This Week I Loved…

This week I loved:

Baking

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I made a batch of my Buttered Rum Raisin Cookies for a birthday and work and my coworkers all gave rave reviews.

Sia

When it comes to all things pop-culture – including but not limited to music, Netflix-exclusive tv shows, memes, and modern slang – Adam is usually a month or two behind the other American 20-30 year olds.  This past week, I’ve gotten him up to speed on Sia and now we’re both obsessed.  Her sound is unique, the work she’s showcased of Maddie Ziegler’s is breathtaking, and when you compare her artist persona to someone like Kanye she seems like a dream.  I for one adore the mega-bangs; the focus is on her art instead of her looks and they are somehow just not as douchetastic as the Daft Punk helmets.  Sidenote – to be fair to Adam, he actually has been listening to Sia for the past 5 years, even if he wasn’t aware of it, ever since we loved her music in “Dollhouse.”

Spiced iced coffee

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I cold-pressed a big batch of espresso blend with cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar.  This was delicious; I want to add some spice to all of my future brews.

Turkey sandwiches

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An onion roll with turkey, lettuce, red pepper, pickles, pepperjack, and mayo from the cafeteria.  And turkey sandwiched between whole-wheat bread that was oven-toasted with butter and gouda at home.  The toasted sandwich was divine; I almost considered making myself a second round when I was finished eating!

Weight Watchers commercials

I think that these commercials are amazing; they manage – in a quick, funny! way – to really get at a lot of the social and emotional factors that contribute to overeating.

Minta

minta mint soda flavored with cane sugar

Minta – a mint flavored soda line made with fruit juice and cane sugar – recently sent me a box of Original, Strawberry, and Lemon to sample for the blog.  I am not exactly looking to add a non-diet soda to my daily life, but I love that these use cane sugar instead of HFCS and I think they are definitely a great treat.  The Original and Strawberry have 100 calories and 25 grams of sugar per 10 oz can (Lemon has only 80 calories because it has less sugar, 19 grams).  They are freaking delicious; like the best mojito you’ve ever had!  Adam was expecting to hate them – “mint soda?  that sounds disgusting” – but he was smitten after his first sip.

Berry chia yogurt bowls

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Fage with fresh blackberries, white chia seeds, and Heritage Flakes was my lunch order this week.  The tablespoon of chia really helped to make these more filling than my past yogurt bowls.

Yes Please

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I finished Amy Poehler’s book and I loved it even more than I had anticipated.  She managed to make me laugh, cry, and seriously take stock of what I want out of myself and my life.

The new menu at Bare Burger

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I had a turkey burger with pimento cheese, duck bacon, stout onions, and horseradish remoulade.  It was delish.

The anticipation of a mini tropical vacation!

If the weather cooperates, I will be on a plane by the time you are reading this post.  It’s my mom’s birthday this Sunday and I surprised her by booking a ticket home for a long weekend.  St. Thomas, here I come!

 

Valentine’s Weekend

Did everyone have a good Valentine’s Day?  I hope you got a kiss from your sweetheart, or even better – ate some chocolate kisses and conversation hearts!

Adam and I had a fabulous weekend.  Thank goodness for Presidents’ Day off, even though he worked a 30-hour shift on Sunday – and I spent the day sans pants, in bed, eating Thai take-out – we still had two days to have fun in the city.  The best part of the weekend was probably Monday night though, we cuddled on the couch eating Chipotle and watching the SNL 40th anniversary show.  I’m typing this post up while we watch but so far I am in absolute nostalgia heaven!  Here are some of the weekend highlights…

We were not grumpy about getting coffee.

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Adam is obsessed with their flat whites.

We made pink Valentine’s Day smoothies.

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Frozen raspberries, plain Greek yogurt, fresh dates, and Hint of Honey Almond Breeze.  Perfect blend (get it?? blend) of sweet and sour.

We checked out the Cupcake ATM from Sprinkles.

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So cool, Adam loooved it.  We tried the Cuban Coffee, “Belgian light chocolate cake topped with powerful dark roast coffee frosting and subtle notes of cinnamon and cocoa.”

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I didn’t care for the cake but the frosting was wonderful.

We went out for a very romantic Valentine’s dinner of beer and Thai food.  First Left Hand Milk Stout on draft.

