This Week I Loved…

by Emily

I adore eggnog, and this (vegan, 80 calories per half cup) stuff is at least 90% as good as the real thing. Enjoyed in both overnight oats and cold brewed coffee.

*Sandwiches from the cafeteria*

I didn’t pack lunch for most of the week because I bought a sandwich on Tuesday and got hooked. Turkey and provolone on an onion roll with mustard, mayo, and spicy banana peppers.

*Chips*

I had tortilla chips – with cheese and fresh salsa – with my sandwich one day and became a woman obsessed. I ended up making Adam a separate, grown-up person dinner and then eating chips and cheese several nights.

*Cola-flavored candies*

So good! Extra fizzy cherry cola Pop Rocks and cola float hard candies with a creamy center.

*A new book obsession*

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.

I finished Cutting for Stone this week and thought it was absolutely wonderful. Author Abraham Verghese is a doctor as well as a writer and he did a skillful job of portraying the medical scenes in the story in clear and approachable way (most of the main characters are doctors so this came up a lot). The characters are all flawed but beautiful, and I fell head over heals in love with Ghosh.

What books have you loved lately?

1Dec2014

Thanksgiving Week

by Emily

Well, the two weeks are over and as of today I’m back at work. This was officially our best vacation of all time. You guys already know that San Francisco was wonderful and the past week visiting family in Ohio has been great as well. I didn’t want to take away any family time on snapping pictures, so I don’t have much to share about Thanksgiving. Instead, here are ten things about last week…

{1} We had to drive forever and a day to get to Piqua to visit my grandma. We packed some truly ridiculous car snacks.

{2} My grandma is a fantastic cook and she made us some great meals.

{3} She also introduced us to Basils on Market, a fun restaurant that served me a Tres Leches White Russian and cheese-stuffed gnocchi.

{4} We also got tasty coffee at Winans a few times. Adam was in love.

{5} But I preferred the iced latte with toasted marshmallow that I got at Sheetz.

{6} From my grandma’s we went to my brother-in-law’s for Turkey Day. It was so much fun to catch up with everyone, including our three nieces! Dinner was quite yummy. Adam and I brought wine, red and white, from Sonoma.

{7} For the first time ever, we did some Black Friday shopping. Barely. I needed to buy new bras and I planned to go on Saturday originally but then I felt silly going to the mall the day after the sales. We went late in the day when it wasn’t too crowded and I scored 4 new bras with a BOGO 50% off sale.

{8} Another long day of driving later, and we were home for round 2 of turkey, stuffing, cranberries, and pumpkin pie – Boulder Canyon’s Thanksgiving Feast in a Bag.

{9} We had beers with our chips. Coney Island Brewing sent me their newest seasonal flavor, The Plunge, a Belgian-style ale brewed with ginger, orange peel, and fennel. We were fans. I’m not always into Belgian ales but this was nice and light.

{10} Best thing of all: we’re finally back with our man!

26Nov2014

The Girl In Sonoma {San Francisco}

by Emily

Our last two days were spent enjoying the beauty of California wine country. And eating. So much eating! We were trying to pack in as much fun as possible on our last full day and we went a little crazy ordering food. We definitely didn’t finish everything shown, but we did eat quite a lot.

We started Friday with coffee,

and fruit and bread.

We split a Satsuma, an unpictured banana, and a rosemary roll from ACME Bread Company.

We saved the sourdough roll for an amazing lunch of bread, cheese, and chocolate.

Plus earl grey panna cotta for dessert.

We had the Cowgirl Creamery Mount Tam fresh from the source because we were there for a history lesson and cheese tasting.

Best tour of the trip!

After cheese, it was time for wine, with a tasting at Matanzas Creek.

The grounds were gorgeous and the wine was de-lish! We liked it so much we even bought a few bottles to bring to Thanksgiving.

Next up was beer (and more cheese!) at Lagunitas Brewing Company. Brown Shugga was my favorite, unsurprisingly.

They had pretzels out for palate cleansing between tastes,

but we also got a big plate of cheesy nachos.

This was the point in the day where I was getting a little too full!

But we forged ahead with a trip to Bouchon Bakery for a butterscotch éclair.

