26 Hours In DC

by Emily

This past weekend we took a quick trip to our nation’s capitol. It was a whirlwind in-and-out visit but I did have time for two museums, three monuments, and an epic dinner. Adam had a surgical quality improvement conference on Sunday and I tagged along to spend the day with a girlfriend who lives in the city.

We spent practically as much time in the car as we did awake in DC. Here were the healthier car snacks –

On the less healthy side, I also had potatoes in multiple forms.

We stayed at the hotel where the conference was being held, much fancier than we’re used to.

There was a lobby atrium (which our inner room looked out over) and trail mix bar.

We got in pretty late in the afternoon on Saturday, but had enough time for a visit to the Renwick Gallery.

Then we took a long walk around the river basin, and up to the Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson Memorials.

The timing worked perfectly so that we could catch the reflecting pool near sunset and it was stunning.

That night we met up with friends for dinner. Returning to Tail Up Goat was our number one priority for this trip. They recently earned a Michelin star! The food was as fabulous as we remembered. I got an itsy bit drunk so I’m not great on details, but once again we tasted more than half the menu.

My cocktail with vodka and apricot was lovely.

Red grit sourdough topped with sumac onions, candied black olive, and bottarga (salted cured fish roe).

The crispy salt cod balls – no photo – were Adam’s favorite dish. We also split a cheese plate with cocoa nibs and orange and Campari jam. I’m pretty sure I never want to eat gouda sans nibs again, their crunch and sweetness was genius with the cheese.

For my entrée I did roasted eggplant with red onion, za’atar, hazelnuts, and burnt bread sauce. Guys, that bread sauce is no joke, especially with the creaminess of the eggplant.

Cannoli with lemon curd, candied pistachios, blood orange marmalade for dessert.

We also swooned like crazy over the pistachio roll (like a cinnamon pecan roll) with labneh gelato and fennel honey. 10/10.

Sunday morning I slept in and took advantage of hotel room cable. Adam had a busy day of learning and I had a fantastic afternoon walking around with my girlfriend. I had several iced lattes and we had beers and bar snacks on a patio in the sun.

The weather was crazy all weekend, I planned for layers when I packed but ended up shedding everything I could because even my thin scarf was too hot!

We settled in the AC at Ted’s Bulletin.

They had turkey reubens.

And amazing Old Bay Bloody Marys.

Before I knew it I was back with the husband and back on the road.

Vacations are great but coming home is the best – there was a dog on my lap while I wrote this post. ❤

15Oct2016

Last Week’s Top Five

by Emily

Last week was extra-stressful at work so I don’t have much to share on the food front, I ate a Starbucks sandwich for dinner two nights in a row! And I relied on hummus and fries for lunch because I didn’t pack a single yogurt bowl. Adam and I have fun plans this weekend and hopefully the downtime will help gear me up to get my act together next week.

Here were the culinary high points…

{1} Pumpkin sausage pizza.

TJ’s crust / pumpkin puree with ginger / mozzarella / sliced TJ’s turkey summer sausage / fresh sage.

{2} Pumpkin spice gum from Project 7.

I bought it because I’m a crazy person, but didn’t actually expect it to be good. It’s delicious (confirmed by Adam and a coworker).

{3} Fall flavored Ralph’s cream ice.

Caramel apple and pumpkin pie!

{4} A friend and I met for dinner at Luke’s and had lobster grilled cheeses.

Good, but my drink was better – Downeast pumpkin cider.

{5} Cheesy veggie eggs.

Scrambled with turkey sausage, chopped spinach, sautéed mushrooms and green onion, and mozzarella cheese.

19Aug2016

Time Crunch

by Emily

Remember when I said seven days of work in a row wouldn’t be too bad? I’m old now. I am tired. I don’t have a ton to share because 2/4 dinners this week were Chipotle. And I only cooked one of the two non-Chipotle nights, the other we walked the dog to get milkshakes and then I got into bed the minute we got home at 7:30, fully dressed.

Coffee, obviously. Starbucks pro tip – order the cold brew “with room, no water” so you can ensure it doesn’t get too diluted behind the counter. I put milk in my coffee anyway so I’d rather temper the concentrate strength myself.

With almonds.

I’m still dying over the Grady’s Cold Brew with fat-free half & half and milk.

