Spring Vacation 2015

by Emily

Adam and I took advantage of our joint weeks off and flew home to St. Thomas for a quick visit. The timing worked out perfectly so that we flew in on Mother’s Day and could celebrate with my mom in person.

Our trip was short but wonderful!

We saw some old friends, ate tons of good food, ran on the beach, and visited our favorite spots. I am missing pictures of most of the action, but here are some of the highlights…

St. Thomas now boasts several self-serve froyo places (and a Walgreens?!), a fact that seems insane to anyone who grew up in the VI.

Zest, at the Ritz, also had yummy toddy-brewed VI Roasters coffee, so you know I had to make an affogato.

With vanilla froyo with caramel and marshmallow.

Dinner at ITP, my family’s favorite pizza spot.

We shared giant Greek salads and a bbq chicken pizza.

Brunch at Barefoot Buddha, my favorite restaurant on the island.

I got a Vietnamese iced coffee, as well as a really amazing Cuban coffee to go. Plus my standard order, the Bigfoot Bagel Sandwich.

Egg frittata, smoked turkey, turkey bacon, cream cheese, sharp cheddar cheese, chipotle aioli, tomato-onion coulis and fresh spinach on an everything bagel.

Lunch on the water at Fat Turtle.

The food was meh – we split a Cajun mahi mahi sandwich and a veggie pizza that Adam loved – but the view was nice.

And afterwards we got house-made salted caramel gelato from a pop-up booth in Yacht Haven.

My parents made Adam’s favorite dish one night for dinner, Bill Clinton’s Enchiladas.

Plus key lime pie for dessert for me.

I scooped a slice of pie onto Greek yogurt for breakfast the next day and it was delicious.

You can’t miss the local dishes at Victor’s.

That is pan-fried Old Wife, a nice white fish that went well with the smoky creole sauce. My plate also had veggies, fried plantains, and fungi – a cornmeal paste that has a texture like firm mashed potatoes.

Finally, fraccos, aka Caribbean shaved ice.

I got soursop and passionfruit with condensed milk and it was one of the best things I ate all vacation!

It was a great trip, and now I’m excited for a three-day staycation in the city before we head back to work.

10May2015

Thirsty

by Emily

As this post goes live, we will be setting off on a fun adventure! The best part of which is the fact that Adam and I are both on vacation and can spend every second of the next 7 days together. <– squee!

I wanted to get in a quick post of highlights from the past few days, 90% of which are beverages…

Iced coffee and an apple for breakfast.

Plus a cinnamon iced chai latte when I got to work.

We threw a surprise wedding shower for one of my dietetic coworkers and that’s where Friday’s lunch came from.

Plus an orange in my office.

Yes, it took me less than 2 weeks to kill that plant!

More coffee. This caramel macchiato from Dunkin was not good.

But this can of salted caramel cold brew was, especially paired with a chocolate pretzel bar for breakfast.

Coffee yogurt topped with honey and salty peanuts is always good.

As is coffee beer, like this yummy milk stout from Stone.

Last night we celebrated the start of vacation with a delicious dinner at Brooklyn Star.

That’s Dr Pepper with bourbon and bitters.

Spicy duck wings sauced with ground chili, honey, Coca Cola, and fried garlic. We weren’t sure if it was Brooklyn Star’s superior frying technique or the fact that these were fatty, tasty duck instead of chicken, but these were the best wings we’ve ever had.

And a smoked escarole salad.

So smoky and good! Jonah crab meat, pickled watermelon, Asian pear, heart of palm, and parsnip chips.

Plus dessert at Milk Bar.

Cold brew and a cornflake marshmallow cookie. A sweet start to a fun week.

4May2015

Fun Facts From The Weekend

by Emily

{1} The special drink at Café Bene this month is handmade strawberry milk! It’s called a “strawberry latte,” and as far as we could tell it is just milk and macerated strawberries. The husband and I liked it a lot.

That’s more than I can say for the S’mores Frappuccino, as the whipped cream did not taste like marshmallows.

{2} You can eat Kentucky Derby themed snacks even if you don’t watch the race and still have no idea who won.

This Dark Chocolate Walnut bar was yummy.

And I made Adam and I “Derby Shakes” on Saturday.

Milk chocolate gelato and toasted walnuts blended with skim milk, Jim Beam Maple Bourbon, and ice.

{3} Bareburger’s new menu includes a burger topped with pimento cheese, pickled green tomato, a fried egg.

I guess that technically fit in with our Derby eats too.