And finally settled in at The Girl and the Fig for an outstanding dinner.

Those light green olives were shockingly good.

I had to get a lavender mojito, it was made with Cruzan rum!

We started with a cheese plate with apple, house-made fig cake, spiced nuts and baguette.

We choose a P’tit Basque sheep’s milk, Bohemian Creamery’s The Bomb goat’s milk, and a Bleeting Heart Moolicious Blue. Because we had to fit cheese into every single meal that day.

Adam and I shared for dinner. Local mushroom raviolo with sunchoke purée, truffle pesto, local mushrooms, and chicories.

And the house-smoked trout sandwich with farm egg salad, caper aioli, pickled red onion and dill.

Both were absolutely amazing. The sauce under the pasta and the pickled red onions on the trout totally made the dishes.

We got an after-dinner drink with Firelit coffee liquor and Sailor Jerry rum.

And had dessert that was my favorite dish of the entire trip. Chocolate and salted fig caramel trifle with cocoa nibs and Italian meringue.

Adam was amazed by the nibs and I was obsessed with the marshmallowy meringue. Plus we came home with a jar of their salted fig caramel.

We had such a wonderful dinner at The Girl and the Fig that we ended up going back for brunch on Saturday! We met up with a medical school friend who is doing his residency in Fresno and he said The Girl was his favorite Sonoma spot.

Fig Fashioned.

Mussels and frites for the table, which I was totally brave about and ended up loving.

And the best grilled cheese sandwich of my life.

We left completely stuffed; the three of us were barely able to get coffee, hours later.

Our flight was a red-eye and it didn’t leave until after 10 pm so we were able to spend the whole day catching up. Our friend chose to spend his one day off for the week with us so we were thrilled to make the most of it.

A perfect end to a perfect vacation!

25Nov2014

The Slanted Woods {San Francisco}

by Emily

Wednesday morning we stopped at Peet’s for an eggnog iced coffee to go with my Ferry Building farmer’s market pear.

Then we made our way over the bridge through the pouring rain,

and up to Muir Woods for a stunningly beautiful hike.

We bought trusty $4 ponchos to get us through the 4+ miles in the downpour, but I wasn’t able to take many pictures.

Mostly we just got shots of Adam and me being goofballs.

We got completely soaked but still had a wonderful time.

Afterwards we went back to the hotel to dry off before our late lunch at Coqueta, a Spanish tapas place that knocked our socks off.

My cocktail – cream sherry, Luxardo amaretto, sherry vinegar, Manchego, and golden raisins – was one of the best I’ve ever had.

We split a variety of small plates, all of which we enjoyed greatly.

Huevos Nacional – deviled eggs filled with spring pea, smoked pimenton alioli, on pickled saffron potatoes and olive oil poached bonito.

Housemade potato chips with shaved Manchego and vermouth vinegar salsa. A play on bagels and lox of smoked salmon, queso fresco, and truffle honey.

Wild and cultivated mushrooms with garlic, chili, and sherry.

And Catalan-style vineyard greens with a caper-raisin puree, raisins, pine nuts, and garlic. <– my favorite dish of the day

For dessert we did caramel popcorn with Manchego cheesecakes that were amazing caramel lollipops with a liquid cheese filling.

And churros with drinking chocolate and a mixed berry powder for dipping.

Every last bite of this meal was inventive, fresh, and freaking delicious.

After more walking,

a stop at Humphry Slocombe for fluffernutter ice cream with butterscotch sauce, (<– Adam got ice cream almost every day)

and a New Orleans style coffee from Blue Bottle,

we were ready to drink our dinner at 21st Amendment Brewery.

21st Amendment brews Hell or High Watermelon, one of my top favorite beers, so we were excited to taste our way through their menu.

We shared Hell or High Watermelon, Vina, Framboise Forte D’or, Belgian Chocolate Stout, and a yummy honey meade from a guest brewery.

Also, a giant plate of fried cheese curds.

Ridiculous! And we were completely sober by the time we finished the 4 mile trek back to the hotel.

Thursday morning I fueled up with a praline chestnut latte and a local apple.

Plus a great rose macaron that we picked up along the way.

