Hell Of A Halvah

by Emily

Highlights from this week…

It’s really lovely to have a husband who arranges me flowers and buys me cupcakes when I’m cranky! Related note – it’s also really nice to live walking distance from Sweethaus because apparently they are our favorite cupcakes on the planet.

Random drink assortment from work, the lemon rose blossom water was surprisingly delicious.

Weirdest/most exciting snack award goes to – this Japanese candy we brought home from NY. It was like a fun dip but with a cola flavored lollipop and fizzy milk powder.

Fantastic product sample – Absolutely Gluten Free sent me their newest snack item: TahiniBARs. Halvah is a candy made of sesame paste and it is both Adam’s and my very favorite treat.

The TahiniBARS come in vanilla, pistachio, and cocoa nibs. They are certified kosher, dairy free, and gluten free. Each serving has 100 calories.

We LOVED them! They absolutely stacked up to the halvah I grew up eating and the artisinal varieties we’ve had in NY.

One of my favorite ways to eat halvah is crumbled up in yogurt, so one day I made an absolutely ridiculous snack – plain Greek yogurt / vanilla TahiniBAR / Soom chocolate tahini spread / red plum and green pluot. Delicious.

We had some tasty dinner too. Like bbq chicken fried rice. Fried rice / carmelized red onion / shredded rotisserie chicken / fresh corn / collard greens cooked with rice vinegar / bbq sauce / eggs.

Jalopeno popper pasta, loosely inspired by this recipe. We used whole-wheat shells, turkey bacon, no cream, and less cheese; plus I topped mine with panko. With roasted zucchini.

Leftovers with an assortment of baby wines. I do NOT recommend the rose.

Homemade buffalo chicken dip / scooped with baby carrots and potato chips / celery sauteed with butter, salt, pepper, and celery seed.

I’m trying out a recipe that sounds super fun this weekend, so please cross your fingers for me that it turns out!

23Jul2018

A New York Weekend

by Emily

We just had the best! weekend!! ever!!! Or at least that’s what Adam and I told each other multiple times each day. It’s my birthday tomorrow (the 24th) and he took me back to New York to celebrate.

We got super lucky with the weather and managed to do a million fun things, including try out a few new restaurants that we missed going to before the move, eat all the ice cream, and drink all the coffee (and put ice cream in our coffee!).

Here were the highlights…

Staying in Williamsburg in the Pod hotel, which was adorable and totally big enough for us. And they had games and a bar in the lobby with Grimm Icing on the Cake on tap.

Brunch at Fausto, our new favorite spot. I had a cocktail with ontratto aperitif, aperitivo select, grapefruit, and tonic. Polenta with braised duck, poached egg, and pea greens. And hashbrowns with chili aioli.

Quad, non-fat, iced lattes from Black Brick.

Aussie iced coffee from Sweatshop. Basically a quad, non-fat, iced latte with a scoop of ice cream in it.

West Side Story from Paper Plane Coffee = guava, sweetened condensed milk, and espresso. It was surprisingly delicious, and pink!

Running along the East River.

Lunch at Sauvage. We split baked eggs and a salad with arugula, charred corn, pistachio, and whipped chevre.

Smorgasburg! We got fantastic okonomiyaki and a scoop of mint ice cream with toasted Swiss meringue on top. <– my favorite iteration of marshmallow of all time

Ice cream at Milk Bar. I got a babyquake (aka mini blizzard) with birthday cake truffles and the best sprinkles.

Stocking up on Japanese goodies at Midoriya.

Buying an adorable bear t-shirt for me and a succulent pin for Adam at Brooklyn Flea.

Dinner at Dez. We shared cauliflower and crispy capers and chimichurri and I had a chopped vegetable salad with roasted potato, crispy eggplant, a seven minute egg, umbah, zhough, and tahini.

Beating our favorite team shooting game (Ghost Hunter) at Barcade.

Getting drinks with old friends at Freemans.

Beers at Greenpoint Brewery.

Walking across the Williamsburg Bridge.

I love New York.

20Jul2018

Bells, Poblanos, And Shishitos, Oh My

by Emily

Highlights from this pepper-filled week…

Coffee coffee.

I made bang bang shrimp with zucchini noodles loosely following this recipe. I swapped in gojuchang and honey for sweet chili sauce and tossed the shrimp in some cornstarch to help give it a nice crust.

