Cheese And Bread

by Emily

We did Caribbean-ish dinners this week so of course I pulled out some fun on-theme drinks. Sparking pina colada energy drink (I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this favor), passion fruit soda (made into a fun coffee with espresso and sweetened condensed milk), coconut soda (not as tasty as it was aesthetic), and soursop juice (blended into a great smoothie with frozen banana, peaches, and cherries, and vanilla protein powder)

And you can assume every meal this week got topped with my favorite hot sauce from back home – Blind Betty’s.

Chopped chicken salad with homemade dumb bread. I shaped my bread too thin to slice so we ate these deconstructed which was actually perfect. Baked chicken chopped with extra-sharp cheddar, mayo, and garlic sauteed collard greens.

A loose take on callaloo. Spinach, yellow onion, habanero pepper, crab meat, beef bacon, coconut milk, and spices. Served with dumb bread with butter and cheese.

Baked salmon cakes (Trader Joe’s canned pink salmon, sockeye salmon, and lightly smoked salmon with panko, yellow bell pepper, mayo, Dijon, eggs, salt, white pepper, and curry powder) with rice and beans (brown rice with coconut milk, yellow onion, habanero pepper, and dark kidney beans), and roasted zucchini.

31May2025

Brinner Winner

by Emily

We did breakfasts for dinners this week. Here was everything I ate on theme…

Coffee, obviously. Sweetie Pies on Main makes some of our favorite lattes in Long Island. These specials were crazy – tres leches and tiramisu!

Cereal [milk latte]. Espresso plus skim milk I infused overnight with Cocoa Pebbles.

Orange juice. I wanted to be on-theme but I hate juice so we made cocktails. OJ with vodka and amaretto plus a scoop of vanilla ice cream and some Target rainbow sherbet seltzer.

Smoothie. Blueberry pancake smoothie. Frozen blueberries blended with cottage cheese, butter extract, maple syrup, vanilla protein powder, malted milk powder, and water.

Blueberry muffins. I think these protein mini muffins are disgusting in a delightful way.

Yogurt bowl, obviously. This was plain Greek with blueberries, blackberries, and cookie dough granola.

Egg and cheese biscuit. Hometown Bakeshop‘s build-your-own breakfast sandwich. We got a cheddar biscuit with two over-medium eggs, cheddar-jack cheese, caramelized onions, and smoked aioli.

Avocado toast. Whole-wheat bread toasted with butter topped with smashed avocado (with lemon, salt, and gochugaru) and cold-smoked sockeye salmon. Plus sauteed purple asparagus.

Cottage cheese bowls. Topped with cucumber salad (sesame seeds, gochugaru, rice vinegar, and sugar) and baked chicken meatballs (panade, hoisin, gochujang, oyster sauce, and white pepper). I ate several meatballs before they could make it to my bowl!

Oatmeal. Trader Joe’s rolled oats with ancient grains and seeds – 10/10, it is perfect out of the microwave – topped with a fried egg, chopped baby broccoli sauteed with lemon and garlic, spicy caramelized peanuts (sugar, salt, white pepper, evoo, gochugaru, and togarashi), and chili crisp.

Bacon, egg, and cheese bagel salad. This was my best idea of the week. Arugula dressed with garlic Dijon dressing and horseradish Sriracha aioli / sharp cheddar / beef bacon / homemade bagel croutons (Bagel Joint sesame gochujang bagel tossed with evoo, salt, white pepper, and gochugaru and baked) / six-minute eggs.

9May2025

Pierogi, Calzone, Hot Pockets

by Emily

This week’s dinner theme has to be my most unhinged — foods in an edible package. I am mentally categorizing “edible packages” as packets, by the way (i.e. no turducken!).

Mochi-wrapped ice cream. This milk tea flavor from Bubbies was fantastic and these are possibly the best ice cream mochi I’ve ever eaten.

Gummy mangos in an edible candy peel. The peelable gummies from Walgreens are top tier. It was a yummy week!

Rice noodle rolls with shrimp. From Trader Joe’s.

Soup dumplings. We went to Nan Xiang to try their chicken soup dumplings and thought they were great.

We also had their mustard greens with tofu skin and edamame which were good.

And their stir-fried rice cakes with shredded beef which were only ok.

And ube bao stuffed with red bean paste (more packets!).

Potstickers. Trader Joe’s chicken and vegetables. Paired with roasted broccoli and a dumpling salsa inspired by Leah Cohen (crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, gochugaru, sugar, Fly by Jing Sichuan chili oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice vinegar, Shaoxing wine, garlic, ginger, and green onions).