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Then we checked out the highly recommended Pure Thai Cookhouse.  My Pad See Ew was tasty,

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but for “Thai spicy” it could have packed a lot more heat.  I did not even need this Thai iced tea.

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We did try to get ice cream afterwards though.

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Try being the operative word.  I had such high expectations for Ben & Jerry’s new Speculoos (aka Biscoff!) flavor but it ended up being inedible; terribly ginger-spicy.  Instead we made amazing sundaes at home.

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Talenti cookie dough gelato, Girl & the Fig salted fig caramel, and chocolate-covered cocoa nibs.

We went to Serendipity.

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I’ve never strayed, I always order the Summer Bries sandwich which comes with turkey, apple, sprouts, brie, and Russian dressing on raisin pumpernickel.

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We tried something new for dessert, the Insanity Sundae.

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Pecan pie, butter pecan ice cream, wet walnuts, whipped cream, and hot fudge.  It was insane, we could barely make a dent in it.

Speaking of sweets and love – check back in this afternoon, I’ve got a giveaway coming!

Sweeter Than Sugar Valentine’s Tour With Sugartooth

Last Saturday, Adam and I were invited on a sweet dessert tasting tour of in the city.

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Sugartooth Tours, formed by best friends who bonded over a love of theatre and ice cream, offers several NYC-based dessert tours.  Right now all of the tours take place in Manhattan, but Allyson gave me the inside scoop that they are testing out a Brooklyn tour to be debuted this summer.  Some of the tours include a Village Cupcake Crawl, an Ice Cream Summer Sundays Frozen Treats Tour, several mixed treats tours around Hell’s Kitchen, Broadway, and Chelsea/the West Village, and the option of personalized itineraries for small group celebrations.

The tours range in size from 3 – 16 people and are guided by one of the knowledgeable and friendly co-founders.  You walk from nosh to nosh – usually 6 stops in total and no more than 2 miles – learning about the history of the neighborhood on your way.  It takes about 2 and half hours from start to finish.  Tickets are $50 per person and include all tastings.  You also have a bit of time at the stops to purchase additional items to take home if you are so inclined, but there is definitely no pressure to buy anything.

The Chelsea/West Village option, the Sweeter Than Sugar Dessert Tour, is available year-round at 4pm on Sundays.  For a limited time, they have updated it with a Valentine’s theme for the upcoming Festival of Love and Candy.  The updated tour includes Valentine’s history trivia – most of it more gory than gushy – and is taken in pairs so you can experience the fun with your sweetheart (or your mom, no judgment!).  This is the tour we were invited to take.

sweeter than sugar valentine's tour

Special hours for the Sweeter Than Sugar Valentine’s Tour are February 13th, 14th, & 15th at 5:30 PM and February 14th & 15th at 2PM.  If you’re interested, you can sign up on the website here.

General thoughts on the tour: 

  • Adam and I both had a wonderful time (the 2.5 hours flew by) and agree that we would like to check out Sugartooth Tours again on our own this summer.
  • The tours run rain or shine, so be sure to dress accordingly.  We got lucky with a “warm” 40 degree night, but you kept moving when you were outside so there wasn’t much time to get cold.
  • Bring water!  Sugar makes me quite thirsty.
  • We ended up taking home lots of leftovers, so save yourself some extra room in your bag.

The stops:

{1} We started at City Cakes, who are known for their gorgeous cake decorating but have also branched out into giant 1/2 pound cookies that are baked 3 times and reshaped in between trips to the oven.

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Some of the flavors included chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, ginger spice, triple chocolate with clove, and peanut butter with Reeses Pieces.  Adam I got red velvet stuffed with cream cheese frosting.

city cakes half pound red velvet cookie stuffed with cream cheese frosting

Crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside, this was delicious.  Note – you got the entire cookie, they just cut it in halves so you can eat while you walk.

{2} Next we headed into Chelsea Market to Amy’s Bread for hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows.

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Their hot chocolate is pure ganache mixed with steamed milk.  It wasn’t as gloriously thick as the stuff from Max Brenner, but it was flavorful and not too sweet.  The marshmallows were the best we’ve ever had.  Adam usually turns up his nose at marshmallows on cocoa but even he loved it.

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Note – we were encouraged to fill up the (full-sized) cup, and even refill for the road, but I was trying to pace myself.

{3} Then we trekked on the High Line – gorgeous at night – to Sugar Factory, a Vegas import famous for their rhinestone-bedazzled lollipop sticks, of course.

view from the high line nyc

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They also had giant walls of candy and we were given small take-out boxes and told to go crazy.

