The End Of The First Month Of The New Year

by Emily

I’m two weeks late and about a hundred pictures short, but here, finally, is a (bi)weekly wrap up for the end of January. I blame a bout of the cold, a string of loser dinners, and a case of the mid-winter blues for my lack of timeliness and photo-taking-enthusiasm.

Gaps aside, here were some eats from the past two weeks…

{rated within their category; i.e. the yogurt bowl is an 8 out of 10 compared with other yogurt bowls not compared other dissimilar items}

Green monster from the cafeteria. They sometimes set up a smoothie bar at the rotating station. I chose spinach, strawberry, mango, and coconut water. 8.5/10

Chocolate iced coffee. 8/10

Work snack – an apple and coconut caramel bar. The score here is for the Thai Coco coconut milk drink, which was creamy and sweet. 9.5/10

Soursop yogurt with blueberries and vanilla granola. 8/10

Turkey reuben-ish sandwich from the cafeteria. Sliced turkey, swiss cheese, pickles, spinach, and cole slaw on a whole-wheat wrap. Plus french fries dipped in 1000 island. 6.5/10

Cola kombucha. 6.5/10

This Milka Oreo candy bar didn’t have as much cookie in it as I wanted. 6/10

But these TJ’s sour gummies are the best gummy candies Adam or I have ever tasted. 10/10

Biscuit breakfast sandwiches for dinner. Buttermilk biscuits (<– I don’t recommend this recipe, the biscuits had no flake) / maple Sriracha mayo / smoked gouda / fried egg. 6/10

Pumpkin soup. Roux, canned pumpkin, and chicken stock with sautéed onions, carrot, and maple chicken breakfast sausage on the bottom. This didn’t turn out as well as I was expecting it to, the salt and pepper pumpkin seed brittle I sprinkled on top was by far the best component. 5/10

Escarole and white bean skillet with (turkey) bacon and artichoke. 7/10

Creamy turkey pasta. Ground turkey sautéed with garlic, browned mushrooms, and oven-roasted tomatoes, tossed with sour cream, and whole-wheat pasta. 7.5/10

I’ve got some yummy things planned for this weekend so hopefully the next post will be slightly less lame!

17Jan2017

Long Weekend Top Five

by Emily

I had a very enjoyable weekend, including two fancy brunches and one entire day spent watching tv and eating nachos with a dog lounging in my lap. There have been some very enjoyable eats over the past four days too.

Here were the top five…

{1} The final serving of my new favorite coffee combo.

Texas pecan cold brew + sweet buttercream creamer + ice + a straw = a very happy Emily. Adam loved it too.

{2} Brunch at Gristmill in Park Slope.

We adored it and will definitely be back for dinner. They are known for their garlic knots and that morning they had an everything garlic knot for The Loxness Knotster – with pastrami smoked salmon from ACME, cream cheese, ricotta, and dill.

I got a Brunch Punch – with rum, lemon-lime shrub, grenadine, cinnamon, and clove. It was so pink!

Plus spicy potato hash with carrots, arugula, and poached egg. This dish was soooo balanced and just a joy to eat.

{3} Brunch at Sunday in Brooklyn in Williamsburg.

I had an egg sandwich on brioche with gochujang aioli, crispy potatoes, and cheddar. Plus a toasted oak soda with a shot of vodka. <– such a genius idea that the owner came by and nodded his approval.

{4} Super soup.

Served with ridiculously cheesy buttered toast.

Yellow onion, celery, green bell pepper, and carrot sautéed in evoo / white miso / low-sodium chicken broth / shredded turkey breast / pesto tortellini. The soup was super easy since I already had the cooked meat in my freezer. I boiled the pasta in my broth and it came out great.

{5} Okonomiyaki aka Japanese cabbage pancake.

Thank you, Serious Eats, for introducing me to another new yummy thing.

Served with quick salads of celery, red bell pepper, basil, and green onion, in a mustard vinaigrette.

My pans stick so my okonomiyaki came out in pieces, but you could hardly tell once I smothered it in toppings! Cabbage and Japanese sweet potato pancake / fish sauce aioli / gochujang / roasted seaweed / black sesame seeds / green onion.

Next week is going to be less exotic but more cheesy, I’m making a gratin!

6Jan2017

Hello, 2017!

by Emily

How is everyone’s year going?? So far, the word for my 2017 is tasty.

Here are some culinary highlights from the first week…

Coffee first, always coffee. Espresso roast and chocolate milk before work.

I also had the best iced latte of the year from Birch; their shots are extra strong and roasty.

Adam and I both had Monday off of work and we started our new year with a trip to Serendipity 3.

Veggie chili for my lunch.

