Apple Picking; Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

This weekend I got to cross something major off of my fall bucket list – apple picking!

I drove upstate to Lawrence Farms with some girlfriends and we came home with pounds and pounds of tasty apples.

I also snagged Adam and I two pumpkins for carving next weekend.

Check out my gorgeous haul (this is only a portion of it, the rest went into the fridge) –

So far, my favorite variety is the Candy Crisp.

Yum! We had a ton of fun and I definitely want to repeat this activity next fall.

I don’t have much to share for this post, just three things. I’m a bit under the weather and I spent almost all of Sunday tucked in bed.

Breakfast on the go.

A smoothie – water and meat from a Thai young coconut with canned pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, frozen banana, and maple syrup – and a Clif Maple Nut bar that I shared with the husband. The bar was much better than the smoothie, which did not emulsify at all.

Getting in my green before a dinner of orange hues.

Spinach salad with sweet and spicy pecans, dried blueberries, and buttermilk blue cheese, dressed with honey, evoo, and lavender salt.

The oil came home from Italy with a friend and it was fantastic.

Our main course was tuna casserole that I made and froze awhile back, so I don’t totally remember what was in it. Definitely tuna, barley, spinach, green onions, peas, water chestnuts, roasted garlic and mushroom condensed soup, cheese, and crushed Cheez-Its on top.

Plus carnival squash that we roasted with salt, smoked brown sugar, liquid smoke, and maple syrup.

Dinner was delicious. Sweet and smoky squash with cheesy casserole? You can’t really go wrong!

Best bite of the week goes to dessert from Ample Hills.

I got a kids’ cup of pistachio and honey and the flavors went together perfectly.

Hopefully I am over the hump with my sickness now. The temperatures are finally dropping here and I really don’t want a cold to go with the cold!

18Oct2014

Books And Bites; Five Favorites From The Week

by Emily

{1} Coffee

I made a fantasmic batch of cold brew this week. Brooklyn Roasting Company Iris Espresso brewed with pumpkin spice and vanilla bean paste. Two notes – 1. Go read all of the coffee descriptions on BRC immediately; you’ll drool all over your keyboard. 2. I am adding vanilla bean paste to all of my coffees from here on out.

Served over ice with Almond Breeze Hint of Honey. <– I’m a fan.

{2} Chocolate

Dark Chocolate Mint from NibMor.

Did y’all know that NibMore lives right up the road from me in Great Neck? I’m excited that this tasty bar is local.

{3} Oatmeal for lunch

I know that these overnight oats look a little rough, but the flavor was perfect. In the morning before work I stirred together 1/3 cup pumpkin puree, 1/4 cup oats, 3/4 cup almond milk, and 1 Tbsp chia seeds. The mixture thickened up nicely by lunchtime.

The blob on top is butterscotch peanut butter. <– Ahh-mazing! Adam and I are obsessed.

Another day, another (oat)meal.

Veggie and fruit leather, a SweeTango apple, and *new* Quaker Caramel Apple Oats.

{4} A great, Greek, green dinner

Leftovers.

I was worried about the phyllo dough, but my Greek Tofu Pie reheated just fine.

Plus leftover green beans sautéed with garlic aioli mustard sauce and sliced almonds.

We had a rough week health wise – one night Adam had a fever and I had a migraine and we sat on the floor and ate chips and aspirin for dinner – so having leftovers available was great.

Worth mentioning too – My leftovers from Max in Williamsburg.

The pasta and sauces are all made in-house and they are out of control.

{5} A new favorite novel

The Center of Winter by Marya Hornbacher. I haven’t actually gotten all that far into this book yet – partially because I’ve needed to nap on the train and mostly because the writing is so beautiful that I go back to the beginning of the page and reread when I hit the end of most of the pages.

Hornbacher is one of my favorite authors and her first book, a memoir focusing on her eating disorder, shaped the way I think about literature. <– I am planning on blogging about that in more detail next week.

Her first novel has been truly one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read. I wanted to share a short {meta!} passage to give you guys a taste –

All the seasons here in the north move toward their own end, except winter, which moves towards its center and sits there to see how long you can take it. Spring twitches impatiently in its seat like a child wanting to go outside, straining toward summer, and summer, all lush and showy, tumbles headlong toward the decay of fall. Fall comes and goes so fast it takes the breath away, arriving in brocades of red and gold and whipping them off in only a few weeks, leaving a landscape ascetic, stunned with loss.