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sugar factory nyc

They had a good variety, including cola bottles, chocolate-covered gummy bears, and several themed options for Valentine’s.

{4} Heading into West Village, we stopped at Chocolate Bar where we were taught the proper way to taste a truffle.  CB was a cute spot, boasting many nicely wrapped, fun flavors.

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Adam was enticed into buying (and eating) a full-sized candy bar!

candy at chocolate bar

candy at chocolate bar

They had a good variety of truffles, and I choose grapefruit and cajeta.

truffles at chocoalte bar

Cajeta = condensed milk caramel = Mexican dulce de leche = swoon.

{5} Allyson noted that you pretty much have to include macarons, and they felt that Sugar & Plumm has the best in Manhattan.

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They have some inventive flavors – strawberry poppyseed, violet blackcurrant, chocolate-covered banana! – and are made in New Jersey so they don’t suffer from a long shipping time from France.

salted caramel macaroon at sugar & plumm nyc

I very much enjoyed the salted caramel and Adam, who “hates” macarons, went back for seconds of the pistachio!

{6} Finally, we ended at Sweet Revenge for chocolate and peanut butter cupcakes.  They are known for their cupcake and wine or beer pairings so we had the option of paying extra for the recommended Malbec or Hefeweizen, but everyone on our tour opted to take their cupcake to go.

cupcake at sweet revenge nyc

So, six; apparently six desserts is overkill 😉

Please note – Sugartooth Tours brought Adam and I on the tour free of charge so we could see what it was all about.  I was not provided with further compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

Weekend Wrap-Up

random facts

  1. I finished reading my latest book on Friday – Fairyland, a memoir about growing up with an openly gay father in San Francisco in the 80’s.  (Not much of a)spoiler alert – he dies of AIDS related complications.  I was wracked with sobs for the last quarter of the book.  Steve Abbot was a published author who kept detailed journals his entire adulthood and wrote copious letters to Alysia while she was in college, so she had a lot of source material to pull from which was nice; it was practically a biography within a memoir.
  2. A big chunk of Saturday is missing because we went on a fun foodie tour and I am devoting a whole post to it.  (coming tomorrow)
  3. We upgraded our phones on Sunday.  My new Galaxy is giant and tacky, obnoxiously gold.

breakfast

Adam and I tried the new raspberry white chocolate coffee from Dunkin’.

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Our opinions ranged from good to meh.  I still want to try the Starbucks version.

Cereal bowl.

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Cocoa Pebbles and Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes.  Pebbles have absolutely no flavor and were deeply disappointing.

Oatmeal bowl.

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Rolled oats – cooked in the microwave – with 1 heaping Tbsp each chopped pecans, raisins, chocolate chips, and brown sugar.  Plus milk on top.

Coffee from 7-11 with wasabi almonds.

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Yes, that was a terrible combination.

lunch

Chipotle!

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White rice / chicken / black beans / sautéed veggies / fresh salsa / tomatillo salsa / sour cream / cheese.  I would normally get lettuce but I split this bowl with Adam and he didn’t want it.  I’ve stopped putting the corn salsa on my bowls in general because even though it’s tasty it isn’t really necessary to pile another carb on top of a rice bowl.

Adam went to a post-ABSITE surgical exam party and brought home leftover mini pizzas.

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Paired with green juice.

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NYC Jamba Juices recently introduced a new line of 12 oz Cold-Pressed Juice bottles and they sent me a $10 gift card so I could try them out.

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I was not provided with further compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

The juices contain no preservatives and three servings of fruit and/or vegetables and each full bottle has between 140 to 190 calories.

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Citrus Kick was way too spicy for me – Adam liked it but I just can’t do ginger – but I found Tropical Greens to be nicely balanced, neither two sweet nor too grassy.  (There are four flavors in total; the two I didn’t try were Orange Reviver and Veggie Harvest).

dinner

We had another stupendous meal at Russ & Daughters.

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The Breakfast Martini = Beefeater gin, jam, lemon juice, egg white, Pernod Absinthe, Angostura Bitters.

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I adore cocktails with egg white.  <– I was about to type that they will be hard for me to give up if I get pregnant!  I guess the alcohol may also be an issue.

I ordered the Eggs Benny, which came with Scottish smoked salmon and sautéed spinach on challah.