{4} The new Avengers’ movie was not bad at all. Even though it was long enough for us to need a refill on our giant soda.

It was very funny; several quips had the whole theatre laughing out loud. I think overall it would have been a lot more Whedon-y if it had been Natasha walking into the house instead in that final farm scene (<– intentionally vague so as not to give any spoilers).

{5} You should totally make my newest recipe at home – Spicy Salmon Roll Casserole.

It came together really quickly and Adam and I both enjoyed it. Served with Bon Appetit’s Thai Celery Salad on the side.

I’m looking forward to leftovers of both dishes.

13Apr2015

Homemade S’mores Milk and Weekend Brooklyn Love

by Emily

Adam and I had a pretty great weekend… in spite of me misplacing my – expensive! – favorite sports bra and spending half of Saturday in mourning. Seriously – I don’t change at the gym, I didn’t pack it on a trip, and we are very careful to check the machines for runaways when we do our laundry – where the frick is it?!! But when we weren’t checking and rechecking literally every drawer in the house, we did manage to have some fun.

highlights…

Homemade S’mores Milk

It’s official, I’m a genius. I put it in coffee, obviously.

S’mores Milk, makes 2 cups

Inspired by Tosi’s Cereal Milk. This recipe requires you to strain the solids out of the milk, you can use a fine mesh sieve but I used my French Press and that worked really well too. Smooshy marshmallows will not work for this, you need crispy ones; if you can’t find the Mallow Bits I recommend picking the marshmallows out of Lucky Charms!

2 cups skim milk or milk of choice
1/3 cup Jet Puff Mallow Bits
4 squares graham crackers, crumbled
2 Tbsp hot chocolate milk

Place all of the ingredients together in a container and stir to combine. Cover and store in the fridge for 8 – 16 hours.
Strain, discarding solids. Milk can be stored, covered, in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Cheesy Spicy Eggs

Coming up somewhere just behind coffee, diet coke, dulce de leche, and popcorn, corn cooked in scrambled eggs is one of my favorite meals.

This plate was TJ’s frozen fire-roasted corn, chopped spinach, and sliced shishito peppers (<– so much spicier than I was expecting!) cooked in coconut oil with eggs scrambled in and chunks of Kerrygold Skellig sweet cheddar tossed in at the end.

C’est Cheese in Port Jeff

C’est Cheese is always worth the drive up Port Jefferson for dinner.

We shared a beer sampler. The Framboise was my favorite.

A cheese plate. Adam loved the Tallegio and I was all about the 7-year Gouda.

And a grilled cheese with blue cheese and a raspberry-cranberry relish on marble rye. The cheese and jam combo made for the best bites of the night.

Snacky in Williamsburg

This weekend one of my lifelong best friends celebrated her 30th(!!!) birthday.

After the party, the husband and I had dinner at Snackys, one of my favorite Williamsburg spots. We shared a seaweed salad and a Chinese big bun stuffed with pickled vegetables.

And did rice bowls for dinner. I know the photos aren’t much, but my Spicy Korean BBQ Chicken Bowl was great, yummy sauce and big bites of kimchi.

Our 1st Smorgasburg of 2015

NYC people – if you haven’t done Smorgasburg yet you need to get your life together. They added a few new vendors this season and it is happy, foodie, perfection. We couldn’t find the Snowday truck but you can bet I’ll keep an eye out from now on.

We got lattes at Brooklyn Roasting Company.

Buns from Bite Sized Kitchen. I got red curry chicken with peanuts, cilantro, and fried garlic and shloots (topped with loads of sweet chili sauce).

And beer-battered cheese curds with truffle cheese sauce from Curd’s the Word.

Remember this post? The stupid sports bra is the fourth item I’ve ever lost… which would be a really good track record if 2, 3, and 4 hadn’t all been within the last year!

5Apr2015

Oats And Easter Candy

by Emily

I wrote this post at midnight on Saturday… while I ate dinner/my first meal of the day… it’s been kind of a rough week. Hopefully I’ll be in a better mood while this is auto-publishing because I should be in the car on my way to Easter celebrating with the husband’s family.

I’m missing a ton of photos from the week (chips and dip!) and posting two days late, so I almost skipped this post, but some of these eats (chocolate + oat bowls!) were just so good.

breakfast

Community Coffee sent me a variety of their ground coffees to try.

This was a free product sample that I’m reviewing for no additional compensation. It will take me some time to make it through them all, but I will let you know as I open each bag.

This week I cold-brewed the French Roast.

