I Can’t Choose A Favorite!

by Emily

This is a longer wrap-up (Monday through Sunday) and I ate too many yummy things to chose a single favorite for my post title. I’ve got my top three – 1) Thai-style crab fried rice, 2) roasted garlic bread, and 3) black sesame shaved ice.

Here were the highlights…

Killer coffee combo – Volcanic roast with chocolate milk.

Usually I just have coffee for breakfast or eat something on my train, but this week the cafeteria sounded amazing first thing in the morning. Eggs and hashbrowns, with humus.

Cafeteria lunch, a spicy chicken sandwich on ridiculously cheesy bread with mustard, lettuce, and bell pepper.

Last weekend I spent forever trying to make coconut curd. I didn’t make jam, but I did filthy every last inch of my stovetop. My experiment didn’t work, at all, but I did kind of like the end result – a vaguely sweet, egg, cake.

I enjoyed my “jam” in lunches all week. Like with vanilla bean yogurt and blackberries.

And plain yogurt, berries, maple quinoa granola, and black sesame seeds.

Whole Foods hot bar lunch.

Sesame broccoli, turkey salad, and cole slaw.

Plus a maple soda that was not as exciting as I was expecting it to be; it had an off-putting aftertaste.

Snack time. Ice cream = maple walnut and a white chocolate vanilla marshmallow flavor.

Milk bun.

Crème brulee milk stout.

My workweek dinners were on point! Like crab fried rice with roasted broccoli and sliced cucumber.

I loosely followed this recipe, except I used brown rice and waaaay more crab. It was fantastic.

Vampire killer, I roasted three whole heads of garlic for this recipe.

Garlic turkey meatballs with red sauce and roasted zucchini.

And amazing homemade garlic bread – I mashed butter and roasted garlic and then slathered it on sliced sourdough and baked until delicious.

Even our leftovers meal was tasty. Cheese tortellini with meatballs, peas, roasted garlic, and red sauce.

One night I had dinner out with a coworker. We checked out the new Brooklyn MŏkBar location. They have a liquor license now, and I got a yummy vodka “cloudsicle.”

Plus chicken ramen with kimchi and poached egg.

And the new Brooklyn Snowdays location was right next door! Black sesame shaved ice with oreo, mochi, and condensed milk.

Plus a dinner date with the husband. Brinkley’s has Genesee Cream Ale on draught!

We got pimento cheese dip and duck fat fries to start and I dipped my fries in the pimento cheese and pretty much died of ~~heart failure~~ happiness.

Plus fish tacos with mahi, guacamole, and pineapple salsa.

The other two dinners were decidedly less exciting. Like Chipotle take out. And more hot bar. Yes, I went to Whole Foods two different days, it was an exciting week. I was too busy at work yesterday to break for lunch so by the time I got dinner I ate a giant plate of all of the things.

Now it’s two days of work before a break on Wednesday.

Have a great week!

17Apr2017

Duck Hash At Colonie

by Emily

I hope everyone had a nice Easter!

We had friends in town from PA and had a great weekend doing our favorite things with them – walking and eating!

Friday night highlights: Grand Army / Barcade / Brooklyn Star

My drink at Brooklyn Star was packed with exciting stuff, including aperol and papaya puree. Plus we had spicy duck wings which are 10/10.

Saturday highlights: Sweetleaf / Ice & Vice / Chelsea Market / John’s on Bleecker / we walked across the Williamsburg Bridge, on the water through Battery Park, then over to Brookfield Place and through the Oculus building

Ice and Vice did not fail to impress the out-of-towners. I got a scoop of Shade (smoked dark chocolate with caramelized white chocolate ganache) in a sesame cone.

John’s was actually a pizza place that they introduced to me! Our pie, topped with green peppers, was delicious, and I plan on going back.

Sunday highlights: Colonie

All four of us ordered the duck hash at Colonie, it’s that good.

Adam and I had some fun on our lonesome too. Like talking a (sweltering!!) walk in Brooklyn and getting coffee and baklava.

And I made us a very Easter-y salad for dinner. Greens + fresh cilantro + spring onion / tossed with homemade creamy lemon poppy seed dressing / topped with fresh peas / and medium-boiled eggs.

Have a nice week!

10Apr2017

Pastrami Smoked Salmon On Sourdough

by Emily

Once again, this title reflects the most exciting thing I ate in this post. Honestly though, everything I ate this weekend was pretty darn tasty!

Iced coffee with cake popsicle used for ice. <– gaaaaah! so swoontastic!

