Superlative Eats

by Emily

This week’s…

*Best coffee*

Inspired by my absolutely decadently scented hand sanitizer, I stirred cinnamon and vanilla bean into my coffee (espresso blend with chocolate milk).

*Best oatmeal*

Rolled oats with chia and freeze-dried blueberries, topped with a hefty scoop of cookie butter.

*Best yogurt bowl*

Maple quark with Heritage Flakes and pomegranate.

*Best lunch*

Sandwich week. Spicy chicken on rye / Starbuck’s sandwich offerings are actually really darn good / Greek wrap stuffed with cucumber, tzatziki, and stuffed grape leaves. <– the wrap was from a lunch and learn, our formula rep did a great inservice on the new ASPEN enteral nutrition guidelines.

*Best dessert*

Work party for a coworker’s birthday. We had filipino ambrosia and I made brownies.

Fantastically ridiculous brownies! P.S. Amy Sedaris’ best-ever sprinkles are available here.

8Apr2016

First Week Of April’s Top Ten

by Emily

{1} Stumptown’s newest cold brew box – coconut.

{2} This week’s homemade coffee blend – chocolate milk and espresso roast.

{3} Giant veggie omelet for breakfast at work. They are made fresh to order and are by far the best dish coming out of the cafeteria.

{4} Garlic veggie pizza with a side of brussels sprout salad.

{5} Yogurt bowl. Plain Greek with strawberries, praline pecan granola, walnuts, and chocolate covered cacao nibs.

{6} Oatmeal bowl. Oats, chia seeds, strawberries, and cookie butter. Simple, but this was the best oatmeal of the year.

{7} This month’s Skoshbox. There were chocolate-covered potato chips!

{8} Biscoff chocolate chip mug cookie.

{9} Trader Joe’s frozen “pizza.” The crust was a bit floppy but the sauce had good spicy kick to it.

{10} Creamy tomato turkey. Sautéed ground turkey with browned mushrooms, roasted plum tomatoes, tomato paste, sour cream, tons of smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Plus roasted zucchini. I made a truly excessive amount of this dish and even after a couple of meals there’s still some left for next week.

{Bonus} Non-food Entertainment Top Five

{1} “Hart of Dixie.” I finished it last week but it I’m still not over it, the storyline was just so fun! It was such a feel-good show, I really enjoyed watching something that wasn’t heartrending for a change (<– Whedon fan).

{2} Slate. The source of 95%+ of my news plus the amazing Dear Prudence advice column (<– her response to “Too High” was spot on!).

{3} Girls with Slingshots. Another soap opera! This webcomic series is on long-term hiatus but you can start at the beginning and read through the archives.

{4} Serious Eats. The source of 95%+ of my food-based news and cravings. This is one of the sites I check every morning during my train ride, I’d hate to miss an article like the Nacho Showdown.

{5} Taylor Swift’s hilarious Apple Music commercial.

25Mar2016

I’m Alive!

by Emily

So it’s been awhile since my last post, huh? My two-week illness (a cold and then the flu) turned into a three week plague extravaganza complete with conjunctivitis, gastroenteritis, and a two-day stay at the hospital. Yippee. I didn’t really feel like myself again until just a couple of days ago.

Now I’m back in action, and I even have a week’s worth of meals to share…

daytime eats

I was still recovering on Monday so I started my week off with mint sparkling water cut with Sprite.

I’m usually not a clear soda (or non-diet soda) fan but the day I got home from the hospital I swear it was the best thing I’ve ever tasted. I didn’t even want diet coke that week, which says a lot about how sick I felt.

The real clue that I was basically dying is this – this small iced latte was my first cup of coffee in more than a week.

I also had a glass of kefir.

Maple was such a fun find.

By the next day I was fully ready for my lifeblood again. Nonfat caramelized honey (<–yum) iced latte with extra espresso. Sipped while grocery shopping.

I worked Saturday/Sunday which thankfully meant I had Wednesday off.

And yesterday I had a yummy Kevita kombucha.

Lavender melon. Kevita is a little more refreshing – and less sour and yeasty – than other brands of kombucha.

Packed lunches were my old standbys. Oatmeal.

Oats with chia seeds, strawberry shortcake m&m’s, and Justin’s chocolate hazelnut butter. Plus a piñata apple on the side.

And yogurt bowls, with blueberries and blackberries. 2% Fage with maple pecan granola, chia seeds, and more pecans.