I kept lunch boring because I was focused on the main event – sundae funday! A giant scoop of peanut butter pie with hot fudge and bananas. <– swoon city

Work lunches were centered around a box of free product review samples I received from ips snacks. The snacks – crisps and popcorn – are all made with whey protein and pack at least 5 grams of protein for </ 150 calories.

I have to admit that I liked the snacks a lot more than I was expecting to. The salted popcorn was honestly the best bagged popcorn Adam or I have ever tasted! It was filling, satisfying, and totally delicious. The chips would rate poorly if I compared them to chip-chips, but score a 9/10 as snack crisps. Very few snacks, especially ones that pack less than 200 calories, keep me full enough in the afternoon that I don’t consider gnawing my own arm off on the train, but these did the trick.

I packed crisps and fruit to pair with toasted turkey and cheese cafeteria sandwiches. BBQ chips and a cara cara.

Sea salt and black pepper chips and an Asian pear.

Snack attack. Popcorn and a honey kolsch.

Yogurt bowl with plain Greek, chocolate tahini, sliced snap dragon apple, chia seeds, cinnamon, and sweet and spicy pecans.

I was killing it with dinners this week. Three different veggie-forward, flavor-loaded, 10/10 dishes! When I made fried green onions last week I saved the infused oil and that’s what I used for cooking this week. First, a simple salad to start off the new year.

Oak leaf lettuce, TJ’s Greek-style feta dressing, cucumber, dill, and roasted chickpeas. With hibiscus kombucha on the side.

Next up, spicy cabbage salad with turkey and peanuts from Bon Appétit. I only ever read this magazine on plane rides but this recipe alone would be worth the subscription cost!

I doubled up so that we could get 4 big dinners out of it, and roasted the cabbage so it was less voluminous, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly <– something I rarely do.

Served with cheesey breadsticks, aka pizza dough rolled up with an obscene amount of cheese.

Finally, I tried my hand at shakshuka. Based loosely on the recipes from Serious Eats and My Name is Yeh, my version had red bell peppers, red jalapeño pepper, and serrano pepper.

Served with hunks of sourdough.

I’m excited to do a little more exploring in the kitchen this new year. My meal plan list for the next month or so includes menemen, mapo tofu, kaya jam, okonomiyaki, and chilaquiles!

24Dec2016

‘Twas The Week Before Christmas

by Emily

Technically this should be known as “the week of the sandwich.” I don’t actually have a single picture (I was kind of a disaster this week) but I ate a sandwich for at least one meal, some times two, a day.

I was a bit under the weather so for non-sandwich meals I made a giant batch of chicken soup. Shredded chicken breast / onion, celery, red bell pepper, carrots, evoo, tomato paste / chicken broth / brown rice.

Adam and I shared this winter vanilla stout while we cooked.

I packed so many veggies into my pot that I ended up with more of a stoup, so I topped my bowls with cheese, sour cream, and jalapeños, like I would a chili.

It was also a week of eggnog coffee, of course.

And it’s worth noting that the one day I did pack lunch – yogurt with granola and an apple – this strawberry yogurt and TJ’s coffee can were both excellent.

This post was kind of a disaster, wasn’t it?

A very happy 1st night of Hanukkah for all my readers who celebrate and I hope my readers who celebrate Christmas have a merry, jolly weekend.

12Dec2016

New Orleans Vacation 2016

by Emily

New Orleans was our best travel experience of 2016. We stayed at a cute hotel in the French Quarter and had enough time to really get to know the area. It was a great way to finish up the year.

This was my first trip to Louisiana and I think we managed to pack a lot in. We visited three local breweries, walked around Loyola and Tulane, explored the French Quarter and Bourbon Street, went to the World War II Museum….

We also tasted tons of local (or at least Southern) flavors – pralines, divinity, snowballs, beignets, pimento cheese, etouffe, grits, chicory coffee, milk punch, and hurricanes.

Here were some of our best bites…

♥Pralines. They were everywhere and the smell was amazing.

♥Hurricanes. We went to Pat O’Brien’s (<– yuck!) and Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop.

♥Frozen daiquiris, this one was eggnog!

♥This pecan pie soda was actually horribly disgusting, but it was fun to try!

♥Snowballs. NOLA served me the best snow-cones of my life, I had one every day. This was wedding cake (a blend of vanilla and almond) and egg custard topped with sweetened condensed milk.

♥Breakfast at Café Du Monde. This was a must-stop for us, it was actually the only activity I had planned when I booked our tickets. The beignets did not disappoint and neither did the chicory coffee café au lait (served on crushed ice).

♥Breakfast at District Doughnut. We got a Nutella doughnut and a biscuit with pimento cheese.

