A Few Of My Favorite Things

by Emily

We had quite a lovely time this past weekend; several long walks, lots of dog cuddles, and I had at least six of my favorite foods. Five highlights include…

{1} The new cold brew can from Partners Coffee.

{2} A coffee date at Rose Wolf. We had a quad iced latte with skin milk (<– #1 favorite thing) and a whipped coffee with oat milk and vanilla.

{3} The ET Stay Home series from Evil Twin is our new all-time favorite in beer. We were over the moon for #8 (a sour ale brewed with pineapple, guava, hot chili peppers, and conditioned on marshmallows) and #9 (a sour ale brewed with brown sugar, apples, apricots, almonds, and milk sugar).

{4} Halo Halo from Pig and Khao. Shaved ice with leche flan, ube ice cream, and macapuno.

{5} My favorite thing I’ve eaten all year = the dumpling collaboration from Pizza Loves Emily and Mimi Chengs. Pat LaFrieda dry-aged beef, Grafton aged cheddar, crushed pretzels, caramelized onions, and Emmy Sauce.

17Jul2020

Soursop And Szechuan Peppers

by Emily

Today is my 1st day back in at the hospital after a day off and a two-day stint of project days at home. I had to recertify in ServSafe and I had a big task to work on (updating the Nutrition Department’s Clinical Practice Guidelines to be more current/evidence-based) so my boss let me work from home, which was lovely. I got to leisurely brew Phin coffee and sip while I worked! Plus I ate a million snacks. <– Normally I sit in the ICUs and wear an N-95 for most of the day so I took full advantage of having a free face!

Highlights included…

The company that makes the instant espresso we love for Dalgona coffees also makes a really good espresso roast.

Plain Greek yogurt bowl with blackberries, peach, cashew butter, and a chopped up Bueno Bar. <– I realize it is ridiculous to stir a candy bar into your lunch but this was breath-takingly good and I’m glad I did it!

Vanilla skyr yogurt bowl with blackberries, black plum, cashew butter, coconut chips, and starry sprinkles.

Adam and I had to go into Manhattan for a doctor’s appointment so we stopped by Bibble and Sip for a cream puff. A cream puff topped with crème brûlée and filled with milk tea cream and boba!

I snacked on nuts every day this week. These sweet Thai chili almonds were a favorite.

Still obsessed with Hal’s caffeinated cola seltzer.

Adam and are both head over heels for these dinner mints. We made it through 12 years of marriage before we realized we are both fans of these guys!

This soursop ice cream was possibly the very best packaged ice cream I’ve ever tasted.

I topped this cheese enchilada meal with more cheese, sour cream, and Crystal hot sauce and it was 10/10. P.S. I highly recommend Amy’s frozen meal options, this one is good even if you aren’t over the top about it.

There’s a newish poke place in our neighborhood that lets you add a thousand toppings. This was white rice with crabcake, tofu, eel sauce, spicy mayo, cucumber, shiitakes, shredded carrot, string bean, green onion, tamago (shredded egg omelet), oshinko (pickled veggies), inari (tofu skin), garlic crisps, and lotus chips.

Blistered green beans – sauteed with garlic, ginger, and chili oil – with Trader Joe’s mini chicken and cilantro wontons.

Have a great – safe, distanced – weekend!

6Jul2020

Camp Fire Cuisine

by Emily

Pretty much everything we ate this weekend fit in the theme of summertime fresh or July 4th BBQ, which was lovely. Five highlights include…

A camp fire latte from Upstate Stock.

Trader Joe’s pineapple kiwi Greek yogurt with plumcot, apricot, and pie crust.

BBQ popped chips. Served with homemade cheese burgers!

Watermelon margaritas.

S’more no-churn ice cream! <– whipped heavy cream + sweetened condensed milk with fudge sauce, marshmallow fluff, and graham cracker pie crust

It officially feels like summer.

3Jul2020

Summer Fruits And Veggies

by Emily

It was a very good week in fruits and vegetables here! We went to Whole Foods on Saturday to stock up. With our new, pandemic-induced, bimonthly grocery schedule our first week of dinners/snacks always feels a lot fresher than the second week.

Highlights include…

Could Perfect Bars be any more perfect? They are the optimal balance of sweet and savory. I loved this trail mix flavor.

My parents sent us a box of tamarinds and I found these strawberry cherries at Whole Foods.

I also snagged a bag of genips (<– Caribbean fruit that I grew up picking from a tree near my house but have had an impossible time finding in New York) on the street corner near my hospital!

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Watermelon-themed things since it’s almost July 4th. The winner of the bunch was definitely the Hal’s Seltzer.

