’s single-serve chocolate chip cookies are fantastic. I added rainbow sprinkles and espresso powder.

Local pizza with fried chicken, roasted zucchini, and hot peppers.

Giant salad bowl – romaine lettuce, Trader Joe’s balsamic and fig dressing, Trader Joe’s zhoug, celery, tater tats, and turkey meatballs (made with panko, egg, Trader Joe’s umami powder, and Korean chili flakes).

Giant salad bowl – romaine, balsamic, zhoug, celery, candied walnuts, fresh mint, and baked seitan.

I’d say “have a great weekend,” but doesn’t every day basically feel the same at this point?

30Mar2020

Virtual Road Trip

by Emily

One silver lining to not getting to see any of my friends in person for the discernible future is that we’ve been doing a better job of connecting long-distance. I spent hours on the phone with a childhood friend the other day and Sunday morning my cousin and I took an online yoga class together. <– super fun fact? The yoga class was actually being taught by another one of my childhood friends! Plus, I know that I am insanely lucky to be in such a good marriage, I’m at home with my favorite person on earth.

This weekend we took a trip to Virginia in the form of some of our our favorite drinks. Coffee from Black Hand.

Rum from Vitae. With cinnamon coke and lime!

We’ve been drinking a lot of fancy packaged coffees to help me deal with my withdrawal from coffee shop quad iced lattes.

I used the last of my fresh berries in this yogurt bowl. Plain Greek with maple, cinnamon, and TJ’s mixed nut butter.

Delivery successes. Bubble tea.

Tons of Mexican food.

Menemen, loosely based on this recipe. I used sumac, chili flakes, pepper, smoked paprika, and fresno chilis. Plus TJ’s rose fingerling potato chips, which were crazy addictive, I went back for thirds.

TJ’s vegan orange chicken served on a big bed of green beans in gojuchang.

23Mar2020

Coffee And Bagels (At Home)

by Emily

Highlights from the “weekend” –

Coffee in all forms.

Egg and cheese bagels. This one had soft scrambled eggs and a melty slice of sharp cheddar; on an onion bagel.

This one had cheese, fried egg, and tons of Cholula. Plus roasted broccoli.

Leftover pizza with honey and chili flakes because that’s the only way I eat pizza now.

Greek yogurt with cinnamon, maple syrup, blackberries, granola, and Trader Joe’s mixed nut butter.

The best pasta I’ve ever made. Whole wheat angel hair tossed with caramelized sweet onion and green with brown sugar, butter, fish sauce, and chili flakes. Plus roasted zucchini and hot-smoked sockeye salmon.

Sinfully good booze from Evil Twin – marshmallow hard cider and fruity marshmallow sour IPA.

16Mar2020

The Ratio Of The Pizza’s Circumference To Its Diameter

by Emily

FYI – as of Saturday morning the recommendation in NYC was to avoid public transportation but continue to support local restaurants if you were feeling well, so that’s what we did this weekend. Obviously the situation has changed vastly since then. I stocked up on supplies last week and plan on self-quarantining for at least the next 14 days.

While you are stuck at home I strongly recommend streaming these (very raunchy, deeply funny) shows: Big Mouth / Future Man / Astronomy Club.

Highlights from the weekend include…

Breakfast at Win Son Bakery, which blew our freaking minds. Their custard toast is our new all-time favorite thing.

Pizza pie for Pi Day at Roberta’s. Tomato, mozarella, caciocavella, parmigiano, oregano, and chili.

Plus we had an amazing sticky bun.

A dessert-y yogurt bowl. Chobani milk and cookies yogurt with frozen berries, pumpkin seed butter, and sprinkles!

All of the dessert-y beer options at Evil Twin. Marshmallow triple IPA, marshmallow key lime sour IPA, marshmallow pina colada hard cider, passion fruit sour IPA, and cinnamon pear sour IPA (the marshmallow key lime was obviously my favorite beer of all time).

Homemade green curry. With ground turkey and tons of spring onions, on a bed of roasted zucchini.

I’ll miss you, NYC!

6Mar2020

An Oatsome Good Time

by Emily

Highlights from this week include – a day trip into Brooklyn // tons of tortilla chips and salsas // a product review.