Plus yummy Vietnamese coffee and an iced coffee with cola and chocolate milk (<– delicious and infinitely better than it sounds).

♥Brunch at Willa Jean.

I had the shrimp and grits – gulf shrimp, etouffee gravy, grits, and slow poached eggs with cheddar biscuits on the side.

Cookies and milk for dessert. With a beater of dough and vanilla-infused milk.

♥Flights at Abita. <– one of our very favorite breweries They had our old favorites and some fantastic limited edition flavors including vanilla Turbo Dog and a key lime gose. We had beers, Zapps chips, and a root beer on draught and were in absolute heaven.

♥Lunch at Cochon. They had house-made eggnog.

We split a variety of small plates – a roasted carrot special with mint, Louisiana blue crab rice, and whole fried shrimp with pickled mustard seed hot sauce. The fried herbs were aromatic and wonderful and the best bites were a mix of everything at once.

♥Dinner at Brennan’s.

Insanely creamy Caribbean milk punch with Buffalo Trace bourbon, Mt Gay black barrel rum, cream, and vanilla bean.

Ridiculous foie gras “sweet potato casserole,” with sweet potato puree and candied pecans.

I had the cheddar risotto for dinner. With Cherokee Rose cheddar, smoked maitake mushrooms, collard green puree, and a brown butter sauce.

♥Dinner at SHAYA. <– best meal of the trip and also best meal of the year

That’s a halvah cappuccino. I also had a Pearl Diver – vodka, labneh, vanilla, and lavender bitters.

We shared a trio of appetizers – Moroccan carrots with chermoula and mint / baba ganoush with green garlic / tershi = a creamy pumpkin spread with crispy garlic and chili oil. All with fantasmic pita bread and herbed olive oil.

Also foie gras with rose tahini and carob molasses on challah toast (omg).

I had the matzoh ball soup for my entrée. With slowed cooked duck, dill, charred leaks, lemon oil, and a cinnamon-scented broth. Best matzoh balls of my life! Adam had slow cooked lamb and the bites I stole were truly the best thing I’ve ever tasted (fyi I don’t typically eat mammals but I’ll have a taste occasionally if I know the meat is humanely-sourced and Adam says the flavor is worth it).

Dessert(s). We basically rolled away from the table! Chocolate babka with halva ice cream and labneh cheese cake with burnt honey ice cream.

It was a wonderful trip!

P.S. No post coming from this weekend, it was the husband’s birthday and I was in celebration-mode versus blogger-mode. And now we’re both back at work.. womp wah. Have a great week!

4Dec2016

Vacation Part 1/3

by Emily

We’re on vacation! Friday through next Sunday Adam and I have 10 glorious days off together!! We’re spending time in New Orleans and next weekend we’re doing a staycation in the city.

You can tell we’re in vacation-mode because we ate 90% of our meals out of the house and with drinks and dessert and have been purchasing all of the coffees.

Espresso at Variety.

New Orleans cold brew at Blue Bottle.

Espresso at Mixtape.

Iced coffee and a chocolate croissant at L’imprimerie.

Drinking chocolate at Devocion.

Dinner at Sally Roots. Booze face.

I got jerk chicken ramen! Chicken broth, yummy jerk chicken, noodles, fish cakes, bamboo, spinach, and wood ear mushroom.

We did dessert at Guadalupe Inn. Drinks with meh chocolate tres leche cakes and churros stuffed with fabulous goat milk caramel.

Best brunch of the year at Rider. Safe Word of the Day and Covet Thy Neighbor’s Drink.

The Cure = crispy rice and lentil cakes, duck confit, cilantro, hoisin, sriracha, and poached egg. Adam had lox and fries, a combo you didn’t know how much you needed.

Dessert at Odd Fellows. Crème brulee and banofee ice creams with brown butter cake crumbs on top.

Pretty damn good brunch at Forrest Point. This drink was named “Fancy Pants,” Flor de Cana, Wild Turkey, Pedro Ximenez sherry, pineapple, lemon, Lapsang Souchong, star anise, cinnamon, and demerara sugar!

Chilaquiles!

Skillet s’mores with Fernet.

I did manage to make some dinners at home – chicken enchilada casserole. I loosely followed this recipe from Jo Cooks, with brown rice and the addition of green chilis. With roasted zucchini on the side and chips for dipping.

Other things that are making me happy… this assortment of cola-flavored goodies. The gum was great the seltzer was too plain.

We found (freshly made) coquito at a bar in Bushwick! It tastes like coconut eggnog and joy.

