Apples And Honey

by Emily

A not-so-fun weekend moment was somehow deleting half of my photos when I went to upload them. Here were some of the yummy moments…

Tacoway Beach at Rockaway Beach.

I got a fish taco with guac.

And we went down the road to Connolly’s Pub for frozen piña coladas.

Best frozen drink we’ve ever had.

Meatball Shop.

This chicken sandwich was good but not as good as the next one.

BBQ at The Smoke Joint.

I got a pulled chicken sandwich that I smothered in North Carolina-style bbq sauce. Their cole slaw is amazing; sweet and tangy.

Kale salad from Pork Slope.

This was the junk food of kale salads – greens smothered in “Srirancha” dressing with cheddar cheese and housemade potato chip crumbles.

Apples and Honey for Rosh Hashanah.

Fage 2% Greek yogurt + apples cooked with cinnamon and butter + honey + chia seeds + salted caramel apple granola.

We made the ubiquitous (<– for good reason!) toffee candy.

I used graham crackers instead of saltines and added pretzels and pecans.

So freaking good.

Barcade for pumpkin beer and many, many rounds of Q-Bert and Tapper. I made it to level three on both despite numerous attempts to go further.

This weekend also involved several games of Jenga and darts. I was better at both than I would have expected!

4Sep2015

This Week I Loved…

by Emily

the start of apple month

September 1st means I go crazy eating all things {caramel} apple!

And breaking into this stash makes me feel less awkward about my growing pile of pumpkin items.

everything by George Ezra

But especially “Blame It On Me.”

my breakfast combo

Fiber One reached out to me about sending samples of their newest product – Cheesecake Bars! I am not one to turn down something that has 5 grams of fiber and tastes like cheesecake.

They come in strawberry and salted caramel and they are freaking delicious. Each moderately sized bar has 150 calories. They certainly aren’t as healthy as a bowl of oatmeal, but I can handle the 3.5 grams of saturated fat occasionally for something quick that keeps me full through the morning and really does taste like dessert.

I paired a caramel bar with a caramel macchiato one morning and it was a bit too much but also amazing.

But most mornings I kept my coffee pairing low-key, Community Coffee with cream and milk.

Yum, I love it when we have (fat-free) half and half in the fridge.

yogurt bowls

2% Fage with strawberries and Heritage Flakes.

Plain Skyr with cotton candy grapes(!!!) and sea salt caramel apple granola.

Omg, kids, the granola was insanely good. It took a lot of self-control not to go through and pick out all of the caramel bits.

salads

Loaded from the cafeteria.

Greens with ranch, peppers, tomato, cucumber, black bean and corn salsa, green olives, cheddar, and Sea Salt SuperSeedz from home. The pumpkin seeds gave this just the right amount of crunch.

At home.

The little strawberry glass is holding strawberry beer – Abita’s* deliciously juicy Strawgator.

And my “salad” – which had no greens because we ran out of spinach – was tons of chopped cucumber and sweet red pepper topped with TJ’s insanely spicy Sriracha ranch, shredded cheddar, roasted pecans, and a huge pile of pulled chicken with roasted garlic and honey bbq sauce.

Also I ate Chipotle salad two days in a row. No shame.

* apparently Abita makes a milk stout?! I want it so badly I can practically taste it.

21Aug2015

Left My Heart In Montana

by Emily

I’m missing a lot of photos this week but the meals I do have to share were off the charts good.

lunch

Mostly I did lunches from the cafeteria this week, like a tasty broccoli and cheese baked potato whose cell-phone photo was an absolute horror. Packed lunches featured a great fruit salad – Cara Cara Orange, strawberries, and 3 varieties of pluot.

With plain yogurt and Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes.

notable snacks

Fresh mint in sparkling water is my jam. This “mojito” rocked our socks off.

We’ve kept the dessert every day thing going. One morning Adam took me to work and we tried the doughnuts at Elsie’s Parlor. I got the Confettura Di Fichi – filled with fig jam and topped with mascarpone and toasted almonds.

I loved the idea of this, especially because the fig jam and mascarpone were delicious, but the texture was terrible, way too dense. If I thought of it was a muffin it was great, but as a doughnut I ate half and we moved on to a tried and true.

Now that’s a doughnut! My peaches and crème doughseed had just the right balance of fluff and chew. Plus it was perfectly tangy and sweet.

Vegan ice cream from Sky Ice.

Thai iced coffee and Thai young coconut went great together.

Ice cream from Oddfellows.

S’mores with amazing caramelized white chocolate with toasted almond.

Guava-cheese empanadas.