Quite nice! Roasty and not acrid at all. I am going to make a (hot) batch in the coffee machine soon and I will let you know if that changes my opinion, but for now we give this two thumbs up.

Gevalia almond milk iced coffee.

The flavor was good but not great. The 9 grams of protein made it a good breakfast though.

Iced coffee and peanut butter toast with condensed milk from the tea place near my work.

I threw out my crusts and my office smelled like a peanut all day!

lunch

Banana walnut oatmeal with a minneola and Cadbury mini eggs.

Cabury mini eggs win for best holiday candy ever.

Wild berry oatmeal with Justin’s chocolate hazelnut butter.

I 100% bought the oatmeal because it had a bear on the package, but it ended up being pretty tasty.

Turkey sandwich, citrus, and malted eggs.

That’s a toasted English muffin with Smart Balance and Applegate Farms smoked turkey.

Yogurt bowl.

2% Greek with pomegranate and marble halvah. <– my best idea ever

Chicken sandwich from the cafeteria.

An everything bagel with mayo, mustard, spicy chicken, Munster cheese, and fancy lettuce.

snack

Coffee all day every day.

Worth mentioning were this short, skim caramel macchiato.

And the fact that Hungry Ghost has Stumptown cold brew on draft.

Easter candy.

Turkey jerky.

Ample Hills!

Salted crack caramel + salted honey with honeycomb and chocolate-covered potato chips.

dinner

Chipotle, because heaven forbid we go longer than five days without rice bowls.

Or salty lime chips, or giant diet cokes.

I made us a huge batch of marinara sauce in the crockpot.

It was a great idea in theory, but I didn’t season the sauce enough and the end result was very “meh.” Too bad we ate it three days in row for dinner and still have gallons left.

The best part of that meal was our side dish –

roasted broccoli with pesto gouda melted on top.

On a much more exciting night, I had drinks with a girlfriend at my favorite Brooklyn bar – Pork Slope. No photos, but I had a Keegan’s Mother’s Milk Stout on draft that rocked my socks off. Then we met up with Adam for dinner at Talde, Pork Slope’s Asian-American sister.

That’s my Navy Grog {Diplomatico rum, honey syrup, lime and grapefruit juices} and kale salad {cantaloupe, pickled beets, candied almonds, creamy ponzu}. I am going to be heartbroken when we move on from our national kale obsession.

Happy Easter to all my readers who celebrate.

30Mar2015

Birthday Cake Coffee And Jelly Bean Gum

by Emily

Random notes:

A bunch of bites slipped past the camera this weekend, though per usual, the majority of them were coffee and candy.
I had big plans for excitement in the city this weekend and the snow (in March?! seriously?) throw me off my game. We did make it to the Lower East Side for a 2nd trip to Adam’s new favorite restaurant though.
I binge-watched my way through the first 9 episodes of “Fresh off the Boat” and thought it was great. The book has been on my Amazon wish-list for ages, and we recently visited BaoHaus, so it’s safe to say I’m currently infatuated with Eddie Huang.

Eats:

Double espresso with skim milk (over ice) at work.

I’m not super hungry most mornings, but I try to get in a full 8 oz serving of dairy in my coffee. The 8 grams of protein and 90 – 130 calories usually hold me just fine until my early lunch. Usually. I was so hungry all day on Friday that I was practically crying.

My lunch was delicious.

Fresh blueberries on top of lemon Chobani with a side of sugar cookie kettle corn.

But soon after lunch I was miserable. And I took lunch an hour earlier than usual so it was looong afternoon. I bought this thing of cheese and crackers from the cafeteria, scoffed at how ridiculously large the serving size was, and finished the whole thing 30 minutes later.

And 30 minutes after that, I was buying coffee and a KIND bar for my train ride.

Plus I ate Easter candy both before and after dinner.

My dinner, that in retrospect definitely could have used more protein, was a good one though, if a bit scattered.

Salad = baby kale, cubes pesto gouda, dried blueberries, buckwheat groats, and honey/evoo/lavender salt for dressing.

Our pasta bowls were more of the same; pesto gouda and baby spinach, along with tons of caramelized onions – finished with cream sherry! – and whole wheat boxed mac and cheese with a few giant shells thrown in for good measure.

I was still hungry when we went to bed! Thankfully I felt back to normal by Saturday morning.

My picture-taking motivation went downhill at that point – when I woke up to almost-April snow my plans to go to the gym, clean the floors, and generally accomplish anything all seemed to disappear – but I do have shots of the good stuff.