Vanilla bean with Heritage Flakes.

Plus truffles from a coworker for dessert. With a side of Easter themed nails.

Wednesday at home I made an Easter-inspired spread.

Egg salad with potato chips, and warm carrot slaw (sautéed shredded carrots tossed with golden raisins, walnuts, mayo, and stone-ground mustard).

nighttime eats

Monday night I took the dog on an extra-long walk after work… and then laid down on the couch in my coat for more than an hour! I was too tired to cook anything, but hungry enough to go back and reheat a second plate of leftover pizza.

Plus baby carrots.

We try to always keep them on hand because they are perfect for distracting the dog while he gets his nails clipped.

Tuesday I managed to cook dinner and try a blog product sample (two birds with one stone). Popkoff’s sent me some free coupons for their new line “farm to freezer” frozen Russian dumplings.

The farmer’s cheese Pelmeni were fantastic – they cooked in under 10 minutes and were perfectly tender yet chewy. Plus, you have to love the short ingredient list: “Farmer’s Cheese, Wheat Flour, Water, Egg, Sour Cream, Salt, Sugar.” We kept things simple and tossed them with sautéed mushrooms and cabbage and low-fat sour cream.

Topped with a sprinkle of smoked paprika. I have two more freebie coupons and I would purchase the dumplings with my own money so this is a meal you’ll likely see again.

Wednesday was the warmest of the season (68!) and we made the most of it by taking the dog on a long walk – in sandals and t-shirts – for water ice. My strawberry and cola cup hit the spot.

Then we did fish taco night for dinner. We need to make tacos more often, Adam and I were both raving about this meal.

Toasted taco shells / sautéed onions and bell pepper / shredded cheese / roasted tomatillo salsa / mahi mahi cubes sautéed with lime, cilantro, and green onions / dollops of sour cream.

Yesterday I ate a guava and cheese empanada on the train.

Dinner part deux was TJ’s frozen gnocchi with eggplant and zucchini.

10/10. We relied a lot of frozen foods to get through this week but the quality of our meals didn’t suffer any.

I hope everyone is feeling well for the weekend!

22Feb2016

Wonderful Weekend Walking Weather

by Emily

Oh my gosh, thank you so much, New York, for the gorgeous weekend weather! We took full advantage and fit a long walk into our fun on both Saturday and Sunday.

Daytime Eats

My new favorite ridiculous coffee.

Butterscotch latte with an extra shot.

Oatmeal bowl. Rolled oats, chia seeds, freeze-dried blueberries, and toasted walnuts.

Topped with a chocolate coconut peanut butter packet. The pb gets so gooey good on the hot oats.

Drinks in my carts while I did a giant shopping trip.

Green juice with spinach, kale, cucumber, and pineapple.

Sunday was our Brooklyn date. We saw Deadpool (<– loved it! loved that it was just funny, hilariously, and not sad at all) and took another long walk, including some exciting food stops. Iced Vietnamese latte.

It was so warm out that I enjoyed my iced drink whilst walking along in only a tank top and cardigan!!

A “hot dog” at the Smorgasburg Industry City location. Pan con queso is a grilled chunk of marinated white Latin cheese on a hot dog bun, topped with onions, cabbage, crushed potato chips, ketchup, mustard, and guasacaca (cilantro and parsley). It was scrumptious.

Amazing, freshly-made cheese and potato pierogis at Baba’s. These were out of this world, they had the best pierogi dough I’ve ever tasted.

And an ice cream cone to top it all off.

Ample Hills’ salted crack caramel (smoky caramel ice cream with hunks of crack candy) and It Came From Gowanus (salty dark chocolate ice cream with hazelnut crack candy, white chocolate pearls, and orange-scented brownies) in a cookie cone.

Nighttime Eats

I hit up my grocery’s deli for a quick meal on Adam’s overnight shift.

Tortellini salad and crunchy broccoli salad.

Plus lemon rosemary focaccia hummus with baked garlic pita chips and baby carrots.

Best store-bought hummus of all time.

A fancy dinner date at Upland. We really enjoyed our meal here, the menu changes seasonally and we will definitely be back in the summer.

They brought us a potato bread loaf with chive and lemon zest butter.

And we started with the whole crispy hen of the woods mushroom, with cloumage cheese and meyer lemon. This was fantastically meaty and loaded with umami.

