Weekend Wrap-Up; Hello, December!

by Emily

This weekend I…

…Walked around Manhattan with my family to check out the window displays.

This was such a great way to ring in the season, even if the tree wasn’t lit yet. It was the perfect way to spend my parents’ last day. My mom snagged me a milk and white truffle from the Lindt store.

And I came home with a really exciting candy assortment from a place in Chinatown.

I am really looking forward to trying the new varieties.

…Ate lunch at Carnegie Deli.

The bites I took of my dad’s matzoh ball soup were great.

We all shared strawberry blintzes.

And I drank the best chocolate egg cream of my life.

Though the very best bites were those my cousin shared with me of matzoh brei. I don’t know how they make theirs so chewy.

…Shared some exciting drinks with the husband while we explored the city. A Belvoir Fruit Farms Elderflower and Rose Lemonade.

It was very tasty, and how gorgeous is the packaging? We also shared a black sugar bubble tea.

Yum!

…Discovered Cafe Dada, a new coffee-house in Park Slope.

I had a cafe au lait which was delicious,

but the espresso in Adam’s cortado was hands-down the best I’ve ever had.

It was so velvety! And the pistachio mousse we shared was great too.

It was a blend of pistachio and raspberries and the flavors went great together.

…Met up with friends from Buffalo. They were visiting family for the holiday and we all met up to share a meal. We took them to our two favorite places – Freeman’s Restaurant {the smoked trout plate}.

sugar, Sweet, sunshine {more pistachio}.

Such fun. We love it when they come into town.

Tried the Eggnog Jubilee from Jamba Juice.

It tasted exactly like I wanted it to – eggnog and nutmeg blended with ice – but I still didn’t need enough of the flavor to drink the whole thing. I’m glad I tried it though.

…Ate lots and lots of cheese. We were shopping in Trader Joe’s one evening when the idea for nachos struck and our eyes lit up. We got Wisconsin Sharp and New York Extra Extra Sharp Cheddars so we could do a blend.

Adam put pastrami on his (leftover from Carnegie) but my chicken ended up being moldy so I got my protein in the form of extra cheese. Plus candied jalopenos.

Swoon! We kept it going with grilled cheese for lunch the next day.

On thick slices of cibatta.

With apple slices on the side.

I probably should have tried to get some veggies in there too.

…Finally got some veggies in with a homemade dinner.

We topped this cous cous with roasted butternut squash, craisins, smoked almonds, champagne pear vinaigrette, and a sunny side up egg.

Runny yolk is the best sauce.

…Decorated for Christmas.

We’re ready for December!

21Oct2013

Weekend Wrap-Up; Vampire Weekend

by Emily

It’s 2 in the afternoon, so allow me to say “good morning!” Does that sound strange to anyone? Adam worked nights Friday through Sunday so we’ve been keeping a vampire’s schedule. There’s been a lot of this –

I don’t like it when he’s gone, my sleep pattern is all out of whack and I definitely live like a teenager when he’s not around. Case in point – Saturday night I watched terrible movies (“One for the Money” and “Abduction”) and ate candy (Sour Patch Kids and chocolate-covered gummi bears) for dinner.

I ate a lot (a lot) of junk this weekend, but I did manage to throw some pretty gourmet meals in there as well. If last week was all about the jalapeño, this was the weekend of bacon!

breakfasts

On the go.

We had to eat on the way while running errands so I made us something portable. A terrible, god-awful smoothie.

Pumpkin, frozen kale, frozen banana, Silk Vanilla Almond Milk, and a bit of maple. This had such potential but the kale didn’t fully blend and chewing threw it was horrifying. I forced down 90% for the nutrients, but did not enjoy it.

My TJ’s pumpkin cereal bar was much better.

I thought the filling was great; sweet and spicy. And how cute is the labeling?!

We bought these when we were a little loopy from sleeplessness and Adam thought the pun was seriously the funniest thing ever. We spent the rest of the evening making variations on this joke – “A strawberry asks a pumpkin on a date… what happens next?”

Another kale fail.

I just could not win on the kale front this week. Again, these eggs had potential, but there just seemed to be sooooo much kale and we both hated them.

Offending eggs.

Delicious turkey bacon.

Side of grapes.

