This weekend I: worked both days // celebrated Rex Manning Day by watching Empire Records and eating pizza and brownies // celebrated Easter by infusing vodka with Peeps marshmallows and eating my weight in sugar.
Highlights included…
Tapatio pickles. These were nice and firm and spicier than I was expecting.
Peeps vodka with pink Ting. <— a perfect combination!
Triple chocolate brownies. The Bakers chocolate recipe (halved) with the addition of espresso powder, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips.
Nougat candies that my parents made at home!
Noosa lemon bar frozen yogurt is a 10/10 for Spring.
Turkey laab (we love this recipe) with sauteed bok choy and fennel with ginger and green onions.
Passionfruit Coffee. This was a quad skim iced latte with caramelized milk chocolate sauce.
We are head over heels for these Nightingale ice cream sandwiches. Adam is a traditionalist but this cinnamon roll variety is my favorite.
We went to Food Bazaar recently (home of Rokstar Chicken) and brought home some great snacks. This weekend I enjoyed key lime grapefruit Polar seltzer,
honey butter chips,
Jom gummy candy,
and spicy beef ramen.
We waited in line two and a half hours for Cuts and Slices pizza — worth it! We got chopped cheese, chicken and wafles, jerk chicken, and stewed oxtail.
Leftovers from a wonderful lunch at Mao Mao (I didn’t have my camera). Fried fish cakes with sweet chili sauce / steamed dumplings with chicken, shrimp, and mushroom / vegetarian rice rolls. We also had great poached chicken with chicken fat rice.
Roasted sheetpan hash. Fennel, bok choy, purple sweet potato, chicken pesto sausage, soy puffs, mint, and pesto.
Things from this week… My dinners were all topnotch.
Reminder for myself – I did not care for the churro version of these vegan crisps at all.
I did quite enjoy this Mango Chili Truly; it was a bit salty in a very satisfying way.
Fully paired these two IPAs because they both had laser in their name. We preferred the Goose Island.
Insane loaded veggie nachos. Homemade baked toritlla chips with lime and togarashi / nacho cheese sauce / Trader Joe’s vegan soy chorizo / roasted sweet onion, bell pepper, and poblano pepper / roasted zucchini / fresh tomato and tomatillo.
Take-out birria quesadilla with leftover veggies plus green beans.
Broccoli and cheese potatoes. Baked potatoes with soyrizo, cheese sauce, turkey bacon, and roasted broccoli.
Burritos! I stuffed mine with double roasted tomato salsa (two thumbs up!), pickled jalopenos, cheddar, soyrizo, sweet potato tots, and scrambled eggs and topped it with crispy extra-sharp cheddar cheese. Pro tip – I actually used the cheese blanket to seal my wrapped edge and it worked great. Plus roasted cauliflower with taco seasoning.
Key lime skyr with passionfruit, banana, and chia seeds; plus granola halfway through.
These guava crackers were weird in a wonderful way; super thin and crispy and a bit sweet.
Fun drinks – tasty spiced hibiscus bissap tea and soursop nectar.
I enjoyed my soursop in a margarita!
See also – rum and coke slushies. Frozen coke ice cubes blended with Cruzan rum and fresh lime.
We made some really great dinners, all of which received a healthy dousing of hot sauces. I stuck with these three for a Caribbean theme.
Coconut rice and beans – brown rice cooked with coconut milk, dark kidney beans, onion, ginger, habanero, and spices / curried fish cakes – canned tuna and salmon with egg, panko, mayo, and Jamaican curry powder / rainbow chard and celery sauteed with some fish sauce and rice vinegar.
Sauteed zoodles with pineapple pulled chicken (a loose take on this recipe).
Roasted kabucha squash with a very loose take on callaloo – frozen kale with coconut milk, onion, garlic, ginger, habanero, turkey, bacon, fresh crab, and spices.
Turkey chili with white beans, bell peppers, and poblano peppers. I cooked the ground turkey with toasted rice powder and fish sauce and this came out great. I topped my bowl with plain Greek yogurt, pickled jalopenos, and tons of hot sauce and sharp cheddar.
We have been killing it with dinners lately, this was another exceptionally tasty week! Highlights included…
This Cuban coffee packet made pretty solid cups.
But this Blue Bottle cold brew was better.
Feast x Famine IPA. Abomination Brewing is 100% my favorite beer company at the moment.
Double meat sandwich. Local Brooklyn Cured smoked beef salami and Apple Gate Farms honey and maple sliced turkey on a pretzel bun with mayo, yellow mustard, and sourkraut. Plus roasted broccoli.
