Weekend Update: Chilaquiles Edition

by Emily

Our Saturday and Sunday plans mirrored each other and my weekend days ended up following a template:

maple iced latte in Brooklyn // brunch at a Chris Santos restaurant in the Lower East Side with chilaquiles // ice cream for dessert // walk across a bridge // a veggie-forward homemade dinner {x2}

Iced nonfat latte with four shots of espressso and maple at Otha’s.

Iced nonfat Maple Shay with extra espresso at Brooklyn Roasting Co.

Brunch at Beauty and Essex. Vanilla doughnuts stuffed with raspberry jam to start.

I ordered a cocktail with tequila, honey, and smoked blackberries. It was good but Adam’s neon green Emerald Gimlet stole the show – Belvedere vodka, basil, lemon nectar, and fresh lime.

BaE is tapas style so we ordered three savory dishes to share. Crab egg foo young with shiitake mushrooms.

Chilaquiles with and pulled chicken, sunny side up egg, cotija cheese, and pickled red onion.

And braised chicken meatballs with sheep milk ricotta, wild mushroom, and truffle.

Brunch at Stanton Social. This is another sharing-encouraged spot so again we picked three plates to split. Fried chicken on blue corn waffles with corn pudding, fresno chile, and maple syrup.

Housemade naan with lamb bacon, zaatear spiced labneh, and pickled tomato. It was totally swoonworthy.

Chilaquiles with hand pulled chicken, sunny-side up egg, and feta. We preferred the Stanton Social chilaquiles to Beauty and Essex.

I also had a delicious Vietnamese coffee cocktail with Finlandia, Kahlua, cold brew coffee, and chocolate bitters.

Fueled across the Williamsburg Bridge with a doughnut ice cream sandwich at Stax. We had bourbon cornflake ice cream with Frosted Flakes and condensed milk on top.

Fueled across the Manhattan Bridge with Ice & Vice. Red (hibiscus, rose, Swedish Fish fluff) and Opium Den (white sesame, toasted poppy seed, lemon bread crouton) in a Froot Loops cone. The red ice cream was our favorite thing we ate all weekend.

I made an updated version of my Cheesy Eggplant Bake with meat sauce. For the sauce I cooked ground turkey breast and onion in olive oil with garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, and cayenne with tomato paste and crushed tomatoes.

Quinoa bowls for Sunday dinner. Tri-color quinoa topped with smoked trout, lemon pepper Swiss chard, and butter sautéed chanterelles.

^^^

6Oct2017

Oh My Gourd, It’s Pumpkin Month!

by Emily

I didn’t do the best job with photography this week but I wanted to post anyways to share my pumpkin stash!

Oooh.

Ahhh.

Woo-hoo!

Here were some snacky, squashy highlights from the workweek…

Coffee = Wicked Joe’s with 1% cow’s milk.

My hospital’s cafeteria has a sushi bar now. They don’t have brown rice or any vegetarian options so it’s not something I’d get for lunch every day, but this spicy shrimp tempura roll sure was fun.

Pumpkin spice Siggi’s with a Caramel Almond Pumpkin Spice KIND bar and a SweeTango apple.

KIND bar with a cranberry almond Noosa.

I’ve been loving turkey-cheese roll ups as a snack recently. Provolone, smoked turkey, and a bit of pesto rolled up and microwaved until warm and melty.

La Colombe latte can with a polvoron (a fantastically delicious milk cookie my coworker brings us from the Philippines).

Dragonfruit lemongrass kombucha.

I got a blog invite for the 2017 Healthy Brand Showcase. Adam and I tasted some yummy things (shared on my Instagram Live) and I came home with tons of samples. I’ll be sure to share when I try product I love.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

2Oct2017

Pecan Beer And Maple Sausage

by Emily

Adam and I both worked all weekend but on the plus side we had Friday off together first. And we have days off that line up this upcoming week too, woo-hoo!

Highlights from the (working for the) weekend…

On Friday, I blogged my last post from Loosie’s Cafe.

That’s a cortado. I also had an iced soy latte and a chocolate croissant while I typed.

For my homemade coffee I was back on the Wicked Joe train.

The cafeteria offerings are pretty sparse over the weekend, but I did pull together this tasty plate of macaroni and cheese and vegetable medley.