Outside, in the soft blue-gray dark, the snow fell. A child sat at the kitchen table and pretended her father had not died, because you were there. As long as you were there, she did not need to be afraid, or go outside, and so she was not afraid, of cold or anything else. Death did not kill her off but merely left her maimed, like a shot animal that startles at the noise more than the pain and scrambles even faster through the underbrush, wide-eyed and sweating at the flanks, not pausing for the ripped and useless leg it now drags behind it as it runs. The animal has three legs left. Terror makes that enough.

Have you read any of Hornbacher’s work yet?

14Oct2014

It’s All Greek To Me! – Greek Tofu Pie

by Emily

As promised, the killer dish from yesterday’s dinner.

This recipe requires you to dirty your food processor and deal with phyllo dough, but I promise it’s worth it. We couldn’t believe how well this all came together!

Greek Tofu Pie, serves 4 – 6

1 Tbsp and 2 tsp evoo
3 cups frozen spinach
10 oz sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1 tsp salt
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 a large lemon, juiced
16 oz silken tofu, drained
6 oz feta cheese
4 oz sharp white cheddar
3 Tbsp butter, melted
8 sheets phyllo dough, thawed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Warm 1 Tbsp evoo in a large pan over medium-high heat. Sauté mushrooms, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes for 10 minutes, until the mushrooms have softened and the spinach has fully thawed. Stir in salt, oregano, and lemon juice and remove pan from heat.
Use a food processor to combine the tofu, feta, and cheddar. Add cooked veggies and process until the mixture is homogenous.
In a small bowl, stir together melted butter and 2 tsp evoo. Set up phyllo dough according to the package directions.
Use a pastry brush to wet the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie dish with the butter mixture. Brushing on the butter between layers, place 4 slices of phyllo dough into the bottom and up the sides of the pie dish. Spread the filling into the pie dish, smoothing the top so it’s level. Top with remaining layers of phyllo dough, continuing to brush butter between the layers. Use kitchen shears to trim off the excess phyllo dough that is hanging outside the edge of the pie dish.
Bake for 30 – 40 minutes. The filling is safe to eat raw, but the longer it cooks the firmer it gets. Cook for 30 minutes then check regularly and pull out of the oven as soon as the phyllo dough threatens to burn (you want it to get a light tan; pull from the oven as soon as any dark brown spots appear).
Allow pie to cool and set for at least 20 minutes before slicing and serving.

13Oct2014

My Giant Post Disappeared, OMG

by Emily

Uggggggggh! Welp the title kind of says it all. I spent more than an hour last night recapping all of the fabulous eats from last week and the post has disappeared. I’m dying, dying!

Photo-dump style, here are a few key players…

Amazing fruit salad with blueberries, strawberries, banana, orange, and toasted coconut.

Pumpkin yogurts for lunch.

Plus two cafeteria winners.

First pumpkin smoothie.

So much good candy, including trail mix with pb pretzels, raisins, and candy corn m&m’s.

Duh.

The best pumpkin brew of the season so far.

A salad bar lunch date at Whole Foods.

Smorgasburg eats! Duck buns and other good but not as good buns (peanut chicken for me and pork belly for Adam) smothered in amazing chilli sauce.

Plus an awesome good batch ice cream sandwich of coffee ic, caramel, and espresso beans on salted brown butter cookies.

A fantastically “fall” meal that Adam said made him feel like a forest troll. Shredded brussels sprouts sautéed with turkey bacon, roasted butternut squash, baby spinach, shredded chicken, barley, sweet and spicy pecans, honey mustard dressing, and pomegranate.

Delicious Greek Tofu Pie that I promise to retype the recipe for tonight.

That is most of it. I hate computers!

6Oct2014

Three Day Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

I give the last three days an A+! I had a very inconveniently timed doctor’s appointment on Friday and it made more sense to take a vacation day than try to fit the travel time into a work day. Serendipitously, Adam had switched some shifts with a coworker who was going to a wedding and he had most of the three off as well. Yippee!