Nacho night. Kettle chips / shredded turkey breast / Camembert and cheddar cheese sauce / parsley // roasted green beans.

Veggie bowls. Sauteed red, orange, and yellow bell pepper with sweet onion and garlic / black beans sauteed with charred poblano pepper and cojita cheese / avocado / fried egg / sour cream and Cholula hot sauce.

Cheese plate. Grapes / Camembert and sharp cheddar / olives / tamari almonds / shishito peppers with sea salt, lime juice, and honey. <– I was so excited for this meal and it ended up not having enough protein being the least filling thing on earth and we both had to make sandwiches

Local dessert love. Cheesecake ice cream.

Cupcakes from Sweethaus. That middle one is cookie dough!

We’re doing something fun this weekend…

9Jul2018

Burgers And Breweries

by Emily

Highlights from the weekend included…

New coffees. Shenandoah Joe was perfectly roasty.

I got a nitro nom nom cold brew from Snowing in Space.

And this can of cold brew was delicious (there’s skim milk in there too, it was frothy but not as much as the picture looks).

Brunch at Maya. I had a Hurricane with Cruzan rum in it!

And a super Southern plate of chicken and waffles. House-fried chicken thigh, caramelized onion and cheddar biscuit waffle, hot honey, and maple syrup.

Snacks of note – Virginia peanuts.

Voges caramel marshmallows with roasted walnut and pecan.

Friday night we met up with my cousin for dinner and drinks. I got a vegetarian chili and a mound of fried cheese curds at South Street Brewery.

And a yummy flight at Three Notch’d including passion fruit and watermelon goses.

Saturday night Adam and I tried out Citizen Burger. More passion fruit, in a lackluster cider.

I had a turkey burger topped with white onion, pickles, mayo, and pimento cheese. Plus so many fries.

Sunday night I finally cooked in our new kitchen!

Homemade turkey burgers / on sweet potato buns / topped with ketchup and mayo / turkey bacon / and Kerrygold Dubliner cheddar. Plus roasted green beans.

Have a nice week!

15Jun2018

Last Day

by Emily

Holy frick. It’s my last day of work today!!

It’s been a weird last week – I’ve actually been crazy busy because a coworker is out sick so I’ve been covering additional units. Usually you don’t do much patient care on your final day, but I’m planning on squeezing in a pretty full morning before I start my exit paperwork. Plus I’ve been wrapping up various projects, including an hour-long presentation on critical care nutrition guidelines that I gave to the residents covering the ICUs.

It’d be nice to have some time to decompress but the last two weeks of June are going to be insane with the move. And in busy-ness that is fun, my parents are coming into town tomorrow for a final city visit. And then Adam’s family is joining us to celebrate his graduation next week!

Busy, busy, busy, busy, busy! <– name that movie

Here were the highlights from my last week of work…

{fun in bottled coffee} Cold brew from Trader Joe’s.

Pecan cold brew from Chameleon Coffee.

{fruit forward snacks} Fresh watermelon chunks with TJ’s cucumber watermelon mint Greek yogurt.

The last of the ambrosia my coworker made me. I for sure ate out every single piece of palm seed.

{vegetables masquerading as chips/fries} Roasted green bean “cheese fries” with ketchup and mayo. I’ll be honest, I wanted Kewpie mayo for years and finally bought a bottle the month before this move and now I’m looking for any excuse, no matter how flimsy, to use it.

Spinach and parmesan tzatziki dip scooped with sugar snap peas and baby carrots.

{good foods and goodbyes with coworkers} An after-work walk to DeKalb Market Hall for Ample Hills. Baby I was Churned This Way.

Lunch at Bolivian Llama Party in the Ashland. I had a fried seitan sandwich and we split insanely good cilantro cheese fries.

{New York must-eats} A poppy seed bagel with jalapeno-cheddar cream cheese from La Bagel Delight. <– eaten on the walk to work, key feature

Shaved ice from Grace Street. We swooned over black sesame ice with sweetened condensed milk, honey boba, and mochi. <– all-time best boba and mochi in the city/world

Hand-pulled noodles from Xi’an Famous Foods. Extra spicy for me, with smashed cucumber salad. The chew factor here is just perfection.

I ♥ New York.

18May2018

Broccoli And Cake

by Emily

Highlights from the week…

Coffee coffee! Irving Farms Blackstrap Espresso with half and half.

