Tag Archives: pasta

Staycation 2024

by

We spent the second half of our vacation back home and had a fabulous time! The past four days were spent cuddling with the dog, catching up on errands, checking out new spots in Brooklyn, running on the Long Beach boardwalk, and spending a perfect day in Hudson.

Some highlights include…

Hudson Roasters. They have my favorite espresso in New York.

Blue Bottle. Vanilla Nola Cola. Also our favorite seltzer – Something & Nothing.

Mel the Bakery. We got a fantastic pistachio and almond twice-baked croissant (plus a chocolate chip cookie).

Bread and Butter. We got a key lime pie soft serve (a swirl of key lime and graham cracker).

And an insanely good ube roll.

Huckleberry gummy bears we brought home from Colorado.

Lady Moo Moo. Sprinkles ice cream with sprinkles.

Cafe Mutton. My “excessive garnish” Bloody Mary came with a lamb chop!

Plus we had an omelet with trout roe, creme fraiche, and potato chips and the best buttered toast of my life (and chicken congee).

Lido Kosher Deli. Love a deli with pickles! Plus pretty great cole slaw.

We had an outstanding brisket sandwich on a knish (and a bagel loaded with lox).

Hidden Gem Cafe. We shared a Knockout – shredded beef, caramelized onion, Swiss cheese, Hidden sauce, and hashbrowns on a garlic roll (also a smoked turkey with tomato, spinach, cheddar, and bbq Dijon on ciabatta bread).

Kitty’s. Toki Kollins – Suntory Toki whisky, yuzu juice, club soda, sea salt, and thyme.

Romaneso with green chickpea, puntarelle, broken parsley bay oil, and limequat young coconut sauce.

Spring lamb sugo with treccione, Kinderhook lamb shoulder, fennel, green garlic, and shaved Pecorino Romano.

Rotisserie chicken with roasted Yukons and sunchokes, citrus, date, and charred spring onion relish.

Salted devil’s food cake.

Miso butter bean dip with roasted broccoli, baby carrots, and Trader Joe’s chicken samosas.

Egg salad (shredded hard-boiled eggs / sauteed white onion, orange bell pepper, poblano pepper, and garlic / Greek yogurt, Dijon, mayo, rice vinegar, mustard powder, smoked paprika, celery seed, and salt and pepper) / baby zucchini sauteed with a tahini harissa honey sauce / chicken chips and 7-11 garlic bread chips.

Butterscotch, Coconut, Rye

by

Some things from the week…

Inspired by the last weekend, I paired coconut water with sweetened condensed milk and strong iced coffee (Cafe du Monde with chicory).

Trader Joe’s new sourdough rye crisps are a top-tier snack, especially when paired with buffalo chicken dip.

Butterscotch Snickers! This tasted exactly like pecan pie.

Salmon sushi bake. I used brown rice and hot smoked sockeye salmon and canned sockeye salmon. Plus roasted broccoli with furikake.

Mac and cheese muffins / crispy baked super firm tofu / roasted zucchini / unseen side of Greek yogurt ranch dipping sauce.

Passion, Peach, Persimmon

by

Things from this week…

Yogurt bowls of note – Plain skyr with passionfruit syrup, white chocolate passionfruit truffle, blackberries, blueberries, and maple pecan granola.

Plain skyr with granola, strawberries, and persimmon.

Iced matcha with condensed milk and plum seltzer.

These Kodiak s’mores bars taste exactly like the Chewy bars from your childhood.

Abomination Brewery’s Fogsicle is obviously our new favorite summer beer – sour double IPA with peach, vanilla, and marshmallow.

I liked the flavor of this maple cardamom candied pecan ice cream but the texture was a little funky.

I finally hopped on the TikTok smashburger taco trend and it was worth the hype. With ground turkey, extra-sharp cheddar, and a house sauce on the side. Plus roasted cauliflower.

Dinner inspired by my favorite dish from Very Fresh Noodles. Buckwheat soba / quick cucumber salad with sugar and rice vinegar / in the food processor – crumbled super-firm tofu baked until crispy, roasted serrano pepper and green onion, basil, Sichuan peppercorn, extra-virgin olive oil, crunchy yellow peas / topped later with chili crisp.