My lunches this week were centered around a generous box of freeze-dried fruits samples from Crunchies. The products are vegan, gluten-free, and kosher, and they contain no added sugars or flavorings, just fruits that have undergone a low-pressure drying process. Bonus – Crunchies sources the fruits directly from the farmers who grow them.

the free products were my only compensation for this post, all my own opinions, blah blah

We buy a lot of freeze-dried fruit because Adam often packs it for work so we were excited to try some new options.

Lows – raspberry. Too seedy and sour/bitter. To be fair, I don’t like any of the freeze-dried raspberries I’ve tried and I don’t love fresh raspberries.

High – everything else! These were the best freeze-dried fruits we’ve tasted. The strawberries weren’t too sweet or sour – no mouth pucker, the banana flavor was super strong, the grapes were sweet and a bit chewy, as were the pineapples. 10/10.

I enjoyed the fruits in yogurt bowls for lunch (I took half the bag and Adam took the other half with him). Plain Siggi’s, strawberry banana, Nonni’s dark chocolate banana.

0% Fage, raspberries, pom seeds, maple peanut butter.

Vanilla yogurt, grapes, pom seeds.

2% Fage, pineapple, coconut butter.

And here’s my only dinner photo, turkey and eggs.

Ground turkey sautéed with celery, evoo, tomato paste, Sriracha, brown sugar, and fish sauce. Topped with soft scrambled eggs. I made Adam a similar but less spicy dish for breakfast when he got home from work and he loved it.

Now I have a three-day weekend!

15Aug2016

Working Weekend Wrap-Up

by Emily

No traditional weekend for me, my only day off was Thursday. I’m actually working straight through this Thursday – 7 days in a row – which means next weekend will be a three-day extravaganza! It’s hard to complain about 7 days anyway, my last year at Buff State when I was doing school/internship/part-time job there were a few stretches where I went 30 days plus without a true day off.

The past 4 days in numbers –

glasses of iced coffee – 7
packed lunches – 0
product reviews* – 2
desserts – 10 billion
books read start to finish** – 1

notes: *the products were both sent to me free of charge and neither company gave me additional compensation for this post; **the book was a murder mystery that I actually hated but needed to know the ending to

Here are the highlights…

Key lime cookie from Schmackary’s.

With white chocolate, pistachios, and cream cheese icing. The middle is the best part.

Three new dark chocolate flavors of Nonni’s Almond THINaddictives* – Dark Chocolate Banana Almond, Dark Chocolate Cherry Almond, and Double Dark Chocolate Almond. FYI – hit up their Facebook page for a new flavors giveaway.

They are 70-80 calories per pack (2 thins) and crisp but not too crumbly. I though the double chocolate flavor was a bit plain but the cherry and banana had great notes of tart and sweet. This week I paired them with my coffee but I’m also looking forward to crumbling them into yogurts.

That combo is killer, Grady’s is thick and sweet and it makes my heart sing.

Traditional breakfast.

Potatoes, scrambled eggs, and (turkey) bacon. Covered in ketchup because I grew up in St. Thomas and we put ketchup on everything. <– real talk, I didn’t know that ketchup wasn’t an automatic pairing for chicken wings until I went to college; now I mostly use other condiments but scrambled eggs always get ketchup

The cafeteria is pretty grim over the weekend but Friday I did eat this seafood feast.

Fried shrimp, potato wedges, and vinegar-based cole slaw. We had leftover ice cream from our birthday party and I taught my coworkers about Australian iced coffees.

They loved it!

Since I didn’t have my yogurt lunches I got my probiotics in the form of Health-Ade Kombucha*.

Their small-batch (2.5 gallons) fizz is organic, vegan, kosher, and gluten-free. They do their fermenting in glass containers only and the bottles are fantastic and just begging to house a handful of wildflowers. Health-Ade generously sent me a case of Ginger Lemon.

I have to confess here that I actually kind of hate ginger. Nonetheless, I found the kombucha to be very enjoyable. The flavor behind the spice was very “clean” and just sweet enough. I still wouldn’t buy this flavor once I finish my samples but I will damn sure scoop up Pink Lady Apple or California Grape the minute I spot them. P.S. I brought a bottle to a ginger loving friend and she said it was hands down the best kombucha she’s ever tasted.

Date night in Hell’s Kitchen. My NCIS obsession finally paid off for Adam – I took us to Donna Bella Bake Shop because it’s co-owned by Pauley Perrette (aka lab tech Abby). We had a dreamy lemon bar and this delectable brownie with a cookie crust and ganache on top.

We walked past Room Service and decided to do Thai for dinner.

That guava mojito was terrible and weak. But the crispy duck salad wasn’t half bad.

