Thanksgiving Week

by Emily

I always have a lot to feel thankful for and last week was no exception. With working two weekends in a row and Turkey Day my schedule worked out perfectly for lots of fun free time with the husband! We had a great time in the city on his post-call day and were able to drive to Pennsylvania Thursday evening to spend the holiday with his family.

Highlights…

Fancy coffees –

Noble Tree iced latte at Nickel and Diner.

Stumptown Winter Cheer.

Vietnamese cold brew.

Fun city restaurants –

Supermoon Bakehouse!

So cool. We tried a banana split sundae twice baked croissant – caramelized sous vide whole bananas, banana caramel sauce, creme patissiere, and chocolate almond creme, topped with chocolate fudge, banana caramel, dehydrated banana, gold leaf, and torched meringue.

And a Golden Boy Doughnut – golden turmeric brioche filled with mild chocolate salted caramel, rolled in sugar and topped with a chocolate shard – aka the best doughnut I’ve ever eaten.

Crazy good ramen at Ganso. A girlfriend and I went after work one night and it was so fantastic that I went back with Adam the next day! The first time we shared blistered shishito peppers.

And I had triple shrimp ramen – with shrimp paste chicken broth, thick Sapporo noodles, chili-fried shrimp, dried shrimp, garlic chives, and moyashi sprouts.

The second time we had wings and beer.

And I had the Tori Shio – Japanese sea salt-chicken broth, toothsome Tokyo noodles, crispy chicken thigh chashu, ajitama egg, and greens.

On-theme eats –

Pumpkin yogurt with Heritage Flakes and a ~~mini pumpkin~~ persimmon.

Fruit and nut yogurt with toffee bits, pecans, and orange raisins.

A pre-holiday plate on Tuesday night.

Crock pot cooked turkey, Trader Joe’s cornbread stuffing, cranberry dressing, and roasted green beans.

Plus a cranberry beer!

Our Thanksgiving tradition…

Stuffing nachos! With turkey, cranberry, and lots of cheese.

Plus broccoli that I pretended was green beans.

My actual Thanksgiving plate.

Our contribution to the meal was peanut butter, butterscotch, toffee candy.

Have a great week!

17Nov2017

A Week Of Splendid Sandwiches

by Emily

Can I really use that title in a week without a single grilled cheese or lobster roll? I did have some exceptionally above-bar poultry-based sandwiches.

The winning ‘wiches…

Milk Bar‘s Thanksgiving croissant is the best sandwich of all time. Adam and I waited for it with baited breath this year.

The seasoned croissant is stuffed with turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing!

Flip Bird at the Ashland does a damn fine chicken sandwich – pulled chicken, harissa honey, pickled coleslaw, sambal mayo, and crispy skin.

And my homemade toasted sandwich dinner was nothing to sneeze at.

Sourdough / Applegate Farm smoked sliced turkey / 4 year aged cheddar / smoked maple mayo (olive oil based mayo, maple, liquid smoke, smoked paprika).

With roasted zucchini on the side.

Other fun stuff…

Vegan eggnogs in my coffee. Adam really enjoyed the TJ’s almond milk version but I remain loyal to Silk.

Here’s my current holiday stash, so exciting!

Amazin’ Raisin sent me some samples to review. The fruit-flavored raisins contain three ingredients – California raisins, citric acid, and natural fruit flavors – and are packed with flavor but no artificial sugar or sulfur dioxide. Adam and I have both been really enjoying them. So far his favorite flavor is pineapple and mine is watermelon.

Some key work eats included raisins and a Larabar.

And blackberry Siggi with holiday grapes and a maple maca bar.

Really, the best dinner of the week was movie theater pretzel bites with fake cheese. We went to see Thor: Ragnarok and split our sides laughing. Our AMC has extra-wide seats that fully recline so the whole experience was really nice.

We also went gaga for these scallion pancakes from Trader Joe’s.

They were crazy flavorful and satisfying. I topped mine with mayo and Sriracha.

With baby carrots and potato snacks for an appetizer for crunch.

A girlfriend and I met for a mid-week dinner at Bricolage and were both big fans. Sriracha butter wings to start.

And we both had pink drinks! She had the pink soda salted lemonade and I picked an option with a cute name that I can’t remember where you pick a spirit and let the bartender go crazy. I said “vodka, no ginger” and ended up with something delicious with raspberry and lime.

My caramelized shrimp claypot was 10/10. Georgia white shrimp, vidalia onions, cherry tomatoes, and chili paste with rice to soak up the sauce.

