Soup’s Up

Highlights from this week…

Whole Foods’ Spring latte special is brown butter cookie – good but not excellent.

Meanwhile, Partners‘ Spring latte special is mojito and it is a 10/10.

I added butterfly peaflower tea to this smoothie (with frozen peaches, banana, soursop, and vanilla almond milk) to make it pretty and ended up with greige.

I was much more successful with frozen blueberries, banana, almond milk, and butterfly peaflower tea.

BelliWelli birthday cake flavored probiotic bar.

I feel like I should give another shout-out to this rapidly dwindling bag of Zapp’s Voodoo seasoned pretzels.

Passion fruit sips; hard seltzer and kombucha.

I had a day off this week and I walked 7 miles roundtrip from Penn Station to the Seaport for this burger and fries. The signature smashburger with gojuchang aioli, American, miso-caramelized onions, and garlic parmesan butter and waffle fries with red miso cheese sauce.

Monday I hadn’t gone to the grocery store for the week yet but we cobbled together a pretty good dinner. Chips and guacamole from our local burrito place.

Bitchin dip with mini sweet peppers (and cucumber slices).

And these Fillo’s walking tamales – Adam liked them, I thought they were underseasoned.

Tuesday I went to the fish counter and whipped up this Southern feast. Fried catfish (breaded in a mix of flour and cornmeal with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika); collard greens sauteed with green onion, lemon, and garlic; and hushpuppies. Then I doused my plate in honey, lemon, and Crystal hot sauce.

And Wednesday I made a giant batch of soup. With evoo, salt and pepper, garlic, yellow onion, celery, zucchini, carrot, potato, diced tomato, harissa, chicken broth, and chicken breast.

Butter Me Up

Some highlights from this tasty week include butterscotch, butterfingers, and butternut squash…

I bought this Monin butterscotch syrup for coffees (and ocassionally Diet Cokes!) and have really been enjoying it.

I also made an ube Vietnamese iced coffee one day.

Another fun beverage – sparkling pomelo iced matcha.

Creamy peach smoothie; frozen peaches and banana with plain skyr and cottage cheese. I will definitely be adding cottage cheese to my shopping list more often.

Voodoo-seasoned pretzel sticks.

We made Butterfinger-inspired no bakes and they were 11/10. Just crushed corn flakes with salt, peanut butter, melted butter, honey, and melted chocolate.

Many of this week’s dinners paired perfectly with dipping sauces. Baked french fries / buffalo chicken meatballs – ground chicken, egg, panko, a splash of half and half, buffalo sauce, shredded gouda, sliced green onions / roasted zucchini tossed in smoked paprika and Trader Joe’s ranch seasoning blend.

Oven-fried extra-firm tofu – marinated in pickle juice and breaded with crushed voodoo pretzels. Plus roasted baby cauliflower.

I had some leftover restaurant/take-out veggies saved in the freezer – spicy baby cauliflower from a Chinese place and garlic Chinese broccoli from a Thai place – which reheated quickly. With Trader Joe’s chicken and cilantro mini wontons.

Smoky broccoli salad – it was so good I gave it a recipe page! – with roasted butternut squash.

Oahu 2.0

This week’s eats were like a mini vacation; the highlights were mostly things we brought back from Hawaii!

Coconut creme coffee with coconut cream. The cream was a terrible idea – it was too fatty and it clumped in the cold coffee – but the coffee with plain skim milk was dreamy.

Local jellies.

I made a yogurt bowl with passionfruit butter, banana, and vanilla almond granola.

And a killer drink with guava jelly, vodka, lime, and ginger seltzer.

The last of our 7-11 candy stash. The creamy peach seeds (basically candied peaches with li hing) were my favoite.

I didn’t bring this jelly sake drink back from Hawaii but that is where I discovered them. So thrilled to have found them close to home now too – they are definitely in my top five favorite drinks. They are sweet and fizzy and loaded with jelly (think grass jelly consistency from boba shops).

Finally, this dinner has nothing to do with Hawaii but it was too good not to share. Roasted riced cauliflower / locally made lamb sausage / topping made with deglet dates, pistachio, lemon juice and zest, olive oil, and parsley.

