A Final Trip To Toronto

by Emily

We are leaving Buffalo in just three short weeks (there is a post on that to come!) and we’ve amassed a long list of “must-do’s” before we leave the area for good. Topping our list was a final day trip to Toronto.

We headed North on Wednesday and ate, and walked, and ate some more! Adam and I both decided that it was our best trip this year.

We started our travels at the St. Lawrence Market.

How had I not heard about this foodie heaven before?! It was a Canadian Reading Market or Faneuil Hall, packed with goodies. Adam got freshly made potato and cheddar pierogi with fried onions and sour cream.

I went with macarons.

They were beyond swoon-worthy. Maple toffee and Crème brûlée .

The texture was perfect, and yet, the utterly amazing macarons were not even the best thing I ate all day.

From the market, we drove to Bloor Street, where we parked and continued on foot. Usually we head to Bloor St. for froyo, but today we had a new destination.

BNC Cake House has been on my to-do list for two long years, ever since I starred this post from Callie in my Google Reader. Her description of Pat Bing Soo, or shaved ice, has basically haunted my dreams – “A bed of shaved ice … topped with red bean paste, assorted fruits, a scoop of vanilla ice cream and condensed milk.”

You guys, it was even better than I was hoping/expecting.

The sweet condensed milk and tangy vanilla frozen yogurt melted down into the shaved ice and melded into something amazing. The best analogy I have for the texture is to liken it to the Dairy Queen frozen hot chocolates I was obsessed with all year.

We ate every single bite.

To finish the day, we walked over to Koreatown for some grown up food at Pho88. Actually, I kept my sugar-buzz going just a bit longer with an egg yolk soda.

I tried this drink for the first time way back in 2009 (that link goes to my old blog! when we were living in Brooklyn) but thanks to Pho88’s menu I finally know what’s in it: club soda, egg yolk, and condensed milk. I adored it, the flavor is lightened-up egg cream.

I ordered grilled chicken and spring roll vermicelli for my meal.

I couldn’t eat much of my chicken since I’m not really a dark meat fan but that was fine, I mostly wanted to use the noodles and veggies as a base for all of the fabulous, spicy sauces sitting on our table.

I may have left food on my plate but Adam’s was practically licked clean.

He got grilled pork chop and rice with fried egg and he described his meal as “perfect.”

Perfect is how I would describe the day! We laughed as we wandered through Koreatown that our very favorite way to vacation is to spend the days walking and eating. Goodbye for now Toronto, I’m sure we will make our way back someday!

Have you ever tried pat bing soo? What is your favorite vacation activity?

31May2013

Winner Dinners

by Emily

I thought it would be fun to share a few of our more successful dinners from the past week. Working every day has meant that my lunches have been lame, but somehow my increased work schedule hasn’t killed my dinner motivation yet. There have been some great breakfasts and snacks too (example – we tried the very famous Paula’s Doughnuts for the first time the other day) but my camera hasn’t been handy for those!

~Smoked herring salad with soft pretzels.

I bought these Smoked Herring Kipper Fillets from Trader Joe’s on my last trip to Ohio and they were flipping delicious. I’ve been having a hard time with animal proteins lately (the texture has been throwing me) but these were so smokey good that they went down easily.

For the salad Adam and I split the can, mashed with mayo, pink salt, and green pepper and carrots shredded with the finest side of our grater.

The pretzels were consumed with a copious amount of yellow mustard. We also had pudding for dessert but I didn’t take a picture because we ate it straight from the mixing bowl.

~Hot dogs with ketchup and kraut.

We had our dogs a day later than planned, on Tuesday, because I ended up spending Memorial Day in bed. Literally the whole day; we brought in the laptop and became newly obsessed with both “Arrested Development” and “Fringe.” This meal was worth the wait though.

Applegate Farms turkey hot dogs topped with ketchup and sauerkraut,

served with roasted asparagus and a new Ruffle’s product called Crispy Cheese Fries.