Adam loved the oatmeal raisin cookie smoothie that I made for my last Recipe Redux post a ton, so this weekend I worked up an official recipe.

I made mine with plain almond milk. ‘Twas good.

This gum is great.

Doesn’t taste like a jelly bean, but it has a great, tart flavor.

Starbucks reached the 20th birthday of the Frappuccino last week and they celebrated with a limited-edition birthday cake flavor… with pink raspberry whipped cream!

I asked for them to make me one into a skim iced latte. So good. Still ridiculous, but slightly less ridiculous.

I made Pinch of Yum’s Bourbon Chicken for Sunday dinner, though I trashed mine up a bit by substituting in turkey breast and Jim Beam’s Maple Bourbon.

Served with brown rice and roasted broccoli, under a healthy drizzle of sauce. My mother – a maple fanatic – bought me the bourbon for Christmas and I have so many cocktail ideas for it.

We had another amazing meal at Pig & Khao. Adam is obsessed with this place and I don’t blame him.

That’s my Reisling and our order of fried mantao buns.

The husband had a giant plate of pork leg, and I ordered the Khao Soi – red curry, coconut milk, chicken, egg noodles, pickled mustard greens, and shallots.

I don’t even like red curry (understandably, the menu is mostly meats so there aren’t a ton of options for me) but I loooved this. The flavors are just so balanced; you leave feeling unbelievably satisfied.

We had to make room for Halo Halo though!

Shaved ice, leche flan, ube ice cream, macapuno (coconut), and pinipig (toasted puffed rice). My favorite desserts are bat ping so, choclados, and halo halo, clearly I am all about shaved ice and sweet milk.

Did you try the birthday cake Frappuccino?

23Mar2015

Pig & Khao & Bao

by Emily

New York gave us weather in the upper 40’s two days in a row and we had a fabulous weekend! We went to two new (to us) restaurants and adored them both. Here is a wrap-up of my favorite bites and sips, not including several more cups of coffee, several more cups of ice cream, and a windy but wonderful walk across the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.

Carolina Honey Argo Tea.

This tea was honey perfection; I loudly “Mmmmn’d” at least five times before we had finished it. And bonus – Adam and I adore reusing the bottles.

Iced latte from Brooklyn Roasting Company.

A gorgeous espresso over skim milk, with raw sugar and a splash of cream. We fought over it on the subway. I also got another Maple Shay and learned that they will make it with skim milk and that it is even better that way.

Shaved ice at Snowdays.

We shared a sweet cream with salted caramel, fruity pebbles, grass jelly, and mochi. Snowdays is Adam’s favorite iced dessert option and mochi are my favorite iced dessert topping.

A stop at Sugar, Sweet, Sunshine.

I actually passed on the cupcakes in lieu of puddings –

Banana and chocolate chip cookie.

Baohaus rocked our socks off. Their lighting scheme was dim with shades of yellow, so I couldn’t get a good shot, but the buns were outstanding.

I got an Uncle Jessie: Organic fried tofu served with our Haus Seasoning Salt, crushed peanuts, Taiwanese red sugar, cilantro, and Haus Sauce, and we shared a Coffin Bao: A large fried bao stuffed with our fried chicken topped with chili condensed milk syrup, crushed peanuts, Taiwanese red sugar, and cilantro. Chili condensed milk syrup is pretty much my love language!

Pig & Khao was even better. Adam says this was the best meal he’s had in months.

I had Vietnamese coffee.

And Shan noodles: ground chicken, turmeric, peanuts, fermented mustard greens, rice noodles.

Every dish had umami out the wazoo. I poured a bit of Adam’s chili oil – for dipping with his steak and eggs – into my broth and the burn was so worth it!

Green eggs at home.

Scrambled with fresh arugula and TJ’s fire roasted corn. Instead of toast, I had ice cream.

Jimmy Fallon can laugh at his own jokes, I don’t care, this is the best Ben & Jerry’s of all time: Caramel & Chocolate Ice Creams with Chocolate Cookie Swirls & Gobs of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough & Peanut Butter Cookie Dough. Funny fact – I thought I hated iced cream up until a year or two ago.

I made a new salmon dish – Sweet and Spicy Cilantro Baked Salmon.

Recipe linked here. I was pleased enough with how it came out to make a recipe page.

With TJ’s Cruciferous Crunch (kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, green and red cabbage) sautéed with leftover cilantro sauce and Wegman’s Thai peanut sauce.

This was worth dirtying up the food processor for.