Enjoy your weekends!

23Oct2017

Last Week I…

by Emily

Last week I loved: Webster!

Adam and I can’t believe how handsome he is and we text each other pictures of him constantly but they’re on my phone so they usually don’t make it to the blog.

Last week I watched: Rick and Morty. We’re almost through the 3rd season and it has been fantastic. I think season 2 was the best so far though. I also have been re-rewatching The Office because I’m obsessed. It’s so funny and I love when shows have characters (Jim and Pam) just adore each other with minimal drama. The Micheal Scott seasons are perfectly cringe-inducing – I have really bad secondhand embarrassment anyways and I can barely watch most of his scenes.

Last week I ate: More samples from the healthy brand showcase.

Setton Farms is America’s 2nd largest pistachio producer and their stuff is delicious. We’ve been enjoying chocolate-covered pistachios along with the perfectly salted nut blend.

I also liked the pineapple flavored raisins from Amazing Fruit.

Last week I pumpkined: Four new items! See more below.

Last week I drank: Key lime La Croix. The newest flavor is delicious, and currently my favorite fizzy water.

Last week I listened to: “Bodak Yellow” by Cardi B on repeat. It’s super catchy and a lot of her word-play is very clever. I’ve also been listening to a ton of Betty Who.

Other food highlights…

This week’s coffee combo.

Pumpkin tres leches bubble tea from Teapsy in Astoria.

Pumpkin and salted maple pecan frozen yogurt with peanut butter, marshmallow cream, Oreos, and mochi.

I made a fancied-up version of my Spinach and Artichoke Egg Pie. I precooked the veggies with olive oil, onion, anchovies, and tons of garlic. Plus I substituted cottage cheese because I like it better than ricotta.

No carbohydrate component to that meal so we had potato chips and pumpkin beers, woo-hoo!

We tried pizza from a new place – Frantoni’s. Adam and I shared four things so we could try a lot of the menu. The eggplant slice was my favorite but the buffalo chicken was good too.

I made bagel and lox nachos! Everything bagel chips // TJ’s four cheese blend // hot smoked salmon // green onions // and cream cheese sauce with ginger, soy sauce, and brown sugar.

Plus roasted brussel sprouts on the side.

I made buffalo chicken chili. Tons of sauteed onion, green onion, carrots, and celery // tomato paste and crushed tomatoes // salt, pepper, celery seed, and smoked paprika // shredded chicken breast // black beans // cream cheese.

Have a great week!

16Oct2017

White Gummi Slushie

by Emily

I worked the weekend (and had two weekdays off) so my schedule has been a bit out of whack. It is still basically summer temperatures here so we haven’t moved on to hot chocolate and soups but we have been loving the crap out of Pumpkin Month. Here were some highlights from the past 7 days…

Weekly coffee combo – Black Hand and chocolate milk.

This pumpkin spice kefir is super tasty.

Pumpkin Noosa with a TJ’s pumpkin cereal bar and a SweeTango apple.

TJ’s pumpkin yogurt with pumpkin spice Cheerios and Frosted Mini Wheats and a Starkrimson pear.

Key lime skyr with pomegranate and Heritage Flakes.

Adam and I got a midweek lunch at Sweet to Lick vegan cafe and we are completely in love. We had a terrific hero with bulgogi style setain, gochujang mayo, and pickled vegetables.

Plus the best chocolate chip cookies ever sandwiched around Oreo cream filling!

Detroit Friends potato chips (expo sample). These are some of the very best kettle chips we’ve ever tasted and their company is totally fantastic too – some of the potatoes are grown in a vacant lot in Detroit’s Hope District.

Orange slice candies. There’s a vitamin commercial where a woman squeezes an orange slice shaped gummy and it made Adam and I both immediately want to run out to the drugstore.

Campfire S’mores ice cream.

White gummi slushie from 7-11. We are obsessed, these are so good. I’m not sure what the actual flavor is (pineapple? or maybe white grape?) but they are juicy and delicious.

All-you-can-eat sushi buffet at Mizumi. We love it there, everything is super fresh and expertly prepared. I didn’t snap all of my plates but the highlights included crab cakes, inari, and seaweed salad.

Roasted squash and tuna quinoa cakes with cocktail sauce.

Veggie bowls. Shredded cabbage tossed in this sauce / roasted edamame / marinated hard-boiled eggs (marinated in gochujang, brown sugar, soy sauce, and rice vinegar).

Mexican food at Oak House in Floral Park.

I had a Mezcal mojito.