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No surprise, the eggs were perfectly poached and the hollandaise was loaded with flavor.  <– more reasons I’m not chomping at the bit for a baby

Sunday night we made a nice, but less exciting dinner at home.

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We were helped out by a jar of Sepo Sauce, a creamy garlic and horseradish spread that’s meant to be used as a dressing, dip, and/or sandwich spread.

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Sepfonifiq sent me a jar of sauce free of charge to review.  I was not provided with further compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

The sauce has 150 calories and 2.5 grams saturated fat per 2-Tbsp serving, so it’s not any healthier than most typical dressings, but it packs a lot of flavor so you would rarely need to use any more than a serving.

We decided to go the bread and lettuce route.

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A sandwich of part-skim mozzarella cheese, thick-cut uncured turkey ham steak, and whole-wheat cinnamon swirl bread spread with Sepo Sauce and oven-toasted.

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A salad of baby kale tossed in Sepo Sauce and topped with roasted broccoli and sweet and spicy pecans.

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Plus we split a sumo mandarin on the side.

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Sadly, we hated the thick cut turkey, which kind of ruined the sandwiches.  We both got rid of the meat halfway through and ended up eating big desserts instead.  But we loooved the Sepo as a dressing and were both blown away by the salad.  I will definitely look forward to making that again.

Please cross your fingers that it’s not actually snowing in NYC right now?

Weekend Wrap-Up; My Camera Went MIA

Moving to Long Island has done something to my brain!  <– real talk, please let’s just pretend that this problem is a LI thing and not the fact that I turn 30 this year

Prior to 2013, I had lost/seriously misplaced one item in my entire life: a pair of flip-flops at a party in high school.  Also I had to have my dorm keys replaced in college after Adam kicked them into a lake, but those weren’t technically missing, they just weren’t accessible.  But lately?  I’m an absentminded disaster.  Last year, on my very first day at the hospital, I lost a brand-new scarf.  This December, I lost a brand-newish i-pod somewhere between my apartment and the gym.  And this weekend I misplaced my camera.  Not lost, thankfully, because it turned out that I had just left it in the husband’s car, but since he then drove that car to 30 hour shift this is my long-winded way of telling you that I don’t have a ton of pictures from this weekend.  I am missing a lot, especially since I didn’t deem things like the four slices of cinnamon toast I ate for dinner on Saturday instagram-worthy.

How often do you lose track of your stuff?  Someone tell me they left their baby on the bus so I’ll feel better!

breakfasts and lunches

Coffee!  This was a freebie so I went a bit crazy – a large iced latte with extra espresso.

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Those Starbucks workers get very snarky once you start asking for that much espresso.

Yet another good reason to have coffee at home instead.

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Starbucks iced (but from home!) with Hint of Honey Almond Breeze and fat-free half and half.

Fruit and yogurt bowls ruled my work lunches.  Grape Chobani with pomegranate and a Zing Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip bar on the side.

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Stonyfield Chia and Red Berry Greek Yogurt with fresh strawberries and the last of the TJ’s Pumpkin O’s.

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Several coworkers commented on this lunch; I guess they aren’t used to chia?!

The best was clearly brunch at Rabbit Hole with a girl friend.  I got the Eggs Norwegian, aka a Benedict but with lox instead of bacon and served on a biscuit.

brunch at rabbit hole in williamsburg

Sooo good.  But the drink in the background was even better – Champagne, St. Germaine, and grapefruit.  We both got one and thought that they were just great.

snacks

We tried some fun drinks while we were in Chinatown.

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Yeeech!  The sugar cane was terrible.  But we only spent $1 so it was worth a shot.

Adam bought Gushers!!

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They weren’t as good as I remembered, but it was still a fun throwback.

Coffee is always good.

blue bottle

The Blue Bottle in Williamsburg made me my New Orleans with skim milk.  Frankly, I would have accepted almost anything at that point though – first my friend and I stopped at one coffee shop that was out of ice and another that poured me a giant glass of whole milk with a smidge of coffee in it.

dinner

I made us great pasta bowls one night.  Box mac and cheese gussied up with canned smoked trout, chopped spinach, sautéed bell peppers and garlic, and tons of caramelized onions.

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I doused my bowl in green Tabasco.

Adam and I finally got to try Pies and Thighs for dinner.

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I got the Chicken Biscuit.