I ordered the Pad Noh Mai for dinner, shrimps, minced chicken, fresh basils, Thai chili, and bamboo shoots with herbs chili paste garlic sauce.

The menu promised spice and it delivered. I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant though, Hell’s Kitchen is a bastion of excellent, authentic Thai restaurants and you can do better.

I cooked! A real dinner, a stew, made of vegetables no less. I put the crock pot to work for me, filled to its brim. Onion / garlic / carrot / kale / red bell pepper / white beans / red lentils / diced tomato / veggie broth.

I didn’t bother to season or brown anything so the end result was a little bland, but topped with melted cheese it was hearty and satisfying.

Three down, four to go.

11Aug2016

Food To Stay

by Emily

I’m posting a day early because my week ends a day early – I’m off today and then working through the weekend. Unfortunately at 6:30 am I am already behind on my long to-do list, so I’ll try to keep this post short.

Highlights from this week…

Cafeteria sandwich day. A wrap with turkey, cheddar, and veggies.

Plus fries.

Coworker potluck lunch to celebrate the three of us with summer birthdays.

My plate had sweet Filipino spaghetti with tofu, rice pilaf with dried fruit, and homemade falafel. We also had 1 million +1 desserts.

Yogurt bowl with vanilla Siggi’s, chopped plum and nectarine, and maple peanut butter.

The peanut butter is fantastic, we’ve been eating a lot of toast.

Usually paired with these sugar crunch grapes.

A final snack highlight was these dill almonds.

I just tossed almonds, evoo, a pinch of salt, and several shakes of dried dill in a skillet until they were toasty.

Chipotle. We may have eaten Chipotle 2 out of 3 days this week.

I’m not exactly winning at dinnertime meal prep motivation lately.

I did make this yummy tossed-together dinner though.

Leftover pasta with TJ’s turkey summer sausage, peas, red bell pepper, and sharp cheddar.

You guys know that I don’t often do beauty product reviews on the blog, but this pitch was sent the week I turned 31 and I was feeling vulnerable.

I’m so glad I accepted because I ended up being impressed with the ToGoSpa products. Rather than creams or gels – which, let’s be real, I’m too lazy to deal with – their active ingredients are packed in collagen gel pads you stick on your face. P.S. they are paraben and dye free.

I was afraid to smile when I took my selfies (see the horror show below) but I soon realized that the EYES pads actually stay put really well, I spent the 15 minutes with them on my face working around the house and they didn’t budge. Bonus – the wording on the packing made me smile: “for best results, take them out of the package and put them on your face!”

per usual, I was not provided further compensation for this post and all opinions are my own

I’ve tried the Ice Water and Green Tea ones so far, because I definitely sport dark circles thanks to my NCIS obsession. True fact – it is really, really hard to take a flattering picture sans makeup, on a camera (so no front-facing option), and afraid to smile.

You get the idea. I can’t say that my face looked markedly different but the area under my eyes certainly felt much nicer. I definitely plan on continuing to use the treatments.

29Jul2016

Weekly Wrap Up

by Emily

2 product samples* + 1 cookie obsession + 1 deconstructed sandwich + 1 dinner out = this week’s top five.

*please note – the FiberOne bars and Divella pasta were sent to me free of charge to review on the blog. I was not provided further compensation for this post and all opinions are my own.

{1} I’ve enjoyed FiberOne’s cheesecake bar line in the past and they reached out and offered to send me their two newest flavors, yes please.

Chocolate Cheesecake felt appropriate with this coffee combo –

Key Lime Cheesecake went perfectly crumbled into a yogurt bowl with some fresh blueberries.

I enjoyed both of the new flavors a lot, but I will say that neither of them reaches the yumminess of the salted caramel bar.

{2} Loving the David Lebowitz chocolate chip cookies.

I made this batch a week ago and we are still obsessed with them.

{3} Divella’s Fusilloni is made using a bronze press which creates a porous exterior so the small grooves in each piece hold onto sauce extra well. The company sent me some pasta and sauce so I could try a simple recipe for myself.

Tomato Basil Fusilloni

1 package Divella Fusilloni pasta

1 can Divella tomato basil sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 garlic cloves, chopped

6 basil leaves, chopped

¼ cup Pecorino Romano cheese (optional)

Bring two quarts of water to a rolling boil, adding a handful of salt just before the water begins to boil. In a separate sauce pan heat olive oil. Add garlic and sauté for 2 minutes, then add tomato sauce and lower to a simmer for 3 minutes. Empty pasta into water and boil for 10 minutes until al dente, drain. Mix sauce with Fusilloni. After plating, top with Pecorino Romano cheese and chopped basil as desired.

