Five Things – Weekly Wrap Up

five things i ate last week

{1} Really great breakfasts.

I killed it on the breakfast front this week.  Two different days I managed to bring in yogurt (TJ’s strawberry and then 2% plain Fage) with tons of pomegranate and blackberries for topping.

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Plus I had cold-brew coffee with soy nog for the train.

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Another day I did toast, followed by a juicy apple, and caramel hot chocolate to spruce up my coffee at work.

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{2} Party food!

My lunches were a bit ridiculous this week, lots of work parties to attend.  First, the Dietitian party.

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My profession always has the best food.  Salad, fruit salad, glass noodles with shrimp, and chicken Pad Thai.

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Plus lots of dessert.

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And later in the week there was a hospital wide celebration.

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Salad, green beans, jerk chicken, eggroll, macaroni.  Plus a chocolate fountain.

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{3} Sandwiches, still.

The days without parties, I was still loving the cafeteria sandwiches.  Jerk sliced chicken with mayo, mustard, provolone, and lettuce.

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Plus a similar ‘wich with seaweed and a tangerine from home on the side.

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{4} Dinner at Whole Foods.

We went on the first night of Hannukah hoping to find lattkes on the hot bar.  No such luck, but we did make super tasty giant salad bowls.  P.S.  That seltzer was so good that I went back and bought a case of them!

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Salad base with yummy chipotle almond dressing, tons of shredded veggies, roasted veggies, and a big scoop of mac and cheese.

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And we stopped at Ample Hills to check out the seasonal flavor on the way home.

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Did not disappoint.

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{5} Super thick hot chocolate.

I made my own (super thick) hot chocolate.  But I messed up the proportion of things a bit so the recipe is still not ready to share.

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It looked good though!

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five things i read/watched/listened to

{1} “Take Me to Church” from Hozier.  I am still obsessed.

{2} “Snowfall” from Ingrid Michelson.  This is my all-time favorite “Christmas song.”

{3} Blood, Bones, & Butter, Chef Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune’s memoir.  <– do not recommend.  Parts of the story were great, but I wasn’t a fan over her writing style and by the end I wasn’t a fan of her either.

{4} The mid-season finale of “Brooklyn-99.”  Loooove.

{5} “Rick and Morty,” an amazingly smart and funny cartoon that we just discovered.

five things from instagram

{1} My new favorite top ever, a sweater my parents sent me with a giant icebear.

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{2} I’m super proud of this wrapping job I did on my in-laws’ Christmas present… working a toy store over the holiday season in Buffalo definitely taught me a few things.

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{3} Another shot of that tasty marshmallow I ate in the Bryant Park Winter Village.

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{4} I like this drawing, but I took this photo back in November, before Thanksgiving!  Slow down!

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{5} Puppy love.  His fat little arms slay me.

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Have a great weekend!

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas! Weekend Wrap-Up

It’s only 10 days ’til Christmas!  And Hannukah starts tomorrow!  And it was Adam’s 29th birthday on Thursday!  We had a lot to celebrate this weekend.  The last three days have been fabulous.  Lots of great meals, several at fancy restaurants, and they were usually followed by dessert!

Friday

Friday was a regular work day for me, but I had the excitement of knowing that the husband was coming to pick me up at the end of the day.  The switch to an electronic medical record system has gone fairly well, by the way; fingers are still crossed.

I ran out the door late in a flurry so breakfast came from Starbucks.

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Iced latte and a fruit pouch that was not great.

Lunch was pretty much the same thing, since I didn’t pack anything and made it down to the cafeteria late in the day.

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Iced coffee + chocolate milk, an apple, and a Gingerbread Larabar.

Plus some of the RDs came up to visit me – they liked my tiny office! – and brought me candy.

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I don’t know where my Russian coworker gets those caramels but they are great.

Adam met me after work and we spent the evening in the city.  Our dinner reservations weren’t until 8:00 so we did dessert first on a visit to the Winter Village at Bryant – Brrrryant! – Park.

