This seed and oat bar was great; it reminded me of one of those old-fashioned sesame bar candies.
Yogurt bowl – plain yogurt with golden nugget mandarin, red plum, honey, Heritage Flakes, and chia seeds.
A taro and salted egg yolk cake from 99 Ranch Market; overall we weren’t impressed with their prepared foods selection but this was fantastic.
Chewy, fruity Japanese candies. The grape ones were the best.
Leftovers of our duck two ways from Glasserie – honey and spice crusted duck breast and braised duck thigh with nuts and raisins in phyllo dough. Plus veggies from home – roasted cauliflower and gojuchang cabbage.
Chicken salad loosely inspired by Waldorf Salad. Shredded chicken with dressing (plain yogurt, mayo, salt, lemon, honey, and horseradish), apple, green onion, celery, toasted cashews, and dried cherries.
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.
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).
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!
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.
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!
Adam was free on vacation last week – and I managed a few overlapping days off as well! – and we had a wonderful time. Tons of dinners out, tons of time together (but never enough!), we walked from Williamsburg across the bridge to Koreatown and back, took a long stroll eating around Ridgewood/Bushwick, and spent some time at Rockaway Beach. A great week!
Highlights include —
Breakfast on the beach boardwalk. Nutella iced latte from Rockaway Roaster and an amazing guava cheese danish from Rockaway Bakery (they also have croissant bread loaves and I’m dying to go back!).
Maple oat-milk matcha lattes.
Freeze-dried honeycrisps with a seed bar.
Boozy apple pie milkshakes!
This double IPA from Stone was very drinkable.
Chips with what ended up being the best jarred salsa I’ve ever eaten.
Mochi things from Mochii, mochi stuffed with cookies and cream ice cream and mochi balls with toasted rice powder and peanuts.
Chamoyada from Maya’s Snack Bar – tamarind ice cream with fresh mango and tons of chamoy and tajin.
Leftovers from Mud Club in Woodstock were still great.
Omakase at Shinn East. Every single bite was perfectly composed and it was so fun to watch the chef up close.
We had one of the best dinners of our lives at Little Mad.
I didn’t take many pictures because I was too busy swooning. Favorites were fried maitake mushrooms with sour cream and onion dip served in an onion(!!).
And this insane, upscale take on corn and cheese – baby corn, fried corn silk, caramel popcorn, and comte cheese fondue.
S’mores iced coffee! I blended coffee with ice, cold brew powder, chocolate milk, vanilla bean powder, and toasted marshmallows.
Yogurt bowl set up – vanilla skyr with Made Good chocolate granola and Jelly Berry grapes.
I quite liked these crispy onion chips from Trader Joe’s.
Toasted turkey and cheddar sandwich. On sprouted wheat sourdough with mayo and pickled jalapeños.
Mexican-ish vegetarian bowls. Brown rice, cauliflower rice roasted with green onion and poblano pepper, Trader Joe’s soyrizo, cojita cheese, and orange Soss.
Crab fried rice. Leftover brown rice stir-fried (with soy sauce, rice vinegar, and fish sauce) with blue crab, eggs, green onion, peas, and carrot.
Dinner inspired by a dish we loved recently at Llama Inn – sautéed bok choy with grapes, sunflower seeds, and black garlic vinaigrette. Plus tuna cakes made with soyrizo.
Homemade meat lovers pizza! I made a big batch of sauce by cooking down jarred marinara with yellow onion, garlic, turkey bacon, ground turkey, shallot oil, urfa chili, Korean chili flake, smoked paprika, and fish sauce. On a Trader Joe’s frozen crust with whole-milk mozarella balls. Plus roasted caulilini.
We had leftover sauce with roasted zucchini and Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocchi.
And I put leftover bacon in some homemade okonomiyaki (eggy cabbage pancakes). I also stuffed it with ginger and chili crisp and topped it with Sriracha, Kewpie, and furikaki.
We also made a sandwich style pizza that was my favorite meal of the week. With mozzarella, cheddar cheese curds, sliced turkey, and a homemade roasted garlic aioli. Plus sautéed snap peas and red bell pepper with tons of garlic and butter.
We had a giant, insanely good meal at Sunday in Brooklyn. Honeybear on Holiday – rum, Montenegro, sherry, apricot, pineapple, lime, cumin, and honey.
The Tiger Prince – Indian single malt whiskey, pandan, coconut, curry leaves, and lime.
Warm crab and artichoke dip with crusty bread.
Wood roasted mushrooms with salsa verde, peanuts, coriander, and spring greens.
Herb-crusted roasted chicken with butter lettuce and fries with za’atar, chili flakes, and spicy mayo.
Our dinners at home this week were great thanks to the best flour tortillas and a big batch of homemade salsa (loosely based on this recipe). Quesadillas with Oaxaca cheese and sharp cheddar (and salsa and plain Greek yogurt) plus shishito peppers.
Turkey tacos with ground meat sautéed with poblano pepper and orange yellow bell pepper plus cheese, yogurt, and salsa.
Chilaquiles – salsa, poblano and bell pepper, homemade baked tortilla chips and pico de gallo chips, plus tons of cheese – topped with fried eggs, shredded chicken thighs, yogurt, and hot sauce.
This mochi chocolate chip cookie from Cha An Bon Bon is one of my favorite things I’ve eaten this year! The crispy, slightly savory cookie was the perfect foil for the mochi.
Crepe cake with salted milk foam, boba, and brown sugar syrup from Prince Tea House.
Oddfellows Ice Cream – saffron passionfruit ice cream with apricot and pistachio plus chocotorta (cream cheese ice cream with dulce de leche and chocolate cookie crumb (<–my new favorite flavor!))
Kitsby dessert bar blew our minds. We came for (and loved!) the salted egg yolk lava cake.
But were head over heels for The King – durian cream brulee with banana ice cream, brown butter shortbread, and herbal jelly. If you’re a durian fan in NYC I recommend getting this immediately!
Our Easter weekend had major Spring vibes, and not just because I wore head-to-toe pastels the past three days. We met up with friends for ramen and a walk in Prospect Park and were too hot in sweatshirts – a dream for April in New York.
Highlights from the past week included…
On-theme pink for Easter, a strawberry milk dalgona iced coffee.
See also – this very spring-y sugar cane and key lime cocktail.
Also I brought these seaweed chips I’m obsessed with into work and my coworkers were equally impressed.
Best snack of the week/month/year was this assortment of candies with a decaf iced coffee with salted maple chocolate cold foam.
We made a big batch of this baked rice. I subbed in vegan soyrizo, halved the rice/broth, and added celery, bell peppers, and urfa pepper. <– highly recommend
Leftovers from Win Son are as good as anything I make at home the first night.
Eating Chalk 