I’m going to do this post old school, stream of consciousness style, though there are some holes as this definitely does not show every single thing that I ate…

Friday, once I had finished up with the dermatologist and Adam had rested up from his overnight shift, we headed into Manhattan.

Our destination was Krispy Kreme, and these limited edition Ghostbusters donuts.

I ain’t afraid of no donut! They were filled with marshmallow crème and were actually kind of amazing; maybe my favorite donuts I’ve ever tasted.

We wandered around Penn Station, then did lunch in Koreatown. We had a(n impulse-bought) Groupon for food and booze at Boss Lounge.

I ordered a Pinch Me, which had Grey Goose, lychee, and grenadine.

Adam and I shared a kimichi and cheese roll.

As well as seaweed and tofu salad.

The tofu was silken and strangely sweet. The husband loved it.

Afterwards we explored Koreatown a bit more. We split a kimchi bun from a food court we want to go back to asap.

Tried whatever the heck this was?!

The top is mango and red bean but we couldn’t identify the white – chewy and gelatinous – stuff. Neither of us could bring ourselves to swallow it!

And had a coffee popsicle from Tous les Jours for dessert.

Every single thing we’ve tried from TlJ has been awesome. Adam took home cheese buns that he adored and I’m kicking myself for not buying a milk bun.

For dinner, we made our way over to Hardings’s.

Whiskey sour made with fresh lime, cane sugar, and egg whites!

Adam had yummy, crispy salmon and I did a fun combo of appetizers.

Pumpkin pie soup with spiced whipped cream.

And kale salad with chickpeas, Marcona almonds, shaved sunchokes, and lemon vinaigrette.

Ahaha, I didn’t realize until I reread the menu to write this post that those white shreds were sunchokes and not really stale parmesan.

Afterwards we trained it over to Lexington (and Dylan’s Candy!), then walked back to our car across the Queensboro Bridge. It was a lovely nighttime walk but my calves are sooooo sore now!

We were parked in Long Island City and we stopped at The Baroness for a nightcap on the way.

We want to go back for a cheese plate immediately, but for now we shared a cute beer sampler.

Saturday was supposed to be spent at Smorgasburg, but yucky, rainy weather scared us back to Long Island. Instead we ran local errands – groceries were shopped and both of our cars now have changed oil.

We had baked potatoes for brunch.

I swear that there is a potato under there. Topped with butter, sharp cheddar, turkey bacon, leftover kale salad, jalopeño, sour cream, and a fried egg.

We poked the yolks into our buttered potatoes and it was pretty great.

We spent the evening cuddled on the couch with GIANT plates of nachos. I also ate this licorice mix.

We are now completely caught up on new fall tv. The Chicago’s (PD and Fire) are my favorite so far.

We had more to-do’s to check off on Sunday, and headed back into the city so I could buy a winter coat.

Train fuel = toasted everything bagel with jalopeño-cheddar cream cheese.

We considered getting Chobani but the line was too crazy, so instead we got froyo. Pumpkin pie and praline topped with caramel, toffee, Butterfinger, yogurt chips, and mochi.

Our bowls were tasty, and even better, free. The last time I was at Yogurtland I was a hot mess and I dropped my credit card into my yogurt and the cashier felt so bad for me that he gave me a handful of vouchers for free yogurt.

I had several coffee this weekend (duh!), but the best was actually from 7-11.

Cinnamon coffee with pumpkin pie creamer and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

I ate fruit salad while I prepped a batch for the upcoming week.

And we made big, hearty bowls for dinner.

Sprouted red jasmine rice // frozen spinach sautéed with bbq sauce, browned mushrooms and tons of onions // red lentils cooked with cumin, turmeric, smoked paprika, curry powder, and more sautéed onion // sour cream and Sriracha on top.

We ate our warm meal while we worked on the winter-y activity of swapping out our summer wardrobes. I still don’t have a ton of cold weather gear but I am excited to have my boots back out.

Back in the “old days,” blog posts always ended with a question:

Have you swapped out your summer and winter wardrobes yet?

3Oct2014

Seven Sweet Snacks; Weekly Wrap-Up

by Emily

I don’t have a ton to share this week. I certainly ate enough – including a truly disturbing amount of potato chips – but I didn’t get a picture of much. All I have for you today is seven great snacks…

TJ’s nacho kale chips.