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We got a dulce de leche cookie,

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then warmed up with a lusciously thick drinking chocolate – and a marshmallow! – from the from the Max Brenner stand.

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OMG.  We have been buying and hating hot chocolate since San Francisco but this liquid gold was exactly what we’ve been searching for. Super thick and rich but not sickeningly sweet.

We had a mile-ish walk to dinner and I’m terribly sad that it was too cold for my camera because I was basically dying at the gorgeous lights along the way.

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Tavern on the Green, Adam’s pick for his belated birthday dinner, was seasonally stunning as well.

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I got a Queens cocktail – Bootlegger vodka, Velvet Falernum, sorrel hibiscus liquor, pomegranate molasses, and lemon juice.  Yummy, and perfectly balanced.

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We shared the scallops with citrus butter, capers, and fried shallots to start. I’ve been having a love affair with fried shallots lately.

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None of the entrees jumped out at me so I ordered two veggie sides, crimini mushrooms with blue cheese and basil and broccoli rabe with lemon, garlic, and sea salt.

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It was a great night.

 Saturday

We had errands to run in SoHo on Saturday, so we parked in Brooklyn and took the train in and spent the day in the city.

There might have been booze in my coffee.

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I bought a snickerdoodle lattee from Dunkin and added a healthy pour of Rumchata (aka the snickerdoodle shot) and it was damn good.

While we were in Brooklyn, we split a sardine Bahn Mi from Bahnmigos.

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It was great! The little me who grew up in the Caribbean shunning seafood (whyyyy??) can’t believe I eat things like sardines and scallops now.

We did linner (super late lunch) at Freemans Restaurant.

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Blue Ridge Fizz = apple brandy, maple, allspice, and champagne.  Freemans is our favorite brunch spot in the city and their cocktails are always magnificent.

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I got poached eggs with tomato stewed kale, crispy shallots(!!), and hollandaise on sourdough toast.

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My eggs ended up being overdone but I forgave them because the kale was so good.

We went next door to Morganstern’s for dessert.

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We shared a cup of American egg custard and durian banana ice cream. Soo creamy! And the flavors were very true to life.

After a bit more exploring, we did round 2 at Sugar Sweet Sunshine.

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I got a shot of The Nog – pumpkin cake layered with eggnog pudding and whipped cream.

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SSS never disappoints.

Sunday

Sunday was all about hanging out at home.  We would have stayed in our pajamas all day, had my dinner plans gone better.  We cuddled, watched tv, and got up some holiday decorations.

I woke up starving from our early dinner the night before so I made a big plate of eggs for breakfast.

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Scrambled with chopped jalapeno, corn, sliced turkey, sour cream, and goat’s milk cheddar.

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Plus Silk soy nog on the side.

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Instead of toast, I snacked on a bag of salted caramel popcorn.

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The plan for dinner was pasta with sun-dried tomato pesto but something went horribly wrong and my pesto was pretty much inedible.

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Instead, we salvaged our veggie side,

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and ventured out for Thai, stopping for mint chocolate froyo along the way.

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Much better. Enjoyed in front of Scrubs – which we are rewatching for the millionth time – it was a great end to a great weekend.

Doughnuts And Coffee; Weekend Wrap-Up

coffee, coffee

So, you know how we’re obsessed with coffee?  Like, problematically obsessed?  I might like it as much as Diet Coke.  This post is going to include a coffee brewer review.  Adam, who drinks at least two cups a day, prefers his hot.  I get iced 95% of the time, but when I’m home I’ll drink it hot if it’s fresh.  Long story short – even though I mostly stick with cold-brew in my French press, we do in fact need a more traditional brewing option in the house.  So when iCoffee offered to send me an Opus Single-Serve Brewer to review, I said “yes!”

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Please note – this product was sent to me free of charge to review.  I was not provided with further compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

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According to the company, the iCoffee system uses steam to help create a nice, smooth, non-bitter flavor.  A patent-pending SpinBrew needle spins, steams and stirs the coffee inside of the single-serve cup, creating a mini-French Press effect that cannot be achieved by other brewers.