And veggie fajitas with carrots, onions, squash, peppers, and mushrooms. They had chipotle Cholula at the table and we doused everything with it.

Plus Adam and I split vanilla flan and tres leches cake for dessert.

Have a great week!

25Aug2017

Sandwiches And Scottie Dogs

by Emily

Bites from this week…

I had an exciting product sample to review – Nocciolata Dairy Free Organic Hazelnut and Cocoa Spread. It’s organic, vegan, and made without palm oil.

The spread tastes like Nutella but better – it’s creamier and the sweetness has less bite. I ate many a spoonful this past week!

I also enjoyed it in an excitingly neon strawberry smoothie. Frozen strawberries / pitaya / cow’s milk / chocolate hazelnut spread.

And in yogurt bowls with Greek yogurt and a trio of plucots.

Non-yogurt lunches came from the cafeteria (and were tasty as all get out). Toasted sandwich – cheesy focaccia / mayo / spicy chicken / cheddar / tomato / spinach – with sweet potato fries.

Bean and veggie quesadilla – with pinto beans / mozzarella / bell peppers / onions / corn / and tomato.

This week’s work snack was candy – Japanese milk chews and black licorice.

My coffee (former freebie) was 10/10. This is less roasty than what I usually go for but still totally swoon-worthy, it isn’t the slightest bit bitter or sour.

Adam was gone every night this week and I am unable to make myself adult if no one is there to see it so dinners were convince foods and/or nachos.

I’m scheduled to work the next five days but feeding myself a vegetable is definitely job #1 for the weekend.

19Aug2017

Couch Potato, Twice Baked

by Emily

This past week I came home from vacation and went back to work. It wasn’t all bad, the end of vacation means I get to see this face –

We made it home in time to celebrate his Buyday. With steak!

Here are the highlights of what the humans ate this week…

Coffee (coffee! coffee!). Wicked Joe Coffee sent me some samples. WJC is a sustainable, family-owned company producing certified organic, fair trade coffees. They offered to let me try out the goods in celebration of the fact that they are available in 247 Sprouts Farmers Markets nationwide.

I tried both blends (cooked in our drip coffee maker than cooled and served iced) black and with skim milk to taste-test and give them two thumbs up! I also did some fun, sugary coffee pairings based on the tasting notes to jazz up my return to work mornings. Wicked French says “bakers chocolate with an unexpected hint of sweetness” so I used fancy chocolate milk.

Big House has “sweet notes of caramel and citrus” so I swirled in dulce de leche.

Yogurt bowls. Vanilla almond granola / cloudberry peach skyr / and three(!) colors of plucots.

Passion fruit Fage / an apple / and an Rx Kids chocolate chip bar.

I snuck in one last day of midweek vacation with Adam on Wednesday and we went on a lunch date at the gorgeously cool Chaan Teng in Hell’s Kitchen.

I had shrimp and chicken dumplings to start.

And a sweet and spicy cocktail with tequila, tamarind, basil, Szechuan peppercorns, mango juice, lime, and chili.

They had kung pow duck! With chilis , peppers, peanuts, and jicama.

Snack attack. We finally got to Astoria to try Chip. My s’mores cookie was gooey perfection and now I can’t wait to go back.

Cola candies.

Korean Chili KIND bar. <– I like their savory flavors even better than the sweet

These dried mangos from TJ’s are out of this world good.

If you stretch the definition of “cooked” to its limit, I made five nights of home-cooked dinners! Turkey and sharp cheddar sandwich on a toasted whole-wheat croissant.

BBQ chicken salad. Local greens / ranch / baby heirloom tomatoes / pulled chicken breast with Korean bbq sauce / smoked cheddar.

An assortment of freezer items, and eggplant that I actually cooked myself.

TJ’s Thai sweet chili veggie burgers.

Crinkle cut fries (with ketchup and mayo).

Steamed/sautéed eggplant cooked with canola oil, fish sauce, gojuchang, honey, and garlic scapes.

I made pimento cheese twice baked potatoes!

This was my first time making twice backed spuds (or even eating them for that matter) but they came out great. The filling was a mix of potato / extra-sharp cheddar / diced pimentos / mayo / smoked paprika and cayenne.

Served with baked tofu.

And beautiful roasted purple and orange cauliflower.

The potatoes were great leftover too.

With leftover duck that I chopped up and reheated in a skillet.

And oven-baked okra fries.

Have a great weekend!

