Tag Archives: pasta

Screamsicle

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Tasty/spooky things from the week…

Siggi’s pumpkin & spice skyr with Super Jumbo and Sweetest Batch blueberries (plus a mellowcreme pumpkin and candy eyes!).

Hummingbird High’s pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are our favorite thing we bake all year.

Seasonal brews – Southern Tier’s Screamsicle vanilla and orange DIPA and Great South Bay’s Baked pumpkin pie ale.

We enjoyed this themed candy (plus more Bon Bon Bon!) while we admired Halloween decorations in our neighboorhood.

These Utz cheddar protein pretzels are delightful; super malty and roasty.

Little Beet is our favorite fast-casual restaurant. This bowl had harissa cauliflower, charred broccoli, roasted sweet potato, and baked tofu with crispy chickpeas, chili crisp, and chimichurri.

Pumpkin pasta! Goodles pasta with a creamy vegan pumpkin sauce (blended canned pumpkin, silken tofu, gochujang, white miso, and tons of roasted elephant garlic). We topped our bowls with roasted zucchini, turkey (sauteed with green onions, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, and chili crisp), and crispy onions and garlic.

I mixed my leftover pumpkin pasta with Frank’s buffalo sauce, steamed broccoli, baked chicken nuggets, and cheddar.

Jack-o’-lantern patties! Turkey burgers (ground turkey with grated sweet onion, panko, egg, dark soy sauce, pepper, and smoked paprika; sauteed) with carved sharp cheddar. Plus leftover broccoli sauteed with with a spicy sesame sauce (tahini, gochujang, sesame oil, honey, and water), sesame seeds, toasted walnuts, and Milu everything spice.

Fancy Treats

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Our fabulous weekend included time in Long Island City, an in-season trip to Sleepy Hollow, some great walks, and tons of (delicious!) fancy treats. Highlights…

Safwa roasted peanut iced latte. I adored this.

Small Batch‘s caramelized pumpkin was also quite good. We tried their brown butter sage latte too but I did not like it.

Za’atar flagel with egg, cheddar, and turkey from Horseman Bagels.

Inspired by a fantastic treat from Kora, we made cheesy sweet buns. Potato roll baked with butter and Trader Joe’s vanilla sugar and topped with shredded Edam.

Spicy crab inari. I don’t get tofu skin often enough and I was excited for this (grocery!) roll.

Treats from Arellano Pandelsal. Ube ensaymada and a cinnamon roll with calamansi glaze!

Spot Dessert Bar‘s Cookie Camp – marshmallow cookie, pretzels, cookie crumbs, chocolate sauce, and condensed milk ice cream. Swoon. We also quite enjoyed a green tea with lychee jelly.

Stew Leonard‘s plain Greek frozen yogurt (great!) with tons of seasonal sprinkles.

I loved the topping options at Ilios – I got the plain Greek (even better!) with sprinkles, Kinder sauce, and cinnamon roll!

A black bean rice bowl from Tony’s with seasonal roasted squash (plus I added roasted baby zucchini from home!).

A lunch plate a Blue Hill at Stone Farms. The property was stunningly gorgeous! We appreciated how fresh and technically perfect the food was but weren’t necessarily over the moon about it. (We would still try the fancy dinner(s) though!)

We were over the moon for the honey roobios canned tea we had with lunch. It tasted like the holidays.

Pig Beach BBQ. This burger was solid, definitely would be number 6 on my New York favorite’s list! It was so smoky! We also liked the potato salad, vinegary slaw, and roasted turkey.

We had a great dinner at Soothr. My fun take on a Long Island came with a delicious mint jelly.

My favorite dish was the Khao Soi tofu aka the best egg tofu I’ve ever eaten.

And we shared Pad Si Iw with beef.

And we also had rice rolls that I wasn’t a fan of (but Adam enjoyed!).

Squashed

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Things from the week…

Pumpkin smoothie. In the blender – canned pumpkin, frozen banana, maple syrup, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla protein powder, and water.

Shockingly, Pumpkin Cheesecake might be Ben & Jerry’s best flavor.

Pumpkin Pie is not Perfect Bar’s best flavor.

The Maple Warlock and Caramel Pumpking are my favorites from Southern Tier.

Fly by Jing chili crisp noodles. These had a nice flavor and good spice but were perhaps not worth dirtying a pot and a bowl.

Pumpkin Chili. Canned pumpkin, fire-roasted diced tomatoes, green onion, poblano, dark kidney beans, roasted zucchini, ground turkey, smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, gochugaru, cinnamon, dark soy sauce, and Shafly pumpkin ale. Paired with Trader Joe’s great pumpkin tortilla chips. I topped my bowl with sharp cheddar and pimento cheese and pickled jalapeños.

Leftovers from Her Name is Han made a very good sandwich. Gochujang chicken and onions chopped with sharp cheddar, miso, and Kewpie and baked on sourdough. Plus baked baby broccoli.

This egg salad sando from 7-11 may just be the best sandwich.

Egg tacos. Scrambled eggs with sharp cheddar / sauteed zucchini and butternut squash with salt, pepper, urfa, smoked paprika, and curry powder / topped with onions baked with evoo, honey, basil, and gochugaru / in toasted whole-wheat tortillas.