The Opus has a “Dial-a-Brew” control which allows you to customize strength and taste by choosing any brew size between 4 and 12 ounces in half-ounce increments.  It can brew 10 ounces in less than 60 seconds, so it’s nice and quick.  The drip tray is magnetic, so it can pull out to accommodate my tall go-cup.

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They sent me a few cups to get me started.  Adam had one of the Marley Coffees and loved it.

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The Opus is cool because it is compatible with all k-type cups, including K-Cup, RealCup, OneCup and all private label cups (unlike the Keurig system that only uses K-cups).  That said, I find single use cups to be insanely wasteful, the reason I accepted the brewer to review is because it is compatible with a reusable iCup.

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I have made a few cups that way with the coffee we already had at home (marshmallow flavored!) and it’s all worked out quite well.  I could see how the cup could have the propensity to break but replacements are only $12.95.

In short – we are fans!  We would rate the system 4.5+ out of 5 and plan on giving it a permanent spot on our countertop.

copycat Chipotle bowls

Another thing we’re obsessed with?  Loaded rice bowls from Chipotle.  After making (multiple!) weekly Chipotle runs for the past several months it was time for us to finally make our own at home.

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So many layers of flavor!  Including:

  • jasmine rice with chopped cilantro and lime juice stirred in
  • sautéed mushroom, onion, and green pepper
  • corn sautéed with chopped jalopeño
  • black beans reheated with cilantro and lime juice
  • chicken that was marinated with lime juice, sugar, and green tomatillo salsa
  • shredded cheese, light sour cream, and homemade guacamole

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So darn good!

And round two the next night – topped with green Tabasco – was just as good, maybe even better.

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Plus we split a Warlock.

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And a Mokaccino TCHO bar that we brought home from Blue Bottle in San Francisco.

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Roasty good.

coffee and doughnuts

On Sunday we did a bit of a walking brunch around Chelsea in Manhattan.  Stumptown Coffee –> Doughnut Plant –> Blue Bottle Coffee –> Doughnuttery.  It was great fun!

We shared cold brew and an espresso at Stumptown.

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It was my first time at the Ace Hotel, which is stunning.

Then made our way to Doughnut Plant.

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We shared a hazelnut chocolate doughseed which was only ok.

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And I got a Tres Leches filled caked doughnut that was amazing.

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Best doughnut I’ve eaten all year.  The filling was definitely reminiscent of Tres Leches and the doughnut had a great, crisp crust.   I’ve been wanting to go get this flavor since last summer and it did not disappoint.

Doughnuttery ended up not appealing to us, but we did enjoy another cold brew from Blue Bottle.

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I told you we have a coffee problem!

city living

We may not have gotten Doughnuttery, but it brought us into Chelsea Market which we loved the crap out of.

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It was gorgeous (Christmas decorations!),

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and there were so many tasty things that we want to try.

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We’ll be back.

Instead we headed uptown to Xi’an Famous Foods for hand-pulled noodles.

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Flipping yum!  I went with the vegetarian spicy noodles and they rocked my socks off.  The chew was out of control.

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Meanwhile Adam was positively swooning over his pork bowl.

Then we went to Rockefeller Center and stared at the tree.

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I ♥ New York!

The Slanted Woods {San Francisco}

Wednesday morning we stopped at Peet’s for an eggnog iced coffee to go with my Ferry Building farmer’s market pear.

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Then we made our way over the bridge through the pouring rain,

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and up to Muir Woods for a stunningly beautiful hike.

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We bought trusty $4 ponchos to get us through the 4+ miles in the downpour, but I wasn’t able to take many pictures.

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Mostly we just got shots of Adam and me being goofballs.

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We got completely soaked but still had a wonderful time.

Afterwards we went back to the hotel to dry off before our late lunch at Coqueta, a Spanish tapas place that knocked our socks off.

