Weekend Wrap-Up, Tres Días

by Emily

This weekend was nice and quiet, with an emphasis on the nice. We kept things very low-key, with one day of errands and one day around the house, but had a nice time just being with each other. I’m not saying we didn’t bicker {oh gosh, did we ever!} but we did really enjoy one another’s company.

On Saturday, we went on the best, most ridiculous, dinner date to the Cheesecake Factory. I started out not being able to take pictures but by the end of the meal I didn’t even want to take pictures because it would have distracted from my time with the husband. Sidenote – am I just getting old or do they keep it really dark in there?! We were making each other laugh so hard. We shared several things and came home with tons upon tons of leftovers. Dessert (our second (third?!) of the day) was the best part. The waitress came over to tell us about a s’mores cheesecake with ganache and toasted marshmallow fluff and I interrupted to say that we were exploding, but by the time she got back with the bill Adam ordered us a slice! Ridiculous. And delicious.

Here are some of the bites that I did manage to photograph…

Fall flavors yogurt bowl.

0% plain Fage topped with pumpkin butter, toasted pecans, and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Fage is so nice and creamy.

Tropical trip yogurt bowl.

Muller Pineapple Passion Fruit Greek Corner topped with half a banana and some chopped mango.

I am very excited about the mango left in the fridge.

Brinner, aka breakfast for dinner.

Potatoes, sliced and roasted in pink salt, dried rosemary, and olive oil.

For the eggs; frozen spinach cooked in chicken broth with eggs scrambled in – eggs whisked with low-fat sour cream and smoked paprika – and a 2% Mexican 4-cheese blend tossed in towards the end.

Lately I’ve been loving adding something creamy like cottage cheese or sour cream to my scrambled eggs.

Pumpkin beer.

Sam Adam’s Fat Jack Double Pumpkin.

Unfortunately I haven’t been loving the pumpkin brews this season; they all start to taste a sour to me a few sips in. Adam got the lion’s share of this bottle.

Ice cream. Ben & Jerry Chocolate Peppermint Crunch.

I bought this to make a milkshake for the husband with but I ate several bowls of it this weekend. The chocolate is so dark and the mint swirl is just like the inside of a Jr Mint.

Tres Leches!!

From the Buttercooky Bakery. They served it with fruit on top and a layer of dulce de leche in the middle.

Tres Leches is both of our number one favorite dessert (usually we prefer different sweet things, though I have gotten him sucked into my s’mores obsession).

Hot bar from Whole Foods.

I did roasted broccoli, a small scoop of Cesar salad, a big scoop of kale salad, and two fried plantains for dessert.

With a fancy bottled drink. Plan Tea Organic Black Tea with Vanilla and Basil.

The tea made this meal feel extra special!

Cheese plate.

We each had our own. Adam got asparagus and matzoh with his basics and my extras were green beans and persimmon. Honeycrisp.

TJ’s Cheddar and Gruyere Mélange Cheese.

Alter Eco Dark Velvet Truffle.

Roasted green beans.

And a nice, mushy persimmon.

I really liked the flavor of the flesh (I’ve tried an unripe persimmon and it sucks all of the moisture out of your mouth), but I’m still not sure whether or not I was supposed to eat the hard skin. I picked it off with my fingernails but it didn’t make for the nicest eating experience.

Next weekend my in-laws are coming for their first LI visit! I just hope we have some nice week days in between.

21Oct2013

Weekend Wrap-Up; Vampire Weekend

by Emily

It’s 2 in the afternoon, so allow me to say “good morning!” Does that sound strange to anyone? Adam worked nights Friday through Sunday so we’ve been keeping a vampire’s schedule. There’s been a lot of this –

I don’t like it when he’s gone, my sleep pattern is all out of whack and I definitely live like a teenager when he’s not around. Case in point – Saturday night I watched terrible movies (“One for the Money” and “Abduction”) and ate candy (Sour Patch Kids and chocolate-covered gummi bears) for dinner.