A take on these baked black bean tacos. My filling used black beans, sauteed mushrooms, green onions, poblanos, taco seasoning, evoo, and toasted walnuts.

* the alternate title for this post was “Let’s Taco ‘Bout it” *

Pandan, Pickles, Poke

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We had an exceptional weekend, including great food, long walks, and time in Dumbo, Chelsea, and Chinatown. Some of our favorites…

Fishs Eddy‘s newish Dumbo location has a coffee bar. Their delicious Fridge Cigarette take is their house-made cola with vanilla syrup and espresso.

Bunny & Bro‘s blackberry pie iced latte.

Bahn by Lauren‘s lime drip (flashed chilled coffee with sweetened lime) is a 100/10.

Their famous pandan honeycomb cake was good but not my personal favorite.

MOTW pumpkin pie iced latte.

We also tried their butter chicken empanada.

Nine Treasure’s Creamery ice cream sandwich with kaya toast ice cream on mango crinkle cookies.

Seed and Mill‘s sesame sundae is Adam’s favorite dessert in the city. We also got a square of pb&j halvah that was amazing.

Hawaiian food from Aloha Alley. We shared their Loco Moco plate (beef patties with beef bone broth mushroom gravy, eggs, rice, and macaroni salad) and the ahi poke (tuna with scallions, seaweed salad, sweet onion, soy garlic shoyu, and crushed macadamia. Plus furikake rice).

Hots Pizza was adorable and had the nicest workers. We swooned over this pickle slice and want to go back to try their other stuff ASAP.

Big Tings in Chelsea Market served us an great jerk chicken sandwich and iced tea with sorrel.

We were totally smitten with the sandwiches from 20 Blocks, every ingredient is clearly chosen with so much care. We shared a Turkey Town (house turkey, fried green tomato, baby romaine, and Cajun mayo on honey whole-wheat) and a Corn Star (charred corn, cowboy candy, and havarti on toasted milk bread).

Dinner at the always excellent Her Name is Han. We got a Mint Garden (green tea infused soju with fresh mint, basil, and perilla leaves) and a Hallabong Spritz (basically an aperol spritz with Jeju citrus).

We shared a bunch of things and are already excited for our appetizers. Korean fried chicken (which comes with a great sauce and wonderful radish kimchi).

Rice cakes with kabocha squash, shishito peppers, and a yuzu gochujang sauce / kimchi cheese pancake topped with a poached egg.

Gochujang grilled chicken thighs (the onion slaw on the side was my favorite bite of the evening). We also had minced beef bulgogi that I forgot to photograph.

P.S. Our actual favorite item of the weekend was a 100/10 cafecito from Titi’s Empanadas on the Lower East Side.

Banana, Bean, Black Sesame

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Highlights from last week…

Pachanga Coffee iced latte with oatmilk and guava.

Plan skyr bowl with blueberries (Sweetest Batch and Jumbos!) and Grady’s peanut butter coconut granola.

Plain skyr dessert bowl with One Trick Pony cinnamon sugar peanut butter (divine!), banana chips, chocolate chips, and granola.

Grape cruffin from Ansa Coffee (impeccable!).

We loved the banana soft-serve from Koke. I got black sesame with banana chips and black sesame sauce.

Also a perfect black sesame mochi cookie with groats in it.

A chocolate menagerie from L.A. Burdick.

Little Cupcake Bakeshop. Princess cake and a caramel peanut butter bar. They are probably my 3rd favorite cake shop in all of NY.

Gertie’s new bagel shop concept knocked our socks off. We shared a bagel with scallion cream cheese, whitefish salad, and pickled peppers and latkes with apple butter and sour cream.

Tuck Shop‘s tuna melt is my new favorite. I was also head over heels for their honey mustard mayo (2nd sauce of all time; nearly tied with the salsa I had in Taos, NM).

Mimi Cheng‘s Thai chili lime dumpling special.

Authentic Thai takeout. Pad see ew with mock duck and tom kha gai fried rice.

Curry beans. Great Northerm beans and roasted garlic sauteed with green onion, ginger, coconut milk, lime juice, red curry, soy sauce, and Sriracha. Served on a mix of brown rice and roasted riced cauliflower.

A very loose take on joomukbap. Leftover rice made into balls with sauteed kimchi, sesame seeds, shredded cheddar, canned tuna, roasted garlic, skyr, and Kewpie and coated in roasted seaweed and furikake. Plus roasted eggplant (a local baby eggplant variety!) sauteed with tahini, gochujang, sesame oil, and honey.

A loose take on callaloo. Frozen spinach cooked with yellow hot pepper, white onion, garlic, urfa chili, curry powder, coconut milk, and crab meat. I ate my bowl with a side of Vigil’s butter and mesquite beef jerky.

Brothy beans. Sauteed leak, green onion, and baby bok choy with ginger, gochugaru, butter, rice vinegar, chicken broth, and pinto beans. Served with buttered toasted sourdough bread (from Cafe d’Avignon, delicious).