But the super steep hills still totally kicked my butt.

We were supposed to spend the morning in Golden Gate Park but unfortunately the crazy rain scared us away. We ended up eating our way through Japantown.

And actually even getting some Whole Foods hot bar while we hid and tried to keep dry.

Thankfully our afternoon plans were an indoor tour/tasting at Anchor Brewery.

We had a great time and definitely recommend it.

The rain cleared up in the afternoon while we spent some time in Chinatown.

And Boba Guys served us the best bubble teas of the year.

My almond milk coffee with boba and housemade almond jelly was delicious.

Then we were back to the Market Building where we couldn’t resist a final Vietnamese iced coffee from Out the Door.

An ironic choice considering our dinner reservations.

The Slanted Door has been on my list for years and it did not disappoint.

Piña colada – El Dorado 3 year white rum, house coconut cream, fresh pressed pineapple juice, pineapple gum, and lime.

Adam got a truly fabulous steak and I did three veggie options for my meal. Fried kabocha squash – palm sugar & lime caramel sauce, thai basil.

A green papaya salad – pickled carrot, rau ram, crispy shallot, roasted peanut – that was my favorite dish of the day.

And the Catalan Farm spicy broccoli – braised tofu, lion’s mane mushroom. The spongy mushrooms were so cool!

We did another round of churros for dessert.

As well as a brown butter cake trifle with huckleberries, lemon curd, and hibiscus meringue.

The meringues were as tasty as they were gorgeous. A great way to end our fourth day!

7Nov2014

No Sleep Till Brooklyn; Weekly Wrap-Up

by Emily

Oh my gosh, Brooklyn is so freaking great! <– I could probably just stop here, that pretty much sums up the salient points of this post

I was a little all over the place this week so I don’t have a ton of pictures to share, but Adam and I did go out to two amazing dinners that I need to rave about. Other than that, I have about 30% of breakfast/lunch/snacks.

The husband worked several overnight shifts this week and I took advantage of my alone time by making the super adult decision to stay up until 3am on a work night catching up on the entire new season of “Criminal Minds.”

source

Here are some snippets of cafeteria breakfasts…

That second thing was some biscuit/pastry Western omelet hybrid. Strange, but not bad.

And of course, there were many {many} coffees.

Yogurt bowl lunches…

KIND Banana Nut Clusters with my blackberries and butterscotch peanut butter with my raspberries.

And snacks at my desk…

I also bought the new peppermint cookie chocolate bites from Starbucks and they were great.

Now on to the good stuff, two amazing, fantastic, fantasmic, socks-rocking dinners in Brooklyn!

#1 Berlyn

This space was gorgeous. I couldn’t get any good shots of the décor (or the food for that matter!) but our table felt like it could be sitting in a clearing in some German forest.

I ordered the Hemingway Daiquiri and it ended up being the best cocktail I’ve ever been served.

The menu listed Caña Brava Rum, Luxardo Maraschino, grapefruit juice, and lime juice, but I swear that I could also taste cinnamon in there. I liked it so much I kept us out late ordering a second round after dinner. Adam’s beer was amazing as well; I don’t remember it’s name but it positively reeked of honey.

We shared a house-made pretzel to start,

which came with the best honey mustard I’ve ever tasted. <– noticing a theme here?? I wouldn’t say that Berlyn is the best restaurant I’ve ever been to but many things on their menu were certainly the best ever in their categories.

Adam ordered pork schnitzel for his entrée so I decided to try two small dishes.

Potato pancakes that came topped with smoked trout and pickled cucumbers.

And fried Brussels sprouts with a pine nut aioli.

Best fried Brussels sprouts we’ve ever had and the aioli was seriously indescribably good. Adam and I both were gasping at how yummy it was.

The dessert course didn’t sound quite as terrific to us so we headed over to Four & Twenty Blackbirds for the best espresso in Brooklyn.

And came home with slices of pie to eat in front of “Brooklyn 99.”

My salted honey slice was legit.

#2 Thistle Hill Tavern <– from the owner of Talde and Pork Slope

I ordered a New Old Fashioned, which was made with Four Roses, Laird’s Applejack, maple bitters, lemon, and brown sugar.