14Aug2017

Ice Cream In LA

by Emily

We took full advantage of our week off and took a trip out to the West Coast! This was our first time in Los Angeles and we had a great trip. We rented a car and had enough time to do some exploring. Keeping with vacation tradition, I got sick with a sore throat, but thankfully half of our agenda was ice cream anyway!

some of our favorite things we did – –

Chinatown // Griffith Park Observatory // La Brea Tar Pits

// Malibu

// Rodeo Drive // Santa Monica // Venice Beach

// Venice Canals

some of our favorite things we ate – –

Afters Ice Cream <– this wins best ice cream of the trip

Brioche ice cream sandwich with cookie monster ice cream and sweetened corn flakes. I couldn’t get a good photo in the sun but this was out of this world.

B Sweet

Filipino dessert bars are the best. I got amazing Halo Halo.

Blue Star Doughnuts

The bottom one was terrible but the top one was a fantastic buttermilk glazed. This was our very first stop on the trip and it was a nice start.

Egg Slut

House-made turkey sausage, cage-free over medium egg, cheddar cheese, and honey mustard aioli in a warm brioche bun.

Grand Central Market

There was so much to do here! We got chicken tacos.

And the best pad see eiw I’ve ever tasted. The noodles were a little bit charred and perfectly chewy. We were both in heaven.

Magpies Soft Serve <– this was the best soft serve we’ve ever had

I got a swirl with cherry cola(!!!) and sweetened cream.

Mr. Holmes Bakehouse

It was adorable in here and we almost came away with some gold pins. California croissant with smoked salmon, ginger, wasabi, and nori.

Philz Coffee

The mojito iced coffee lived up to expectations. I do have to mention that it makes me crazy that they call this “mojito” though, mojitos have mint and sugar but they also have rum and lime and without the second two ingredients you have a mint iced coffee, not a mojito.

Salt and Straw

It’s as good as they say. We had salted, malted, chocolate chip cookie dough and almond brittle with chocolate ganache.

Son of a Gun <– this was our best meal of the trip

This tapas-style seafood restaurant pretty much blew our minds. I drank a Ruby Red Julep – Angels Envy Bourbon, ruby red grapefruit, hibiscus, lemon, and mint.

We had the lemonfish poke with black radish escabeche, citrus, and crispy sunchoke.

Maple cream with smoked steelhead trout roe and pumpernickel flakes.

Heirloom tomato salad with avocado, chili, lime, miso, and corn.

Blackened rock cod with tomatillo salsa, fried tortilla, and crema.

And for dessert, Italian Hamburger: a brioche ice cream sandwich with caramel and maldon sea salt.

And now it’s back to work, wish me luck!

8Aug2017

Second Staycation

by Emily

By the time you read this I’ll be on a plane heading west, woo-hoo!

We are on our final week of summer vacation. We are excited for today’s travels, but when we made our plans we made sure to include time for some New York City love. Adam and I spent the past three days having a blast in our hometown. We ate all the things, got in some good dog cuddles, and spent some time showing off the Lower East Side to a friend (one of our favorite humans recent moved to the city for fellowship and we are excited to share the love).

Here were the top six edible highlights from the past three days…

{1} Antica Pesa = our new favorite Italian spot

Every piece of this meal was perfection. From the “Stranger Danger” – Ilegal Mezcal, guava, mint, hot honey, lime, and a Campari float.

To the cheese plate with the best blue cheese we’ve ever had.

I had housemade fettuccine with fresh mozzarella and eggplant puree and Adam had outstanding lasagna.

Plus for dessert we had coffee granite with chocolate cornflake crunch on top and a Gianduia hazelnut cream on the bottom that was my all-time favorite bite of dessert.

{2} Chef’s Club Counter

The boys liked their smoked salmon toasts and I loved my duck rice bowl with olives, citrus puree, and duck cracklins.

{3} Mother’s Ruin

My chicken and waffles were my favorite plate of food of the summer! The wings were coated in ridiculously fantastic Cholula-honey glaze. I also had a great drink with light rum, cava, honey, and mint.

{4} Booze in Brooklyn

We played our favorite game at Barcade (and were infinitely frustrated by Tapper) and I fell in love with Dogfish Head’s SeaQuench gose.

Plus we had ~~way too many~~ drinks and fell in love with the vibe at Rocka Rolla.

{5} Treats at Bibble and Sip

Iced lavender latte and a coconut Thai iced tea panna cotta. And now we want to go back and try every other flavor of panna cotta.

{6} Turkey cheese burgers

We made yummy turkey burgers – simply seasoned and kept moist with a brioche panade – on brioche buns with sharp cheddar cheese and bread and butters from Pickle Guys.