Plus a greatcocktail, Bill Pay Buck – Tito’s, Aperol, ginger, and lime. I think that I hate ginger in drinks but somehow this felt very balanced.

And I got the cioppino for my meal, clams, red shrimp, mussels, striped bass, jumbo lump crab, and gochujang. I have been so brave with my seafood consumption lately, this was my first ever clam! (<– I hated it, but at least I tried)

My soup came with a thick slice of butter bread and I ordered a can of Genny Cream Ale that just felt right.

Dessert was the only part of the meal that didn’t blow us away. Devil’s food cake, milk chocolate ganache, and hazelnut praline, sounded good in theory but was just meh.

But we ran into a Woop’s so we had our sugar fix covered.

Good timing too, we found it just before we crossed the bridge back to Queens.

Burger night to end the weekend.

TJ’s brioche rolls are wonderful. We made our burgers with ground turkey, whole-wheat panko, eggs, spices, and browned shallots, cooked in a pan with evoo. Topped with pickle slices, raw milk cheddar, and Sir Kensington’s special sauce. So delicious we had to go back and split a second one!

With an easy salad of baby kale, pomegranate, pecans, chai seeds, and lavender salt / lavender honey / evoo / balsamic.

If the upcoming week is half as good as my dinner I’m in for a good time!

8Feb2016

A Week Of Super Bowls

by Emily

I was a bit under the weather last week, nothing too bad, mostly a lot of coughing and headaches, but I just didn’t have it in me on Thursday to blog a recap. I was not too sick, however, to eat a bunch of yummy stuff that’s worth sharing. Last Monday through Sunday, here are the highlights*…

*highlights within the highlights, I obviously drank more coffee than this

coffee

Caramel-flavored Chameleon Cold Brew! With half & half. I adore CCB, it’s so smooth.

Served one day with citrus seltzer and a sumo mandarin.

This wins for my all-time preferred citrus, it is sweet and firm, and there are seeds but they are big enough to pop out easily.

oatmeal

In homemade instant bowls for work (just add hot water!).

Rolled oats, chia seeds, dry milk powder, freeze-dried raspberries, and toasted walnuts.

And smoothies.

Vanilla almond milk + chia seeds + oats + frozen banana + brown sugar + cocoa powder.

old-school-style cafeteria lunches

Sliced turkey and cheese with a less than healthy “veggie” side.

My school didn’t actually have a cafeteria (I graduated in a class of <40 and we had iguanas running the halls) but this is how I imagined the lunches would have been.

pepperoni-ish pizza

Oh. My. God. We sliced up a TJ’s turkey summer sausage and put it on the best homemade pizza we’ve ever had.

Usually I try to overdo it with pizza – lots of veggies, too much cheese – and the crust ends up soggy, but this was a crispy masterpiece. With a simple side salad.

sugar

Haribo salty licorice.

Cake pop flavored gum. There are sprinkles in it!

We finished this month’s Skoshbox the day it came.

Tj’s dark chocolate mini cookies.

These hearts were way better than I was expecting; usually I don’t buy boxed cookies because I’m a pretty great cookie baker myself but there is no way I could make chocolate shortbread this crunchy.

fancy booze in Brooklyn

Adam met me after work for a fantastic Friday night date in Boerum Hill. We started at Grand Army for cocktail hour.

My Alabaster Cavern – blended scotch, Lustau East India Solera, cinnamon, lime, coconut, pineapple, and bitters – tasted like a fancy painkiller. We liked the space and the vibe (they have a penciled drawing of ET as Mr. T on the wall) and will definitely be back.

The drink menu at Colonie was no slouch either. My Empire State Sour was American whiskey, NY apples, lemon, egg white, baked apple bitters, and cinnamon.

Best drink of 2016. That line of cinnamon stayed in place on top of the egg foam and made every sip smell delectable.

We shared two wonderful, duck-based dishes. Cavatelli with duck ham, béchamel, and soldier beans.

And wheatberries, mushrooms, and arugula with a duck egg on top.

I know the pictures are hard to see, but those black bits? Were crispy mushrooms. I don’t know how to describe the flavor (truffle? earthy?) but they were the single best thing I’ve ever tasted.

dinner bowls

I did not watch the game yesterday, but I have been eating some delicious bowls of dinner. All but one include broccoli because apparently it’s our favorite.

We made a variation of our black-eyed pea mix. Roasted broccoli, edamame, gochujang, smoked almonds, and cheddar.