So good, though bourbon is always good.

I started with the Kale Taco Salad. Kale dressed in salsa verde with cheddar, spicy pickled vegetables, and a fried tortilla.

This was the best kale salad I’ve ever eaten (<– I’ll stop now, promise!).

Dinner was the fish and chips with their famous salt and pepper fries.

I don’t know why I keep ordering fish and chips because I never eat much of the fried fish, but this was definitely the best version (sorry!) I’ve ever had.

Adam swooned his way through a slice of maple bourbon pumpkin pie,

but I held out for the best ice cream in the world, Ample Hills.

Good God. “No Sleep till Pumpkin” = coffee ice cream with pumpkin gooey butter cake and underneath was “PB Gets Fluffy” = marshmallow ice cream with chocolate flakes and homemade peanut butter cookie dough. Just fabulous. Neither of us could believe how good the pumpkin coffee flavor was.

What is the best restaurant in your city?

6Oct2014

Three Day Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

I give the last three days an A+! I had a very inconveniently timed doctor’s appointment on Friday and it made more sense to take a vacation day than try to fit the travel time into a work day. Serendipitously, Adam had switched some shifts with a coworker who was going to a wedding and he had most of the three off as well. Yippee!

I’m going to do this post old school, stream of consciousness style, though there are some holes as this definitely does not show every single thing that I ate…

Friday, once I had finished up with the dermatologist and Adam had rested up from his overnight shift, we headed into Manhattan.

Our destination was Krispy Kreme, and these limited edition Ghostbusters donuts.

I ain’t afraid of no donut! They were filled with marshmallow crème and were actually kind of amazing; maybe my favorite donuts I’ve ever tasted.

We wandered around Penn Station, then did lunch in Koreatown. We had a(n impulse-bought) Groupon for food and booze at Boss Lounge.

I ordered a Pinch Me, which had Grey Goose, lychee, and grenadine.

Adam and I shared a kimichi and cheese roll.

As well as seaweed and tofu salad.

The tofu was silken and strangely sweet. The husband loved it.

Afterwards we explored Koreatown a bit more. We split a kimchi bun from a food court we want to go back to asap.

Tried whatever the heck this was?!

The top is mango and red bean but we couldn’t identify the white – chewy and gelatinous – stuff. Neither of us could bring ourselves to swallow it!

And had a coffee popsicle from Tous les Jours for dessert.

Every single thing we’ve tried from TlJ has been awesome. Adam took home cheese buns that he adored and I’m kicking myself for not buying a milk bun.

For dinner, we made our way over to Hardings’s.

Whiskey sour made with fresh lime, cane sugar, and egg whites!

Adam had yummy, crispy salmon and I did a fun combo of appetizers.

Pumpkin pie soup with spiced whipped cream.

And kale salad with chickpeas, Marcona almonds, shaved sunchokes, and lemon vinaigrette.

Ahaha, I didn’t realize until I reread the menu to write this post that those white shreds were sunchokes and not really stale parmesan.

Afterwards we trained it over to Lexington (and Dylan’s Candy!), then walked back to our car across the Queensboro Bridge. It was a lovely nighttime walk but my calves are sooooo sore now!

We were parked in Long Island City and we stopped at The Baroness for a nightcap on the way.

We want to go back for a cheese plate immediately, but for now we shared a cute beer sampler.

Saturday was supposed to be spent at Smorgasburg, but yucky, rainy weather scared us back to Long Island. Instead we ran local errands – groceries were shopped and both of our cars now have changed oil.

We had baked potatoes for brunch.

I swear that there is a potato under there. Topped with butter, sharp cheddar, turkey bacon, leftover kale salad, jalopeño, sour cream, and a fried egg.

We poked the yolks into our buttered potatoes and it was pretty great.

We spent the evening cuddled on the couch with GIANT plates of nachos. I also ate this licorice mix.

We are now completely caught up on new fall tv. The Chicago’s (PD and Fire) are my favorite so far.

We had more to-do’s to check off on Sunday, and headed back into the city so I could buy a winter coat.

Train fuel = toasted everything bagel with jalopeño-cheddar cream cheese.