The Body Shop sent me this sweet holiday gift. Fantastic eyeshadow and delightful smelling things. FYI – they are offering a bunch of gift sets that will contribute to rainforest conservation, I recommend everything strawberry.

Happiest thing of all? I’m on vacation!

11Nov2016

Stick To Your Ribs Dinners

by Emily

Thank you, to all those who have served.

The weather is starting to cool down a bit more – I can no longer comfortably wear my sandals* – and our dinner choices have shifted towards steamy, stick to your ribs meals. *Note – I’m still wearing the sandals, I’m just not comfortable any more.

This was also election week and it’s safe to say that I ate my feelings in the form of booze, caffeine, and sugar. I am a woman, but I’m also cis/straight, white, sans disability or preexisting health conditions, and unlikely to get an abortion, so I know my feelings of disillusionment and heartbreak really pale in comparison to many others’.

On a happy note, here were some of the yummy things I ate this week…

This week’s coffee blend was soooo roasty and good.

I doubled up with train coffee and post-train coffee a few days, but I’ll note that this quad was enjoyed on a day I skipped the 1st coffee.

Starbuck’s holiday spiced sweet cream cold brew is good! It tasted like good tidings and cheer!

Did KIND bar read my blog? Limited edition caramel apple pumpkin spice is right up my alley. With a sweet Ambrosia apple.

I also love LARA’s hazelnut, hemp, cacao option. The crunchy nibs are great.

I was too busy at work for lunch one day and ate this turkey and stuffing sandwich on the way home in literally less than 3 minutes.

Plain Siggi’s with chocolate tahini and grapes with pumpernickel pretzels on the side. Yes, I put the grapes in the yogurt.

Elderflower yogurt (very floral) with persimmons and pumpkin spice Cheerios.

Strawberry cottage cheese plus grapes and pumpkin spice pepitas and granola. I didn’t enjoy this seltzer as much as I expected to.

Stress eating candies of choice –

Leftover turkey bolognaise that continued to knock our socks off. Thanks to turkey bacon, mirepoix, and 2+ hours on the stove, this sauce was packed with flavor.

With ~~wine~~ kombucha. Blueberry Mint was sweet and drinkable.

Leftover black eyed pea cakes. Topped with cheddar, fire-roasted corn, salsa, and a sunny side up egg with smoked paprika.

We’ve loved this chili from Iowa Girl Eats for years. This year I stepped it up a bit with lemon-pepper chicken, carrots and celery added to the base, and an additional hour of cooking time to concentrate the tomato before I added the beans.

Pumpkin beers to keep me company while I cooked. <– Adam and I both thought these two were some of the best of the season.

I topped my bowls with shredded cheese, pickled jalapeño, and plain Greek yogurt. Plus cucumber slices and Trader Joe’s pumpkin soup crackers on the side.

Chili, meat sauce, baked potatoes… what’s your favorite hearty, stick to your ribs food for winter?

11Oct2016

Best Of The Weekend

by Emily

Best coffee – The Voodoo Child at Sweetleaf.

Iced (super strong) coffee concentrate with condensed milk and housemade sweet cream.

Best new restaurant – Butler Bake Shop and Espresso Bar.

The infinitely Instagramable new Williamsburg coffee spot boasts a Michelin-starred pastry chef.

We got a caramel sea salt cookie next to an Intelligentsia Americano.

Best beer – Wick for Brains was a great first pumpkin sip of the season.

Enjoyed at Barcade while Adam and I teamed up to kick butt at the seasonally appropriate Golly Ghost game.

Best dessert – scoops from OddFellows‘ new “Passport Program.” October’s flavor inspiration is Asia.

We tried Thai Iced Tea and Ube with miso butterscotch.

Best dinner – a Jewish-Japanese feast at Shalom Japan.

Forget best dinner of the weekend, this was one of the best meals of the year!

We shared three different appetizers because we couldn’t narrow down our choices any more. Roasted cauliflower with anchovy and pickled raisins.

Tuna belly toasts that were the best bites of the night.

And Sake Kasu challah with raisin butter.

For dinner I ordered the dish that got us in the door – Matzoh ball ramen topped with a foie gras dumpling and soft-boiled egg. The ramen was 10/10 fantastic and the matzoh ball ended up being the best I’ve ever eaten.

Dessert was chocolate banana challah bread pudding with crème fraiche and whiskey caramel.

The service was almost as good as the food, which was so good I swear we would have ordered another round of every dish if we hadn’t been so full!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: soup

The End Of The First Month Of The New Year

Long Weekend Top Five

Hello, 2017!

‘Twas The Week Before Christmas

New Orleans Vacation 2016

Vacation Part 1/3

Stick To Your Ribs Dinners

Best Of The Weekend