These are definitely the best variety of packaged kale chips that I’ve tried. Crispy but not crumbly.

Guava-cheese empanada on the train. Guava and cheese are the perfect pair, I don’t know how this combo was not more popular back home.

I really wanted to love the book in the background – a collection of essays from the former food writer for “Vogue” – but it was hard not to hate it back. Steingarten was hilariously wry and quite thorough, but his intense vitriol against all nutrition experts turned me off.

Cherry Pistachio Quaker Oatmeal with coconut butter.

Technically lunch, not a snack, but coconut butter on oats is too tasty not to rave about.

A Stumptown Cold Brew box with a Honeycrisp.

Uggh. My favorite coffee drink with my favorite apple variety was almost too much happiness.

We said goodbye to Apple Month with caramel apple floats!

Vanilla ice cream in Jones’ Carmel Apple Soda.

Then it was time for pumpkin. Like this pumpkin pie donut from Dunkin’.

This was actually not great – it was horrifying and neither Adam nor I wanted a second bite – but you know I have to mention all of the on-theme goodies I sample in the fall.

My pumpkin spice latte was a total win {#basic}.

I had a freebie so I went all out – venti iced non-fat latte with two shots of pumpkin spice, an extra shot of espresso, and salted caramel drizzle.

Have you had a PSL yet this fall?

29Sep2014

Weekend Wrap-Up; We Had Visitors

by Emily

On the excitement front this weekend – Adam’s parents came to visit! We are going to see all of my in-laws soon for Thanksgiving, but it was good to catch up with the parents now before the craziness of eleven of us under one roof. We had them Friday night through Sunday afternoon and we got to show off LI.

lunches

Packed for Friday – an AriZona Oak Tea and 2% Fage with a big baggie of pomegranate arils and chopped fruit punch plucot.

I also bought mac and cheese and some greens from the cafeteria.

Heartbreakingly, I think this was my last yogurt bowl with plucots for this season, the produce sections have all seemed to have moved on.

We had so much fun last weekend that we did a repeat this Saturday and drove the husband’s parents up to…

Montauk!

We went to the beach, the lighthouse, and of course, Lunch.

Adam and I shared a buttery hot lobster roll,

and a bowl of lobster chowder.

My favorite part is the whiffs of sherry.

And that’s not a foamy beer head,

we drank a chocolate egg cream for dessert.

You could tell that it was made with Hershey’s (a true EC has U-Bet), but Adam was still a fan.

We kept things low-key before goodbyes on Sunday and hung out around the house. Take-out from Luigi’s fit the bill.

I had a side salad, a buffalo chicken slice, and a Magic Hat Wilhelm Scream that I split with my m-i-l.

snacks

Breakfast at my desk on Friday. An iced Americano (with skim milk and cream) with a sticky-sweet Dark Chocolate Peanut Larabar. –Ummm, and I just noticed on the site that Lara has new Pumpkin Pie and Gingerbread flavors!! How do I find those immediately?–

Sweet = Haribo Licorice Wheels plus some of the Mini Gold Bears that my s-i-l sweetly sent us.

Salty = TJ’s pea crisps.

Coffee from 7-11 is kind of amazing.

Adam and I are embarrassingly into the Almond Joy Creamer they have there. And our location has pumpkin coffee, pumpkin pie creamer, and (free!) pumpkin spice syrup. What, what?!

dinners

Dinners were the least exciting meals of the weekend. Friday night we kept thing simple while we finished our last-minute cleaning.

A toasted sandwich of caramel apple swirl bread, herbed sliced turkey, light Havarti, and TJ’s sweet and spicy jalopeño jelly.

With baby carrots on the side.

Simple but good.

Saturday we went out to Tavern 18.

I had a beer that was pretty good.

And a Thai Noodle Salad that was pretty terrible.

No veggies, no flavor, and I keep forgetting that I kind of hate Soba noodles. I’m into pasta that is chewy, while Soba tends to fall apart in your mouth.

No complaints about dessert though! The best thing about Tavern 18 is that it is spitting distance from Ralph’s Ices.

Dulce de leche and pumpkin pie for me. I practically licked the cup clean.