At least the other components were good. And I shared many bites of egg with the dog, who was such a good boy about eating his greens!

lunches

On Saturday two of our good friends from Buffalo (who are now living in Rochester for medical residency) came up to visit. We met up for a lovely lunch at Bareburger.

I got the Western Burger, with a turkey burger, sans bun. Smoked mozzarella / ~~country~~ turkey bacon / house-made Carolina slaw / smokehouse sauce / topped with a crispy, spicy pickle spear.

So fricking good! That hunk on the side was my pickle, which blew my mind.

A sandwich at home.

A whole-wheat bagel thin with turkey bacon, brie, and pumpkin butter.

This combo was ridiculous.

Plus the last of the grapes.

I have not been eating enough fruit this fall and it was nice to have something other than apples in the house.

dinners

More greens, more grapes.

A big pile of chicken salad.

Kale chips.

This was the only iteration of kale that I actually enjoyed this weekend.

The carb portion of dinner was consumed in the car on the way home from the store.

Adam and I split a TJ’s soft pretzel stick and loved it. Great chew!

I even whipped myself up a drink while I made dinner.

October is National Caramel Month and Sobieski sent me some samples of their Karamel Vodka to celebrate.

Note – I received the vodka samples free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

Here was my attempt at a Caramel Apple Cocktail –

2 oz Sobieski Karamel Vodka
2 oz Sour Apple Pucker
splash Polar Granny Smith Apple Seltzer

The vodka was good, but next time I’d go with a 2:1 ratio of vodka to Pucker, the sour apple flavor was a little strong!

Soup’s up.

Last night we ate big bowls of my Loaded Potato Soup.

Truffles for dessert.

I’ve raved about Alter Eco’s Silk chocolate line in the past and they sweetly sent me some of their newest product – Dark Velvet Truffles.

Note – I received the truffles free of charge. I was not provided further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

The truffles, which are also available in Black, are organic, fair trade, and non-GMO. They are made with coconut oil, a more sustainable option than palm kernel oil (I didn’t taste any coconut flavor).

I thought that the truffles were great; nice and creamy! The husband hates dark chocolate as a rule, but loved the Silk bars so I will have him try one of the truffles and report back.

Have a great week!

11Oct2013

Do You Remember When People Used To Blog 3x A Day?

by Emily

Do you remember when people used to blog three times a day? Yeah … I can’t even handle once a week! I don’t have a wrap-up, but I did manage to get 2 – 3 items from each category, and the stuff I do have to share was all awesome. Here we go –

breakfast

1. Pumpkin pie (crisp?) in a bowl.

I topped some TJ’s low-fat pumpkin Greek yogurt (3/4 of the container or so; the serving seems oddly large to me) with some of my Simply Sweet Granola and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

I made my oats a little too toasty, but I was very pleased with the yogurt.

2. Pumpkin Pie Through A Straw.

That’s right, I cracked open my first can of pumpkin!

I’ve made this smoothie for years and it is a total winner. The husband is usually not as into the pumpkin thing as I am and he likes this even more than I do.

3. Sundae on a Wednesday.

This was the most dessert-y of the “dessert” breakfasts but it was still pretty healthy.

Wallaby low-fat maple yogurt topped with Crispy Green bananas (former freebie), and melted Biscoff Spread.

snacks

1. Cinnamon Crunch Somersaults and a caramel macchiato.

I made so many updates to my coffee (a little more of this, a little less of that) that it was basically a big cup of espresso and caramel, aka perfection.

The crunchy portion of this snack was brought to you by this generous package I received from Somersaults:

I received this package free of charge. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

They recently had their top flavors certified as GMO-free and expanded their retailer list to include Target and Costco and they’re trying to spread the word about their good news. Fun snack facts – a serving of Somersaults has as much protein as a serving of almonds (with half of the fat) and they are a good source of fiber and vitamin E. Also they are Adam’s very favorite snack!

I thought that the Cinnamon Crunch (a new flavor this year) was great; a good blend of sweet and seedy.

2. Cinnamon Pumpkin Beer Bread.

Just Beer Bread made with a pumpkin beer and a layer of cinnamon sugar (we used cinnamon maple sugar) on top.

Quite good with schmear of butter.

3. An actual sundae.

Ben and Jerry’s Vanilla Honey Caramel Greek Frozen Yogurt with melted Biscoff Spread; I was all about the Biscoff this week.

