Buffalo Chicken Ballyhoo

by Emily

Is it seriously September already?? Actually, don’t answer that; if I think about how fast this year seems to be going it makes my head spin. At least now it’s Apple Month.

Here were eight things from the end of the eighth month…

{1} coffee excitement

A match made in heaven? I put creamy pecan popsicle in my iced coffee.

The lattes at Black Brick are roasty and delicious.

{2} brunch at Loosie’s Café

This space was gorgeous! I had a grains bowl with shitake and king oyster mushrooms, purple kale, quinoa, roasted beets, cucumber raita, mint, and a soft egg.

{3} “milk and cookies” at The Bedford

Adam and I split a The Dude’s Caucasian – house-made vanilla bean espresso vodka on the rocks with a drizzle of cream.

And a Drunken Cookie – underbaked chocolate chip cookie dough stuffed injected with white chocolate. <– omg

{4} lime, mint, and elderflower sparkling water

{5} Curious Creamery ice cream mix

Please note – this product was given to me free of charge to review. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

It is mix that doesn’t require an ice cream maker, all you have to do is beat it with the milk of your choice and freeze. It takes about 15 minutes of hands-on time, and we found the ice cream consistency to be enjoyable after 5 hours (and it continued to be good 48 hours later too).

I used 2% cow’s milk but you can also use full-fat, skim, almond, etc – the mixes themselves are lactose-free and have no trans or saturated fat. I made the vanilla packet plain – Adam thinks it tastes like marshmallows! – and the chocolate I mixed with dulce de leche and roasted pecans for a turtle sundae.

We didn’t love the final product, but did quite like it. I’d say the ice cream is better than 7-11 brand, Turkey Hill, or the no-name stuff at cafeterias; on par with most store-bought ice creams; and not as good as Ben and Jerry’s or the ice cream we can get at places like Ample Hills or Ice and Vice in the city. If I’m living somewhere that isn’t NYC in the future I would definitely make it again.

{6} the last of the seasonal summer beers

These ended up being two of my all-time favorite strawberry beers. Shiner Strawberry Blonde / Saranac Strawberry Tart.

{7} out-of-this-world good buffalo chicken tenders

I base all of my “oven-fried” chicken on this recipe from A Cozy Kitchen. I used skinless, boneless chicken breast tenders and baked for 24 minutes at 425 degrees. I mixed smoked paprika and cayenne in with my flour and used panko as my bread crumb.

The final product was tossed with a mix of buffalo sauce, butter, and brown sugar.

Paired with carrots and celery – steam/sautéed and finished with thyme honey balsamic vinaigrette – to keep the theme going.

{8} buffalo chicken and blue cheese cheese fries

Our leftover chicken got to participate in something magical – waffle fries baked with cheddar, blue cheese, and buffalo chicken on top.

Have a great 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!

28Jun2017

Butter Pecan Mochi

by Emily

Apologies for another late post! Honestly? When I get home from work I get into bed fully dressed with a snack for at least 30 minutes and sometimes I just don’t get up again to do anything productive! I know I haven’t really blogged about some of the big recent changes at work, but suffice to say I am tired. <– but also really happy to be busy and getting some exposure to new things

Some of my favorite bites from the [last] week…

Watermelon kefir is an excellent idea. P.S. When I went to the Lifeway website I discovered that they apparently make an eggnog kefir and now it’s pretty much all I can think about.

I was all about the premade coffees this week and they were surprisingly delicious. Starbuck’s dark roast iced coffee.

Caribou vanilla iced coffee.

Cafeteria baked potato bar. With sour cream, cilantro, cheese/sauce, and salsa.

Yummy yogurt bowls. Coffee Chobani with chocolate tahini, maple granola, and walnuts and an eve apple.

Blood orange Chobani with Heritage Flakes and sunshine raspberries.

Whole Foods hot bar = black bean sauce broccoli, green beans, curried cauliflower, pasta salads, sweet chili tofu.