Hometown Advantage

by

The title is a quadruple threat pun – I had things from my current hometown in Long Island, things that remind me of my original hometown in the Caribbean, things made at home, and things from a place called Hometown! Some highlights from the weekend…

Breakfast at Hometown Bakeshop. Tres leches iced latte!

Plus I got an insane build-your-own breakfast sandwich – cheddar biscuit, over easy egg, turkey bacon, caramelized onion, pickled beet, white cheddar, and smoked aioli.

And I brought home scones too! Cinnamon roll-style and pistachio.

Cheesecake smoothie. Frozen strawberries and pineapple with water and cottage cheese.

Tony’s Lil’ Bits s’mores chocolates are great, a good combination of crunchy and chewy.

Takeout dinner from Coco’s Cuisine, a Jamaican place near us that we will be going back to ASAP. We shared stewed oxtail with sauteed cabbage and candied yam.

Fantastic jerk chicken with cabbage and perfect rice and beans.

Baked macaroni and cheese.

And Jamaican black cake (good, but we prefer the other style of Caribbean rum cakes).

Saturday night Adam and I went all out making dinner. Mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, roasted broccoli, and baked chicken with bbq sauce (a homemade Mediterranean bbq sauce with pomegranate and sumac!).

P.S. I wrote this post Sunday evening and we are about to head to a fancy Long Island dinner at the new(ish) Oak and Vine.

Americana Idiot

by

My other song title option was “Like It Was 1980,” and if you don’t get that reference you are sorely missing out! This week’s dinner theme was Americana/nostalgia. We made Salisbury steak, tuna pasta salad, macaroni and cheese, and chili and grilled cheese sandwiches!

Highlights from the past four days include…

After-school snacks. Apple + peanut butter (I didn’t have mini marshmallows to make smiles!). This was a Sugar Bee apple and it was wonderfully crisp and sweet.

Important note – the Whole Foods unsweetened crunchy peanut butter is wonderful. It is some of the best I’ve ever had and certainly outranks the other options at this price point. Just peanuts and salt.

This week’s yogurt bowl combo was plain skry, blackberries, peanut butter, and Nature’s Path honey almond granola.

Love Corn bbq corn nuts. These have a very satisfying consistency.

Junior Mints minis are fantastic. They are like the popping boba of chocolate candies.

Fun in sparkling waters – Target caffeinated cherry cola and Ruby tart hibiscus. Both were an 8/10.

I had never actually tried Salisbury steak before but I loved it. We loosely followed this recipe but I used ground turkey and way more mushrooms. Plus roasted purple and Japanese sweet potato and zucchini.

I did not use Italian dressing in my tuna pasta though that is how I grew up eating it. Whole-wheat macaroni, canned tuna, roasted zucchini, edamame, extra-sharp cheddar, and balsamic vinegar. Maybe Italian is the way to go though? Adam and I both went back and topped our bowls with hot sauce.

Macaroni and cheese muffins. I used extra-sharp cheddar instead of parmesan and added mustard powder. Plus roasted broccoli.

Plus we had bbq Wilde chicken chips.

Chili = ground turkey, celery, white onion, fire-roasted tomatoes, fire-roasted green chiles, kidney beans, chicken broth, evoo, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. I topped my bowl with plain yogurt and hot sauce. Plus I made amazing grilled cheese sandwiches; the filling was a mixture of extra-sharp cheddar, marinated artichoke hearts, mayo, white pepper, mustard powder, and a pinch of sugar.

Bananas Good

by

Five great things from the weekend…

Einspänner coffee from Bunny & Bro.

Smoky and sweet Carolina BBQ vegan jerky.

A bananas good cup of ice cream from Cold Stone. Banana pudding ice cream with bananas, peanut butter, caramel, and graham cracker pie crust.

Very spicy vegan dan dan noodles from Very Fresh Noodles. These wonderfully numbingly spicy hand-pulled noodles are some of the very chewiest (aka best) I’ve ever eaten. I adore how cooling the cucumber salad is with it.