And I packed the last of my Apple Month goodies for snacking – TJ’s fruit bar and dried apple rings plus TJ’s cheese bites and an instant coffee package.

My outside of work snacks were all dessert based. These crunchy cookie Reese’s cups are our very favorite American-made candy.

We finally made it to Sundays in Brooklyn‘s coffee/dessert window.

Dairy-free dark chocolate soft serve with sugar crisps and toasted marshmallow. <– swoon

After work dinners were quick but delicious. And prep flew by with my weekend sip-while-you-work cooking cocktail hour. I made a spritzer with calamansi juice, Goldshlager, and club soda.

Abita’s pecan ale is super sweet and nutty.

We made fish sticks from scratch.

Salmon was on sale, so that’s what I bought, and it worked perfectly. Breaded in panko and baked, then dipped in cocktail sauce.

With broccoli on the side.

Another night we had breakfast bowls.

There was labne hiding on the bottom / topped with roasted tomatoes and sauteed onions with sumac and olive oil / roasted delicata squash / a fried egg / and maple chicken sausages.

P.S. Pumpkin Month started yesterday! I can’t wait to share my stash in Friday’s post.

18Sep2017

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria

by Emily

My title is a tongue in cheek joke about how the weather channel is turning me into a crazy person this month. I was having such a good week too. The VI was finally getting some desperately needed federal assistance and national news coverage and my parents got cell service back and I was able to talk to my mom. But now, Maria is expected to hit the Virgin Islands as a category 3 hurricane this week. Fantastic.

I’m still not really feeling up to prattling on about my days, but I did have some fun this week so I’m posting a top five…

{1} favorite work bites

{a} coffee coffee coffee

{b} I am still obsessed with that Trader Joe’s nut and seed mix

{c} I also packed a nice tasting plate – dried apples, TJ’s crispy cheese bites, and a maple salmon bar.

{d} This cafeteria wrap was on point. Chicken / pinto beans / tomato / bell peppers / banana pepper / cheddar.

{2} apple eatventures

{a} I made caramel apple bread from scratch! Basically just pumpkin bread made with apple sauce instead of pumpkin puree and totally just an excuse to use these caramel chips.

{b} Caramel apple oatmeal. Rolled oats / caramel chips / cinnamon / chia seeds / dried apples.

{c} Caramel apple Twizzlers.

{d} Apple pie milkshake. Vanilla ice cream / Greek yogurt / applesauce/ cinnamon and gingerbread spice.

{3} cobb salad pasta salad

Whole wheat bowtie pasta / crumbled fancy aged blue cheese / turkey bacon / chopped chicken breast / hard-boiled eggs / diced avocado / shredded spinach / roasted baby tomatoes.

{4} a Mile End meal recreation

Mile End Deli has a Brussel sprouts dish on their menu that we were over the moon for, so I recreated it at home. Our version was roasted brussel sprouts / tossed with crispy turkey bacon / plus olive oil and honey / sprinkled with sumac / on a base of labne.

While we cooked – which took no time at all – we sipped on Switchel.

Up Mountain Switchel sent me a box for review. The lemon flavor was too spicy ginger for me, but I loved the Yerba Mate. The ingredients list is short and simple (the four things listed on the front of the bottle plus water) and a serving has 54 calories and 10 grams of sugar. It paired nicely with our meal and would be a good alternative option to booze or soda with dinner.

{5} a trip to the South Fork of the Hamptons

{a} Doughnuts and coffee at Grindstone.

I had a Nutella s’mores brioche doughnut and a vanilla latte.

{b} La Colombe black and tan (draft latte and cold brew) at Sag Town Coffee. P.S. Apparently I am obsessed with Sag Harbor, it is so cute!

{c} Lunch at Lunch. Instead of a lobster roll I went with the seafood chili – with a bloody mary – and was quite pleased with my choice.

{d} A cup of birthday cake ice cream at Scoop Du Jour.

{e} And best of all, we got to stick our toes in the sand at the beach.

It was a super foggy day and the crashing waves were gorgeous. Plus we saw about a million seagulls. <– best beach day ever

5Sep2017

Cinnamon And Marshmallow In My Coffee

by Emily

I have eaten some very yummy things over the past four days! Adam and I both worked the holiday, but first we got to spend almost two full weekend days together!!! Good times.

