Pumpkin’s Still In Season

by Emily

This post includes three more days of vacation (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday); I eased back into the work-week after my trip. It’s supposed to be in the 20’s in NYC later today so now I kind of wish I was away on vacation again!

Highlights from the week…

Coffee!

Pumpkin spice my grandma brought me from Winans.

Pumpkin smoothie with Greek yogurt, maple syrup, cow’s milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

BBQ at Salt and Bone.

I got a ridiculous but tasty Percocet with aged rum, coco lopez, citrus.

And had turkey breast – 3 hour smoked with a butter sauce – cole slaw, and a few bites of Adam’s potato salad.

Thai food in Sunnyside. Fried tofu.

And drunken noodles that actually had enough veggies for my tastes.

One of our favorite winter traditions is visiting Winter Village at Bryant Park for a thick hot chocolate.

Gooey walnut chocolate chip cookie from Chip in Astoria.

Buckeye straight from Ohio.

We tried something fun from Minamoto Kitchoan – Sakura Gomora, sweet bean and mochi wrapped in a cherry blossom pancake.

Packed lunch – strawberry and rosehip kefir cup with a cupcake crumbled in! Plus a snap dragon apple.

I brought in chocolate cupcakes (from a mix!) with homemade cream cheese frosting and Amy Sedaris sprinkles for a coworker’s birthday.

Yogurt with pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice Cheerios and Frosted Mini Wheats.

Roasted fall salad – quinoa / shredded brussel sprouts / leeks / turkey bacon / sweet and spicy pecans / gold raisins / and oven-fried sage.

One of the co-founders of CHUT UP reached out to my about sampling their new line of condiments and I happily accepted, so those were featured in dinners for the rest of the week. All three flavors are made with minimal processing and no added sugars (and they’re tasty!).

I made a veggie-packed version of chana masala with the addition of celery and orange and yellow bell pepper.

Topped with apple and caramelized onion chutney.

And a dinner for dipping with blue cheese dressing and beet ketchup.

Roasted broccoli and a root veggie mix from Trader Joe’s (carrots, beets, parsnips, and sweet potato).

Baked chicken tenders crusted in panko after an overnight marinate in peri peri hot sauce, minced ginger, lemon, and brown sugar.

6Nov2017

Columbus Travels

by Emily

My weekend adventures in Ohio were absolutely fantastic! My cousin had a gorgeous wedding and it was beyond fabulous to get to spend time with my family.

I got into town two nights ahead of the wedding and had the opportunity to explore Columbus a bit, including Easton, North Market, and German Village.

Culinary highlights…

Flowers and Bread – Iced latte with local milk and a chocolate-stuffed roll with housemade apple butter.

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream – Boozy eggnog and Black Cat espresso.

Related: I had my first eggnog iced latte of the season on this trip and it made me blissfully happy.

Roosevelt Coffeehouse – Vietnamese iced coffee.

The Roost at North Market – I had a giant burrito with scrambled egg, housemade chicken sausage, cheese, black bean salsa, and sour cream. Plus tons of Franks.

Wolf’s Ridge Brewery – I had a a flight of three fun beers, Clear Sky Loops a cream ale with orange, lime, and vanilla / Gose brewed with freshly ground coriander and gourmet sea salt / Pi made with spices and local pumpkins.

The arugula salad with blue cheese, saison poached pear, dried cranberries, marcona almonds, and honey peppercorn dressing.

And the sweet corn gnocchi with arugula coulis, crispy bread, roasted garlic, and roasted acorn and butternut squash.

23Oct2017

Last Week I…

by Emily

Last week I loved: Webster!

Adam and I can’t believe how handsome he is and we text each other pictures of him constantly but they’re on my phone so they usually don’t make it to the blog.

Last week I watched: Rick and Morty. We’re almost through the 3rd season and it has been fantastic. I think season 2 was the best so far though. I also have been re-rewatching The Office because I’m obsessed. It’s so funny and I love when shows have characters (Jim and Pam) just adore each other with minimal drama. The Micheal Scott seasons are perfectly cringe-inducing – I have really bad secondhand embarrassment anyways and I can barely watch most of his scenes.

Last week I ate: More samples from the healthy brand showcase.

Setton Farms is America’s 2nd largest pistachio producer and their stuff is delicious. We’ve been enjoying chocolate-covered pistachios along with the perfectly salted nut blend.

I also liked the pineapple flavored raisins from Amazing Fruit.

Last week I pumpkined: Four new items! See more below.

