Breakfast highlights from a lovely weekend…
Homemade maple vanilla matcha latte.
Hometown Bakeshop. We shared a great egg sandwich – over-medium eggs on a cheddar biscuit with cheddar, turkey bacon, and smoked aioli.
Plus a funfetti scone.
I had a cafe con leche with condensed milk! Plus a pink flamingo – mezcal with guava and lime.
And shredded beef for breakfast, with sweet plantains, avocado, and black beans and rice. This was almost as good as the Cuban food of our Miami days!
Weekend highlights…
We were snowed in Friday and Saturday (and ate a million snacks and cuddled in bed catching up on The Great North!) but Sunday we were able to take a trip into Brooklyn to marvel at Industry City.
We made ube dalgona iced lattes.
And bought a dulce de leche iced latte from The Flour Shoppe.
Vanilla skyr with Trader Joe’s mixed nut butter, granola, and banana. Related note – I also had a yogurt bowl with nut butter and chopped up peanut butter cups and it was fantastic.
The very first thing I did in preparation for the winter storm was panic-buy my favorite ice cream.
Kinako mochi.
Cake in a jar (chocolate cake and 4 leches!) from Parva Bakeshop.
I tried all of the beef at Hometown BBQ. A smashed burger and a brisket taco!
Roasted zucchini with parmesan / soft-scrambled eggs / rye toast with strawberry jam.
Last week of 2021! Here were some highlights…
The week after Christmas is still an acceptable time for eggnog coffee.
See also – I made a chestnut iced latte. Strong espresso plus half and half with chestnut paste, sugar, vanilla bean, cinnamon, and mace.
This grape kombucha was wonderfully juicy.
See also – rainbow sherbet Hi-Chews.
Whole Food’s peanut butter and jelly bites plus mandarins.
Christmas dinner leftovers – roasted brussel sprouts with duck sausage, sharp cheddar, and chili flakes.
We might actually be addicted to Roast Sandwiches. I’ve been getting take-out from them at least once a week the past month and I think about their roast beef sandwiches constantly. This was a bbq chicken crunch wrap.
Sautéed maple sriracha kale with an herby bean salad. Great Northern beans with green onion, turkey bacon, garlic oil, Sichuan pepper salt, and tons of fresh mint and cilantro.
An even fancier salad. Sautéed kale with garlic and balsamic vinaigrette topped with roasted beets, deglet dates, pomegranate, honey goat cheese, and crumbled beef bacon.
P.S. Starting tomorrow Adam and I are both on vacation together for a week!
…And we made the most of it with tons of decadent and/or on theme snacks! I worked the holiday weekend but Adam and I were both off Christmas Eve so we got to spend time cuddling the dog, took a trip into the city to enjoy the light display at Hudson Yards, and drove around our area in the evening admiring decorations. Highlights included…
Peppermint cold brew with eggnog.
Stumptown’s salted maple iced latte.
This layered red and green smoothie was more successful in flavor than artistry. Ube, strawberry, grape layered with matcha banana.
The fanciest yogurt bowl – plain skyr with cinnamon, chia seeds, strawberries, nougat halvah, and chestnut paste!
Green juice and a candy cane.
Mint sparkling matcha.
Eggnog iced matcha latte.
Is there anything more luxurious than freshly made fruit salad? This was golden pinepple, strawberries, and mandarins.
This crab dip was a 6.5/10 but these crackers were a 9.5/10.
Peppermint chocolate crinkle cookie from Chip.
Repeat of my two new favorite beers. Cinnamon marshmallow cola sour ale from Evil Twin and an eggnog double IPA from Abomination Brewing.
Lunch at Dante in the West Village. It was worth sitting outside on one of the coldest days of this month! We split steak with salbitxada and a baby kale salad with beats, butternut squash, goat cheese, and hazelnuts. Plus fancy cocktails.
Avocado toast plus a quick pickled cucumber salad. Toasted sourdough, mashed avocado, a fried egg, and chili flakes.
Sautéed cabbage with peanut lime sauce and five spice candied peanuts (very loosely based on this recipe).
Roasted brussel sprouts (with chili flakes and smoked paprika) plus Christmas nachos! Kettle chips with extra-sharp cheddar, green onion, and duck sausage.
Highlights from this weekend include…
Chia pudding with eggnog and cinnamon and fresh strawberries.
Comfortland‘s eggnog croissant. <– my favorite seasonal item of this year
Earl grey pour-over coffee.
Topped with cinnamon vanilla ube cold foam.
See also – a delicious slice of ube tres leches.