Things that taste like cake! Hot chocolate that was pretty good and a candy bar that was pretty meh.

Blackberry yogurt bowl with chopped plums and Flax Plus Multibran Flakes.

Plain Greek yogurt with black sesame halvah from Seed + Mill and an envy apple on the side.

Dinners this week were easy (and very chip forward) but good. The best night I ate a crappy sandwich on the train because… I went to the ballet! My aunt brought me along with her to see Misty Copeland in Giselle. It was beautiful and fantastic!

Chips and dip. I made homemade onion dip – sauteed sweet onion and green onions, turkey bacon, fresh chives, sour cream, and kewpie mayo. Dipped with gojuchang kettle chips, baby carrots, and bell pepper. It turned out very well and I definitely went back for more chips to keep scooping.

Nachos! Toasted tortilla chips / homemade nacho cheese sauce (you literally just melt together mild cheddar and sour cream, it was crazy easy) / ground turkey sauteed with taco seasoning and onion and bell pepper / green onion on top.

Warm broccoli salad. Roasted broccoli / turkey bacon / chives / raisins / blistered peanuts / sour cream, sugar, smoked paprika, and rice vinegar.

I work the next five days but I hope everyone else has a fun weekend!

7May2018

Coffees And Cocktails

by Emily

Important things first – the pink and purple trees in our complex are amazingly gorgeous.

This is the immediate view out of our front door and it makes me smile every day.

My purple hair finally got too patchy to be cute, while remaining highly pigmented in a few spots, and my hairdresser had to make me super blonde to get rid of it all.

I had a fantastic weekend – including a Lower East Side day, a Williamsburg/Bushwick day, and a Long Island day – and we ate all the things! I love New York, I love New York, I love New York.

We checked out OddFellows‘ new coffee and ice cream spot and I had an iced latte with toasted marshmallow milk.

I also had a toasted marshmallow iced latte (good, but not as good, obviously) from Sweetie Pies on Main while we walked around Cold Springs Harbor.

Japanese shaved ice from The Little One. Strawberry sauce / sweetened condensed milk / roasted strawberries / coconut whipped cream.

Arcade games and drinks at Barcade. <– one of my favorite spots in the city even if I’m not very good at Pac Man or Tapper

Craft cocktails on tap at Yours Sincerely. Adam got a tasting flight and I had a Folsom Fizz with bourbon, cola syrup, and almond.

Snacks at Smorgasburg. Belgian fries with malt vinegar aioli and chipotle ranch.

Noodle bowls at Just for Fen. Can JfF be my new living room? The space was so cute!

And the food was wonderful. I had smashed cucumber salad and spicy chicken rice noodles with housemade chili oil, pickled radish and cabbage, baby bok choy, scallion, cilantro, and peanuts.

Dinner at Forrest Point. On the patio!

I had a fried chicken sandwich with jicima and blue cheese slaw.

The few things we ate at home were pretty great too. Trader Joe’s scallion pancakes are the best frozen meal of all time. Served with baby carrots and bell peppers.

I made us delicious rice bowls. Brown rice / red, yellow, and orange bell pepper sauteed with onion and garlic / chicken breast slow-cooked in the crockpot with salt, pepper, oregano, cumin, garlic, lime, and orange juice and then shredded and broiled until crispy / sharp cheddar / TJ’s tomatillo roasted yellow chili salsa.

Plus mojito milkshakes! Cruzan rum / homemade mint simple syrup / lime juice / vanilla ice cream / ice.

4May2018

Sandwich x4

by Emily

I don’t have much to share this week, when your vacation is unexpectedly extended by two days your return home plan for a massive grocery haul turns into a five item mini trip and then you end up eating sandwiches two meals a day for two days straight.

I also took myself on a fun breakfast date in Dekalb Market Hall, and enjoyed an everything bagel with scallion cream cheese and an amazing iced latte.

I do have a few leftover island photos to share!

P.S. I adored being home, but oh man, do I love Brooklyn.

P.P.S. I am off from work today (all I could handle post-vacation was a two day work-week!) and I have exciting plans to eat all the things.

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: potato

Hell Of A Halvah

A New York Weekend

Bells, Poblanos, And Shishitos, Oh My

Burgers And Breweries

Last Day

Broccoli And Cake

Coffees And Cocktails

Sandwich x4