Last week I drank: Key lime La Croix. The newest flavor is delicious, and currently my favorite fizzy water.

Last week I listened to: “Bodak Yellow” by Cardi B on repeat. It’s super catchy and a lot of her word-play is very clever. I’ve also been listening to a ton of Betty Who.

Other food highlights…

This week’s coffee combo.

Pumpkin tres leches bubble tea from Teapsy in Astoria.

Pumpkin and salted maple pecan frozen yogurt with peanut butter, marshmallow cream, Oreos, and mochi.

I made a fancied-up version of my Spinach and Artichoke Egg Pie. I precooked the veggies with olive oil, onion, anchovies, and tons of garlic. Plus I substituted cottage cheese because I like it better than ricotta.

No carbohydrate component to that meal so we had potato chips and pumpkin beers, woo-hoo!

We tried pizza from a new place – Frantoni’s. Adam and I shared four things so we could try a lot of the menu. The eggplant slice was my favorite but the buffalo chicken was good too.

I made bagel and lox nachos! Everything bagel chips // TJ’s four cheese blend // hot smoked salmon // green onions // and cream cheese sauce with ginger, soy sauce, and brown sugar.

Plus roasted brussel sprouts on the side.

I made buffalo chicken chili. Tons of sauteed onion, green onion, carrots, and celery // tomato paste and crushed tomatoes // salt, pepper, celery seed, and smoked paprika // shredded chicken breast // black beans // cream cheese.

Have a great week!

16Oct2017

White Gummi Slushie

by Emily

I worked the weekend (and had two weekdays off) so my schedule has been a bit out of whack. It is still basically summer temperatures here so we haven’t moved on to hot chocolate and soups but we have been loving the crap out of Pumpkin Month. Here were some highlights from the past 7 days…

Weekly coffee combo – Black Hand and chocolate milk.

This pumpkin spice kefir is super tasty.

Pumpkin Noosa with a TJ’s pumpkin cereal bar and a SweeTango apple.

TJ’s pumpkin yogurt with pumpkin spice Cheerios and Frosted Mini Wheats and a Starkrimson pear.

Key lime skyr with pomegranate and Heritage Flakes.

Adam and I got a midweek lunch at Sweet to Lick vegan cafe and we are completely in love. We had a terrific hero with bulgogi style setain, gochujang mayo, and pickled vegetables.

Plus the best chocolate chip cookies ever sandwiched around Oreo cream filling!

Detroit Friends potato chips (expo sample). These are some of the very best kettle chips we’ve ever tasted and their company is totally fantastic too – some of the potatoes are grown in a vacant lot in Detroit’s Hope District.

Orange slice candies. There’s a vitamin commercial where a woman squeezes an orange slice shaped gummy and it made Adam and I both immediately want to run out to the drugstore.

Campfire S’mores ice cream.

White gummi slushie from 7-11. We are obsessed, these are so good. I’m not sure what the actual flavor is (pineapple? or maybe white grape?) but they are juicy and delicious.

All-you-can-eat sushi buffet at Mizumi. We love it there, everything is super fresh and expertly prepared. I didn’t snap all of my plates but the highlights included crab cakes, inari, and seaweed salad.

Roasted squash and tuna quinoa cakes with cocktail sauce.

Veggie bowls. Shredded cabbage tossed in this sauce / roasted edamame / marinated hard-boiled eggs (marinated in gochujang, brown sugar, soy sauce, and rice vinegar).

Mexican food at Oak House in Floral Park.

I had a Mezcal mojito.

And veggie fajitas with carrots, onions, squash, peppers, and mushrooms. They had chipotle Cholula at the table and we doused everything with it.

Plus Adam and I split vanilla flan and tres leches cake for dessert.

Have a great week!

29Sep2017

The End Of Apple Month

by Emily

Highlights from this week…

Coffee coffee. More Black Hand magic.

PSA – the maple pecan latte at Starbucks tastes like nothing and we do not recommend it.

I’ve finished out my Apple Month yogurts. Cinnamon apple Chobani with chia seeds, vanilla almond granola, and an applesauce on the side.

TJ’s caramel apple with Heritage Flakes and a SweeTango on the side.

Snacks of note included apple mix candy corn (green apple, caramel apple, and apple pie flavored).

And white truffle chips and baby carrots with garlic dip.

I made bean burgers for dinner. This recipe but with white beans (great northern and white kidney), pesto, and parmesan. With roasted cauliflower and a smoked garlic aioli.