Perfectly sweet just enough sour smoothie – passionfruit sorbet / plain Greek yogurt / frozen blueberries / princess flavoring / water.

Snacky lunch at work. Mandarin, uncured turkey pepperoni, yummy cinnamon roll Chobani.

Cafeteria sandwich. Spicy chicken, pesto, red pepper, and tomato, on an insanely cheesy roll.

Mr. Flip sandwich from Flip Bird – pulled rotisserie chicken, harissa honey, pickled coleslaw, sambal mayo, and a piece of crispy skin. It was a 10/10.

Dinner from the freezer – ice cream and a naan pizza.

The cilantro pesto pizza – which I got with a free coupon given to me for review – was delicious, the flavor was a bit spicy, which was a nice surprise.

Lox and cream cheese on ~~a bagel~~ sourdough toast.

This pastrami-style smoked salmon from Trader Joe’s is my all-time favorite smoked salmon.

Served with a quick salad of tomato, cucumber, cilantro, green onion, olive oil, and Himalayan salt.

I made a recipe! Cheddar bbq turkey meatloaf.

I ate all of the crispy cheese bits that started to burn to the pan and was sooooo happy. Plus roasted broccoli.

Do you have a favorite type of smoked fish to recommend?

3Apr2017

Vacation // Staycation

by Emily

Whew, what a week! Adam and I have been on vacation since last Saturday and it has been absolutely freaking fantastic!

St. Thomas Vacation

We spent the first half of our week going home to visit my parents. It was a great trip; we made multiple beach visits, ate the sandwich we both ate the morning we got married, and had lunch on the beach with an old friend.

top three vacation moments –

{1} Eating an egg and cheese sandwich on a johnny cake.

{2} Hiking in St. John. We hiked across the Caneel Bay trail and then walked back to town from Honeymoon Beach.

{3} Getting the world’s best fraco (aka shaved ice) downtown – soursop and guava with condensed milk. It was swoon-worthy!

Related: I also had a pretty fantastic fresh soursop juice at Mafolie. It is my favorite fruit.

NYC Staycation

We stayed in the city for the 2nd half of our vacation. NYC is my favorite place on Earth so I’m always happy to have additional free time here. Though we did spend a lot of time home in our apartment — watching tv, in bed, with the dog curled up on our laps!

Quick eats at home included –

All the nachos. Salad with pulled rotisserie chicken, pinto beans, cole slaw, and pineapple salsa.

Eggs with the same ingredients, minus cole slaw, plus German butter cheese.

Cake popsicles!

Champagne with sorbet while we watched the final finale of Bones. <– one of our all time favorite shows. I thought they did a really nice job wrapping things up.

We also had some really exciting eats in Manhattan –

Brunch at Cosme. I had the duck enmoladas or mole enchiladas.

Plus the best Paloma ever. Made with house grapefruit syrup and amazing grapefruit salt on the rim.

Churro s’more at Boqueria.

Best thing I’ve had in 2017 and possibly ever: Unicorn latte!!! A (purple!) caramel latte topped with glittered marshmallows and loads of whipped cream and sprinkles. It was magical!

Think stress-free thoughts for me on my return back to reality please.

20Mar2017

Pie In The Sky

by Emily

This is a longer wrap-up (Monday through Sunday) but I’m missing a lot of photos because this week felt like the actual longest and I mostly just ate cheese on top of various things. Adam and I both have a week off coming up at the end of the month and man, oh man, do I need it! Three big complaints from this past week – 1. some horrible thing are happening in our department and my schedule/work-load is going to become ridiculous; 2. the “blizzard” killed my big Pi(e) Day plans; 3. I stood in front of an automatic door like an idiot and gouged my big toe and then bled all over the place in front of a bunch of cute doctors.

My schedule was all over the place last week so I was disoriented in addition to cranky. Thanks to the weather-related NYC shut down, a last minute schedule change for a lunch and learn, and weekend coverage, I was off on Wednesday, worked a half day on Tuesday and Thursday, and worked a full day Monday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. But now I’m off again on Wednesday which is pretty much a golden lining!

/end rant. Here were some of the yummy things that put a smile on my face last week…

Coffee combo on point. Chicory with sweet buttercream creamer.

I also had wonderful iced lattes from Butler and City of Saints.

Killer lunch components = California Grape kombucha. Peach and cloudberry(!) skyr yogurt with Heritage Flakes and a sumo mandarin.

Our lunch and learn was a Nestle presentation on perioperative nutrition. It was more product promotion than educational, unfortunately, and the research wasn’t as robust as I had hoped. My lunch was good though, grilled salmon and mixed veggies.

