Tag Archives: pasta

Denver –> NYC

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This was a “short” week because I was in Denver until 2 am Tuesday East Coast time. My mom and I had such a fun vacation! Other than family stuff our favorite activities were the Rocky Mountain National Park (and just generally being constantly awed by how fantastically beautiful the wild flowers were!) and an afternoon at Meow Wolf.

I don’t have a ton to share from my return home because this was the longest short week ever. I landed in JFK at 6 am and was at my desk at work by 7:30! Also I worked through the weekend and had some of the busiest and stressful shifts of all time. Suffice to say we’ve mostly eaten take-out the past week! Here were some highlights…

Frozen tahini iced coffee. I made coffee ice cubes and blended them with more coffee, tahini, sugar, and a splash of half and half.

Very impressed with the Sang black coffee can (roasty, good body, and outdone only by Grady’s and Stumptown).

Extra-crispy Cosmic Crisp apple.

A winner Whole Foods’ hot bar day – Roasted veggies and roasted green beans / celery, date, and peanut salad / Caesar chicken salad / hard-boiled egg / mac and cheese.

Loved this alcoholic beverage from Empirical; it really did taste like pine in a lovely way.

Cinnamon bears are my new favorite kind of chocolate-covered gummy.

Dinner at a restaurant – Youta, a new ramen spot we loved. Spicy serano cucumber salad.

Fried chicken with garlic mayo.

I got the veggie ramen – truffle veggie broth, maitake, shitake, kikurage tempura, topped with menma and scallion.

And a mango parfait for dessert.

Dinner via takeout – Dario’s Pizza. New to us and a 9.5/10. We got two kinds of cheese slices, shredded beef, and spicy chicken.

Dinner “made” at home thanks to these kimchi vegetable dumplings and frozen cauliflower.

Plus homemade dumpling sauce.

Cookie Dough

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Highlights from the weekend include…

A plain Greek yogurt bowl with blueberries, plum, and cookie dough granola.

My favorite Perfect Bar, chocolate chip cookie dough.

Paired with a cookie dough latte! Starbucks blonde espresso with cold foam with brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and vanilla bean paste.

Jeni’s Gooey Butter Cake is my new favorite ice cream (second only to the Ben & Jerry’s s’mores bites); cream cheese ice cream with vanilla cake and butterscotch sauce.

Whole Foods’ pimento mac and cheese bites. <– swoon

Microwave Korean rose tteokbokki .

An assortment of dippable things for dinner (I had three dipping sauces so clearly this meal was a winner) – Popeye’s chicken nuggets and mac and cheese, roasted broccoli, leftover cauliflower wings.

Deconstructed hash. Roasted Russet potato and purple Japanese sweet potato / Trader Joe’s breaded cheese curds / chicken breakfast sausages / sauted red onion, green bell pepper, and poblano pepper / plus chipotle aioli.

Double Chip

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Five favorites from the weekend…

New York Beanery s’mores iced latte.

Nectarines. Summer fruit is so good!

Giant double chocolate chip – white and milk! – cookies (this recipe).

Thai take-out! I got chicken Pad See Ew and Ma Khue Puang (stir-fried eggplant with chili sauce and lime leaves).

Mish-mash but it works salad. Baby kale with honey chipotle vinaigrette / leftover eggplant / baby bell pepper / cashews / crispy tofu – marinated in pickle juice, breaded in Cheez-Its, and baked.

Trader Joe’s Thai Noodles

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I hope all of my local readers are breathing a little bit better! Highlights from the past week…

A sucessful fridge dregs yogurt bowl – Trader Joe’s guava passionfruit Greek yogurt with a bit of cottage cheese, mandarin orange, and chia seeds.

The cookie dough flavor is the best Perfect Bar flavor (though I am hoping to get my hands on the crispy layered ones again asap).

Plant-based gummies. The ones on my left are one of my favorites but I was not a fan of the ones on the right as they were basically fruit leather (note – Adam loved them).

An assortment of citrus sparkling beverages. The Social Hour was the stand-out. I was suprisingly not that impressed by the Topo Chico.

I enjoyed these Trader Joe’s Mee Krob seasoned noodle crisps and would buy them again.

Trader Joe’s chicken and veggie gyoza potstickers (9.5/10) with edamame and dumpling sauce on the side.

Trader Joe’s Thai wheat noodles sauteed with spinach, edamame, green onion, and a spicy sauce (including gojuchang, Sriracha, and chili crisp!) and topped with sesame seeds and a fried egg.

In Paradise

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This past weekend Adam and I… lost our minds over the beautiful flowers all over Park Slope / went to a Filipino/JapanFest street fair / checked off two restauarants on my “lauded cheeseburgers” list. Highlights included…

Birthday cake smoothie bowl from Juice Press. I kept seeing the advertisement for this and I couldn’t help myself! The smoothie was meh but the Out Haus birthday cake granola butter was perfection.

Marvelous by Fred – mini meringue with coffee and hazelnuts.

Ice cream from Teo’s – coffee crunch and sprinkles. Great texture, I love an egg-heavy ice cream base.

Street fair finds. Ube and calmansi juice was a surprisingly sucessful combo.

Okonomiyaki.

Mini twinkie with jackfruit and Frooty Pebbles.

Drinks at The Warren. I loved my Madame Brown with bourbon, passionfruit, sour, and egg whites. We also had the best (unphotographed) deviled eggs I’ve ever eaten; I want to come back here for dinner immediately.