Oatsome sent me a carton of their oat-milk to try {I was provided no additional compensation and all opinions shared are my own}. I have a three pronged review –

1) Taste: the flavor is similar to skim milk in that it is not strong at all; I could definitely identify that oats were involved but it wasn’t “oat forward.” It was inoffensive in coffee and cereal which is basically what I’m looking for in my non-dairy milks. I could not get it to foam for coffee, likely due to its low protein content. Tastewise, Oatsome is definitely my new favorite non-dairy option. Typically I won’t order at coffee shops that don’t stock skim milk but I would consider places with oat milk more regularly now.
2) Nutrition: one cup of Oatsome contains 130 calories and 2 grams of protein. It does not contain dairy, nuts, or added sugars and it is gluten free. It’s a low sodium option with 60 mg per cup. Oatsome is fortified with calcium (provides 20% DRI), vitamin D (provides 10% DRI), riboflavin (provides 40% DRI), and vitamin B12 (provides 40% DRI). For vegans, it is awesome that this is fortified with B12. However, for anyone who depends on dairy to help meet their daily protein needs at 2 grams per cup Oatsome probably isn’t the best choice (versus skim milk with 8 grams protein per cup).
3) Environmental impact: oats require 80% less water to grow than almonds.

I had Oatsome in a cup of espresso roast with brown sugar.

And in a bowl of Heritage Flakes with blueberries.

Vanilla bean Greek yogurt with blueberries and a honey tangerine.

An egg sandwich from Golda with muhumarra, kashkaval, dill, sumac’d onion, and beef bacon. Plus a salted tahini oat milk latte!

Baby carrots and roasted broccoli dipped in Asian ginger dressing.

Homemade chilaquiles. We used yellow and orange bell pepper, serrano pepper, sweet onion, leftover salsa, and tortilla chips. Topped with eggs, homemade cilantro crema, and Cholula.

Nacho night. Tortilla chips, black beans, poached chicken thighs, sauteed onion and poblano pepper, cheese, Trader Joe’s salsa, and sour cream.

24Feb2020

See Food Diet

by Emily

Two key housekeeping things –

1) I recently kind of randomly started eating sashimi and burgers and I am now obsessed with both. Also, apparently I’m into cake at the moment.

2) I had an absolutely fantastic time in St. Thomas! I spent two weeks hanging out with my grandma and swimming in the ocean!

Thankfully the weather in NYC has been nice enough for us to do a ton of walking (and a ton of cake, coffee, and fancy cocktail consuming!) so the transition has been pretty easy.

Recent highlights include…

Rum raisin iced latte at the Ace Hotel. Related – I had a rose cold brew at Brooklyn Roasting Co that was mindblowing.

I am definitely a fan of these new KIND nut butter bars whose product info is weirdly not on their website.

Brunch at the Fulton in the Seaport District. I had a smoked bloody mary margarita!

We shared sashimi with spicy white ponzu.

And brussel sprouts with mint and pecorino cheese.

And I had the gruyere cheeseburger with au jus.

Now that I’m into sushi, a girlfriend suggested we get lunch at Sugarfish. I got the “Trust Me Lite” which included edamame and tuna sashimi.

Albacore, salmon, and shrimp sushi.

And a toro hand roll.

Adam and I had a giant, epic lunch at Fan Fried Rice Bar in Bed Stuy. Golden kimchi / cucumber salad / mush-mame fried rice with shiitake mushrooms, edamame, mixed vegetables, and fried shallots.

Big Gay Ice Cream is my current favorite. This was yellow cake soft-serve with dulce de leche and rainbow sprinkles in a biscoff lined cone.

Dreamy cake slices – strawberry Good Humor bar and Oreo – at Little Cupcake Bakeshop.

Brigadero cake and a cappuccino at Padoca Bakery.

Leyenda‘s Candy Striper is a frozen blend of Leblon cachaça, coconut, vanilla, maple, lime, peppermint, and cardamom and it is the single best beverage I have ever put in my mouth. Every sip was so interesting!

Dinner at the Hi Hi Room. We started with smashed potatoes with an herb aioli.

Other Half Cream Get the Honey IPA. <– IPAs brewed with lactose are my favorite

Our reason for being there = hand-cut spaghetti with duck chili, cheddar, and white onion. I couldn’t get a good photo but it was truly fantastic.

Our apartment complex lost power for several hours on Friday night and we were forced to go out to a super fun dinner on the Upper East Side. A friend sent me a list of “the best cocktail spots in NYC” and NR definitely earned its spot!

Our favorites were the Japanese whiskey sour (above) with brown sugar, yuzu, and egg white and the Pistachio – dry gin, house-made pistachio cream, campari, and clementine!

We also shared a truffle oil egg salad sandwich.

And I had the hokkaido ramen with chicken, corn, butter, bean sprouts, and extra seaweed.

A home-cooked meal! Trader Joe’s frozen mahi mahi burgers, steak fries, and roasted baby cauliflower with sumac and smoked paprika. All dipped in a sauce of honey habanero hot sauce, honey, and mayo.