I ate a lot (a lot) of junk this weekend, but I did manage to throw some pretty gourmet meals in there as well. If last week was all about the jalapeño, this was the weekend of bacon!

breakfasts

On the go.

We had to eat on the way while running errands so I made us something portable. A terrible, god-awful smoothie.

Pumpkin, frozen kale, frozen banana, Silk Vanilla Almond Milk, and a bit of maple. This had such potential but the kale didn’t fully blend and chewing threw it was horrifying. I forced down 90% for the nutrients, but did not enjoy it.

My TJ’s pumpkin cereal bar was much better.

I thought the filling was great; sweet and spicy. And how cute is the labeling?!

We bought these when we were a little loopy from sleeplessness and Adam thought the pun was seriously the funniest thing ever. We spent the rest of the evening making variations on this joke – “A strawberry asks a pumpkin on a date… what happens next?”

Another kale fail.

I just could not win on the kale front this week. Again, these eggs had potential, but there just seemed to be sooooo much kale and we both hated them.

Offending eggs.

Delicious turkey bacon.

Side of grapes.

At least the other components were good. And I shared many bites of egg with the dog, who was such a good boy about eating his greens!

lunches

On Saturday two of our good friends from Buffalo (who are now living in Rochester for medical residency) came up to visit. We met up for a lovely lunch at Bareburger.

I got the Western Burger, with a turkey burger, sans bun. Smoked mozzarella / ~~country~~ turkey bacon / house-made Carolina slaw / smokehouse sauce / topped with a crispy, spicy pickle spear.

So fricking good! That hunk on the side was my pickle, which blew my mind.

A sandwich at home.

A whole-wheat bagel thin with turkey bacon, brie, and pumpkin butter.

This combo was ridiculous.

Plus the last of the grapes.

I have not been eating enough fruit this fall and it was nice to have something other than apples in the house.

dinners

More greens, more grapes.

A big pile of chicken salad.

Kale chips.

This was the only iteration of kale that I actually enjoyed this weekend.

The carb portion of dinner was consumed in the car on the way home from the store.

Adam and I split a TJ’s soft pretzel stick and loved it. Great chew!

I even whipped myself up a drink while I made dinner.

October is National Caramel Month and Sobieski sent me some samples of their Karamel Vodka to celebrate.

Note – I received the vodka samples free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Here was my attempt at a Caramel Apple Cocktail –

2 oz Sobieski Karamel Vodka
2 oz Sour Apple Pucker
splash Polar Granny Smith Apple Seltzer

The vodka was good, but next time I’d go with a 2:1 ratio of vodka to Pucker, the sour apple flavor was a little strong!

Soup’s up.

Last night we ate big bowls of my Loaded Potato Soup.

Truffles for dessert.

I’ve raved about Alter Eco’s Silk chocolate line in the past and they sweetly sent me some of their newest product – Dark Velvet Truffles.

Note – I received the truffles free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

The truffles, which are also available in Black, are organic, fair trade, and non-GMO. They are made with coconut oil, a more sustainable option than palm kernel oil (I didn’t taste any coconut flavor).

I thought that the truffles were great; nice and creamy! The husband hates dark chocolate as a rule, but loved the Silk bars so I will have him try one of the truffles and report back.

Have a great week!

11Oct2013

Do You Remember When People Used To Blog 3x A Day?

by Emily

Do you remember when people used to blog three times a day? Yeah … I can’t even handle once a week! I don’t have a wrap-up, but I did manage to get 2 – 3 items from each category, and the stuff I do have to share was all awesome. Here we go –

breakfast

1. Pumpkin pie (crisp?) in a bowl.

I topped some TJ’s low-fat pumpkin Greek yogurt (3/4 of the container or so; the serving seems oddly large to me) with some of my Simply Sweet Granola and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

I made my oats a little too toasty, but I was very pleased with the yogurt.

2. Pumpkin Pie Through A Straw.

That’s right, I cracked open my first can of pumpkin!

I’ve made this smoothie for years and it is a total winner. The husband is usually not as into the pumpkin thing as I am and he likes this even more than I do.