This dinner was brought to you by the color orange! Salmon/trout salad bagel melts / local heirloom tomatoes with a bit of salt and pepper / roasted gold zucchini.

We have been loving this black-eyed pea salad combo for almost a decade. This batch was actually made with fancy heirloom yellow eyed beans since BEP were sold out at the store. Beans, green pepper, smoked almonds, sharp cheddar, and green Tabasco. It is such a simple combination but super satisfying.

Roasted green zucchini topped with Moroccan tofu cubes and a simple yogurt sauce (plain skyr, mayo, olive oil, sumac, paprika, salt, and a little water).

Our best meal of the week was this trio – baked tofu (cooked with a mix of soy sauce, rice vinegar, fish sauce, Sriracha, and honey) / Chinese smashed cucumber salad / fancy mushroom medley sauteed with salt, pepper, and butter.

22Jun2020

It’s Easy Being Greenpoint

by Emily

Non-food things I’ve been loving lately —

Seinfeld! I obviously quite enjoyed it in the ’90’s as well but we’ve been doing a rewatch on Hulu. I can’t tolerate any TV that isn’t light/funny lately so old sitcoms are perfect for me.

“Adore” by Amy Shark has been played at least once on every one of my runs recently. I heard it on an episode of Schitt’s Creek, which I’m also completely obsessed with but had to stop watching in the middle because the final season isn’t out on Netflix yet.

Dave Chapelle’s new special, “8:46,” should be required reading for any white person who still isn’t clear on why the Black Lives Matter protests are happening/necessary.

We spent Sunday getting take-out and picnicing around Greenpoint and it was a perfect day. I love everything about how the businesses in that neighborhood brand themselves, it’s such a delight just to walk around and admire stuff.

Edible highlights this weekend —

Quad shot iced Americano with skim milk from Maman. Plus an absolutely divine double chocolate cookie with oat milk ganache.

Toasted coconut almonds. I’ve been having a real love affair with nuts lately and these were a perfect blend of salty and sweet.

Take-out cocktails and a cheeseburger from Elder Greene was obviously our best lunch of the year so far.

Plus we got cocktails from Ramona – frozen painkiller!! – for dessert.

Our long-time favorite pizza spot recently reopened so we got a giant buffalo chicken pie.

I made spicy salmon roll fries. With Kewpie, Furikaki, Sriracha, rice vinegar, and smoked salmon.

19Jun2020

Bubble, Bubble

by Emily

There was no weekend post because I worked Friday, Saturday, Sunday and life felt a little hectic. Things are definitely starting to ramp up at work (and that’s with some of my units closed due to Covid still!). I have my eye on some fancy cocktails for this weekend.

Highlights from the past week…

My new favorite coffee combo – the Cafe Bustelo is perfectly extra-dark and roasty to pair with the sweetness of the condensed milk.

My best snacks this week were bubble tea themed things and fruity beers. Also ranch-flavored roasted chickpeas mixed with Trader Joe’s olive and herbed mixed nuts. I eat five full handfuls straight from the bag, why do I bother to put it in that little bowl?!

These brown sugar boba ice cream bars are truly the best frozen treat I’ve ever had! If you spot them – buy them!

We also had some boba-inspired gummies.

Guava gose brewed with coriander and Himalayan salt // pineapple shake IPA brewed with vanilla and lactose.

Hazy IPA with hibiscus and dragon fruit.

We made chilaquiles for dinner. Topped with fried eggs, plain yogurt, cheddar, and Crystal hot sauce.

Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi with roasted baby tomatoes and garlic and gruyere smoked chicken sausages.

8Jun2020

Coffee Cookies And Cream

by Emily

Food highlights from the weekend included —

We celebrated National Doughnut Day one day late with a s’mores doughnut from Dough Hut.

Plain skyr yogurt topped with fruit salad (mango, kiwi, plum, blueberries, lemon juice, and honey).

This nut mix was great, it had just enough savory to offset the sweet.

These brown sugar boba popsicles knocked our socks off. How did the keep the frozen tapioca so chewy and wonderful??!

Also I made ice cream. Two-ingredient no-churn ice cream infused with coffee and espresso and layered with crushed Oreo. It was amazing.

Kettlecorn with Korean chili flake.

Veggie tacos. Baked tortillas with cheese / corn and kale / chorizo-style seitan / homemade salsa.

15May2020

Espresso In My Cookies And My Granola

by Emily

Wow am I glad it’s the weekend! Even if I don’t get to leave the house it will be nice to get a quick break from my busy work-week. Actually though, we have our bi-weekly grocery trip planned for tomorrow – exciting stuff.

My dinners were largely (unphotographably) lame this week but I did have some really exciting beverages and yogurt bowls…

This week’s coffee included homemade malted milk creamer!