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Fried cutlet with honey butter and hot sauce on a biscuit.

Plus a really amazing salad.

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Collard greens with avocado, pickled red onions, and smoked coconut.  Adam and I could not get over how delicious it was; I really want to remake it at home.

With banana cream pie on Nilla Wafer crust for dessert.

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Yum.   ♥

Weekly Wrap-Up; On The Mend

I am still a teensy bit sick, but thankfully I am feeling much, much better than last weekend.  Hopefully by the end of this weekend I’ll be back to 100%!

breakfast

My first day back, when I came in feeling just terrible, my coworker surprised me with a bagel with lox and cream cheese.

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So sweet of her, and very serendipitous since I hadn’t managed to get coffee, let alone breakfast.

Adam drove me into work on Wednesday since he had errands to do in Brooklyn, so we went in early and made a date of it.

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Doughnut Plant!

doughnut plant - brooklyn

I got a coconut cream filled and a Valrhona hot chocolate.  Plus we stopped for an iced coffee along the walk.

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This was so much fun, I cannot even tell you; morning date for the win.

Yesterday I randomly woke up feeling sooo hungry so I pieced together a big breakfast in the cafeteria.

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Coffee with chocolate milk,

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and scrambled eggs, veggie sausage, and a croissant.

lunch

Veggie pizza from the cafeteria.

This was good, but it had corn on it which I found to be an incredibly strange topping choice.  Not that I don’t love corn, but on a pizza??!

Wednesday I brought an apple and a Jarlsberg Cheese Mini (more on that in a minute…) from home.

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Plus a salad from the cafeteria that I apparently don’t have a picture of.

Yesterday was another apple, plus an Apricot Ancient Grains Chobani with TJ’s Pumpkin O’s and KIND Banana Nut Clusters.

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I liked the Chobani much more than the one with oats I tried previously.  The pieces of apricot were quite nice.

snack

I don’t usually drink coffee after 4 pm but I ended up getting iced decafs twice this week because I was so obsessed with the idea of coffee flavor in the evening.

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With skim milk and a splash of cream.

Another night we had smoothies for our creamy drink fix.

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Chocolate peppermint soymilk with frozen strawberries and plain Greek yogurt.

Back to that cheese…

Jarlsberg mini

Jarlsberg recently started making minis and they sent me some to try.

jarlsberg minis

For full disclosure I will tell you that Adam didn’t like the flavor (“too mild”) but I did, and I thought the texture was great (firm bite – you could squeeze it between your fingers and the wheel held its shape – but very creamy).  70 calories per mini wheel, for a nicely portable snack.

Caramel apple plate,

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Caramel pecan popcorn and apple slices sprinkled with caramel cinnamon sugar.

caramel cinnamon sugar shaker

I brought that adorable shaker back from San Francisco’s Japantown.

Related note – this salted caramel hand sanitizer smells beyond amazing.

salted caramel - bath and body works

Another souvenir from our SF trip, Ruby Grand dried nectarines from Frog Hollow.

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Served on with vanilla shortbreads for a very fancy, only slightly Georgia O’Keefe-y snack plate.

dinner

An easy dinner for the first night I cooked after take-out for every meal all weekend.

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Salad with honey mustard dressing, parmesan, dried blueberries, and sweet and salty pecans.

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Eggs with sautéed onion and TJ’s canned mackerel scrambled in.  Plus turkey bacon.

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I cooked the bacon first so everything in my eggs was infused with that flavor.

Date night at Pequeña in Brooklyn.

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We started with an order of the fried sweet plantains.

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Pretty good, but I think I would have to go back home to really get my plantain craving satisfied.

I ordered veggie quesadillas for my entrée – Pan Fried Tortillas Stuffed with Oaxacan String Cheese And Zucchini, Peppers, Mushroom, Onion, and Squash. Topped with Salsa Roja, Queso Fresco and Cilantro.

veggie quesadillas at Pequena - brooklyn

I always cook my quesadillas in a pan, but apparently “pan fried” here meant legit deep fried quesadillas.  They were tasty but also a bit ridiculous; I ate one plus the filling out of the other.

I’m writing this post before dinner on Thursday, but it’s gotten pretty late and I’m leaning towards a big salad and an old-school pb&j.  🙂

Weekend Wrap-Up; Good Eats

So much good food this weekend! I’m only sharing my top five since I didn’t do a great job of photo-taking…

{1} On Sunday, we had an amazing brunch at Russ and Daughters.