Plus I tried their mocha ice cream in butter pecan and black sesame. <– this might be my new favorite thing

Blue chip nachos! With corn, cheddar, black beans, and fresh tomatoes. I dipped them into roasted tomato salsa.

I bought a bag of rolls at our grocery’s bakery ($1.69 for a variety pack of six?!) and we became obsessed with turkey and cheddar sandwiches. The key is spreading the bun with a mix of mayo and gojuchang.

I made a simple veggie and tofu bowl that was our favorite dinner of the week.

Chopped raw bok choy with TJ’s sesame soy ginger vinaigrette / TJ’s teriyaki baked tofu / crispy edamame – tossed with evoo and salt and baked at 400* for 20 minutes / black sesame seeds.

Leftover sesame noodles with chili oil with baked tofu and crispy edamame.

A dinner in parts: Adam had to take a super quick trip to Delaware this week and I worked out my schedule to tag along. We started with Mile End in Brooklyn for appetizers. Garlic knish.

Brussel sprouts salad (with a mix of raw and roasted!) with labne, sumac, and honeycomb and pumpernickel powder. It was amazing.

Mid-dinner dessert stop for churros with dulce de leche at the new DeKalb Market Hall.

And finally Grain in Newark. I had a great whiskey sour.

And the best crab cake sandwich of my life; it was absolutely packed with crab meat, no filler to be found.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

24Apr2017

I Can’t Choose A Favorite!

by Emily

This is a longer wrap-up (Monday through Sunday) and I ate too many yummy things to chose a single favorite for my post title. I’ve got my top three – 1) Thai-style crab fried rice, 2) roasted garlic bread, and 3) black sesame shaved ice.

Here were the highlights…

Killer coffee combo – Volcanic roast with chocolate milk.

Usually I just have coffee for breakfast or eat something on my train, but this week the cafeteria sounded amazing first thing in the morning. Eggs and hashbrowns, with humus.

Cafeteria lunch, a spicy chicken sandwich on ridiculously cheesy bread with mustard, lettuce, and bell pepper.

Last weekend I spent forever trying to make coconut curd. I didn’t make jam, but I did filthy every last inch of my stovetop. My experiment didn’t work, at all, but I did kind of like the end result – a vaguely sweet, egg, cake.

I enjoyed my “jam” in lunches all week. Like with vanilla bean yogurt and blackberries.

And plain yogurt, berries, maple quinoa granola, and black sesame seeds.

Whole Foods hot bar lunch.

Sesame broccoli, turkey salad, and cole slaw.

Plus a maple soda that was not as exciting as I was expecting it to be; it had an off-putting aftertaste.

Snack time. Ice cream = maple walnut and a white chocolate vanilla marshmallow flavor.

Milk bun.

Crème brulee milk stout.

My workweek dinners were on point! Like crab fried rice with roasted broccoli and sliced cucumber.

I loosely followed this recipe, except I used brown rice and waaaay more crab. It was fantastic.

Vampire killer, I roasted three whole heads of garlic for this recipe.

Garlic turkey meatballs with red sauce and roasted zucchini.

And amazing homemade garlic bread – I mashed butter and roasted garlic and then slathered it on sliced sourdough and baked until delicious.

Even our leftovers meal was tasty. Cheese tortellini with meatballs, peas, roasted garlic, and red sauce.

One night I had dinner out with a coworker. We checked out the new Brooklyn MŏkBar location. They have a liquor license now, and I got a yummy vodka “cloudsicle.”

Plus chicken ramen with kimchi and poached egg.

And the new Brooklyn Snowdays location was right next door! Black sesame shaved ice with oreo, mochi, and condensed milk.

Plus a dinner date with the husband. Brinkley’s has Genesee Cream Ale on draught!

We got pimento cheese dip and duck fat fries to start and I dipped my fries in the pimento cheese and pretty much died of ~~heart failure~~ happiness.