Things [literal things] that made me happy this weekend…

Thanks to all of Target’s cheap “back to school” goodies, we have a jazzy new shower curtain and bedspread.

The sheets underneath are pretty happy-making too.

A Saturday trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Such a fun way to spend a morning. We were expecting things to be sparse due to the season but there was still a ton of beauty to admire.

As of last Friday, it’s Apple Month.

This spiced apple bourbon hand soap is currently the best smelling thing in our house!

Culinary highlights…

I haven’t eaten anything apple yet but I did cram some pretty fall-forward flavors into my coffees. Cinnamon.

And toasted marshmallow.

Though I also had a very summer-y Australian iced coffee with Wandering Bear cold brew and vanilla Curious Creamery ice cream.

Cheddar-chive biscuit and a matcha iced latte at Annex.

Brunch at Maison Premiere. We had a pastry assortment that was out of this world.

Maison Jungle Bird – Hamilton Black Rum, Cruzan Black Strap Rum, pineapple, Campari, and sugar cane.

I had the duck confit hash with bell pepper and poached egg. <– not as good as Colonie, sadly

While at the Garden, we had lunch at the Yellow Magnolia Café. (<– newest venture from the chef/owner of Wilma Jean)

I had wonderfully crispy, lemony fried chicken. Served with habanero honey, collard green slaw, and delicious wild rice. I suspect that there was honey butter in the rice because I don’t even like wild rice.

We took a long post-lunch walk for coffee and ended up also getting ice cream for dessert – blueberry with blue velvet cake from Little Cupcake Bakeshop.

Friday night I met a girlfriend in the Lower East Side for dinner and drinks. Sizzling noodles at The Tang.

I ended up with way too much food because I also couldn’t resist the Chungking Express salad – romaine, soft-boiled egg, honey, black vinegar, and chili oil.

How fantastically ridiculous are the drinks at Mother of Pearl?! My daiquiri – with Campari, grapefruit, and rosemary tincture – was tasty to boot.

We made an oldie but a goodie – buffalo blue cheese black bean burgers. Served with raw carrots and celery the first night.

Our citrus-y sip-while-you-cook line up did not contain any winners, we hated both of these drinks! <– normally I wouldn’t include this in a “highlights” section but they both sound so good in theory that I wanted to make sure I warned you

Sunday night I got fancy with a Southern dinner.

Pan-fried catfish! I made a spice rub with salt, pepper, cayenne, cumin, brown sugar, and smoked paprika and cooked the fish for 3.5 minutes on each side. Drizzled with a lemon butter pan sauce.

Plus sautéed collard greens with shallots, toasted coconut, and avocado (plus lemon, rice vinegar, and liquid smoke).

Flavor themes of the weekend – Campari / eggs / coffee / collard greens.

14Aug2017

Ice Cream In LA

by Emily

We took full advantage of our week off and took a trip out to the West Coast! This was our first time in Los Angeles and we had a great trip. We rented a car and had enough time to do some exploring. Keeping with vacation tradition, I got sick with a sore throat, but thankfully half of our agenda was ice cream anyway!

some of our favorite things we did – –

Chinatown // Griffith Park Observatory // La Brea Tar Pits

// Malibu

// Rodeo Drive // Santa Monica // Venice Beach

// Venice Canals

some of our favorite things we ate – –

Afters Ice Cream <– this wins best ice cream of the trip

Brioche ice cream sandwich with cookie monster ice cream and sweetened corn flakes. I couldn’t get a good photo in the sun but this was out of this world.

B Sweet

Filipino dessert bars are the best. I got amazing Halo Halo.

Blue Star Doughnuts

The bottom one was terrible but the top one was a fantastic buttermilk glazed. This was our very first stop on the trip and it was a nice start.

Egg Slut

House-made turkey sausage, cage-free over medium egg, cheddar cheese, and honey mustard aioli in a warm brioche bun.

Grand Central Market

There was so much to do here! We got chicken tacos.

And the best pad see eiw I’ve ever tasted. The noodles were a little bit charred and perfectly chewy. We were both in heaven.

Magpies Soft Serve <– this was the best soft serve we’ve ever had

I got a swirl with cherry cola(!!!) and sweetened cream.