3. Sundae on a Wednesday.

This was the most dessert-y of the “dessert” breakfasts but it was still pretty healthy.

Wallaby low-fat maple yogurt topped with Crispy Green bananas (former freebie), and melted Biscoff Spread.

snacks

1. Cinnamon Crunch Somersaults and a caramel macchiato.

I made so many updates to my coffee (a little more of this, a little less of that) that it was basically a big cup of espresso and caramel, aka perfection.

The crunchy portion of this snack was brought to you by this generous package I received from Somersaults:

I received this package free of charge. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

They recently had their top flavors certified as GMO-free and expanded their retailer list to include Target and Costco and they’re trying to spread the word about their good news. Fun snack facts – a serving of Somersaults has as much protein as a serving of almonds (with half of the fat) and they are a good source of fiber and vitamin E. Also they are Adam’s very favorite snack!

I thought that the Cinnamon Crunch (a new flavor this year) was great; a good blend of sweet and seedy.

2. Cinnamon Pumpkin Beer Bread.

Just Beer Bread made with a pumpkin beer and a layer of cinnamon sugar (we used cinnamon maple sugar) on top.

Quite good with schmear of butter.

3. An actual sundae.

Ben and Jerry’s Vanilla Honey Caramel Greek Frozen Yogurt with melted Biscoff Spread; I was all about the Biscoff this week.

I bought the frozen yogurt by chance (I needed vanilla frozen yogurt for my pumpkin smoothie and this was all I could find at the store near my house) and ended up adoring it. The flavor was so complex!

lunch

1. Sandwich success.

I’ve been planning this sandwich combo for weeks, ever since a serendipitous trip to Trader Joe’s.

A whole wheat Bagel Thin topped with Applegate Farms roasted turkey, TJ’s pumpkin butter, and a TJ’s mini brie bite.

The brie and pumpkin butter mash-up was just as good as I thought it would be.

Roasted green beans on the side,

and TJ’s Hawaiian Style BBQ Potato Chips.

This was a fun lunch to munch through.

2. A trip to Chobani Bar in SoHo.

A girlfriend and I took the train into the city from Queens. We snacked on Somersaults on the way in.

She had never tasted them before but was an instant fan.

A quick walk down Prince Street and we were at Chobani.

The space was very pretty, but strangely they had no seating. We ended up finding a nice spot on a sunny stoop.

I ordered a half-size of toasted coconut and pineapple. Plain yogurt topped with pineapple, toasted coconut, and Turkish hazelnuts. It comes with light agave nectar but I asked that they leave it off.

I was very impressed with my bowl; the pineapple was so sweet! My friend got the same thing and I did and she liked it too. We both agreed that we probably wouldn’t go back but that we were glad we went.

dinner

1. Mac and cheese, please.

This combo of ingredients made for one heck of a dinner –

While my mushrooms were browning…

I ate ~~some of~~ the rest of the bbq chips,

and opened a Pumking.

I agree with what I’ve read online, this year’s batch wasn’t the best. I really enjoyed it the first few minutes but after that I grew tired of the flavor. In fact, most of the bottle ended up in my cinnamon pumpkin beer bread. At least my dinner was good.

Salads on the side. A romaine blend dressed with a sprinkle of salt and 1 tsp each honey and olive oil.

My salad was technically on the bottom, not the side. I topped my greens with mac (Annie’s Shells and White Cheddar, with spinach, mushrooms, and Bela smoked sardines) and then topped my whole bowl with crumbled goat cheese.

2. Taco night.

I recently received a package from Ortega to help me celebrate National Taco Day:

I received this package free of charge. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

They sent along some recipes on which they collaborated with Chef Aarón Sánchez, including this vegetarian one –

I really liked the sound of it, but you know I had to put my own spin on the recipe.