Plus fish tacos with mahi, guacamole, and pineapple salsa.

The other two dinners were decidedly less exciting. Like Chipotle take out. And more hot bar. Yes, I went to Whole Foods two different days, it was an exciting week. I was too busy at work yesterday to break for lunch so by the time I got dinner I ate a giant plate of all of the things.

Now it’s two days of work before a break on Wednesday.

Have a great week!

3Mar2017

4 x 3 = 12

by Emily

For breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus snack, here were my top three eats for this week…

breakfast{1} The 2nd best* thing I ate all week – Vietnamese iced coffee.

Café du Mondé coffee with chicory from our trip to NOLA with sweetened condensed milk. Yum City.

b{2} A killer smoothie.

How pretty is this purple?? Frozen soursop and blueberries with cow’s milk and vanilla pudding mix.

b{3} Double chocolate oat bowl.

Oats, chia, freeze-dried strawberries, chocolate chips, and chocolate-covered cacao nibs.

b{warning} Do not recommend: this oatmeal drink box.

The flavor was way too artificial. Adam tried a plain one and loved it so it’s probably the caramel flavor that’s the problem.

lunch{1} Cafeteria sandwich.

Turkey and cheese. I mostly prefer to pack lunch for work but I hate trying to pack sandwiches so this is a great cafeteria option when I’m in the mood.

l{2} Yogurt bowl.

Coconut Greek yogurt with pink grapefruit is this year’s new favorite combo! I snacked on the vanilla granola and chocolate coconut milk on the side.

l{3} Baked potato bar.

I topped my spud with cheese sauce, salsa, black beans, bell peppers, red onion, jalapeño, and cilantro.

snack{1} Caffeine overload.

Iced latte with chocolate-covered espresso beans. Full disclosure – I drank a sugar-free Red Bull around this same time and spent an hour or two pretty sure I could hear colors.

s{2} Cheesy bagel.

I toasted half a poppy seed bagel with butter and cheddar-gruyere/parmesan-gouda. Eaten while prepping dinner because I just couldn’t wait.

s{3} Yogurt bowl with my favorite citrus.

Maple yogurt with Heritage Flakes. Plus a Sumo Mandarin.

dinner{1} Let’s be real, the very best* thing I ate this week was nachos.

Four-cheese nachos with black beans and roasted garlic salsa. Duh. But no photo because we ate them in bed in the middle of the day (<–fabulous) and my main focus was on keeping them away from the dog.

d{2} Gojuchang turkey rice bowls.

Brown rice with cilantro, lime and butter / roasted cabbage / ground turkey sautéed with spring onions and cilantro and a sauce made out of gojuchang, brown sugar, soy sauce, and rice vinegar / black sesame seeds and lime juice on top.

d{3} Cheesy eggs.

A scramble with cheddar-gruyere and parmesan-gouda. Plus baby carrots for a quick veggie on the side.

d{warning} Do not recommend: the altered quinoa soup I blogged about last weekend.

I see why Cooking Light only used a quarter cup of grains, by day 2 our leftovers were very well-hydrated quinoa with not a drop of broth to be found.

13Jan2017

Mid-January

by Emily

Tuesday night, I met up with my aunt in the Financial District for dinner and then coffees/cookies at the beautiful new 3rd story Eataly.

Wednesday, I was off from work and spent the entire day in bed, watching tv, eating pizza, and reading a Liane Moriarty book from start to finish.

Thursday, Adam and I went on a dinner date sans coats in 66 degree weather.

<– kind of a hard week to complain about, huh?

Here were my best bites…

New all-time favorite coffee combo: Texas pecan coffee concentrate with sweet buttercream creamer. Swoontastic.

I also tried the new Starbucks Cascara latte. It was meh, too sweet but not in a brown sugar way as promised.

Chilaquiles!

Kinda, sorta. I cooked thick tortilla chips in salsa and leftover spicy pepper sauce from my shakshuka. Topped with black beans, shredded cheese, and fried eggs.