Fries with spicy tuna salad, chili flakes, green onion, and furikake.
We have a loaf of Trader Joe’s sliced sourdough in the house so I, of course, planned sandwiches for every dinner! Maple smoked turkey with cheddar and honey mustard. Plus lemon mustard roasted green beans (roasted green beans tossed in honey mustard, garlic oil, and lemon juice).
Roast beef with cheddar and horseradish mayo. Plus roasted zucchini and smashed potatoes with garlic oil, cheddar, and paprika.
I didn’t mean for this plate to be so yellow, but it was the best meal of the week! Golden pineapple / roasted orange cauliflower / soft scrambled egg sandwich with tons of smoked salmon salad.
This post includes highlights back through last weekend; it was Adam’s birthday and I didn’t want to waste his time blogging. We had a wonderful weekend including great weather for two days of long walks in Brooklyn, lots of delicious meals, a trip to Sundays in Brooklyn’s Snow Days in Brooklyn winter pop up (which included egg nog soft serve and a Dark and Snowy cocktail, among other things), and a drive-through holiday light show.
Highlights…
Breakfast at Ursula. We split a pine needle mocha(!!).
And a cream cheese frosting stuffed cinnamon roll(!!!).
And I had a sandwich with scrambled egg, cheddar, and green chile on housemade brioche.
Chestnut and vanilla iced latte from Nerd Be Cool.
A Christmas yogurt bowl – Trader Joe’s eggnog Greek yogurt with kiwi, pomegranate, and granola.
See also – plain Greek yogurt with honey, cinnamon, granola, kiwi, pomegranate, and fresh mandarin.
We went to Oddfellows for a scoop of coquito ice cream.
And Brooklyn Cupcake for a coquito cupcake. Plus flan and guava cheese, since it was a birthday!
We really loved this chocolate mint sparkling water.
Trader Joe’s Thai tea mini ice cream mochi.
These chip-stuffed Reese’s cups were just as good as I thought they would be! Completely worth the months of gas station stops to search for them.
We were also pretty pleased with these Dove truffles.
I ate an obscene amount of take-out this week but here were two really good “homemade” dinners. Chili cheese fries plus roasted romanesco.
Cold silken tofu with chili oil (I used urfa pepper paste with garlic oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, white sugar, and scallions) plus sautéed eggplant, bok choy, and red bell pepper with ginger and peanuts.
Happy Hanukkah to my readers who celebrate! Highlights from this week include…
My new favorite citrus – Kishu Mandarins. They are as juicy as they are small and adorable.
Fat Orange Cat double IPAs.
The most “me” beer I’ve ever purchased – Evil Twin’s cola sour with marshmallow and cinnamon.
A fun thing for this December – we bought a marshmallow advent calendar. Our first two flavors were cranberry and maple pancake.
My parents sent us an assortment of mint candies, including homemade buttermints!
A take on the New York Times’ cheesy white bean bake – I added shredded chicken, onion, chili flake, and urfa pepper.
Trader Joe’s cheese blintzes. Topped with cranberry sauce and a brown sugar vanilla yogurt sauce.
Chicken burger, roasted broccoli and cauliflower, and Trader Joe’s latkes and cauliflower latkes.
Takeout from Roast – chicken taco sandwich / roast beef melt / crispy chili brussel sprouts – with leftover latkes.
Highlights from a weekend with a lot of Brooklyn walking (Prospect Heights to Cobble Hill // Greenpoint to Williamsburg) – – –
Coffee from home – iced phin-brew with ube and chocolate milk.
Edith’s has a brick-and-mortar now and their tahini and oat milk frozen cold brew officially made it into my top five lifetime favorite coffees!
Our spicy everything bagel with smoked mackerel salad and labneh was not bad either.
A very summery sandwich and seltzer from Campbell’s. Smoked chicken, pimento cheese, green apples, pickled onions, mayo, and arugula on sourdough + hibiscus and rose.
We went big for our last Smorgasburg visit of the season. Cookies and cream ice cream with toasted Italian meringue.
Duck Season royal poutine – duck fat fries, duck bacon, cheese curds, and duck gravy!!
This frozen daiquiri from Elsa is my new favorite cocktail. I would like all of my drinks to be served with butterscotch and date molasses from now on!
And this was my newest favorite bubble tea combo – peppermint tea with herbal jelly and strawberry hearts.
Gooey peanut butter cookie.
Dinner at Pinto Thai. We loved the assemble your Thai iced tea.
Chicken satay.
Green papaya salad.
Crispy chicken with walnut, almond, peanut, cashew, and pumpkin seeds.