We considered getting Chobani but the line was too crazy, so instead we got froyo. Pumpkin pie and praline topped with caramel, toffee, Butterfinger, yogurt chips, and mochi.

Our bowls were tasty, and even better, free. The last time I was at Yogurtland I was a hot mess and I dropped my credit card into my yogurt and the cashier felt so bad for me that he gave me a handful of vouchers for free yogurt.

I had several coffee this weekend (duh!), but the best was actually from 7-11.

Cinnamon coffee with pumpkin pie creamer and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

I ate fruit salad while I prepped a batch for the upcoming week.

And we made big, hearty bowls for dinner.

Sprouted red jasmine rice // frozen spinach sautéed with bbq sauce, browned mushrooms and tons of onions // red lentils cooked with cumin, turmeric, smoked paprika, curry powder, and more sautéed onion // sour cream and Sriracha on top.

We ate our warm meal while we worked on the winter-y activity of swapping out our summer wardrobes. I still don’t have a ton of cold weather gear but I am excited to have my boots back out.

Back in the “old days,” blog posts always ended with a question:

Have you swapped out your summer and winter wardrobes yet?

13Sep2014

Weekly Wrap-Up; Five Things, Crankily

by Emily

I had a perpetual case of cranky-face this whole past week. Nothing concrete set it off – Adam and I haven’t had a fight in ages, the dog hasn’t been being a little monster, and my work week was pretty varied so it was more interesting and less stressful than usual – but I was constantly in a bad mood. I was also super hungry all week, which I guess probably was a trigger for some of my ire. It was a real bummer.

Rather than trying futilely to fight it, I plan on giving in and wallowing. I’m going to spend the next two days eating pizza and catching up on tv in the hopes that the grump works its way out of my system by Monday.

In the meantime, here are a few things that did make me smile last week…

{1} The best breakfast. How flipping cute are these Stumptown Cold Brew boxes???

Adam and I geeked out when we spotted them at WF.

And it was totally delicious; sweet and creamy. My Bananas Foster Larabar Uber wasn’t bad either.

To quote Lara – “It’s basically bananamazing!”

{2} The most on-theme lunch. Blueberries and caramel apple pie Greek yogurt, plus licorice and caramel apple Twizzlers for later.

I loved the licorice; apparently I am a fan even when it’s not enrobed in candy coating (though that’s not to say that I didn’t also eat Good & Plenty several times this week!). I was not a fan of the yogurt, though I can’t say that was really a surprise. In my endless quest to try every apple(pie) flavored item on the market there are bound to be a few losers.

Worst of all, it didn’t even fill me up, I got fries from the cafeteria as well.

{3} The best lunch. This day’s break was much more satisfying, the honey-chia combination was killer. I will be pairing those two up again soon.

With blueberries and a Hemp & Chia O’Coconut snack on the side.

{4} The best dinner. Eaten in two courses. First, a snack plate of baby carrots, buffalo blue cheese pretzel nuggets, TJ’s turkey jerky, and Tribe roasted vegetable hummus.

Then later, pizza pizza – buffalo chicken – and a side salad.

From Luigi’s if any locals are looking for a recommendation. The crust was so good; chewy almost like Naan!

{5} The best dessert {of the season}. I know, I know, I’m eating pumpkin in September, but the Ralph’s location near our apartment closed early last fall and it’s essential that I get my fill of this goodness before it goes away.

Salted caramel pretzel and pumpkin pie cream ices. <– best flavor ever.

What do you do to help yourself get over it when you’re feeling cranky?

22Jul2014

Last Week’s Late Wrap-Up

by Emily

I’ve been pretty busy and I’m running a bit behind, but I ate some really yummy things last week so I didn’t want to skip the post. Here are some faves from last Monday through Friday…

break the fast

A purple smoothie.

Frozen blueberries and strawberries with maple syrup and vanilla almond milk.

Bar/fruit/coffee day 1.

Dark Chocolate Coconut Balance Bar, a Pink Lady apple, and iced coffee from Starbucks. I poured a splash of half and half into my coffee by accident last week and it ended up tasting so yummy that now it’s turned into a bad habit!

Day 2.

