Super Cups

This weekend I – – Did not watch the Super Bowl. Wore an insane amount of red and pink in preparation for today’s holiday. Worked all three days but managed to have crazy good dinners and a date night with Adam. Highlights included…

Two things I adore and eat all of the time but don’t share often because it feels repetitious (on very separate ends of the snacking spectrum!) – Sparkling matcha.

Reese’s potato chip (and pretzel!) peanut butter cups.

Caramel matcha latte with oat milk from a super cute spot in Williamsburg.

BBQ chicken bowls. Sweet potato fries // sautéed collard greens with butter and lemon // chicken breast and red onion cooked in the crock pot, shredded, tossed with bbq sauce, then baked in the oven.

Roasted sheet-pan hash. Pesto chicken sausage, sweet potato, Japanese sweet potato, zucchini, fennel, and sweet onion; topped with pesto. <– this was 11/10 and I really want to make a Super Bowl joke about it

Date Night at Nami Nori. We were thrilled that they had Something and Nothing seltzer and I loved my Cherry Bomb cocktail – cremant sparkling wine, cherry sage cordial, and soju.

We started with furikake fries with mentaiko mayo.

And for my five temaki (a style of hand rolls) I chose: tuna poke with crispy shallots // crispy tofu chimichurri with micro cilantro // crunchy spicy crab // salmon with cucumber // spicy tuna.

Strawberry, Soursop, Taro, Pine

Highlights from this week include – coffee, pastel-colored foods, breakfast for dinner, my favorite Caribbean fruit…

This week’s coffee combo was beans from India with Chobani brown sugar creamer.

See also – espresso with strawberry milk.

I made a smoothie with soursop nectar. Plus Greek yogurt and frozen grapes.

See also – creamy soursop cocktails with rum, amaretto, and brown sugar coffee creamer.

I really loved this Blue Point pine needle IPA. It was interesting without being overwhelming.

Taro milk chia pudding with honey Chobani yogurt and jumbo blueberries.

Take-out Philly cheesesteak with roasted yellow French beans.

Seemore’s chicken, kale, and pesto sausage / jumbo blueberries / hash with shredded potato, leek, red pepper, and kimchi / ketchup + Sriracha.

Earl Grey Of Sandwich

Highlights from this weekend include…

Chia pudding with eggnog and cinnamon and fresh strawberries.

Comfortland‘s eggnog croissant. <– my favorite seasonal item of this year

Earl grey pour-over coffee.

Topped with cinnamon vanilla ube cold foam.

See also – a delicious slice of ube tres leches.

Fries with spicy tuna salad, chili flakes, green onion, and furikake.

We have a loaf of Trader Joe’s sliced sourdough in the house so I, of course, planned sandwiches for every dinner! Maple smoked turkey with cheddar and honey mustard. Plus lemon mustard roasted green beans (roasted green beans tossed in honey mustard, garlic oil, and lemon juice).

Roast beef with cheddar and horseradish mayo. Plus roasted zucchini and smashed potatoes with garlic oil, cheddar, and paprika.

I didn’t mean for this plate to be so yellow, but it was the best meal of the week! Golden pineapple / roasted orange cauliflower / soft scrambled egg sandwich with tons of smoked salmon salad.

Chestnut, Coquito, Eggnog, Mint

This post includes highlights back through last weekend; it was Adam’s birthday and I didn’t want to waste his time blogging. We had a wonderful weekend including great weather for two days of long walks in Brooklyn, lots of delicious meals, a trip to Sundays in Brooklyn’s Snow Days in Brooklyn winter pop up (which included egg nog soft serve and a Dark and Snowy cocktail, among other things), and a drive-through holiday light show.

Highlights…

Breakfast at Ursula. We split a pine needle mocha(!!).

And a cream cheese frosting stuffed cinnamon roll(!!!).

And I had a sandwich with scrambled egg, cheddar, and green chile on housemade brioche.

Chestnut and vanilla iced latte from Nerd Be Cool.

A Christmas yogurt bowl – Trader Joe’s eggnog Greek yogurt with kiwi, pomegranate, and granola.

See also – plain Greek yogurt with honey, cinnamon, granola, kiwi, pomegranate, and fresh mandarin.

We went to Oddfellows for a scoop of coquito ice cream.

And Brooklyn Cupcake for a coquito cupcake. Plus flan and guava cheese, since it was a birthday!

We really loved this chocolate mint sparkling water.

Trader Joe’s Thai tea mini ice cream mochi.

These chip-stuffed Reese’s cups were just as good as I thought they would be! Completely worth the months of gas station stops to search for them.

We were also pretty pleased with these Dove truffles.

I ate an obscene amount of take-out this week but here were two really good “homemade” dinners. Chili cheese fries plus roasted romanesco.

Cold silken tofu with chili oil (I used urfa pepper paste with garlic oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, white sugar, and scallions) plus sautéed eggplant, bok choy, and red bell pepper with ginger and peanuts.