Fabulous lunch date at the White Oak Tavern.

I had a cocktail with whiskey, Kahlua, housemade butterscotch, espresso, and cream.

We split a salad and salmon for lunch. Chopped salad with cucumber, feta, olives, avocado, haricot vert, and tahini dressing.

Pan seared salmon with a smoked tomato and piquillo puree, plus crispy potatoes and cipollini onion.

We were pleasantly surprised by how good the food was because we definitely came for dessert – a dark chocolate brownie with butterscotch, walnuts, and toasted marshmallow.

Fruit and cheese plate, the cafeteria was feeling fancy.

Coffee break with a honey caramel chocolate bar.

Adam totally saved Pi(e) Day by offering to bake with me. We made S’mores Pie which is one of our favorites. Almost as good as going on a pie crawl in Brooklyn, almost.

The crust looks red because instead of graham crackers I made it out of Peeps flavored Oreos (<– which turned out to be freaking amazing).

P.S. on Monday night while the grocery store was packed with people filling carts with bread, canned goods, and bottled waters, I got in line with Oreos, chocolate bars, marshmallows, and a case of soda. I’d die first if the blizzard had been real but I’m still pretty sure I win.

Eggs for dinner that tasted far better than they looked. Scrambled with sharp cheddar and brown sugar and Sriracha shredded chicken.

When we were at the University of Miami I worked at an on-campus bar that served the yummiest pita tuna melts; it took me ten years, but I finally made them at home.

Curried tuna salad – canned tuna with mayo, green curry paste, curry powder, spring onion, and shallots – with sharp cheddar stuffed in a pita and cooked in a skillet with copious amounts of butter. They were 10/10 fantastic.

Plus roasted green beans with shallots.

Buffalo chicken and veggie bowls.

Roasted sweet potato and brussels sprouts, topped with shredded chicken breast in buffalo sauce, and a drizzle of blue cheese dressing.

Have a great week!

13Mar2017

(Winner, Winner) Chicken Dinners

by Emily

Did this weekend feel far too short for anyone else??! I’m working next weekend – and expecting horrid snow on Tuesday – so maybe I just had a lot of emotion riding on this free time.

We did manage a fair amount of productivity and fun – taxes were filed, groceries were replenished, and we spent a great evening with my cousin and her boyfriend. They were only in Manhattan for a couple of hours but we managed to give them some good New York fun – drinks/games at Barcade and bbq at Blue Smoke.

If this post had six points my bbq dinner feast would have been #1, but since I didn’t bother with pictures while company was in town, here were the weekend’s top five…

{1} Marshmallow flavored popcorn.

It was yummy, and a little bit pink!

{2} This week’s coffee combo – chicory coffee and chocolate milk.

{3} A random lunch assortment – chocolate peanut butter packet, strawberry lingonberry yogurt, an apple, and a pink lady apple flavored kombucha. The kombucha was my favorite component.

{4} Take-out galore. Garlic fries, fried ravioli, southwestern salad, boneless wings, blue cheese, and honey bbq wings.

{5} An Asian-inspired dinner. Scooped up with tortilla chips.

Bok choy and edamame sautéed with garlic and soy sauce.

Red curry chicken salad made with shredded chicken breast with mayo, red curry, red bell pepper, shallot, and toasted coconut chips.

6Mar2017

Brunch At Queens [blank]

by Emily

In spite of the bitter, freezing cold, I spent my weekend appreciating Astoria. I drove in Saturday and Sunday for two (cheese-packed) brunches. Plus yummy post-brunch iced lattes – always iced, always – at Kinship and Gossip. Finally, I did some expensive but adorable shopping at Lockwood.

Queens Kickshaw. We started our meal with a gouda grilled cheese – brioche with gouda, pickled jalopenos, guava jam, and black bean hummus. Such a good combination of flavors!

I had an interesting cocktail with vodka, apricot liquor, golden raisin shrub, and orange bitters.

And mac and cheese with broccoli pesto on the bottom and an egg on top. The pasta was ridiculously good, but actually the best thing on the plate was the side salad; the salads were perfectly dressed rainbow chard with herbs.

Queens Comfort. We shared a King Kong Doughnut to start – banana bread with peanut butter topping.

My friend and I both ordered the fried green tomato benedict – fried green tomatoes on a buttermilk biscuit with spinach, hollandaise, hot pepper jelly, and poached eggs.

Back at my Queens apartment, I served a dinner and dessert worth noting. Shave-ice style yogurt bowl – plain Greek with condensed milk, sliced banana, Frosted Flakes, and a few Luxardo cherries.