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My cocktail – cream sherry, Luxardo amaretto, sherry vinegar, Manchego, and golden raisins – was one of the best I’ve ever had.

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We split a variety of small plates, all of which we enjoyed greatly.

Huevos Nacional – deviled eggs filled with spring pea, smoked pimenton alioli, on pickled saffron potatoes and olive oil poached bonito.

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Housemade potato chips with shaved Manchego and vermouth vinegar salsa.  A play on bagels and lox of smoked salmon, queso fresco, and truffle honey.

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Wild and cultivated mushrooms with garlic, chili, and sherry.

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And Catalan-style vineyard greens with a caper-raisin puree, raisins, pine nuts, and garlic.  <– my favorite dish of the day

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For dessert we did caramel popcorn with Manchego cheesecakes that were amazing caramel lollipops with a liquid cheese filling.

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And churros with drinking chocolate and a mixed berry powder for dipping.

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Every last bite of this meal was inventive, fresh, and freaking delicious.

After more walking,

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a stop at Humphry Slocombe for fluffernutter ice cream with butterscotch sauce, (<– Adam got ice cream almost every day)

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and a New Orleans style coffee from Blue Bottle,

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we were ready to drink our dinner at 21st Amendment Brewery.

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21st Amendment brews Hell or High Watermelon, one of my top favorite beers, so we were excited to taste our way through their menu.

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We shared Hell or High Watermelon, Vina, Framboise Forte D’or, Belgian Chocolate Stout, and a yummy honey meade from a guest brewery.

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Also, a giant plate of fried cheese curds.

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Ridiculous!  And we were completely sober by the time we finished the 4 mile trek back to the hotel.

Thursday morning I fueled up with a praline chestnut latte and a local apple.

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Plus a great rose macaron that we picked up along the way.

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But the super steep hills still totally kicked my butt.

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We were supposed to spend the morning in Golden Gate Park but unfortunately the crazy rain scared us away.  We ended up eating our way through Japantown.

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And actually even getting some Whole Foods hot bar while we hid and tried to keep dry.

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Thankfully our afternoon plans were an indoor tour/tasting at Anchor Brewery.

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We had a great time and definitely recommend it.

The rain cleared up in the afternoon while we spent some time in Chinatown.

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And Boba Guys served us the best bubble teas of the year.

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My almond milk coffee with boba and housemade almond jelly was delicious.

Then we were back to the Market Building where we couldn’t resist a final Vietnamese iced coffee from Out the Door.

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An ironic choice considering our dinner reservations.

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The Slanted Door has been on my list for years and it did not disappoint.

Piña colada – El Dorado 3 year white rum, house coconut cream, fresh pressed pineapple juice, pineapple gum, and lime.

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Adam got a truly fabulous steak and I did three veggie options for my meal.  Fried kabocha squash – palm sugar & lime caramel sauce, thai basil.

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A green papaya salad –  pickled carrot, rau ram, crispy shallot, roasted peanut – that was my favorite dish of the day.

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And the Catalan Farm spicy broccoli – braised tofu, lion’s mane mushroom.  The spongy mushrooms were so cool!

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We did another round of churros for dessert.

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As well as a brown butter cake trifle with huckleberries, lemon curd, and hibiscus meringue.

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The meringues were as tasty as they were gorgeous.  A great way to end our fourth day!

San Francisco Recap, Day 1 & 2

If you follow me on instagram you’ve already figured this out, but {surprise!} I’ve been in San Francisco for the past week.  Adam had the last two weeks of November for vacation again this year so I took the time off as well.  We spent week 1 on the West coast and now we are headed off to Ohio for Thanksgiving family time.  So far it’s been great!

I have a ton to share from SF – we basically walked and ate all day, every day – so I’m going to try to keep myself from being too wordy, but I’ll still need to split this up into three posts…

We had non-stop flights each way which was awesome.  Monday we flew out around noon so we had a little time at home in the morning and then with the time change a full afternoon of vacation. Plus there was free television and movies on the plane which was basically the most exciting thing ever.

