1st Week Of Pumpkin Month

by Emily

It’s Pumpkin Month! Check out this year’s stash –

Here is some of the gourdy goodness I’ve eaten so far…

Pumpkin milk iced coffee.

Chobani pumpkin with maple Cheerios.

Trader Joe’s pumpkin yogurt with Justin’s maple cashew butter, plus a rave apple and a chocolate chip cookie.

Other tasty things from the past week include…

Duck confit hash from Farm Bell Kitchen.

Mexican candy with guava paste and dulce de leche.

Grapefruit yogurt drink with mango jelly and popping grape boba.

Vietnamese caramel chicken with jasmine rice and sauteed bok choy and shredded carrot.

Shrimp fried rice, cooked on a sheet pan. <– this is such a fantastic idea! We will definitely use this method again

Spinach and artichoke chicken (similar to this recipe) with roasted cauliflower.

1Oct2018

Engaging Eats

by Emily

It was an exciting weekend, two of our favorite people came to visit us – and got engaged while they were here! We loved being a part of their special day, and also enjoyed a winery tour, stumbling into the Tom Tom Festival, and staying up far too late. I mostly took photos of people, but here were five highlights of what I ate…

{1} Coffee from Sweethaus. Quad / nonfat / iced / latte / with vanilla and mint.

{2} Brunch at Junction. I had the Huevos Rancheros – crispy corn tortillas topped with refried beans, cotija cheese, fresh avocado, salsa, and 2 fried local eggs. Plus the Jungle Cat – Vida Mezcal, Campari, pineapple, lime, and Caribbean jerk spiced cane syrup.

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{3} Lunch at Smoked in Crozet. We could not believe how good this place was! I had smoked turkey, fried chicken, cole slaw, and smoked jalopeno creamed corn. The cream corn was my favorite side dish of all time!

{4} I did not take a picture, but I still have to mention how delicious the fried chicken sandwich at The Fitzroy is. 3/4 of us ordered it for dinner and all of us basically swooned over it.

{5} It was a coworker’s birthday this weekend so I am bringing in the best ever chocolate chip cookies and I ate copious amounts of dough as I worked.

I am looking forward to eating a baked cookie with lunch today!

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28Sep2018

Flavors Of Fall

by Emily

Next week is the start of Pumpkin Month!! But first, here’s a collection of “fall flavored” things –

The maple Mars bar was a disappointment. (Mom, sorry, it came as part of a Snack Crate, I cannot get you one).

But the pecan pie granola was a delight, especially paired with a Trader Joe’s caramel apple Greek yogurt!

More apple goodness, this Rave variety was crispy and sweet.

And in other packaged goods new, I obsessively searched for this Oreo coffee creamer for the past 2 months before I finally got my hands on it. <– worth it

Pimento cheese and crackers at Grit.

I put leftover bbq chicken on a yummy salad. With butter lettuce, honey mustard dressing, cashews, and cucumber.

This frozen meal from Trader Joe’s remains the best chile relleno of my life.

My in-laws were in town a few days this week and we had a great time seeing them. Including a trip to Asian buffet. I had really tasty seaweed salad and the best egg tart I’ve ever eaten. Here were my fist and last plates (with several in between!).

24Sep2018

Frozen And Frothed

by Emily

Top five from the weekend…

{1} A variety of fancied coffees.

This combo is still rocking my socks off.

I made a frozen coffee at home in the blender.

And had a much more successful frozen granita at the farmer’s market.

Plus a latte from Snowing in Space with nitro draft espresso!

{2} A birthday cake pop-tart from Wonderment.

{3} Cupcakes and coffee at Sweethaus.

I had a quad iced latte and a cookies and cream cupcake with Oreo pieces baked inside it.

{4} Best brunch in Virginia at Junction.

I had chicken and waffles with habenero maple syrup.

Plus we want to go back and try every cocktail on the menu! The Paloma was out of this world – blanco tequila, Aperol, salted grapefruit cordial, lime.