I didn’t want my awful leftovers to go to waste, so I gussied them up into something moderately edible for dinner last night.

+ roasted broccoli and cauliflower and loads of creamy Sriracha sauce (tons of Sriracha whisked together with smoked brown sugar, mayo, and a little canola oil).

Hot sauce can hide a multitude of sins.

P.S. It is October first on Wednesday! <– in other words, it is three days until I drink pumpkin beers and pumpkin spice lattes like crazy

26Sep2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Coffee Crazy

by Emily

Soooo, that title probably could have worked for any week this year, huh? What can I say, the addiction is not lessening. I will totally cop to the fact that I allot more of my budget to coffees than clothing or shoes {priorities}.

I have a good mix of meals to share today, including several that I definitely want to make again soon! I could not wake up enough in the mornings for any breakfast shots, but overall I caught a good amount of the week on film…

lunch

Fantastically thick and creamy yogurt. Coffee Fage Fruyo with a Honeycrisp and an AriZona Oak Reserve Tea.

Plus a red pear and a turkey jerky stick that I snacked on later.

Salad from the cafeteria.

Romaine topped with red onion, kidney beans, shredded cheddar, black olives, and too much blue cheese dressing. Plus bbq chips on the side.

Apple themed oats.

Apple & Cinnamon Quaker (which was gummy and not good) with a banana-applesauce and the last of my caramel apple candies.

Brunch. Scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, and a chocolate croissant.

I was randomly extra hungry on Thursday morning so I went down to the cafeteria for a late breakfast. I ended up getting slammed with follow-ups all afternoon and having to skip lunch, and serendipitously my late breakfast kept me from chewing off my own arm.

snacks

Gotta start with the coffee line-up! From worst to best. Starbucks Hazelnut Doubleshot was very meh.

But I was quite excited to spot this new item at Konditori –

I was a little sick of it by the end, but the coconut cream did a great job of keeping things creamy. Nonetheless, the winner = Blue Bottle.

These little milk boxes kill me and this was wonderfully creamy, sweet, and roasty.

Adam has a weird obsession with Au Bon Pain and he sweetly brought me home one of the pumpkin bunt cakes he’s been loving recently.

I’m just not a huge cake person, but I loved getting a surprise treat.

The last of the Talenti Sea Salt Caramel Gelato, topped with some melted (chunky/flax/chia)peanut butter from TJ.

I’m glad I tried this with the end of the container or I would have gone back and made more! Best combo ever. Adam’s a little wary of the chunky pb but even he thought this was good.

Leftover slice of mushroom and olive pizza.

Clover honey straw. <– please note: I wouldn’t normally eat this straight like a total sugar freak, but it split open while I was trying to pack it in a lunch

Coffee yogurt.

The strangest pairing of the week was also the best.

Nonni’s Banana Dark Chocolate Almond Thins spread with Port Sault cheese were delicious.

dinner

A fantabulously fall salad.

This was so flipping yummy that we ended up making it two nights in a row.

Baby arugula and spinach blend topped with maple balsamic, pea shoots, Port Sault cheese, pomegranate arils, sweet and spicy hazelnuts [baked with canola oil, honey, cayenne pepper, and salt] , and roasted delicata squash [with coconut oil, cinnamon, and curry powder].

The pizza on the side was this mushroom and black truffle flatbread from Trader Joe’s.

All-in-all, a great meal.

Wednesday night I went out in Williamsburg for a friend’s birthday.

No photos because I am socially awkward enough without the food photography, trust me.

And last night I threw together some fancied up macaroni.

Annie’s Shells and Cheddar with TJ’s smoked herring and some chopped up pea shoots.

Pea shoots do not belong in pasta, but Adam seemed to like it. I smothered my bowl in smoked brown sugar and Sriracha.

Have a great weekend!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: greens

Apple Picking; Weekend Wrap-Up

Books And Bites; Five Favorites From The Week

It’s All Greek To Me! – Greek Tofu Pie

My Giant Post Disappeared, OMG

Three Day Weekend Wrap-Up

Seven Sweet Snacks; Weekly Wrap-Up

Weekend Wrap-Up; We Had Visitors

lunches

snacks

dinners

Weekly Wrap-Up; Coffee Crazy

lunch

snacks

dinner