Mostly Bowls

Highlights from the past week include…

Dark roast coffee with ube condensed milk.

A loaded yogurt bowl – plain Greek, Mid-day peanut butter chocolate square, doughnut peach, aprium, praline pecan granola.

Cosmic Crisps are my new favorite apple.

We did not enjoy this key lime sour, but I am posting a photo as a reminder to Adam and myself because it so seems like something we would like.

On the other hand, we loved the flavor profile and political stance of this Greenpoint IPA.

Typically I don’t buy vegan ice creams but these bites are pretty satisfying.

Our favorite sheetpan hash – roasted Japanese sweet potato, bok choy, and green onion; topped with smoked salmon candy and roasted Norwegian salmon. I also added tons of Kewpie, Sriracha, and furikake.

Big summer salads. Local lettuce, honey mustard dressing, baby tomatoes, roasted corn, baked tofu, and homemade croutons.

Best bowl of the week – sauteed cabbage, snap peas, baby tomato, and green onions, with chicken maple breakfast sausage, peanuts, Korean chili flake, Sichuan pepper salt, and a nuoc cham inspired sauce.

Tons of Roast take-out – chicken taco sandwich, fries, buffalo-style roasted potatoes – plus roasted purple cauliflower.

Tres Leches Latte

Such a good week of meals! Highlights include…

Coconut tres leches iced latte! Espresso with a blend of coconut milk, condensed milk, and half and half. I was making a rose coffee syup at the same time so I went ahead and dyed it pink!

Yogurt bowl. Plain Greek with chia seeds and strawberry jam, yellow peach, passionfruit, and praline granola.

My birthday is this weekend so these felt appropriate. We have loved every single thing we’ve tried from Made Good.

Boozy grape slushie – grape soda ice cubes blended with vodka. <– my best idea of the summer

A take on callaloo. Collard greens, turkey bacon, and crab meat cooked with coconut milk, onion, scotch bonnet pepper, ginger, and chili flakes.

Adam paired his with rice like an adult and I paired mine with pizza like a winner.

Creamy, spicy, peanut noodles. Ramen noodles + stir-fried cabbage and red bell pepper + a sauce with cream cheese, peanut butter, and gojuchang.

I gussied up store-bought marinara to make a delicious meat sauce – turkey bacon, ground turkey, onion, chili flake, urfa pepper, fish sauce, and tons of garlic. Served on Trader Joe’s cauliflower gnocci with a side of garlic bok choy.

We also used meat sauce on homemade pizza. Plus sauteed broccoli with butter, chili flake, and garlic.

Watermelon Pop Rocks

This past week was a crazy grueling work-week for both Adam and me (obviously his schedule was immeasurably worse than mine) and we ended up eating a ton of take-out (and candy!). The homemade meals I did manage to cook came out wonderfully though. Highlights included…

I am having a love affair with summer fruits. Doughnut peach + green plucot. My stone fruit preference goes plucot > plum > nectarine > peach > apricot and sometimes I forget how wonderful peaches are.

My mom sent us Pop Rocks to eat on watermelon, which was a great idea! Somehow it extended the fizziness.

Mango and dark cherry smoothie with almond milk and Greek yogurt.

We are officially all-in on alcoholic seltzers. These were two of the best we’ve tried so far.

Take-out win shout-out: this insane fried chicken sandwich from Roast. On sourdough bread with ranch, hot honey, pickles, and cheddar. Plus I made spicy cucumber salad.

Our favorite chicken salad – shredded chicken breasts with slivered almonds, kimchi, mayo, and horseradish. Plus sauteed rainbow chard with green onion, chili flake, and garlic.

Curried chicken thighs (baked after a marinade in goat milk yogurt, evoo, Jamaican curry powder, salt, and ginger) with baked cauliflower and coconut beans and rice (brown rice cooked with coconut milk, black beans, yellow onion, and habanero pepper).

Tastes Like Summer

Highlights from a tasty July week…

Coffee combo – Trader Joe’s dark roast with Chobani oatmilk horchatta.