The “fries” were about as good as you’d expect (not very) but the turkey hot dogs were amazing. I did not grow up eating hot dogs so there’s no nostalgia here, but I found this meal to be very pleasing.

~Turkey reubens with roasted broccoli.

We had to use up the rest of the sauerkraut from the hot dogs and what better way to use it than on toasty turkey reubens? Wegman’s bakery rye topped with 1000 island dressing, sliced turkey, slices of provolone (Adam hates Swiss), and sauerkraut, then pressed the sandwiches in our George Foreman grill.

Plus roasted broccoli on the side.

Tonight’s dinner is going to be a, much less healthy, plate of cheesy fries. I’m off to get them out of the oven now!

30May2013

#6 – Make My Own Gnocchi

by Emily

My 28th birthday is 55 days away! That means I have 55 days left work on my birthday goals list.

As of now I’ve completed 19/27 goals. Unfortunately, it looks as if there is no way on Earth some of the goals will happen. I haven’t worked out in months (mega oops) so I don’t think my running goals – both distance and speed based – are in the cards. But the food based goals? I’ve got those covered.

Like making gnocchi my own gnocchi from scratch.

This goal was delicious to complete! And it was surprisingly easy, too. With less than an hour of hands-on time we pulled pillows of heaven from ~~thin air~~ mashed potatoes.

I followed this recipe from Cooking Light for the gnocchi. But instead of their sauce I tossed my gnocchi in a mix of lemon and brown butter and served them atop a bed of lemon and butter sautéed spinach. The final taste was out of this world.

Will we be making gnocchi from scratch ever again? Adam and I both say “yes!”

Have you ever made gnocchi, or any other kind of pasta, from scratch?

28May2013

Highlights From OBX

by Emily

Hey there! Long time no see! It has been, and is going to be, a crazy summer.

Among other things, I went to the Outer Banks last week (whee!).

My in-laws took Adam and me for a couple of days and we had a glorious time. We beached,

climbed the sand dunes,

got a large chocolate-strawberry diet coke from Sonic that rocked my face off,

and met a Flutter Pony.

You don’t even want to know how excited I was about that damn horse statue.

We went to climb the sand dunes in between my spotting the pony and taking my picture with it and I muttered to Adam about The Smooze the whole time. <– if you got that reference I will kiss you on the mouth

I know I’m behind the times, but I want to post some of our trip eats highlights anyway, mostly so I have a record of them for the next time we visit OBX. This was a trip where sharing meant caring; the only meals Adam and I didn’t split were dessert!

Lunch at Mulligan’s.

Coastal Carolina She-Crab soup.

This was basically a giant bowl of crab meat; ah-maze-ing! We also swooned over the sherry floater.

California style fish tacos.

Soft tortillas with local fried fish, cilantro-lime slaw, pico de gallo, and Cajun tartar sauce. This was our first meal in NC and it set a great tone for the rest of the trip.

BBQ at Sooey’s.

Pulled chicken platter with cole slaw, hush puppies, and fried okra.

This stop was a repeat from my first OBX visit and I’m so glad we went back. Those were the best fried okra I’ve ever had, I was shoving them into my mouth by the handful!

Breakfast at The Dunes Restaurant.

We got the Greek omelet (spinach, tomato, and feta) with asparagus. It came with hash-browns and a side and since we were splitting they let us do one hotcake and one biscuit. Even with two of us eating we couldn’t finish that giant plate of food.

Froyo at The Surfin’ Spoon.

Such good topping options! I got a little bit of yogurt with marshmallow fluff, peanut butter topping, bananas, and reese’s peanut butter cups.

Like a fluffernutter in froyo form!

Also, froyo at Wild Berry.

The yogurt flavors weren’t anything new, but the toppings bar boasted sweetened condensed milk!!! I was definitely in heaven.

All in all, it was a tasty, terrific trip.

15Apr2013

Today

by Emily

Some of the things I thought today –

Man, it has been a looooong time since I last blogged.

I made the right decision. Part of the reason I’ve been blogging AWOL is because I was making a giant, life-changing decision and I’m ~~pretty sure~~ positive I made the right one.