Caramel Almond & Sea Salt KIND Bar {former freebie}, a very juicy nectarine, and cafeteria coffee with skim milk and a splash of half and half.

ladies who lunch

Cafeteria meal.

Salad with broccoli, black-eyed peas, cheddar, balsamic, and a scoop of egg salad. Plus fries dipped in honey mustard on the side.

Sandwich.

Leftover bbq chicken on a Bagel Thin. With bread and butter pickles, chips, and cherries.

Yogurt.

Chobani 2% Pink Grapefruit Greek Yogurt with KIND Raspberry Clusters with Chia Seeds {former freebie} and cherries on the side. The yogurt was a limited edition that needs to become part of the permanent line-up. It was freaking incredible, sweet and tangy with little pieces of citrus spread throughout. I must find the watermelon variety.

snack attack

Chocolate-covered pretzels from Wegman’s.

I brought Adam some back from my Buffalo trip and made the mistake of tasting “just one.” Those things are addictive! It’s a good thing I didn’t do a taste-test in the store or I would have brought home pounds of them.

Trader Joe’s makes the best turkey jerky I’ve ever tasted.

I don’t know how the keep the texture sooooo soft.

Chocolate covered strawberry floats! Chocolate frozen yogurt in strawberry Crush.

We thought we were so clever with these.

Campfire milkshake from Ralph’s Ice.

It was insane how much this tasted like a toasted marshmallow. It was pretty intense though, there is no way I could have finished more than half of this.

Baby spinach salad.

With sweet and spicy pecans, dried blueberries, shredded carrot, evoo, honey, and lavender salt. My best salad combo to date.

dining on dinner

Salad atop salad.

The base was baby spinach with dried blueberries, sweet and spicy pecans, evoo, honey, and truffle salt.

Topped with pulled bbq chicken (and a pile of salt and vinegar chips in the back). Just boneless, skinless breasts cooked in the crockpot, shredded, and tossed with TJ’s Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce.

The sauce was wonderful, very sweet and a little spicy.

Pasta that was simple but good.

Whole-wheat rotini with browned mushrooms, ground turkey (sautéed with tons of garlic and dried oregano), frozen spinach, low-fat sour cream, and a can of tomato sauce.

This was one of those meals that seemed like it would need more flavor but then you kept eating until you were furiously scraping the bottom of the bowl.

National Thai with a girlfriend. I got spicy noodles with veggies. They were super chewy, had a good variety of vegetables, and were actually spicy; I’m pretty sure National has become my favorite Thai spot in the city.

Afterwards we went out in search of mojitos.

We ended up finding passable mango mojitos at a tiny Mexican spot in Park Slope. Their menu also mentioned watermelon daiquiris, so I’m pretty sure we’ll be going back again this Friday.

what’s happening

I was getting into such a great groove with my workouts, but then I got excited and upped the length of my runs too quickly. My right knee was horrifically swollen and the husband told me to stay out of the gym until the inflammation went down. Boo!!! I took a week completely off from exercise (minus a few long walks this weekend) and popped anti-inflammatories and iced like crazy. I’m going to start back in with short, easy workouts this week and continue to ice regularly. I’m going a little stir-crazy so please cross your fingers for me!

On a more positive note, I just finished reading Fault Lines by Nancy Huston and I’m recommending it to pretty much everyone.

It’s a story about a family and each section of the book is told from the perspective of a different generation. Huston did a great job of building the story in layers. The parts of the story that were told through the lens of childhood were wonderfully done.

It is my 29th birthday this Thursday. We can’t fit in any celebrating this week so Adam and I took a quick trip to Philadelphia this past weekend. I gave that its own post because this one was getting too long, but we had a wonderful time.

Have you spotted the new Chobani varieties in your area yet? Has anyone tasted watermelon??

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: potato

This Week I Loved…

Thanksgiving Week

The Girl In Sonoma {San Francisco}

The Slanted Woods {San Francisco}

No Sleep Till Brooklyn; Weekly Wrap-Up

source

Three Day Weekend Wrap-Up

Weekly Wrap-Up; Five Things, Crankily

Last Week’s Late Wrap-Up

break the fast

ladies who lunch

snack attack

dining on dinner

what’s happening