Vegetarian Black Bean Tacos, serves 3

1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
medium sweet onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, diced
2 jalapeño peppers, diced
15.5 oz can low-sodium black beans (don’t drain!)
1 packet Ortega 40% less sodium taco seasoning mix
9 Ortega yellow corn taco shells
4 oz raw baby spinach
3 oz crumbled feta cheese

Heat evoo in a large pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened and beginning to brown, 5 – 7 minutes.
Add garlic and jalapeños and cook an additional 5 minutes.
Stir in beans (liquid and all) and taco seasoning mix and cook an additional 10 minutes. Mash up some of the beans with the side of your spatula while you stir.
Heat taco shells according to package instructions.
Stuff the bottom of each taco with spinach. Spread the bean mixture evenly among the tacos on top of spinach. Top tacos evenly with feta cheese.

We loved them! The beans were delicious, if I do say so myself. And the taco shells were wonderful; they seemed to hold together much better than ones I’ve used in the past.

life

1. The house.

Three full months of living here later, we finally bought shelving for the living room.

There’s not a lot on them right now (I managed to find spaces for all of our books in the office in the interim) but it’s nice to have one less blank wall.

2. The man.

I didn’t talk about it on the blog, but a month or so ago Webster had a cluster seizure. It was very scary, and more importantly, it meant that we had to start medically treating his epilepsy. He’s been on medication for more than a month now and he has been seizure-free the entire time (yay!).

Feeling better has given him time to focus on his other interests, like sitting with his butt up in the air like a total weirdo.

What’s going on in your life? Tell me something good from the last week?

4Sep2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Weekend Mostly

by Emily

I’ve been all over the place lately so there are a lot of gaps in my reporting. We ate a bunch of junk recently and most of it didn’t make it to the camera. Adam is on a slightly less time-consuming rotation this month and we have been making the most of our time together. Here are a few of the highlights since I last checked in –

{1} Homemade nachos.

I’ve been missing ETS since the move, but these nachos were delicious, and certainly much healthier than the ones with a pound of cheddar that I used to buy in Buffalo.

Leftover tortilla chips from a Moe’s run, baked with roasted corn, broccoli, and the last of the aged Gouda from our cheese plate.

{2} Rosemary beer bread.

Just my favorite beer bread recipe with a few Tbsp of chopped rosemary (from my grandma’s garden!) tossed in.

I had to buy a giant bag of self-rising flour so expect to see more of this.

{3} CrispRoot snacking.

Please note – CrispRoot sent me their cassava root chips to sample free of charge. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.

CrispRoot is a company that makes ridged cassava root chips. They come in Sea Salt, Original, BBQ Bliss, and Thai Ginger. All of the flavors are dairy- and gluten-free, contain no trans fat, have 150 kcals and 6-7 gram saturated fat per serving, and have 2x the fiber and 30% less fat than most potato chips.

We were not fans of the Thai Ginger, but the other flavors we would definitely purchase on our own. I couldn’t taste much of a different between original and sea salt, both had a pleasing saltiness and good crunch.

{4} Baking fail.

I was attempting to make brown butter coconut rice krispies treats.

I don’t know what went wrong, but no. No.

{5} Chicken Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers.

This idea was such a win.

Click here for the recipe.

{6} Abandoned principles.

I have very strict holiday food rules. September is Apple Month. October is Pumpkin. December is Eggnog, Gingerbread, and Peppermint. November may overlap with October and December. I might have started hoarding pumpkin products last week, but you are not supposed to eat them until October! But then the PSL anniversary hype was so big, and I caved.

Grande, non-fat, white chocolate, pumpkin spice latte, you were worth my abandoned principles.

{7} Chinatown in Manhattan.

We split a Pat Bing Soo with red bean and strawberry jelly.

And drank coconut water straight from the source.

The only drink that can possibly beat a coconut with a straw in it is diet coke from the fountain, and even that’s a close race.

{8} Lunch with friends.

Some of our Boston favorites were in town so we ventured into Manhattan to spend the day with them. We had lunch at a spot near Times Square with rooftop seating. Adam and I shared everything because we’re so ~~poor~~ close. Cider, pierogi, and chicken fried rice.