A super bowl on Sunday. Orecchiette with roasted mushroom and baby zucchini, tossed with browned butter and Italian four cheese blend, topped with a sprinkle of smoked paprika. Served on a bed of roasted green beans.

Best bowl of the week – farro with ginger, garlic, lemon, gochujang, evoo, and salt and pepper / mackerel with stone ground mustard and a bit of mayo / roasted broccoli / toasted walnuts.

This was technically a lunch bowl. The cafeteria had a baked potato bar.

I swear there was a potato underneath all of that cheese and broccoli.

dog love

I feel like Webster’s adorable mug hasn’t been on the blog much lately, but I have been snapping pictures of him for Instagram. These are some of the best ones:

Related – a girlfriend surprised me with this darling dachshund scarf.

Here’s to a great week!

26Dec2015

Merry Munching – Christmas Week Top Ten

by Emily

I hope all of my readers who celebrate had a very merry Christmas yesterday! Adam, Webster, and I had a great day full of cuddles, present opening, cheese eating, and “Frosty” watching!

The best present of all? Yesterday was start of a four-day weekend for me, I’ve got Friday though Monday off. The weekend’s fun includes our 8-year wedding anniversary, so I doubt I’ll make time for any blogging. See you next weekend!

Here are the top ten from last week…

{1} Brunch with friends

They introduced me to j’eatjet in Park Slope. I had an Aperol Sidecar and a yummy breakfast veggie burger with swiss and a fried egg.

Then I spent time slowly perusing the giant Whole Foods.

With a Vietnamese iced latte at my side.

{2} Holiday themed breakfasts

These made for very pleasant mornings. All with ice coffee with full-octane eggnog!

That Nutrament was seriously the best eggnog item of the season.

{3} Strawberry chocolate mint smoothies

We love this combo every winter.

Chocolate peppermint soy milk + plain Greek yogurt + frozen strawberries.

{4} Roasted veggie sandwiches for lunch

One of my nutrition co-workers is retiring next week so we took her out to lunch at an Italian place near the hospital. I got a roasted veggie and mozzarella panini.

And another day there were roasted veggies at the sandwich bar.

I got them on a (giant!) wrap with tuna and cheese.

{5} Christmas morning sugar rush

I don’t have any pictures because we tore into the bags too quickly but my mom bought me two different cola-flavored gummies from German Haribo.

{6} Thai food in the city

I wish I’d paid more attention to the name of this spot (near Union Square Park) because the food was great. I had a Malaysian iced coffee.

And the Night Market Noodles – a combo of egg noodles and broad rice noodles with chili paste, bean sprouts, and a boiled egg.

These were super spicy, aka perfect, I was crying with each bite.

{7} Halo Halo at Bago

I’m obsessed with Halo Halo so as soon as my cousin sent me this NYTimes link I added Bago to my to-do list.

Their version is a tapioca shake with taro ice cream on top and red bean, palm seeds, and young coconut on the bottom. It was fantastic!

{8} Kale, and eggs

We made wonderful sautéed kale with garlic, golden raisins, and blue cheese.

Alongside eggs that were just horrible. It turns out that ground turkey and pizza sauce do not belong in scrambled eggs.

{9} Christmas nachos

Apparently I’ve decided that nachos are holiday food. This version was red and green at least.

Chips with mozzarella, ground turkey, broccoli, and red bell pepper.

{10} Eggnog treats <– I saved the best for last

Like the coquita cupcake from Brooklyn Cupcake.

Coconut cake soaked in a creamy coconut milk egg nog with a hint of rum flavor and topped with a mascarpone whipped cream.

And the eggnog ice cream from Ample Hills is their best flavor yet.

Creamy, eggnog, rummy goodness.

19Dec2015

Last Week’s Top Five

by Emily

There has been a lot of excitement since last Saturday. We had three days of weather so warm I could hold my iced coffee in bare hands while I walked in my sandals.

Last Sunday I comfortably walked the dog in shorts and a t-shirt!

And Adam celebrated a birthday.

His parents came for a birthday visit and we had a great time showing them the tree at Rockefeller Center and the fantastic holiday lights all around Manhattan.

Here are some of the food highlights…

{1} Pineapple Turkey Chili

By Tuesday the weather was back to normal* again and it was cold enough for Chili. *global warming winter normal, it’s still 50 in December

I made my pineapple turkey recipe.

We gobbled it up topped with shredded cheese, sour cream, and pickled jalapeño.