Piñata apple with a spicy chicken epic bar. I’ve really been enjoying these meat-based bar options.

Yogurt bowl lunch. Siggi’s with granola and chocolate tahini. Plus pears.

I made cheesy turkey sloppy joes. Turkey breast sautéed with onion and green bell pepper and tomato paste, stirred into a sharp cheddar mornay sauce, and served on a brioche bun. It was pretty damn good.

With leftover bok choy salad and roasted broccoli.

Our date night was a pizza date at Paulie Gee’s.

It was our first time and we loved it. I had a Milk and Honey Ale and a pizza with fresh mozzarella, baby spinach, olive oil, and garlic.

Dessert at Ample Hills. A new flavor, The View – chocolate marshmallow ice cream with ooey gooey butter cake pieces, brownies, and crack cookie; plus fantasmic dark hot chocolate.

Looking forward a long weekend!

6Jan2017

Hello, 2017!

by Emily

How is everyone’s year going?? So far, the word for my 2017 is tasty.

Here are some culinary highlights from the first week…

Coffee first, always coffee. Espresso roast and chocolate milk before work.

I also had the best iced latte of the year from Birch; their shots are extra strong and roasty.

Adam and I both had Monday off of work and we started our new year with a trip to Serendipity 3.

Veggie chili for my lunch.

I kept lunch boring because I was focused on the main event – sundae funday! A giant scoop of peanut butter pie with hot fudge and bananas. <– swoon city

Work lunches were centered around a box of free product review samples I received from ips snacks. The snacks – crisps and popcorn – are all made with whey protein and pack at least 5 grams of protein for </ 150 calories.

I have to admit that I liked the snacks a lot more than I was expecting to. The salted popcorn was honestly the best bagged popcorn Adam or I have ever tasted! It was filling, satisfying, and totally delicious. The chips would rate poorly if I compared them to chip-chips, but score a 9/10 as snack crisps. Very few snacks, especially ones that pack less than 200 calories, keep me full enough in the afternoon that I don’t consider gnawing my own arm off on the train, but these did the trick.

I packed crisps and fruit to pair with toasted turkey and cheese cafeteria sandwiches. BBQ chips and a cara cara.

Sea salt and black pepper chips and an Asian pear.

Snack attack. Popcorn and a honey kolsch.

Yogurt bowl with plain Greek, chocolate tahini, sliced snap dragon apple, chia seeds, cinnamon, and sweet and spicy pecans.

I was killing it with dinners this week. Three different veggie-forward, flavor-loaded, 10/10 dishes! When I made fried green onions last week I saved the infused oil and that’s what I used for cooking this week. First, a simple salad to start off the new year.

Oak leaf lettuce, TJ’s Greek-style feta dressing, cucumber, dill, and roasted chickpeas. With hibiscus kombucha on the side.

Next up, spicy cabbage salad with turkey and peanuts from Bon Appétit. I only ever read this magazine on plane rides but this recipe alone would be worth the subscription cost!

I doubled up so that we could get 4 big dinners out of it, and roasted the cabbage so it was less voluminous, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly <– something I rarely do.

Served with cheesey breadsticks, aka pizza dough rolled up with an obscene amount of cheese.

Finally, I tried my hand at shakshuka. Based loosely on the recipes from Serious Eats and My Name is Yeh, my version had red bell peppers, red jalapeño pepper, and serrano pepper.

Served with hunks of sourdough.

I’m excited to do a little more exploring in the kitchen this new year. My meal plan list for the next month or so includes menemen, mapo tofu, kaya jam, okonomiyaki, and chilaquiles!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: leftovers

Buffalo Chicken Ballyhoo

Please note – this product was given to me free of charge to review. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Couch Potato, Twice Baked

Butter Pecan Mochi

I Can’t Choose A Favorite!

4 x 3 = 12

Mid-January

Hello, 2017!