Best meal of the weekend/month – homemade flatbreads. Lavash bread drizzled with olive oil and baked until crispy then topped with extra-sharp cheddar, baked chicken, and marinated artichoke hearts and baked again. We loved it! Plus steamed green beans sauteed with dijon mustard, yellow mustard, maple syrup, Sriracha, and rice vinegar.

Peep This

by

No post from me last weekend because I was away in Kingston! My cousin invited me to go with her and some friends for the weekend and we had a fabulous time. I had not seen her since her wedding last summer and it was so good to catch up! Also Kingston is super cute and packed with coffee spots and bakeries — I will be bringing Adam for a day-trip ASAP. And this weekend we are heading to PA to visit Adam’s family for Easter.

Some things I ate between trips…

This Chameleon Cafe Cubano Cold Brew was great. I wasn’t super impressed with the last few bottles I tried from them but this had good body and roastiness.

I found super juicy, ruby colored watermelon plums at Trader Joe’s so obviously my yogurt bowls this week were winners. Plain Greek with plum and salted caramel granola.

Plain Greek with plum, peanut butter, honey, and Heritage Flakes.

I am usually not a snack cake person but these Lidl milk & honey bars were lovely. Maybe I would also like Devil Dogs if they were served cold?

This boring photo is a reminder to myself that hummus makes a great after-work snack.

So much Easter candy!

P.S. Dad – the Brach’s jelly beans were great this year and totally worth buying. There is a grape flavor now!

See also – I infused Peeps into vodka. Served with lemon seltzer and edible glitter.

Dinner date at Youta Ramen. They have the sake jelly drinks!

We shared spicy cucumber salad (Persian cucumber, Serrano lime cilantro sauce, with sesame oil).

And Karaage (deep fried chicken with garlic mayo).

And I got the veggie ramen – truffle veggie broth, maitake, shitake, wood ear tempura, fermented bamboo shoots, and scallion – plus an egg and chili paste.

Brinner wraps. I sauteed Trader Joe’s soyrizo with red onion then scrambled in eggs and extra-sharp cheddar. Wrapped in a TJ’s lavash bread. Plus roasted baby cauliflower.

Sandwich roll-ups on TJ’s whole-wheat lavash – baked honey harissa chicken, roasted garlic hummus, chopped cucumber and yellow bell pepper. Plus a raw bok choy salad with homemade miso vinaigrette (1 Tbsp miso paste whisked with 1 Tbsp warm water until smooth, 1 Tbsp each sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sesame seeds, 1/2 Tbsp Sriracha, and 3 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar).

Best meal of the week was these loaded baked potatoes. I rubbed the potatoes in evoo and salt and baked at 400 for 60 minutes without wrapping in foil and they were perfect. Topped with leftover soyrizo, roasted broccoli and red onion, and extra-sharp cheddar.

Frame Worthy

by

Some highlights from a tasty weekend…

Coffee at Frame. The Upper West Side location is currently our favorite Manhattan coffee. We got the special latte with cinnamon and caramel.

We had to make a couple of stops to find worthwhile bagels near us in Long Island but this everything egg with salmon cream cheese did the trick.

We did a very fun 1990’s theme night and watched “Hey Dude” and “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” while eating throwback snacks. The Combos were lackluster but we had forgotten just how wonderful Bugles and Gushers are.

I tried tanghulu for the first time and loved it. Fresh fruit with a delicate layer of crispy sugar.

Treats at Lady Wong. The baked ube rice cake was the very best thing we ate all weekend.

Lunch at Bahn. This was the best meal of the weekend. Egg cream cold brew!!

We shared vermicelli bowls with butter beef.

And beer-battered chicken.

Dinner at Maldon and Mignonette. The lighting was bad but the food was surprisingly good. I had a nice cocktail with tequila and passionfruit and a crunchy salt rim.

Seasoned roasted carrots.

We share two (amazing) pastas. Ravioli with duck confit, sweet potato, sage, and pecorino and pappardelle with short rib and vodka sauce.

And two desserts. Cinnamon bundt cake and cheesecake-stuffed oatmeal cookies!