We went to dinner at a place in SoHo that had the best food and the worst lighting. Adam and I split lobster truffle mac and cheese and I’m kicking myself that I don’t have a picture.

{9} Grand Army Plaza’s Farmers’ Market.

I think those pictures speak for themselves. I was practically in tears with liking those flowers so much!

What was your last major baking fail?

4Aug2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Birthday, Buffalo, Brooklyn

by Emily

First things first: Hi, Jill! Hi, Nikki!!

Now then. Everything in this wrap-up is on the go {go, go!}. The end of July/beginning of August was definitely a fun time for me. I turned 28, traveled back to Buffalo for five days, and continued the excitement when I got home with some fun trips to Brooklyn. I’ve made some really tasty meals at home over the past few days too, but I’m going to save them for a subsequent post since this one’s so full. Off we go!

Birthday

Adam got home at 7 am that morning, so we kept my entrance into 28 pretty low-key. I had three birthday objectives…

Glitter nails (which I painted on the subway to the complete horror of the man sitting across from me),

froyo,

and my free Starbucks birthday drink.

A venti non-fat latte with 1 shot each hazelnut and white chocolate syrup and a nice message to boot.

If you haven’t registered a Starbucks card yet you need to do so; the perks are amazing.

Adam had to go into work that night, but I got to have a very special celebration with some family and friends from St. Thomas.

My aunt and a family friend and her son were all in the city for summer courses/internships and they took me to the very famous Lombardi’s for pizza.

My veggie slices were good, but Pinos is definitely better.

Afterwards, we went somewhere very exciting for dessert.

Rice to Riches has been on my “must-try” list since the first time I lived in the city! After the long wait it did not disappoint.

The space was great and my pudding (with a candle on top!) was delicious.

I got a diva-sized (aka small) caramel rice pudding that was awesomely creamy. I will not be waiting another six years to go back, that’s for sure.

Then I took the train home by myself at 2:00 in the morning and got up the next day and drove to Buffalo.

Buffalo

I got lucky and Jean Inman* (a review course for the Dietetics registration exam I have to take) and a good friend’s wedding fell on the same weekend, so I only had to make the 7-hour drive back to Buffalo once this summer. Not that I’m going to lie – I have been missing the walkability, charm, and fantastic Thai food of Buffalo enormously since the move!

My long weekend was a glorious whirlwind of class, food, friends, and booze, but I had too much fun to take many pictures so I’m just going to share some highlights.

My friend’s wedding was gorgeous, of course.

The bride and groom did so many adorable, sweet things during the ceremony that even I got a bit teary eyed.

On my first night in town I met up with my old coworkers for dinner at Blue Monk (I miss those girls!).

We waited more than an hour for our table and were deeply, dramatically hungry so this shared basket of duck poutine disappeared in about a minute.

My friend and I also shared a grilled cheese that was pretty ridiculous.

On a later day, another group of friends and I walked over to Saigon Cafe for Thai food. I know I hated Saigon but on my final visit I was finally a fan! My previous complaint was that their “five-star spicy” was basically unseasoned but this order of Pad See Eiw was so hot that it practically blew smoke out of my ears.

I cooled down my mouth with drinks at Founding Father’s, a bar I loved as much the second time as the first.

Founding Father’s is near the top of the list of things I’ll miss about Buffalo. Amazingly, I don’t think I ever really blogged about the place I’ll miss the most: Mezza, my number one favorite place in Buffalo. The food isn’t out of this world, so the bar is kind of a hidden gem, but the drinks are well-made and astonishingly cheap and the bartenders are very cute. If you live along Elmwood I highly recommend giving Mezza another chance if it’s not already your favorite.

On Sunday, I headed up to Canada to visit the cabin a friend’s family own right along the beach.

It was great to have the sand all to ourselves for the afternoon.

On my last day in town I had coffee at Sweetness_7 with two of my favorite people.

I walked the loop around the perimeter of the zoo and said goodbye to the official buffalo of Buffalo on my way out of town.