Two Coffees

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We had a fantastic weekend! We ran on the Long Beach Boardwalk and got dinner at Lil Al’s and had a sunset burger picnic. We drove to Robert Moses Beach in a beautiful sunrise and did the walk to Fire Island (and saw so many deer, including a buck that was less than three feet from us!). We hung out just outside of the Blues Traveler and Gin Blossoms concert in Central Park and heard “Follow You Down” live (plus, even more excitingly, Spin Doctors performing “Two Princes!”).

Some food/drink highlights…

We had a fun time making mini lattes to taste-test these Bizzy espresso shots. I much preferred the dark roast but both were nice in milk.

Kismet Coffee served us the my favorite sweetened latte of the summer – with blueberry syrup and a coconut cold foam. We also had a banana bread cold brew.

This mint coconut cold brew from Bluestone Lane was so sweet that we had to throw it out after a couple of sips (but it was delicious!).

We loved (and finished) our coffees from Kora. Mint julep cold brew with oat milk (delicious!!) and iced espresso with leche fan cold foam.

We also loved our treats. Ensaymada croissant with buttered sugar and edam, kouign amann, FFG cookie with Medjool dates, pecans, toffee, and sea salt. These were all mind-blowing.

Mini black sesame bingsu with espresso from Seoul Sweets. This was tasty but not worth the hassle of the location for us.

The Greek yogurt frozen yogurt from Kostantina is the best froyo I’ve ever had. I got plain with stewed blueberries and peanut butter kataifi.

Fun drinks at Terrace including a trio of jello shots!

The best drinks of the weekend were consumed with dinner at Wang Lang. Adam had a satay old fashioned that was a 100% scent match for satay! And I get the hype around the mango sticky rice cocktail (Tito’s, mango puree, mango syrup, and lime with a toasted rice cream).

I also had their summer special – pandan-infused rice rum with ginger and green chili syrup and clarified lime. Delicious.

My entree – beef pad se ew – was also delicious.

And we shared the chicken larb spring rolls to start.

We ordered a lot from Masani Pizza but my favorites were the chicken roll and the swoon-worthy (literally!) cacio e pepe slice.

I made my Lil Al’s leftovers into something even better – macaroni and cheese (theirs was good but it was American-style and I much prefer baked) shaken up with a hot chicken tender from Dave’s Hot Chicken, Trader Joe’s ranch seasoning, and leftover roasted broccoli.

Open Sesame

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Things from the week…

More fun drinks. All good/would buy agains. Pineapple yuzu kombucha / pandan coconut soda / banana water (this was our favorite!).

A summer watermelon date. It was kind of disappointing, but fun to eat in the kitchen as a whole family.

This black sesame bar was nice; not roasty enough for me but also not too sweet.

Guac Shop take-out. They crammed so much food into this food! My go-to order – a rice bowl with tofu, sweet potato, roasted cabbage, corn, pico, jalapeño mango salsa, cheese, and cilantro aioli. Plus chips with guac.

Hetty McKinnon‘s hoisin garlic noodles for the New York Times (recipe). As I write this post I am realizing that I completely left out the garlic — but they were still great! Paired with roasted sprouted tofu and snap peas sauteed with garlic, sunflower seeds, and parmesan.

Spicy maple miso chicken with a maple miso tahini salad. The best meal of the week! Baked chicken thighs sauteed with maple syrup, white miso, rice wine, soy sauce, and gochujang. Plus roasted broccoli, raw fennel, and green onions tossed with maple, miso, dark soy sauce, rice vinegar, and tahini.

Strawberry, Blueberry, Peach

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Highlights from the week…

This “sweet bean snack,” a blend of sugared red kidney, adzuki, navy beans, and green peas.

I wouldn’t have necessarily known peach without the label but these blueberries were extra fruity and floral.

This Barebells peanut caramel bar tastes like an even better take on a Snickers.

Trader Joe’s knocked it out of the park with their Strawberry Fields gummies. The mini mochis were quite nice as well.

Creamy peanut noodles. White rice ramen noodles / sauce – food-processed peanut butter, Sriracha, dark soy sauce, chili oil, sesame oil, lime juice, and silken tofu / roasted zucchini / tempeh stir-fried until crispy with green onions, garlic, soy sauce, maple syrup, Sriracha, and gochugaru / chili crisp.

BBQ chicken. Shredded chicken reheated in a frying pan with with gochujang, tomato paste, rice vinegar, brown sugar, fish sauce, and soy sauce // steamed green beans sauteed with Dijon, honey, sesame oil, and chili crisp.

Larb inspired chicken salad. Shredded chicken with Duke’s, Kewpie, skyr, Sriracha, lime juice, garlic powder, toasted rice powder, brown sugar, shallot, mint, pickled red onion, and crispy fried onion and garlic // salad – tomatoes, cucumber, green onion, and mint with chili crisp, gochugaru, gochujang, sesame seeds, sesame oil, and honey // plus our last frozen Apollo bagel.

P.S. We had a great, unphotographed dinner at The James, a new Long Island steakhouse. We enjoyed everything we ordered, especially the duck fat confit potato with fermented black bean, scallion, ginger, shallot, and lemon.