Enjoyed with Ruth Reichl’s novel, which I read in a day and a half and enjoyed even more than her memoir. She is such a good story-teller and her food writing makes your mouth water.

dinner

Leftover Korilla knock-off bowls were still yummy.

I stir-fried mine with eggs to make up for the missing one on top.

Also I kind of burnt the life out of it, but this was still good.

It was fitting that I put this dinner on my heart plate because I loved-loved-loved it.

A tiny roasted pile of every single okra I could find at the stores this weekend.

Plus I snacked on this for extra veggies.

Toasted ciabatta sandwich with turkey, turkey bacon, Colby jack, and Smart Balance.

The cheese was extra-thin sliced and it melted to perfection.

We checked out Bushwick’s Montana’s Trail House and our best meal of the week ended up being the best meal of the year!

Adorable décor, amazing service, and freshly made food – most of it local – with well-balanced flavors.

Captain Stormalong – Standard Heartcut White Whiskey, Campari, Demerara & Topped with Downeast Cider.

Riff Randell – Vodka, Krupnikas Honey Liqueur, Contratto Aperitif, Luxardo Maraschino, Acid Phosphate, Sparkling Wine. This was the best drink we’ve ever had. It was like drinking pure honey but in an amazing way. Similar to a great honey meade I had in SF.

We started with the charred green beans – which were topped with browned garlic and soft-cooked eggs and served on top of housemade ricotta. This was the best dish of the year, the lemony ricotta was fantastic with the drippy eggs and charred greens.

Then we shared the dinosaur kale salad – with feta, roasted carrots, and kale that was grown in the restaurant’s rooftop garden!

And the fried chicken with honey butter and housemade hot sauce. Best fried chicken ever; super juicy and every bite had a whiff of honey.

Dessert – aka the course I saw on Instagram that made me move this restaurant to my “must-eat” list – was banana bread s’mores. <– squee!

Also they brought us complimentary shots with our bill because we’d been raving about every bite we took. Love. NYC people – get yourself to Bushwick, you won’t regret it!

17Aug2015

Weekend Highlights… A Bevy of Beverages

by Emily

notable snacks – –

Froyo again. Can’t stop, won’t stop.

Plain tart and Nutella yogurts with Nutella, mini peanut butter cups, chocolate-covered pretzels, and rainbow sprinkles.

Pizza-pizza.

Buffalo chicken.

We bought the new brownie batter Oreos.

Pretty good, especially when you smush two together for a double-stuffed.

Fresh mint in bubbly seltzer is delicious.

Best of all the many, many beverages we enjoyed this weekend. There were also several iced coffees that didn’t make the photos cut.

Long Island City – –

Saturday morning I picked up a very tired husband from a long shift at work,

and we finally hit up LIC Flea and Food.

We got mac and cheese and chicken empanadas.

And a Nutella gelato and macaroon ice cream sandwich from Bakeshop by Woops.

We explored LIC a bit with a walk on the waterfront.

A stop at the gorgeous newest Sweet Leaf location for an intensely creamy Vietnamese iced coffee.

And finally a flight of beers from Rockaway Brewing Co.

#2, 4, 7, & 8. We were very impressed. The cream ale was the best.

Williamsburg – –

Matchabar.

Iced matcha on fresh watermelon juice. It was good, but not something I’m dying to go back for again.

On the other hand, lunch at Meatball Shop will be repeated very soon. I need to make an ice cream sandwich.

I got the jello shot special – Jack and Rosé.

And chicken meatballs with pesto.

They were served on an assortment of veggies – fennel, salad with apple, roasted squash, cucumber, and fresh green beans – that were tasty but literally dripping with oil.

a doggy date – –

On Sunday Webster took his first ride on the subway.

We went on a family trip to Central Park!

He was a total trooper for 3 hours of walking around the park. We cooled down with a honey iced tea,

and a double caramel Magnum bar.

And some of us had bowls of water that we stomped in and spilled all over the place.

Webster was beyond tuckered out when we got home and spent most of the rest of the day curled up in my lap!

homemade Korilla knock-off bowls – –

I made knock-off chicken and rice bowls and the husband said I did as good of a job as Korilla!

brown rice with chopped kimchi and turkey bacon
roasted broccoli
quick pickled carrots and cucumber
chicken that was marinated in Gochujang paste, garlic, ginger, brown sugar, soy sauce, and rice vinegar
shredded cheese and a fried egg on top

So good. I am excited for the leftovers.

14Aug2015

(Frozen)Yogurt

by Emily

breakfast

Coffee!

With caramel.

Or with Hint of Honey Almond Milk and plums.

Or a Clif Bar.

Also one morning my coworker brought in yummy poppy-seed Danish.