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Plane food.  Coffee, plus a white cheddar and pumpkin butter sandwich and tasty pretzel sticks.

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The time flew by and before we knew it we were struggling up super steep hills on our way to dinner.

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We had a late reservation so we stopped for bubble tea first.  Brown sugar ice milk with egg pudding and grass jelly.  Apparently I love egg pudding.  And grass jelly.

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And we got to keep our cool bottles.

Dinner was Waterbar, a sustainable seafood spot right near the Bay Bridge.

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I got a cocktail with Buffalo Trace bourbon, Heering cherry liqueur, Benedictine, and orange zest.

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We split a leek and parsnip soup with smoked trout that was very yummy (I had lots of good trout this trip).

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And for dinner I did pan-roasted sablefish – caught in Fort Bragg, CA – with globe artichokes, butterball potato, grapefruit, nicoise olives, and chervil.

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I adored the artichokes, but sadly didn’t like my fish at all.  This was the only meal that I didn’t love on the trip.  My food was practically floating in a watery sauce and I hate that.  Adam, on the other hand, thought my dish was great and basically licked his plate clean.  He enjoyed his ono with uni butter so much that I still definitely consider the meal a win.

And we did have brown sugar brioche bread pudding, with butterscotch pecan ice cream, for a fabulous dessert.

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’twas a great first night.

Tuesday morning we headed out for a run in the neighborhood around our hotel.  We ended up happening on the Palace of Fine Arts.  It was beyond gorgeous.

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I am so glad we got to see it.

We had a beautiful morning exploring Fisherman’s Wharf.

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Including a stop for a fresh bowl of crab chowder.

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We took the ferry for a tour of Alcatraz.

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Then we spent the afternoon at the Ferry Building Marketplace.

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We loved it there and went back almost every subsequent day.  I was crazy jealous of people buying fancy mushrooms.

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We shared a greens 2 juice from Pressed.

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An iced coffee with milk and sugar from Blue Bottle.

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And a Duck Yeah sundae – vanilla ice cream on duck fat pecan pie – from Humphry Slocombe.

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I thought the ice cream was great, but not as good as Ample Hills.  Adam looooooved it.

We also hit up Slanted Door’s Out the Door for Vietnamese iced coffee and buns.

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Chicken bun for me.

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We had dinner reservations at SD later in the week and this first taste got us very amped up.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the piers and staring at the sea lions.

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Snacks included salt water taffy,

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chunks torn off a loaf of sourdough from Boudin,

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and a very lackluster drinking chocolate from Ghiradelli.

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The chocolate was literally the only dish that didn’t knock our socks off all week, a pretty good track record if you ask me.

We were exhausted from walking around all day so we did Mexican take-out and hotel room cable tv for dinner.

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Mushroom nachos for me.

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It was a great first two days!!

Wednesday and Thursday coming tomorrow…

Lunch And Learn; Weekend Wrap-Up

I spent Friday and Saturday in New Jersey at a pediatric nutrition conference getting my learn on.  A girlfriend, a co-worker, and I all went together and we had a very nice time.  It stinks to lose a Saturday to “school,” but the lectures did include pediatric nutrition support, oncology, failure to thrive, and GI disorders; all big interests of mine.  The conference ran for 8 hours each day but since it was only an hour or so away from the city I did get to have some fun with the husband in the evenings too.

Here are five favorites from the weekend…

{1} Saturday’s breakfast.

Getting to Jersey for the conference meant waking up by 5:30 both Friday and Saturday.  On a typical workday, I should be up by 6:50; 50% of the time I set my alarm for 5:20, and 100% of the time I wake up after 7:10, so I was understandably a bit worried about the early wake-ups.  I was excited about the conference so I managed, but Saturday was easier because Adam drove us in and I was looking forward to time in the car with him.

We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for the new cookie lattes – Snickerdoodle and Sugar Cookie – which were only okay,

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and at La Bagel Delight for an everything bagel with jalopeño cheddar cream cheese.

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That was great, obviously.

{2} Conference eats.