We ordered marshmallows!

Vanilla Greek yogurt bowl with white peach, passionfruit, and fluff.

Toasted banana bread with marshmallow/fluff.

Summery drinks for a walk around our neighborhood – Blue Point Rainbow Italian Ice Sour and a vodka cocktail with fresh watermelon.

Adam and I are both head over heels for these vegan sweet potato cheese puffs.

Roasted garlic chicken sausage on a hot dog bun with Kewpie and kimchi. Plus roasted baby cauliflower.

Turkey sloppy Josephines! With roasted rainbow cauliflower.

Sheet-pan hash. With yellow potato, zucchini, green onion, pobablo pepper, fresh corn, chicken sausage, and sharp cheddar.

Sandwich Week

This is a delayed post because we got back from vacation and both immediately had crazy work schedules including weekend coverage. But I declared last week “Sandwich Week,” which meant that all of our take-out was actually on-theme!

First – vacation was amazing. Truly one of the best weeks of our lives. We road-tripped to Provincetown Cape Cod –> Boston –> Portland, Maine –> Hudson, NY –> home. We got lucky with beautiful weather, admired astonishingly pretty flowers/landscaping, and ate some of the best meals of our marriage. I don’t have a single photo to share but I will link to some of our favorites.

  • Cape Cod: Bookstore (great lobster rolls and view) / Scott’s Cakes (yellow cake with pink buttercream only, best I’ve ever tasted)
  • Portland: Bao Bao (our favorites – bang bang chicken salad, crab rangoon spring rolls) / Crispy Gai (wonderful Thai, plus cocktails) / Duck Fat (duck on duck on duck poutine) / HiFi (all-time best doughnuts) / Izakaya Minato (amazing crudo and okonomiyaki) / Time and Tide (inventive lattes)
  • Hudson: Breadfolks (all-time best pastries) / Gracie’s Lunchonette (our favorites – pink horchatta iced latte, tuna melt with freshly baked tuna) / Kitty’s (Adam’s favorite meal of the week; our favorites – potato chips with dip and salmon roe, crispy broccoli) / Lil’ Deb’s Oasis (caribbean/eclectic, one of my favorite restaurants on earth)

Second – Some non-sandwich highlights from the past week…

This week’s coffee combo.

It’s stone fruit season! I will be snacking on nectarines, peaches, plums, and plucots for the foreseeable future.

Malted blueberry smoothie. Frozen blueberries with chocolate milk, plain Greek yogurt, and malted milk powder.

I scored cake-flavored beer that wasn’t a stout and loved it.

Boozy cherry coke slushy – frozen cherry coke cubes, frozen cherries, Luxardo cherries, and vodka.

Breakfast for dinner with freezer-staples the night we got home. Hashbrown and Trader Joe’s gojuchang veggie mix with soft-scrambled eggs.

Plus a brinner cocktail with decaf iced coffee, amaretto, coffee liquor, and sweetened condensed milk.

Finally – SANDWICH WEEK! Definitely a little inspired by Trader Joe’s sourdough bread.

Roasted sliced turkey, turkey bacon, strawberry jam, honey dijon. Plus roasted green beans.

Soft-scrambled eggs topped with smoked salmon salad. That green pile in the back is sauteed shredded brusell sprouts with shallots and dried cherries.

Heirloom tomatoes, gojuchang mayo, smoked sliced turkey, turkey bacon. Plus baby cucumbers with Bitchin Sauce.

Shake Shack cheeseburger and fries. We also shared an oreo funnel cake milkshake that was surprisingly delicious.

Take-out from Roast – aka our ultimate sandwich experience. Their roast beef melt is my all-time favorite. With fries and roasted green beans.

Turkey cheeseburger-inspired trail mix. Meat stick, cheddar moon cheese, dill pickle flavored almonds.

Turkey cheeseburger-inspired salad. Local lettuce with honey mustard dressing, baby tomatoes, dill pickle almonds, dill pickle slices, turkey meatballs (seasoned with dill pickle juice and yellow mustard), sharp cheddar, and homemade croutons with furikake.