Dinner at Red Paper Clip. My drink was the best of the weekend, College Drop Out – a whiskey sour with passionfruit.

Roasted cauliflower with yuzu agro dulce, shiso, and sunflower seeds.

The everything brioche with cured trout, miso egg yolk, and trout roe was a showstopper; this was stunningly good.

We got the cavetalli with nori, parmesan, and bonito.

Lobster three ways, fried salt and pepper claws / fried rice / and in a miso beurre blanc.

The burger – double patties, lettuce, special sauce, and yellow cheese.

Dinner at Emmy Squared. Palomo.

The burger – double patties, american cheese, spicy sammy sauce, greens, and pickles; served with waffle fries.

We also got a pizza with red sauce, meatballs, and banana peppers.

Niether burger makes my top three list (Elder Greene, Nowon, Ruthies) but they were quite good and it was a great weekend!

Pizza Week

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I love a good theme week! Highlights included…

Other things — Amazing/sweet/perfect summer berries are back! I had great yogurt bowls this week. This one was vanilla bean skyr, blueberries, blackberries, and chocolate chip cookie dough granola from Safe + Fair.

I am definitely smitten with these new Layers Perfect Bars; the bit of crunch is nice and the sweet-salty balance is spot on.

My best lunch of the week was obviously this comically large container of Whole Foods’ hot bar. Garlic green beans, sweet and spicy chicken, vegan meatballs, hard-boiled egg, lemon and peanut celery salad, two types of tortellini salad, mac and cheese, and scalloped potatoes.

We loved this Le Chocolat des Francias bar, definitely one of the creamiest milk chocolates we’ve tried.

I am not a big m&m person but I tried these new caramel cold brew ones at work and they were so good I had to go buy Adam and myself a bag.

I made a nice mule with this Trader Joe’s ginger beer; it is a little sweet and not too spicy and honestly wouldn’t be a bad ginger ale substitute.

Pizza things — Nostalgic – Pizza Hut. With mushrooms, olives, and beef. This was only fine.

P.S. Pizza Hut will sell you a 2 Tbsp container of cream cheese frosting for 84 cents. I stirred it into a yogurt bowl because I’m a genius.

Roman-style/local – Nadya’s and Taglio. Chicken parmesan, grandma, pesto, and roasted potato. These were wonderful.

Pizza salad! Romaine with ranch / Sugar Bomb grape tomatoes / Applegate Farms turkey pepperoni that I crisped up in the oven / four cheese cheese crisps.

Pizza bites with olives and pepperoni / homemade baked garlic turkey meatballs / a mountain of roasted green beans / a trio of dipping sauces (homemade honey mustard, ranch, and marinara).

Rolled, Dipped, Shaken

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This was a yummy week; lots of new favorites in snacks and dinners! Highlights included…

PB&J inspired yogurt bowl – skyr with blueberries, salty peanuts, and blueberry jam.

I finally got my hands on this old seasonal release seltzer and it was as good as I’d anticipated; very cinnamon-y.

Boozy, citrusy fun – citron soju and a yuzu jelly sake.

Guava and dulce de leche bites my parents sent me from home.

These Tropifrutti gummies are my favorite Haribo item, the texture is perfect.

This peanut butter fudge honeycomb ice cream easily makes my top-three-favorites list. I prefer ice creams that are loaded with mix-ins but the texture of the ice cream of here was just so decadent.

Homemade baked eggrolls! We stuffed them with a mix of crab, shredded cabbage, green onion, and red pepper jelly. Plus roasted broccoli and dipping sauce on the side.

10/10 salads – arugula / homemade dressing with lime juice, rice vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, and sugar / sweet baby bell peppers / homemade wonton crisps (egg roll wrappers baked with Sichuan pepper salt) / peanuts / shredded chicken reheated in a skillet with green onions and chicken broth.

The TikTok hack of shaking your mac and cheese and nuggets together with buffalo sauce and ranch is legit. I used Whole Foods baked macaroni, Applegate Farms nuggets, and added some roasted cauliflower.

P.S. As of this morning the husband and I are on vacation! We have a whole week of time together!! And fun plans, including reservations at Oiji Mi for tonight.

Duck, Duck, Soup

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Highlights from a tasty weekend…

Giant green smoothie. This had frozen spinach, strawberry, soursop, honey, and vanilla almond milk.

Siggi’s vanilla honey skyr. I only liked – not loved – this and found it to be a little sour (and am mostly posting to remind myself).

Kimchi butter ramen. This was spicier than I was expecting.

Gelato from a new spot in LI. I got Kinder and s’mores in a vanilla cone. We weren’t head over heels for this spot but my s’mores scoop did have a giant toasted marshmallow in it and that was delightful.

Beers from Destination Unknown. This was our 2nd trip there and we have loved almost everything we’ve tried. Great IPAs.

Brunch at Maya Congee Cafe. We loved it here. We shared passionfruit tea with mango stars.

Chicken breakfast congee with smoked cheese and a soft egg.

And a braised chicken bahn mi.

Dinner at Long Island Pekin. This is officially our favorite Long Island spot. This dinner was an 11/10 and the leftovers were sooo exciting. We shared the Peking duck scallion pancakes with cheddar and sweet plum sauce.

Flat rice noodles with veggies and duck.

And the half Hong Kong roast duck.

Leftover soup. I topped my bowl with chili crisp. Served with homemade garlic bread.

No photo but worth a mention – we tried the honey butter chicken sandwich from PDQ and were both impressed!