Tortellini. Whole Foods kale and cheese. We tossed them with orange baby tomatoes, roasted zucchini, baked chicken, sharp cheddar cubes, and a green sauce (fresh baby spinach food-processed with evoo, chili oil, sesame oil, salt, garlic, and walnuts).

Samosas. Trader Joe’s mini vegetable ones. Paired with curry cauliflower (roasted cauliflower sauteed with evoo, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and Jamaican curry powder) with pickled red onions and fried eggs.

P.S. We’re going to Queens for empanadas tonight. Other than the other thousand varieties of things stuffed into pastas, did I miss any??

5May2025

CarbohyGREAT

by Emily

Some yummy things from a perfect weekend…

Dayglow Coffee. Warhol – espresso, cream, citrus, cinnamon, and vanilla. Morning Show – distilled coffee, orange, condensed coconut, and passionfruit. We were delighted with these.

Humble Cafe is our favorite local Long Island coffee spot. Ice latte with pandan syrup and a taro mochi cookie.

Bagel Joint. We got a Thai iced tea egg cream.

And a duck egg everything bagel with ramp cream cheese and tuna bacon.

DSK Brooklyn. Adam had German beers and I had a shockingly good chicken bratwurst (on a pretzel bun with mustard!).

Pasta Night date night. My Daddy Issues cocktail had bourbon, coconut washed Campari, lime, and ginger beer.

We split the salted cod fritters special.

Roasted brussels sprouts in chili crisp.

Pesto pasta – radiatori in basil pesto with pecorino and poached tomatoes.

And the Big Ragu – rigatoni with golden tomato sauce, slow braised beef ragu, and Parmesan cream.

We of course also had to go to their origin restaurant – Ciao Gloria – earlier in the afternoon. Granita (slushie espresso with sweetener and oat milk) and a espresso chocolate chip cookie and a blondie with tahini and jam. Excellent.

Rita’s Pizza. This was my favorite meal of the food-filled weekend! La Rita – orange marmalade reduction, fontina, caramelized onions, thyme, duck prosciutto, Truffleist duck mousse.

Obviously we got The Sundae – maple and vanilla soft serve twist with hot fudge, torched marshmallow fluff, Luxardo cherry, chocolate pearls, and a waffle cup.

28Apr2025

Coffee, Cake, Coffee Cake

by Emily

We had a lovely weekend, including a trip to the MoMA and a walk across the Williamsburg bridge and up to Washington Square Park. Some favorites…

Maman – Salted tahini honeycomb iced latte. This was delightful.

Hani’s – peanut butter and jelly cake.

Bahn by Lauren – Sesame ball with mung bean filling (9.5/10, almost as good as the one from Lucky King) and pandan coffee cake.

Glace – S’mores sundae. Brown butter vanilla soft-serve with hot fudge, marshmallow fluff, and whipped cream. We added peanut butter drizzle and did not regret it.

Brunch at The Dutch. My (non-epynonymous) Oaxacan Sunset had tequila, mezcal, cassis, lime, and hibiscus grenadine.

Deviled eggs with crab.

We shared the burger which was dry-aged with grilled onions, cheddar, and secret sauce on a sesame bun.

And cornmeal flapjacks with blueberry syrup and salted butter. These had the best crispy edges.

14Apr2025

Deux Decades = Twenty Years

by Emily

It was a great weekend. We spent some time in Ridgewood and also checked out the fabulous orchid show at the NY Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. Food highlights…

We bought this fancy grape jam in Hudson and I was excited to use to use it.

Like in a pb&j bowl with yogurt, cottage cheese, fresh blueberries, and smooth and chunky peanut butter.

And in an iced coffee (with vanilla cold foam).

The best coffee of the weekend had blueberries in it! I blended cold coffee with frozen blueberries, brown sugar, skin milk, and vanilla protein powder.

I also had a nice latte from Honeymoon Coffee (<– super cute spot). Enjoyed with some flan from a bakery in Ridgewood. We stirred some of the caramel into the latte and that was obviously great.

Evil Twin is our favorite New York brewery and this was one of our best trips to date – so many fun sours!

Cheesy tots. Baked potato tots with roasted cauliflower and tons of sharp cheddar. And Sriracha horseradish aioli, furikake, gochugaru, and sesame seeds.