Clean out the freezer night. Veggies and orange chicken from Trader Joe’s.

It was actually a pretty good meal, but cocktail hour was better – calamansi lime juice with club soda and vodka.

Last night we did a dinner date in Brooklyn at LaRina. 10/10, we adored it! Housemade pastas, an innovative menu, a great interior/vibe. I had lemon gigli with duck ragu.

And we had fantastic panna cotta with salted caramel for dessert. YUM!

Have a sweet weekend.

11Sep2017

Coffee And Eggs

by Emily

Important Things First

I was finally able to speak with my parents and they are alright (and the rest of my island family members are safe as well). Phone service, power, and most cell service are out, so for the foreseeable future I can only talk to my parents when they manage to borrow a working cell phone. Communication on-island is tricky as well, radio stations were down and when I spoke with my parents briefly Friday afternoon they didn’t even know that Jose had been updated to a category four (thankfully that ended up being a nonissue). We got unbelievably lucky and our home’s roof is fully intact. When I got off the train Friday morning I had a voicemail from my dad and I was so relieved I starting sobbing in the middle of the street like a crazy person. It’s been an emotional weekend, I am completely overwhelmed with gratitude for how fortunate my family was.

The United States Virgin Islands as a whole was not so lucky. St. Thomas and St. John were decimated by Hurricane Irma. On St. Thomas, our only hospital, airport, fire station, and post office were destroyed. Looking through my friends’ pictures of the destruction on Facebook is heart-wrenching.

If you feel compelled to help the VI, here are some options:

A friend I trust is crowdfunding via YouCaring and will distribute money to local foundations
Tim Duncan vowed to match donations up to $1million
Kenny Chesney also started a foundation
If you are interested in volunteering to help with clean up, here is where you can register

Weekend Eats Highlights

{1} apple adventures

I broke into some of my Trader Joe’s apple goodies – freeze dried Fujis and cereal bars. Along with a coffee Chobani yogurt drink.

{2} delightful drinks

Iced coffee with chocolate milk, my favorite beverage combo. I also loved my lavender mint water.

{3} stupendous snack

Trader Joe’s hit it out of the park with this seed and bean medley. Apparently dried fava beans are my favorite thing, who knew?

{4} eggy eats

I breakfasted at the hot bar before starting my shopping at Whole Foods. Scrambled eggs with potatoes and turkey bacon and an iced latte.

Homemade chilaquiles! Tortilla chips heated in a skillet with olive oil / tossed with green salsa and sour cream / with roasted zucchini folded in / and cheese / topped with two ~~burnt~~ fried eggs.

{5} Brooklyn bites

Brooklyn Kolache Co.

We shared poppy seed, chocolate, and jalapeño egg and cheese.

BKG Coffee Roasters.

This spot was adorable and my latte was yummy.

5Sep2017

Cinnamon And Marshmallow In My Coffee

by Emily

I have eaten some very yummy things over the past four days! Adam and I both worked the holiday, but first we got to spend almost two full weekend days together!!! Good times.

Things [literal things] that made me happy this weekend…

Thanks to all of Target’s cheap “back to school” goodies, we have a jazzy new shower curtain and bedspread.

The sheets underneath are pretty happy-making too.

A Saturday trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Such a fun way to spend a morning. We were expecting things to be sparse due to the season but there was still a ton of beauty to admire.

As of last Friday, it’s Apple Month.

This spiced apple bourbon hand soap is currently the best smelling thing in our house!

Culinary highlights…

I haven’t eaten anything apple yet but I did cram some pretty fall-forward flavors into my coffees. Cinnamon.

And toasted marshmallow.

Though I also had a very summer-y Australian iced coffee with Wandering Bear cold brew and vanilla Curious Creamery ice cream.

Cheddar-chive biscuit and a matcha iced latte at Annex.

Brunch at Maison Premiere. We had a pastry assortment that was out of this world.

Maison Jungle Bird – Hamilton Black Rum, Cruzan Black Strap Rum, pineapple, Campari, and sugar cane.

I had the duck confit hash with bell pepper and poached egg. <– not as good as Colonie, sadly

While at the Garden, we had lunch at the Yellow Magnolia Café. (<– newest venture from the chef/owner of Wilma Jean)

I had wonderfully crispy, lemony fried chicken. Served with habanero honey, collard green slaw, and delicious wild rice. I suspect that there was honey butter in the rice because I don’t even like wild rice.