{2} Holiday Fails

It was bound to happen sooner or later, I had not one, but two, holiday themed food flops.

This years soy nog has way too much soy milk aftertaste for me and the candy cane flavor (in spite of the adorable chips of candy cane) was the first Adagio tea I thought tasted like dirty water. You win a lot, you lose some.

{3} Restaurant Burgers

Any time we have Long Island visitors we take them to Bare Burger. Adam’s parents loved it.

I got a Wiki Wiki on a turkey patty – gouda, duck bacon, fried onions, and pineapple relish.

The burger was great, and they had a very exciting local brew – chocolate egg cream stout!

We also took them to Thistle Hill. I got a falafel burger.

With tzatziki and hot sauce and salt and pepper fries.

{4} Dinner at The Gander

We are both obsessed with duck, so The Gander quickly made it to the top of our dinner date list.

The space was gorgeously done up for Christmas – with lights and a giant gingerbread house – but too dark for me to take a passable picture. Ignore my bad photography though, the food was on point.

We started with local burrata with butternut squash and toast.

And I ordered the Glasgow Punch, which came from a tap; scotch with citrus and clarified milk. This was one of the best drinks I’ve ever had, it smelled smoky in an amazing way.

We split two pastas for dinner. Gnocchi with shishito peppers and cheddar.

And tubetti with duck confit and a duck egg yolk. <– best dish of the night

Plus cauliflower with capers and anchovies.

Dessert was salted cajeta cake with maple lace tuiles and pistachio gelato.

Everything was delicious and you could taste the care that went into each dish.

{5} Birthday Ice Cream Cake

This was my first attempt at an ice cream cake and I was a little nervous but it came out great. Whenever Adam and I go to a Cold Stone-style ice cream place we always get coffee with Oreos and peanut butter, so that’s what I put together for his birthday.

An Oreo crust / with a peanut butter layer (I basically make flattened buckeye candy) / a coffee ice cream layer / and a bunch of Oreos, mini Reese’s cups, and sprinkles for topping.

Yum! It was gone by the end of the weekend!

7Dec2015

“Weekend” Top Three

by Emily

I can’t really call it the weekend because it was my turn to work Saturday and Sunday and I go in today as well (boo). But I then I have Tuesday off (yay). Every 4-6 weeks I will be working S/S in exchange for two free weekdays. It was a little strange to be in the diet office all by myself but I got a ton of work done and saw some really interesting patients.

Here are the top three food highlights, I enjoyed the weekend work but it certainly was tiring, you can safely assume that I ate chips in bed for dinner on Saturday…

{1} Sweet breakfasts to lure myself out of bed.

Not only did I work on the weekend, I went in an hour earlier than usual! <– because the thought of being at work until 5 on a Sunday was just too much. I had to bribe myself out the door. Nonfat iced eggnog latte.

Fried dough for Hanukkah.

My marzipan doughnut and roasty coffee were both delicious and were fantastic together. FYI, Brooklyn people – Doughnut Plant also has a few Hanukkah special doughseeds this week.

{2} Fresh tamarind.

My coworker brought us in tamarind last week. I haven’t eaten it fresh in years.

Enough time had passed that I forgot how obnoxiously stringy it is.

I think I will stew the rest of my share.

{3} 1st night of Hanukkah dinner at Mile End.

ME is quickly becoming one of our favorite spots. I love how inventive the menu is (modern takes on traditional Jewish dishes all made on a tiny grill and fryer behind an open counter) and the meats and vegetables are expertly prepared.

We started with blintzes with apple maple crumble on top. The chef whipped these up from scratch a foot in front of us! They were outstanding, obviously.

And we didn’t do latkes but we did have French fries in chicken gravy poutine.

I got the sprouts kugel for dinner. Egg noodles with steamed and fried brussels sprouts, cottage cheese, and a soft egg on top.

I grew up eating sweet kugel with raisins and this savory iteration is the best I’ve ever had. In fact, this was simply one of the best (top 5) dishes I’ve had all year!

Happy 2nd night of Hanukkah to my readers who celebrate!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: potato

Superlative Eats

First Week Of April’s Top Ten

I’m Alive!

daytime eats

nighttime eats

Wonderful Weekend Walking Weather

Daytime Eats

Nighttime Eats

A Week Of Super Bowls

Merry Munching – Christmas Week Top Ten

Last Week’s Top Five

“Weekend” Top Three