Another pretzel bun, this time with brie and shredded chicken breast tossed in a homemade honey mustard vinaigrette. Plus a big pile of roasted green beans.
Veggie tofu bowls. Roasted Japanese sweet potato and purple sweet potato, orange cauliflower, broccoli, and green onion, with five spice tofu roll, topped with chili crisp.
We made insane cheese plates for dinner. Obviously the best meal of the week! Tofu roll with chili crisp, seasoned seaweed sheets, blueberry jam, Candy Snap grapes, Hunnyz apple, salami, smoked almonds, sweet and spicy pecans, sweet red grassfed cheddar, brie, raw cow’s milk cheese with edible flowers, blue cheese, and amazing sourdough crackers.
Plus green smoothies to get our veggie in – frozen spinach, mango, and banana, with honey, key lime juice, and water.
An eclectic but wonderful line up of things from the past week…
Late July street corn seasoned tortilla chips. Good but not great, I would buy them again but definitely wouldn’t eat them with salsa.
I am glad I bought these mini bottles of insanely flavored whiskeys from Skatter Brain because the resulting cocktails were perfect. Sidenote – I learned while writing this post that that is how you pluralize whiskey.
Birthday Cake Shake – Vanilla cake whiskey vigorously shaken with amaretto, fresh orange juice, sugar, and an egg white.
P.S. I used my egg yolk to make a fantastic mug brownie. I topped it with Ben & Jerry’s newest flavor (vanilla ice cream with salted caramel, graham cracker swirl, and cookie dough) and swooned.
Peanut Butter and Jellies – Peanut butter whiskey (plus a bit of vodka for balance) with blueberry jam, Luxardo cherry, and strawberry seltzer.
Related – I love passionfruit and this Truly hard seltzer was just great.
Roast take-out sandwich (bbq brisket with onion rings and jalopeno slaw on a pretzel roll!!) with a mountain of roasted green beans.
Spicy salmon sushi bake that we adored. With leftover brown rice and a blend of canned and hot smoked salmon. Plus a cucumber salad.
Best meal of the week – Trader Joe’s Thai Vegetable Gyoza (yum!) / sauteed bok choy / homemade turkey meatballs with panade, hoisin, and gojuchang / homemade Sriracha mayo and dumpling sauce (yum!).
And an egg burrito with extra veggies. This was only ok (who puts carrots on a burrito? And it needed way more hot sauce) but Adam’s egg and cheese sandwich was a work of art.
Cookie x cookie coffee wins. I 11/10 loved the Stew Leonard’s cookie dough flavored coffee and also enjoyed the Califa cookie butter almond milk creamer far more than I was expecting to.
Sliced Hunnyz apple (a new favorite) with honey, cinnamon, and chunky peanut butter.
Yogurt bowl with plain skry, vanilla bean paste, honey, persimmon, passionfruit, chia seeds, and vanilla almond granola.
See also, plain skyr with cinnamon, blueberry jam, persimmon, Mineola tangerine, and granola.
We spent an obscene amount of money on Taco Bell delivery for dinner one night so I tried to bring balance back to the Force with a green juice. Lol, unfortunately I grabbed the wrong bottle because this ended up basically being lemonade with aloe and chlorophyll.
We liked these Zapp’s honey mustard pretzels a lot. Not as much as Dot’s but more than their voodoo variety which ended up being too seasoned for us. Also, I use the adjective “jazzy” at least four times a week so clearly I had to buy these.
We loved these Trader Joe’s lentil and chickpea crisps. Great texture.
These Ben & Jerry’s s’mores cookie dough bites are my favorite thing I’ve ever eaten. I love everything about them but the truffles specifically are mind-blowing.
Leftover jalopeno cheddar hushpupies from Sweet Chick with honey and leftover crab dip.
The Burrito Blvd near our apartment has the best toppings; this rice bowl was 40% rice and 60% chopped zuchinni (my ideal burrito bowl ratio). Also chicken, corn, tomato, cheese, and mild salsa.
Homemade laab. I followed this recipe. We quite enjoyed it and were not sad to have sourced toasted rice powder. Plus sauted bok choy with ginger and sesame seeds.
Spicy, tomato-y chickpea bowls. I sauteed graffiti eggplant and sweet onion with fire-roasted diced tomatoes, harissa, and chickpeas. Topped with plain yogurt and fresh mint.
Homemade cashew chicken. I followed this recipe except that I swapped breasts for thighs and added red bell pepper. With brown basmatti rice and roasted broccoli.
P.S. We have exciting dinner reservations tonight for Omakase at Koyo. I’m not bringing my camera but from what I can tell online everything should be gorgeous (and delicious!).
Eating Chalk 