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My parents are obsessed with the store, and Adam and I checked out their newish cafe this weekend and fell in love.

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Best Bloody Mary of my life!

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Made with caraway-infused vodka. It had a sludge of caraway and horseradish on the bottom and I know that sounds terrible to some of you but it was wonderful.

We got pickled veggies to start.

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They were great, especially those whitish sticks, which turned out to be fennel.

Adam got a bowl of tasty whitefish chowder (with toasted matzah!).

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And the Pastrami Russ – pastrami-cured salmon, muenster cheese, sauerkraut, mustard, and pickle on a pretzel roll.

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We adored it, but my Super Heebster Bagel Toast stole the show.

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Whitefish and baked salmon salad, wasabi-infused fish roe, and horseradish dill cream cheese on a thinly sliced bagel. We were swooning… especially once we ordered a second round of drinks!

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Best brunch of the year.

{2} I normally try not to drink coffee after 3 pm, but on Friday I caffeinated on the train and actually managed to cook a real dinner.

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A pumpkin and sausage dish from Rachel Ray.

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Instead of pasta I served ours on top of rice cooked in chicken broth, which was delicious.

With asparagus baked with pecans and blue cheese.

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Adam was swooning.

{3} I am pretty proud of Saturday night too (particularly because I might have eaten Chipotle take-out for not one but two of my other meals this weekend!).

I had defrosted some nice shrimp for a recipe I changed my mind about, when I decided to combine a few recipes for Bang Bang shrimp.

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The shrimp were tossed in cornstarch and salt and pepper and cooked in canola oil, then served on top of whole wheat mac and cheese, and under a sauce of mayo, Sriracha, honey, and rice vinegar.

{4} We made the most of our trip to the city with stops for coffee and cupcakes.

Adam’s favorite coffee is Cafe Grumpy.

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I ordered him a flat white and he pretty much lost his mind over it.

We both think Sugar Sweet Sunshine has the best cupcakes in the city.

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Mocha and Oreo, yum

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{5} The best moment of the weekend was getting Adam to try Snowdays Shavery… and having him admit that it’s amazing.

Their shaved ice is like no other. It’s shaved instead of crushed and rather having the flavor poured on top the big blocks are already flavored so every bite is fluffy and infused with goodness.

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We got toasted sesame with sweetened condensed milk, mochi, and Fruity Pebbles. Fellow NYCers, now that it’s warmed up to a balmy 30 degrees this weekend, go get yourself some shaved ice!

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Seven Year Celebration

Sunday was our seven-year wedding anniversary. Adam and I got married on our fifth dating anniversary, so that means that we’ve been together for twelve years now. <– holy cow! I seriously thank my lucky stars every day that I get to be married to that man! {sap over, I promise}

We had a great weekend to celebrate. Both sets of parents sent gift cards and we had dinner out both nights, old friends of ours (who are new parents to a ridiculously adorable little girl) came into town for a visit, and we even went to a movie. P.S. we haaaaated “Into the Woods,” anyone else?

Iced coffee (7-11 for the win) with chocolate milk.

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Rabbithole in Williamsburg for brunch with friends.  I got the Rabbithole Florentine with poached eggs on wilted arugula, carmelized onions, sharp cheddar Mornay sauce, and a baguette.

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They bought me an amazing lavender iced latte at the cafe next door afterwords.

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We got take-out from Cheesecake Factory for dinner that night. Chopped vegetable salad and spicy cashew chicken.

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Plus candy and our favorite champagne for dessert.

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Sunday morning we made brunch at home. Eggnog french toast with blueberries and mimosas.

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In the afternoon we spent some time in Grand Central Station.

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Cafe Grumpy for cold brew.

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And Ciao Bella for fig toasted almond honey gelato.

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Prune was new to us for dinner and we loved it. I

talian Greyhound for me.

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And we started with sardines with Triscuits and mustard.

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We split two dishes and a side for dinner. Grilled pigeon with warm parsley dressing and seeded toast. The (buttery, seedy, sauce drenched) toast was pretty much the best thing ever.

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Duck breast with cipollini onions, dandelion greens, and agrodolce dressing.

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And hen of the woods mushrooms in brodetto.

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Dessert was marscapone ice cream on a salted caramel brioche crouton.

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Delish!