I didn’t do the best job of packing breakfast/lunch the first day and was not very happy throughout the afternoon.  On Saturday, the three of us used the break to drive to Chipotle for a real lunch.

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My friend and I split a rice bowl, which is always good.

And, as we were driving home I spotted a Sonic!!

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Strawberry diet cokes are flipping amazing.  My friend thought I was crazy for freaking out when we saw the sign, but once she tasted it she got it.

{3} Dinner in Koreatown.

Friday night, I met Adam in Penn Station (we took the train that day) and we walked over to Koreatown for dinner.  There is a food court there that we had been dying to try.

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We shared a steamed red bean bun.

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Then got big bowls of bibimpap for dinner.

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Mine, with tofu and tons of kimchi, was delicious.

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We tried a canned coffee for dessert.

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And stopped at Tous le Jours for mochi to share as well.

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The chocolate was good but the maple was better.  Soooo chewy.

{4} Sushi in Park Slope.

Saturday we ended up at Yamato, a favorite spot of Adam’s from when we lived in Brooklyn.

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Salad with ginger dressing to start.

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Veggie roll combo.

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The cucumber avocado roll was the best, but I smothered everything in wasabi.

Plus we stopped and got hot chocolate for dessert.

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That’s a homemade marshmallow!

{5} A package from Dannon Creamery.

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Dannon’s newest line, Dannon Creamery sent me a super cool box of samples.

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These desserts were sent to me free of charge to review.  I received no further compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

DC makes cheesecakes made with Greek yogurt plus three flavors of pudding, all averaging about 200 calories per serving/cup.  I had tried the strawberry cheesecake on my own in the past and didn’t like it, but I was pleasantly surprised by the two other flavors I’ve tried so far.

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Lemon cheesecake was opened pretty much the minute I got the package.

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Nothing artificial about the topping and the mouthfeel of the cheesecake was great; I’m a fan!

I also quite enjoyed the dark chocolate pudding (with a leftover chocolate chip cookie).

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I’m looking forward to the other flavors.

No Sleep Till Brooklyn; Weekly Wrap-Up

Oh my gosh, Brooklyn is so freaking great!  <– I could probably just stop here, that pretty much sums up the salient points of this post

I was a little all over the place this week so I don’t have a ton of pictures to share, but Adam and I did go out to two amazing dinners that I need to rave about.  Other than that, I have about 30% of breakfast/lunch/snacks.

The husband worked several overnight shifts this week and I took advantage of my alone time by making the super adult decision to stay up until 3am on a work night catching up on the entire new season of “Criminal Minds.”

life

source

Here are some snippets of cafeteria breakfasts…

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That second thing was some biscuit/pastry Western omelet hybrid.  Strange, but not bad.

And of course, there were many {many} coffees.

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Yogurt bowl lunches…

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KIND Banana Nut Clusters with my blackberries and butterscotch peanut butter with my raspberries.

And snacks at my desk…

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I also bought the new peppermint cookie chocolate bites from Starbucks and they were great.

Now on to the good stuff, two amazing, fantastic, fantasmic, socks-rocking dinners in Brooklyn!

#1  Berlyn

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This space was gorgeous.  I couldn’t get any good shots of the décor (or the food for that matter!) but our table felt like it could be sitting in a clearing in some German forest.

I ordered the Hemingway Daiquiri and it ended up being the best cocktail I’ve ever been served.

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The menu listed Caña Brava Rum, Luxardo Maraschino, grapefruit juice, and lime juice, but I swear that I could also taste cinnamon in there.  I liked it so much I kept us out late ordering a second round after dinner.  Adam’s beer was amazing as well; I don’t remember it’s name but it positively reeked of honey.

We shared a house-made pretzel to start,

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which came with the best honey mustard I’ve ever tasted.  <– noticing a theme here??  I wouldn’t say that Berlyn is the best restaurant I’ve ever been to but many things on their menu were certainly the best ever in their categories.

Adam ordered pork schnitzel for his entrée so I decided to try two small dishes.