I bought the frozen yogurt by chance (I needed vanilla frozen yogurt for my pumpkin smoothie and this was all I could find at the store near my house) and ended up adoring it. The flavor was so complex!

lunch

1. Sandwich success.

I’ve been planning this sandwich combo for weeks, ever since a serendipitous trip to Trader Joe’s.

A whole wheat Bagel Thin topped with Applegate Farms roasted turkey, TJ’s pumpkin butter, and a TJ’s mini brie bite.

The brie and pumpkin butter mash-up was just as good as I thought it would be.

Roasted green beans on the side,

and TJ’s Hawaiian Style BBQ Potato Chips.

This was a fun lunch to munch through.

2. A trip to Chobani Bar in SoHo.

A girlfriend and I took the train into the city from Queens. We snacked on Somersaults on the way in.

She had never tasted them before but was an instant fan.

A quick walk down Prince Street and we were at Chobani.

The space was very pretty, but strangely they had no seating. We ended up finding a nice spot on a sunny stoop.

I ordered a half-size of toasted coconut and pineapple. Plain yogurt topped with pineapple, toasted coconut, and Turkish hazelnuts. It comes with light agave nectar but I asked that they leave it off.

I was very impressed with my bowl; the pineapple was so sweet! My friend got the same thing and I did and she liked it too. We both agreed that we probably wouldn’t go back but that we were glad we went.

dinner

1. Mac and cheese, please.

This combo of ingredients made for one heck of a dinner –

While my mushrooms were browning…

I ate ~~some of~~ the rest of the bbq chips,

and opened a Pumking.

I agree with what I’ve read online, this year’s batch wasn’t the best. I really enjoyed it the first few minutes but after that I grew tired of the flavor. In fact, most of the bottle ended up in my cinnamon pumpkin beer bread. At least my dinner was good.

Salads on the side. A romaine blend dressed with a sprinkle of salt and 1 tsp each honey and olive oil.

My salad was technically on the bottom, not the side. I topped my greens with mac (Annie’s Shells and White Cheddar, with spinach, mushrooms, and Bela smoked sardines) and then topped my whole bowl with crumbled goat cheese.

2. Taco night.

I recently received a package from Ortega to help me celebrate National Taco Day:

I received this package free of charge. I was not provided with further compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

They sent along some recipes on which they collaborated with Chef Aarón Sánchez, including this vegetarian one –

I really liked the sound of it, but you know I had to put my own spin on the recipe.

Vegetarian Black Bean Tacos, serves 3

1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
medium sweet onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, diced
2 jalapeño peppers, diced
15.5 oz can low-sodium black beans (don’t drain!)
1 packet Ortega 40% less sodium taco seasoning mix
9 Ortega yellow corn taco shells
4 oz raw baby spinach
3 oz crumbled feta cheese

Heat evoo in a large pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until softened and beginning to brown, 5 – 7 minutes.
Add garlic and jalapeños and cook an additional 5 minutes.
Stir in beans (liquid and all) and taco seasoning mix and cook an additional 10 minutes. Mash up some of the beans with the side of your spatula while you stir.
Heat taco shells according to package instructions.
Stuff the bottom of each taco with spinach. Spread the bean mixture evenly among the tacos on top of spinach. Top tacos evenly with feta cheese.

We loved them! The beans were delicious, if I do say so myself. And the taco shells were wonderful; they seemed to hold together much better than ones I’ve used in the past.

life

1. The house.

Three full months of living here later, we finally bought shelving for the living room.

There’s not a lot on them right now (I managed to find spaces for all of our books in the office in the interim) but it’s nice to have one less blank wall.

2. The man.

I didn’t talk about it on the blog, but a month or so ago Webster had a cluster seizure. It was very scary, and more importantly, it meant that we had to start medically treating his epilepsy. He’s been on medication for more than a month now and he has been seizure-free the entire time (yay!).

Feeling better has given him time to focus on his other interests, like sitting with his butt up in the air like a total weirdo.

What’s going on in your life? Tell me something good from the last week?

9Sep2013

Weekly Wrap-Up; Cheesetastic

by Emily

This week’s eats were all about the cheese and carbs {see also: several servings of unpictured pizza and popcorn}. I’m missing many of the day-time meals but I managed to capture every single dinner for a change.