Crossing my fingers that the weather stays “warm” this week.

17Mar2015

Pi(e) Day 2015

by Emily

Pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, is an infinite, constant number (i.e. the number goes on forever and it’s the same number for all circles of all sizes). π equals 3.1415926535897932384626etcetera,etcetera. Because of this, math-lovers and sugar-aficionados alike celebrate March 14 (3/14 = 3.14) as Pi Day each year. This year was extra special because it was a once-a-hundred-years opportunity to celebrate a full five digits (3/14/2015 = 3.14[.]15). Adam and I partook in both dessert pies and pizza pies to mark the occasion.

Pi Day

Adam and I knew that we wanted to go for the double, so we headed to Park Slope, where both our favorite pie place and pizza place reside. We were clearly not the only ones to have this idea –

After an hour+ wait, we did dessert first with pie at Four & Twenty Blackbirds.

Malted chocolate pecan for him and buttermilk chess for me. The crusts suffered a bit from what must have been a major uptick in production (Blackbirds was offering a 3 slices for $14 special) but the fillings were amazing as always.

Then we did slices of pizza pie at Pino’s.

Bbq chicken for me. Adam got more because he has π memorized beyond the first three digits 😉

Dinners in Bowls

I’m not so big on plates -I also prefer chopsticks to forks – and it feels like we eat the majority of our dinner out of bowls. Extra-credit if the food is layered into the bowl instead of served as a homogenous dish. Our dinners last weekend hit both counts.

We even ate dessert in bowls.

The ice cream was good, but nothing about it was “Tres Leches.” Boo.

Spicy sweet potato bowls.

baked yam
creamy Sriracha sauce – Sriracha, mayo, and honey
sautéed broccoli – in soy sauce and rice vinegar
sunny side up egg – fried in coconut oil

This was… not good. The idea was good, I think, but the broccoli was freezer-burnt and the potatoes were old.

Our bbq bowls were much, much better.

brown rice cooked in chicken stock
bbq pulled chicken – cooked in the crockpot with stock and smothered in TJ’s bbq sauce
collard greens sautéed with bbq sauce and turkey bacon
tons of caramelized sweet and red onions (cooked like this)
shredded sharp cheddar

We’re going to put our leftovers on top of salad later this week and I’m pretty excited about it.

DUMBO Fun

Drinks in DUMBO.

I am obsessed with Brooklyn Roasting Company‘s coffee and we finally made it to their roaster/café. I wish I had taken photos because the space was gorgeous and inviting, but we loved our beverages.

Iced Maple Shay for me = espresso with cream and real maple syrup. Amazingly, it was too sweet and creamy for me to finish.

Our next stop was the antithesis of maple and cream, green juice from Forager’s.

Kale, spinach, cucumber, and papaya. I will not be getting papaya again; I always like to include one sweet and juicy component in my green juice (carrot, apple, watermelon, etc) but the papaya did not bring any brightness to the party.

Williamsburg Fun

Sunday brunch and brunch dessert (<– that’s not a thing!) in East Williamsburg. We ate at Brooklyn Star where Adam was 99.9% sure that Emma Stone was at the next table. It wasn’t her, but it sure was her doppelgänger.

The bourbon bon bon – bourbon, iced coffee, sweetened condensed milk – was the menu item that called me in.

Nope! I love bourbon, and I love iced coffee, but apparently I don’t love them together.

My kale salad stole my heart though.

You can’t see it under the giant cheese crisp, but there was raw kale with lemon vinegarette, roasted peanuts, and golden raisins. Best kale salad ever. I know I say that every time, but this one was my new favorite.

We also got coffee at Sweatshop.

And the best sundae ever at Milk Bar. With crack pie soft-serve. The guy asked me if I wanted “hot fudge or cornflakes?,” and I answered “both.”

That was the correct answer.

Do you celebrate Pi Day? Favorite kind of pie?

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: restaurant food

Spring Vacation 2015

Thirsty

Fun Facts From The Weekend

Homemade S’mores Milk and Weekend Brooklyn Love

Homemade S’mores Milk

Cheesy Spicy Eggs

C’est Cheese in Port Jeff

Snacky in Williamsburg

Our 1st Smorgasburg of 2015

Oats And Easter Candy

breakfast

lunch

snack

dinner

Birthday Cake Coffee And Jelly Bean Gum

Pig & Khao & Bao

Pi(e) Day 2015

Pi Day

Dinners in Bowls

DUMBO Fun

Williamsburg Fun