The end of this semester is going to be insane. We have two business plans to create in the next month and we were told to expect 40 plus hours of work each week on top of our clinical hours.

Some of the things I did today –

Went to my first day of clinical practice in long-term care.

Took a glorious, 70* walk on Elmwood with my husband.

Attended night class. With the curve I scored a 100% on the first exam!

What I ate today –

A mealy apple.

A packet of Artisana Cacao Bliss.

Chocolate Almond Coconut Clif Mojo Bar.

A low-fat strawberry milk.

A (salted caramel chocolate nougat) candy from the latest Yumvelope.

Veggies from Globe Market, ~.25 lb each.

Thai carrot salad,

and Greek vegetable salad.

Lays Chicken and Waffles potato chips.

Dinner.

Amy’s Alphabet Soup,

and a soft pretzel with yellow mustard.

I also thought a lot about the tragedies at the Boston Marathon today. If you or anyone you are close to were effected, please know that you are in my thoughts.

7Apr2013

Bloody {Mary} Sunday

by Emily

My big plans of knocking off some school work didn’t come to fruition, but I did manage to do some day drinking. That’s a better use of time really, isn’t it?

I started the morning with this bowl of absolute incredibleness.

Dannon Oikos Cafe Latte Greek Yogurt, 1/2 serving Nature’s Path Coconut Chia Granola, fresh blackberries, 1 tsp honey, 2 Tbsp coconut butter.

Oh my goodness, you guys, the coconut butter. I have been reading Kath talk about coconut butter acting as a magic shell for years but I never quite knew what she meant. It was amazing.

I also snacked on (approximately 2 servings each) BBQ Pop Chips with reduced-fat french onion dip.

If I had known I was going to have chips with dinner I might have done a veggie-based snack instead, but at that point I planned on having soup! Sidenote – did you know that Pop Chips has a new ketchup flavor?! I’m pretty sure that sounds terrible.

I spent my afternoon at work. The weather has finally gotten the memo that it’s Spring so lots of people were out and about.

At the end of my shift some friends stopped by to invite me to Blue Monk. They were having a Bloody Mary special, with celery, hot sauce, tomato, etc infused vodkas.

A girl from our program sweetly got us a 2nd round so I ended up having two.

Bloody Marys make me crave stick-to-your-ribs food so instead of soup I ended up with Moe’s for dinner. A rice bowl – rice / black beans/ sautéed onion / mushroom / green pepper / cheese / sour cream / guacamole / corn salsa.

Plus chips with queso.

Apparently there’s always room for chips.

Do ketchup flavored chips sound good to you?

31Mar2013

Easter Brunch

by Emily

I hope everyone had a hoppy Easter! Our day was quite nice; tasty food, nice weather, and tons of tv.

Adam’s parents sent us $ in lieu of an Easter basket so I got to go to brunch with my handsome husband.

He took me to Left Bank, a spot he’s been to with friends (working weekends means I usually have to skip brunch, boo!) and was dying to share.

The space was gorgeous and the menu had lots of offer. Plus, they brought yummy lemon poppy-seed bread.

Adam ordered a mimosa while I went with an extra-spicy bloody mary,

but we were on the same page when it came to food.

We both ordered the Seafood Benedict,

crab cakes topped with poached eggs and [citrus] hollandaise. <– I asked for regular hollandaise, served on the side please!

The dish came with sides of fruit and hash browns and was quite good.

I saved one of my crab cakes for Adam but devoured my eggs.

Meals where you soak up yolks are my very favorite!

The rest of our day was gloriously low-key. We knew we were going to hunker down on the couch, so we made sure to take the dog on a quick walk first. I got an iced, non-fat, caramel macchiato on the way home.

Why yes, I did ask for extra caramel – it was Easter dammit and no one bought me any candy!

Minus a few hours spent on a take-home exam, we spent the rest of the day screaming at the characters on “Battlestar Galactica.” My food totally fit the tv marathon vibe… Chips.