We took a long post-lunch walk for coffee and ended up also getting ice cream for dessert – blueberry with blue velvet cake from Little Cupcake Bakeshop.

Friday night I met a girlfriend in the Lower East Side for dinner and drinks. Sizzling noodles at The Tang.

I ended up with way too much food because I also couldn’t resist the Chungking Express salad – romaine, soft-boiled egg, honey, black vinegar, and chili oil.

How fantastically ridiculous are the drinks at Mother of Pearl?! My daiquiri – with Campari, grapefruit, and rosemary tincture – was tasty to boot.

We made an oldie but a goodie – buffalo blue cheese black bean burgers. Served with raw carrots and celery the first night.

Our citrus-y sip-while-you-cook line up did not contain any winners, we hated both of these drinks! <– normally I wouldn’t include this in a “highlights” section but they both sound so good in theory that I wanted to make sure I warned you

Sunday night I got fancy with a Southern dinner.

Pan-fried catfish! I made a spice rub with salt, pepper, cayenne, cumin, brown sugar, and smoked paprika and cooked the fish for 3.5 minutes on each side. Drizzled with a lemon butter pan sauce.

Plus sautéed collard greens with shallots, toasted coconut, and avocado (plus lemon, rice vinegar, and liquid smoke).

Flavor themes of the weekend – Campari / eggs / coffee / collard greens.

2Sep2017

Buffalo Chicken Ballyhoo

by Emily

Is it seriously September already?? Actually, don’t answer that; if I think about how fast this year seems to be going it makes my head spin. At least now it’s Apple Month.

Here were eight things from the end of the eighth month…

{1} coffee excitement

A match made in heaven? I put creamy pecan popsicle in my iced coffee.

The lattes at Black Brick are roasty and delicious.

{2} brunch at Loosie’s Café

This space was gorgeous! I had a grains bowl with shitake and king oyster mushrooms, purple kale, quinoa, roasted beets, cucumber raita, mint, and a soft egg.

{3} “milk and cookies” at The Bedford

Adam and I split a The Dude’s Caucasian – house-made vanilla bean espresso vodka on the rocks with a drizzle of cream.

And a Drunken Cookie – underbaked chocolate chip cookie dough stuffed injected with white chocolate. <– omg

{4} lime, mint, and elderflower sparkling water

{5} Curious Creamery ice cream mix

Please note – this product was given to me free of charge to review. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

It is mix that doesn’t require an ice cream maker, all you have to do is beat it with the milk of your choice and freeze. It takes about 15 minutes of hands-on time, and we found the ice cream consistency to be enjoyable after 5 hours (and it continued to be good 48 hours later too).

I used 2% cow’s milk but you can also use full-fat, skim, almond, etc – the mixes themselves are lactose-free and have no trans or saturated fat. I made the vanilla packet plain – Adam thinks it tastes like marshmallows! – and the chocolate I mixed with dulce de leche and roasted pecans for a turtle sundae.

We didn’t love the final product, but did quite like it. I’d say the ice cream is better than 7-11 brand, Turkey Hill, or the no-name stuff at cafeterias; on par with most store-bought ice creams; and not as good as Ben and Jerry’s or the ice cream we can get at places like Ample Hills or Ice and Vice in the city. If I’m living somewhere that isn’t NYC in the future I would definitely make it again.

{6} the last of the seasonal summer beers

These ended up being two of my all-time favorite strawberry beers. Shiner Strawberry Blonde / Saranac Strawberry Tart.

{7} out-of-this-world good buffalo chicken tenders

I base all of my “oven-fried” chicken on this recipe from A Cozy Kitchen. I used skinless, boneless chicken breast tenders and baked for 24 minutes at 425 degrees. I mixed smoked paprika and cayenne in with my flour and used panko as my bread crumb.

The final product was tossed with a mix of buffalo sauce, butter, and brown sugar.

Paired with carrots and celery – steam/sautéed and finished with thyme honey balsamic vinaigrette – to keep the theme going.

{8} buffalo chicken and blue cheese cheese fries

Our leftover chicken got to participate in something magical – waffle fries baked with cheddar, blue cheese, and buffalo chicken on top.

Have a great weekend.

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: potato

Pumpkin’s Still In Season

Columbus Travels

Last Week I…

White Gummi Slushie

The End Of Apple Month

Coffee And Eggs

Important Things First

Weekend Eats Highlights

Cinnamon And Marshmallow In My Coffee

Buffalo Chicken Ballyhoo

Please note – this product was given to me free of charge to review. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.