{5} We made fantastic bbq chicken sandwiches. Chicken roasted with paprika (cooked like this) then brushed with bbq sauce (Stubbs but mixed with butter, honey, and Sriracha) served on a bun with smoked cheddar and Kewpie mayo. Plus roasted green beans.

Have a great week!

21Sep2018

Yum Yums And Cheer

by Emily

I had some real flops in the dinner department this week, and I don’t photograph my work lunches, so most of what I have to share in this post is dessert!

I tried chocolate oat milk in my iced coffee and I didn’t totally hate it.

Wegman’s coffee counter shopping treat, salted caramel cold foam iced latte. Cold foam gets two thumbs up from me, I would get it again on an unflavored latte.

The cookie butter flavor at Red Mango is hands down the best frozen yogurt I’ve ever tasted! Topped with mochi and butterscotch chips.

Homemade tahini cookies stuffed with m&ms. A riff on this recipe because No. 2 Pencil’s cookie recipes are all genius.

Chipotle salads are my favorite restaurant meal at the moment and I’m not even ashamed about it. My perfect combo = greens, chicken, extra fajita veggies, corn salsa, hot salsa, sour cream, and cheese. Eaten at home with a super tasty Dogfish Head Dragon and Yum Yums beer.

This salad was a homemade dinner success! Sauteed broccoli slaw / shredded chicken breast / toasted almond slivers / a food processed sauce of cilantro, parsley, orange juice, lime juice, evoo, honey, and rice vinegar.

17Sep2018

Butters, Brussels, And Broccoli

by Emily

The five best things I ate this weekend were…

The best cup of coffee I’ve ever made myself (and I drank it hot!!). A blend of Trader Joe’s French roast and Brooklyn Roasting Company’s Costa Rican with sweetened condensed milk, topped with vanilla bean powder.

Chocolate peanut butter Shreds cereal. Eaten dry out of the box. They are basically addictive.

Cocoa swirl cookie butter. Also eaten straight out of the container. Can you tell that Adam was out of town this weekend?? 🙂

A meal so nice I made it twice. Roasted brussel sprouts and TJ’s scallion pancakes drizzled in Sriracha and Kewpie mayo.

A quickie version of Oyakodon served with roasted broccoli. I skipped the broth and the sake and took a shortcut with a fried chicken cutlet from the freezer aisle.

10Sep2018

New York, New York

by Emily

Adam and I drove to New York for a fantastic weekend visit!

We did tons of city walking punctuated by coffees and ice creams // Brunched with friends at Vinegar Hill House // Tried a new place for dinner on Saturday that was just terrible and ended up having the best night ever getting a variety of things from DeKalb Market and eating in bed in front of Chopped // Bought coffee and halvah to bring home to Charlottesville…

Also, I didn’t snap a picture, but we shared a a baklava croissant from Cafe D’Avignon that was the best thing I ate the whole ~~trip~~ month!

Here were five highlights…

{1} Maple Shay from Brooklyn Roasting Co. Espresso (four shots for me!) with ice, milk, and maple syrup.

{2} An iced latte from Terremoto, with housemade rose syrup.

{3} Drinks from Ramona in Greenpoint. We had a frozen mango Thai iced tea with coconut whipped cream and “The Harpooned Heart” – vodka, coconut, almond, vanilla, mint, lime, pineapple, and peppercorn bitters.

{4} Big Gay Ice Cream. I got vanilla soft serve, in a cone lined with Biscoff, topped with dulce de leche, and coated in sprinkles. It was out of this world. The sprinkles were the best part, the best I’ve ever tasted.

{5} The Little Mule combo from Chef’s Club Counter. It was white american cheese, cotija cheese, pickled jalopenos, fried egg, and chipotle mayo. Served on an Impossible Burger. We kind of swooned over it.

3Sep2018

Salty Dog

by Emily

Highlights from the weekend…

A milkshake loaded with doughnut and sprinkles.

It’s apple month now!

I had an exciting apples and honey road trip snack – honey energy drink and crispy -freeze-dried apples – while we drove up to my aunt and uncle’s cabin in Solomons Island, Maryland.