It felt like a poetic way to make my final exit from the city that became my home over the last four years.

*Fellow future RDs – I highly recommend doing Inman when you are ready to prepare for the exam. I haven’t taken the test yet, but the course made me feel 100x better about having to start studying after a summer’s break. The class is actually taught by {the} Jean Inman and she is absolutely fantastic. Please feel free to e-mail me if you want more info; I can’t recommend it enough.

Brooklyn

One of my Buffalo friends is moving to the city now too {thank, God!} and I met up with her at Sea Thai on Wednesday night.

We went out for drinks afterward so we decided to split dinner to help spread our money a little further and eliminate the hassle of carrying around leftovers. Lettuce wraps – chicken & peanut wrapped in rice skin and lettuce with red vinaigrette tomato sauce.

And tofu Bangkok Panang Curry – medium spicy curry with string beans and lime leaf.

Plus the best (read: sweetest!) glass of Thai Young Coconut I’ve ever had.

The atmosphere in Sea is great and I want to head back soon for Drunken Noodles.

I was loving Williamsburg while we walked around that night, so it was great that I spent Adam’s day off on Saturday there as well.

I was just too flipping excited about Smorgasburg, a food market that set up near the Brooklyn Flea Market. Basically it’s a park loaded with stand of delicious, delicious food.

We shared {among other things} frozen s’mores;

Smorgasm and Salted Sailor. I ordered chocolate and Adam ordered caramel but we switched one bite in when we realize our favorites were the opposite.

An Arnold Palmer Kelvin Slush with caramelized pineapple.

The texture was perfect.

And a mini cone of sweet corn and Old Bay ice cream.

This had just enough spice and was not at all weird like Adam thought it would be.

The best bite(s) of the day was “cheese pop.”

Does any food not get better once you put it on a stick?? I wish I could remember the name of the vendor because the workers were so sweet.

Check out our lunch view –

Getting to stuff myself with cheese right along the water is basically as good as it gets!

NYC readers, have you been to Smorgasburg yet?

Buffalonians, what do you think of Mezza??

7Jul2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; We Moved

by Emily

We moved! On Saturday, June 29th, we did a final pack-up and traded in our Buffalo life for one in Long Island/Queens. Things have been crazy, and I have a lot to figure out still, but I think we’re going to like it here.

We were lucky to have no major issues with the move, but every little thing that could go wrong certainly did! Lots of rain, miscommunication with companies, and sleepless nights. I was very glad that a friend tagged along on my drive to the city to help me with Webster.

I have eaten an insane amount of food over the past week (moving is hungry business!) but I’ve been too busy to capture most of it on film. I also don’t have apartment pictures to share with y’all yet (sorry, Nana!). Here is what I do have to share…

A Random Snack

Getting all of our stuff out of my in-laws’ basement involved multiple 3+ hour trips. Between traffic, tolls, accidents, tailgaters, and our general level of frustration, these trips were pretty brutal. Staying awake involved lots of caffeine and munching (case in point – one day I ate a bag of Cheetos for lunch and a bag of Cheez-its for dinner!). One bright spot in the mandatory snacking was this bag of Sponch cookies.

I hadn’t seen this brand in Buffalo, but if you spot them in your area – get them! They are shortbread cookies topped with marshmallow, coconut, and jam.

So flipping good.

A Few Free Samples**

**The products mentioned in this section of the post were provided for me to sample free of charge. All opinions are my own.

Right before the move, someone from Best Price Nutrition contacted me to see if I would like to try a couple of products. The timing was perfect because their box beat me to the new apartment and we lived the first few days without any of our kitchen boxes. They sent me some sample sized vitamins and whey protein.

The vitamin packs were from the Nature’s Way Alive! Once Daily Women’s line.

Nutritional note – the stats on this vitamin make it a pretty good daily multivitamin, but if I was going to take it regularly I would definitely continue my additional fish oil and vitamin d supplementation.

The whey protein packs were great for breakfast during my first days. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Isoflex Citrus Peach flavor.