Cafe Deux. I got their burger which was double Wagyu patties, house aioli, and cheddar with tons of fries. I also stole several bites of Adam’s soft-scrambled eggs and toast with local jam.

Plus we shared a great brownie sundae with their flourless chocolate cake and Cafe Panna vanilla ice cream.

Decades Pizza. The pizza was wonderful but I was drawn in by this drink – Pink Moon Sour = amaretto, contratto bitter, lemon, and marshmallow cream! The drink on the left was cold brew with honey, nutmeg, and soda.

We shared and loved a bunch of things. Our favorite dish of the night was the arancini with hazelnut pesto, Calabrian chili, and pecorino.

Roasted carrots and asparagus with whipped ricotta and pesto oil.

Mushroom pie – blue oyster mushrooms, garlic, cream, mozzarella, and parmigiano.

And a special pie with Calabrian chili and tons of green onions.

And we got fermented banana cake with cream cheese frosting for dessert.

Our leftovers were perfect for Sunday dinner. Plus sauteed asparagus with toasted almonds, garlic, lemon, yellow mustard, and dijon.

11Apr2025

Damn The Man

by Emily

For being the 1st week back from a vacation this week felt painless! Here were some food highlights…

Even our leftovers from dinner at Theodora were fantastic. This was laffa with lamb, tahini, amba, and shifka.

A grown up takes on a cafeteria favorite – two bougie Gushers-inspired candies. Both were great.

I loved these sweet cinnamon bun flavored protein pretzels.

It was Rex Manning Day this week so I baked cupcakes for work (because there are 24 usable hours in every day!). Peanut butter cupcakes (boxed yellow cake mix baked with milk substituted for water, butter substituted for oil, an extra egg, and 1/2 cup of smooth peanut butter) with chocolate frosting. They were fantastic, amazingly the texture was perfect.

And we, of course, ate a bunch of pizza and watched Empire Records! This plate was chicken and waffle (possibly my all-time favorite slice of pizza, the chunks of waffle felt artisanal and there was maple syrup!) and buffalo chicken. Plus spicy green beans (steamed and then sauteed with Sichuan peppercorn, gochugaru, honey, rice vinegar, sesame oil, yellow mustard, dijon, and Sriracha.

The rest of our dinners were on the theme of school cafeteria lunches! Like a take on Salisbury Steak. Turkey patties (with ground turkey, panade, grated white onion, dijon, ketchup, and garlic) with a tomato gray (roux, water, tomato sauce, dijon, dark soy sauce, and low-sodium oyster sauce). Served with roasted broccoli and potato tots.

Macaroni and cheese. My mac and three cheese muffins. I substituted extra-sharp cheddar for parmesan because it was all we had. We used Goodles Loopdy Loos.

Fish sticks. Cornmeal crusted served with cocktail sauce and a side of roasted cauliflower.

24Mar2025

Hudson Highlights

by Emily

Adam and I spent a GREAT weekend in the Hudson Valley (primarily downtown Hudson). On Saturday we walked around admiring the town for eight straight hours! Alphabetically…

Cafe Mutton. I ordered my Bloody Mary extra spicy and with excessive garnish (it came with a giant slab of house made sausage that Adam happily inherited). We shared a buckwheat scone with butter and curd.

And a mushroom and gruyere omelet with buttered toast. [And Bucitini with lamb ragu.]

Gracie’s Luncheonette (Leeds). Housemade cherry cola float.

Adam got a fantastic tuna melt and I got the brisket melt (my favorite sandwich of the trip!) – with smoked cheddar, jalopeno peppers, and white bbq sauce on white bread.

Lemon chess pie.

Hereafter. It was our first time at this bar. My drink on the right was a Magnolia Fizz – gin, Douglas fir brandy, magnolia oolong, milk oolong, cream, citrus, egg whites, and mint.

Hudson Roastery. Their iced espresso with skim milk is my 2nd favorite coffee in all of New York.

Kitty’s. Their brunch can’t compare to their dinner (but was still solid). I had a great mocktail, Kitty Temple – ginger beer, lemon, lime, and housemade grenadine.

We shared eggs on rice with pickled veggies and chili oil and and hashbrowns.

Lil Deb’s Oasis. Their cocktails are always amazing. Golden Thaw – Japanese whiskey, lemon, and tamarind / Unknown Legend – bay leaf, pisco, burnt honey syrup, grapefruit, egg white, and pimenton. [We also loved a Colorless Dream – Haitian rum, sake, bitter melon, and toasted rice.]