Mr. Holmes Bakehouse

It was adorable in here and we almost came away with some gold pins. California croissant with smoked salmon, ginger, wasabi, and nori.

Philz Coffee

The mojito iced coffee lived up to expectations. I do have to mention that it makes me crazy that they call this “mojito” though, mojitos have mint and sugar but they also have rum and lime and without the second two ingredients you have a mint iced coffee, not a mojito.

Salt and Straw

It’s as good as they say. We had salted, malted, chocolate chip cookie dough and almond brittle with chocolate ganache.

Son of a Gun <– this was our best meal of the trip

This tapas-style seafood restaurant pretty much blew our minds. I drank a Ruby Red Julep – Angels Envy Bourbon, ruby red grapefruit, hibiscus, lemon, and mint.

We had the lemonfish poke with black radish escabeche, citrus, and crispy sunchoke.

Maple cream with smoked steelhead trout roe and pumpernickel flakes.

Heirloom tomato salad with avocado, chili, lime, miso, and corn.

Blackened rock cod with tomatillo salsa, fried tortilla, and crema.

And for dessert, Italian Hamburger: a brioche ice cream sandwich with caramel and maldon sea salt.

And now it’s back to work, wish me luck!

5Aug2017

New Noosas

by Emily

I’m free (again)! After a short return to work I’m back on vacation for the next week, woo-hoo!

Honestly? I need a vacation. I was only back at work three days but I stayed late for more than an hour on Thursday and Friday and now I’m tuckered out.

Thankfully I had a few exciting things to get me through my week. Like a luscious line up of fun new beverages: Black Hand nitro cold brew / Secret Squirrel Vietnamese iced coffee / La Colombe triple draft latte / Maeil caramel macchiato / Harmless Harvest strawberry coconut water.

And an extra exciting package of product samples from Noosa.

Noosa yogurt is already pretty much angel pudding, so when they offered to let me try their new line of Noosa Mates (yogurt with premium mix-ins) I jumped at the chance.

They were even better than anticipated! Loved them all. I was happy with the portion of both yogurt and toppings and each one has between 240-270 calories. Banana Chocolate Peanut with Guittard chocolate chips and salted peanuts.

Honey cranberry almond with pepitas and granola.

Coconut almond chocolate.

Maple ginger with candied ginger and gingersnap crumble. I wasn’t expecting to like this because I think that I think that ginger is too spicy, but it was delicious! The candied ginger was chewy and delightful.

Honey pretzel peanut.

I ate some fun stuff on my free days too. Like doughnuts (which were just awful, but how cute is that pink wall?!).

And a trip to Red Hook.

We had key lime pie from Steve’s.

And crab sandwiches from Brooklyn Crab. Snow crab roll with Cholula-orange aioli.

Alaskan king crab roll with warm butter and chives.

Plus cole slaw.

And a Passion Paloma with mescal, passionfruit puree, and grapefruit soda.

Plus we stopped at Baked for coffee and brought home a grasshopper bar for dessert later in the week.

After a long span of eating every meal out, I was excited to make us a fancy dinner.

Smoked turkey kielbasa with onions and bell pepper.

Plus pommes aligot <– super cheesy potatoes. I loosely followed this recipe. I had to lighten up a few ingredients to accommodate what we had in the fridge (less butter, 2% milk instead of cream, low-fat three cheese cheddar blend) and it was still insanely yummy.

I served my leftovers piled all together in a bowl with smoked paprika maple mayo on top.

By the end of the week I was so exhausted by my three days of work that I got Chipotle instead of cooking anything! Rice / sautéed veggies / chicken / pinto beans / corn salsa / spicy salsa / sour cream / cheese.

Have a great weekend!

31Jul2017

New York Staycation

by Emily

To finish out my birthday week, my parents came into town for a quick visit. It was great to get to spend time with them, and we had a tons of fun in the city.

With travel, we got to spend about four days together. Our big walking day started in Brooklyn and included a trip across the Brooklyn Bridge, through Brookfield Place and the Occulus, Chelsea Market, a stroll through Greenwich Village, and time in Washington Square Park.

We also had a fantastic northern Long Island day, complete with the Roosevelt House, Lavender by the Bay, a fresh raspberry pie, and a sunset on the water.