It had a good zinginess but the aftertaste was too strongly “protein powder.” Plus it didn’t mix all that well.

I mixed the Isoflex Banana Creme Supreme with skim milk and enjoyed it much more than the other flavor.

It was nice and creamy and probably would have worked really well in a smoothie.

On the body and mind front – Yoga Download offered me a coupon code to try one of their classes.

You guys know that I’m terrible at making it in to scheduled yoga classes (I only attended one class during my last unlimited two month pass!!) so the idea of online classes appeals to me.

Yoga Download offers yoga, pilates, meditation, and other fitness classes. They have a variety of free classes, and the other classes are priced based on whether you choose to download the class or watch it online one time only. Also for many classes you can choose audio-only or video/slideshow. You can filter the classes by ability level and intensity and most of the yoga classes come with a downloadable position guide.

I downloaded Basic Mat Pilates, an advanced beginner class. Verdict – I liked it. The class was easy enough for me (maybe a tiny bit too easy) but still provided a good stretch and core workout. The video was of an instructor and two students so you got a couple of examples of good form. I plan on doing the workout again, as well as looking into some of the free yoga classes.

Our First Meal in Long Island

Once we unpacked our cars we loaded back in (dog and all) to head to dinner. Shack Shake was one of my favorites in the city so we hit up a Long Island location.

Strawberry and black & white shakes,

plus cheese fries to share.

Sadly nothing was as good as we remembered; I didn’t even finish my shake. I want to go back to the original location soon and see if it holds up to my memory.

Our First Meal Cooked in our New Apartment

Four cheese Sacchetti with mushrooms, spinach, and a lemon cream sauce.

I went to Whole Foods and got a little crazy.

I cooked the pasta according to the package then tossed it with mushrooms (sauteed in butter), spinach (sauteed with lemon juice), and cream sauce (butter, light cream, and lemon zest).

Those little presents of pasta are ridiculously tasty.

Our First Froyo

I was under the impression that the self-serve trend hadn’t hit NYC yet but luckily I was very mistaken. One of our first discoveries in our new neighborhood (though not walking distance like on Elmwood, boo!) was Twist.

They have toasted marshmallow frozen yogurt. And now I can die.

Our First Trip Back “Home”

On Adam’s first day off we headed back to our old stomping grounds – Park Slope. 7th Avenue is one of our favorite spots on the planet and we were excited to check out some of the new spots that had popped up in our 4 year absence. We ate/walked/ate/walked and so on until we were stuffed to the gills!

Pino’s pizza <– best pizza in NYC.

My spinach white slice did not disappoint.

Butter Lane Cupcakes was new to us but we’ll be going back.

We split an Elvis; a banana cupcake topped with peanut butter frosting and mini marshmallows.

The cupcake was my new favorite, the big pieces of banana embedded throughout were amazing.

Finally, we headed down to 5th Avenue for Sky Ice, a Thai ice cream spot that Serious Eats recommended.

One scoop of durian and one scoop of thai iced coffee ice cream.

The flavors were so spot on that it basically blew my mind. I want to go back to try the thai iced tea flavor asap.

Also, we found our new desk right in front of our old apartment!

What are the odds of that?!

American readers, how did you celebrate July 4th this year?

6Jun2013

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!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: potato

Weekend Wrap-Up, Tres Días

Weekend Wrap-Up; Vampire Weekend

breakfasts

lunches

dinners

Note – I received the vodka samples free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Note – I received the truffles free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Do You Remember When People Used To Blog 3x A Day?

breakfast

snacks

I received this package free of charge. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

lunch

dinner

I received this package free of charge. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

life

Weekly Wrap-Up; Weekend Mostly

Please note – CrispRoot sent me their cassava root chips to sample free of charge. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.

Weekly Wrap-Up; Birthday, Buffalo, Brooklyn

Birthday

Buffalo

Brooklyn

Weekly Wrap-Up; We Moved

**The products mentioned in this section of the post were provided for me to sample free of charge. All opinions are my own.

A Final Trip To Toronto

Winner Dinners