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Potato pancakes that came topped with smoked trout and pickled cucumbers.

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And fried Brussels sprouts with a pine nut aioli.

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Best fried Brussels sprouts we’ve ever had and the aioli was seriously indescribably good.  Adam and I both were gasping at how yummy it was.

The dessert course didn’t sound quite as terrific to us so we headed over to Four & Twenty Blackbirds for the best espresso in Brooklyn.

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And came home with slices of pie to eat in front of “Brooklyn 99.”

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My salted honey slice was legit.

#2  Thistle Hill Tavern  <– from the owner of Talde and Pork Slope

I ordered a New Old Fashioned, which was made with Four Roses, Laird’s Applejack, maple bitters, lemon,  and brown sugar.

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So good, though bourbon is always good.

I started with the Kale Taco Salad.  Kale dressed in salsa verde with cheddar, spicy pickled vegetables, and a fried tortilla.

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This was the best kale salad I’ve ever eaten (<– I’ll stop now, promise!).

Dinner was the fish and chips with their famous salt and pepper fries.

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I don’t know why I keep ordering fish and chips because I never eat much of the fried fish, but this was definitely the best version (sorry!) I’ve ever had.

Adam swooned his way through a slice of maple bourbon pumpkin pie,

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but I held out for the best ice cream in the world, Ample Hills.

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Good God.  “No Sleep till Pumpkin” = coffee ice cream with pumpkin gooey butter cake and underneath was “PB Gets Fluffy” = marshmallow ice cream with chocolate flakes and homemade peanut butter cookie dough.  Just fabulous.  Neither of us could believe how good the pumpkin coffee flavor was.

What is the best restaurant in your city?

Halloween Weekend Wrap-Up

Did everyone have a spooky weekend?  Or at least eat lots of candy?  I didn’t dress up this year and I didn’t manage to eat a single piece of candy, boo!  The whole weekend was pretty lame, frankly.  Saturday I spent hours holed up with a friend working on some continuing education credits.  And Sunday Adam and I were both a bit under the weather so we took advantage of the time change to catch some extra z’s.

Here were a few fun things…

Hallow’s Eats

Breakfast was on theme.  Coffee with chocolate soy milk, an apple, and a Clif Monster Chocolate Mint Z Bar.

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The bar was so good, I need to find more of this flavor.

Dinner too.  A tasty bowl of leftovers.

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Pasta with roasted broccoli, browned mushrooms, rock cheddar, fancy evoo, and turkey bacon (my new favorite kind, from Wellshire).

And I may not have eaten candy, but I did go to Snow Days for shaved ice.

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Roasted black sesame ice with mochi and sweetened condensed milk.  It was amazing.  The ice is sliced into sheets rather than crushed and the texture is totally unique.

Say Cheese

When I was done with my work on Saturday, Adam and I drove up to Port Jeff for a dinner date at C’est Cheese.  We shared a beer sampler.

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And a cheese plate.

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Plus the Spanish Salad.

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Field greens / Manchego / orange slices / red onion / black olives / honey tarragon vinaigrette.

Burgers With Bear

We did Sunday brunch at Bare Burger.  I got the Western – turkey burger, no bun, with turkey bacon instead of pork and maple horseradish mustard subbed for smokehouse sauce.

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With giant bowls of froyo for dessert.

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Dinner was Chipotle but I’ve promised to stop blogging about that!

Raw Review

Finally, a product review.  I was sent a free sample of Maui Brand Raws Turbinado and Whites Crystallized Natural Cane Sugar.

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I received these products free of charge but I was not provided with any additional compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

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Available on Amazon and in some stores, their sugar cane is grown and processed on the Hawaiian island of Maui.  The sugars are non-GMO and vegan (<– not all granulated sugar is vegan).

I tried the sugars (which come in convenient 10 calorie to-go packages) in iced coffee,

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and chocolate chip cookies,

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and was quite pleased with their functional properties compared with regular sugar.  I’m a fan.