Festival Of Latkes

Happy Hanukkah to my readers who celebrate! Highlights from this week include…

My new favorite citrus – Kishu Mandarins. They are as juicy as they are small and adorable.

Fat Orange Cat double IPAs.

The most “me” beer I’ve ever purchased – Evil Twin’s cola sour with marshmallow and cinnamon.

A fun thing for this December – we bought a marshmallow advent calendar. Our first two flavors were cranberry and maple pancake.

My parents sent us an assortment of mint candies, including homemade buttermints!

A take on the New York Times’ cheesy white bean bake – I added shredded chicken, onion, chili flake, and urfa pepper.

Trader Joe’s cheese blintzes. Topped with cranberry sauce and a brown sugar vanilla yogurt sauce.

Chicken burger, roasted broccoli and cauliflower, and Trader Joe’s latkes and cauliflower latkes.

Takeout from Roast – chicken taco sandwich / roast beef melt / crispy chili brussel sprouts – with leftover latkes.

With Cranberry On Top

What an odd-feeling week; Adam and I came back from vacation and then immediately both went to work on Saturday, then it was a holiday week which always feels special even though we both worked, and tomorrow we are heading to Pennsylvania for a belated holiday celebration with all of my in-laws. But first, tonight we are meeting out of town friends for Her Name is Han, which should be quite fun.

Highlights from the week include – mostly things that were on-theme!

I want to say I don’t have a limited/seasonal release item problem but this year I stockpiled things that were on-theme for Thanksgiving, so you tell me. My Christmas collection is also pretty robust.

I needed special coffee to ease back into work so I pulled out Hudson Opera House Espresso beans from our last trip to Hudson Roastery.

Perfect Bar’s new chocolate toffee flavor was yummy (still can’t compete with the cookie dough one though).

See also – I liked Barebell’s holiday crisp even better. I couldn’t totally identify the flavor profile – coconut? – but it was creamy and delicious.

Yogurt bowl. With pumpkin seed butter, cranberry sauce, and maple and almond butter granola.

Peanut brittle Reese’s?! I actually loved these (still not as good as the pretzel cups!).

Homemade bbq turkey and black bean chili. Topped with cheese, cranberry sauce, and Trader Joe’s hot and sweet jalapenos.

Plus herbed stuffing veggie chips.

Salads. Sweet baby lettuce with black garlic balsamic vinaigrette, Trader Joe’s maple roasted almonds, smoked turkey, and roasted butternut squash.

Plus a mix of stuffing chips; we much preferred Trader Joe’s to the Whole Foods version.

Nachos! Stuffing chips with cheese, cranberry sauce, and smoked turkey.

Tahini Frozen Cold Brew

Highlights from a weekend with a lot of Brooklyn walking (Prospect Heights to Cobble Hill // Greenpoint to Williamsburg) – – –

Coffee from home – iced phin-brew with ube and chocolate milk.

Edith’s has a brick-and-mortar now and their tahini and oat milk frozen cold brew officially made it into my top five lifetime favorite coffees!

Our spicy everything bagel with smoked mackerel salad and labneh was not bad either.

A very summery sandwich and seltzer from Campbell’s. Smoked chicken, pimento cheese, green apples, pickled onions, mayo, and arugula on sourdough + hibiscus and rose.

We went big for our last Smorgasburg visit of the season. Cookies and cream ice cream with toasted Italian meringue.

Duck Season royal poutine – duck fat fries, duck bacon, cheese curds, and duck gravy!!

This frozen daiquiri from Elsa is my new favorite cocktail. I would like all of my drinks to be served with butterscotch and date molasses from now on!

And this was my newest favorite bubble tea combo – peppermint tea with herbal jelly and strawberry hearts.

Gooey peanut butter cookie.

Dinner at Pinto Thai. We loved the assemble your Thai iced tea.

Chicken satay.

Green papaya salad.

Crispy chicken with walnut, almond, peanut, cashew, and pumpkin seeds.

Pumpkin, Cinnamon, Squash

Highlights from a nice weekend…

A coffee menagerie.

Drip Coffee has gotten a lot of good press and I see why – this oat milk latte was smooth and delicious!

Bars – pumpkin pie was good, chocolate seed and oats was great.

It was Sweetest Day on Saturday so Adam and I went on a date to Laderach to buy an unreasonable amount of chocolates.

Golden Years in Brooklyn for a classic cheeseburger with fries.

Plus not-so-classic Cuba Libre with fernet and Paloma with mezcal and jalopeno.

Dinner at Kings Co Imperial. Guangzhou Layover – mezcal, plum, Campari, and Strega.

Crispy oyster mushrooms with Sichuan chili pepper.

Chinese eggplant with garlic and kung pow sauce.

Chicken dumplings in cinnamon oil.

Noodles with mushrooms.

Best meal of the weekend was this homemade dinner. Curried chicken salad with celery, toasted almonds, and dried apricots, plus roasted yellow squash and delicata squash with cinnamon, urfa chili, and gochugaru.