The simple recipe was a little plain for us, but the Fusilloni was the best freaking pasta we’ve ever tasted. Adam and I were both eating it plain out of the strainer by the handful! The texture was wonderful, with the perfect amount of bite.

Served with simple side salads.

Ranch, carrots, pistachio.

{4} Deconstructed turkey reuben bowls, because if I like a food I have to eat it in every possible iteration (see also – macaroni and cheese, burgers, and casserole).

This version was quick and easy. Shredded turkey breast from the crock pot – cooked with evoo, s&p, and some potatoes and carrots, shredded cabbage sautéed in the turkey drippings, chopped dill pickle, cubes of swiss cheese, and caraway seeds.

I tossed everything together in a skillet and we were eating 15 minutes later, crock pot meals are great.

{5} Dinner at Baoburg knocked our socks off.

My Ping Pong Show had mixed juice, whiskey, lillet, grapefruit bitters, and nutmeg.

We started with fantastic crispy duck salad. Shredded duck confit, green apple, red onion, mint, scallion, and cashews, in a spicy lime dressing.

And I did more duck for dinner, in ramen with bok choy and black truffle broth.

Duck, duck, good!

28Jul2016

Birthday Staycation

by Emily

I’m running late posting but my birthday weekend was absolutely worth sharing. My parents were visiting, we spent time with one of my oldest childhood friends which feels very appropriate for a birthday, I had four days off of work (and Adam was free a bit too!), and we spent our days walking and eating.

I love when people visit because showing them around lets you take a vacation in your own town. Alphabetically, some of our stops included – Brookfield Place, Bushwick, Chelsea, Chelsea Piers, Greenwich Village, the Highline, the Mayorville petting zoo, Montauk, the Narrows botanical garden, Park Slope, Smorgasburg, and Williamsburg.

Here were the food highlights…

Terremoto Coffee.

Winter rose latte in a complimentary cup.

Bluestone Lane.

My Australian iced latte – with cocoa powder and ice cream – was deeply enjoyed as the days were hot, hot hot.

Corner of Vermont sells the best maple candies I’ve ever had.

And their maple soft serve is delightful.

Lunch in Montauk.

They are famous for lobster rolls but I went with the seafood chili this visit.

Chickpea & Olive at Smorgasburg.

Pulled BBQ jackfruit with Carolina slaw, bread & butter pickles, fried shallots, and horseradish aioli, on a potato bun. This was my first time trying jackfruit and I’m definitely a fan.

Chuko Ramen.

My parents both loved their chicken miso ramen. I topped mine with drippy egg and tons of chili garlic oil.

Montana Trail House.

I had a drink with hibiscus-infused rum! And another with Aperol and grapefruit.

We shared fried green tomato sliders and switchel glazed carrots.

And I stuck with veggies for my entrée and ordered the broccoli gratin.

Mostly because it came covered in pimento cheese.

Mile End Deli.

We started with the peppers and baba ghanoush. When you’re at ME you have to order poutine.

And I always order a turkey reuben.

I love New York.

22Jul2016

Birthday Week Eats

by Emily

I turn 31 this Sunday so this week is my birthday week. My parents timed their summer visit for this weekend so I’m off of work today and Monday and I’m pretty sure the four-day weekend will be the best gift I’ve ever given myself. I also pulled out this stash of cake flavored stuff I’ve been hoarding all year –

The Airhead wins as my favorite, it has sprinkles in it!

My other eats included…

Coffee.

We’ve had some big changes at work – that squeezed even more work into each day – and on top of them one of my coworkers has been out all week and I’ve been responsible for covering both intensive care units. <– I have needed so much coffee.

I didn’t have time to pack lunch one day and I cobbled together a pretty great reuben-ish wrap sandwich in the cafeteria – sliced turkey, swiss, cole slaw, pickles, and thousand island.

Yogurt lunches reign supreme. Plain Siggi’s with blackberries and coconut butter.

Cake yogurt with KIND maple granola and blackberries.

Have you done Chobani’s “Find Your Flavor Soulmate” flow chart?

What combo does your heart sing for? My answers lead me to sweet and spicy but as much as I love some sweet with my heat spiced yogurt just doesn’t appeal to me. Sweet with sweet is much more my speed. Like this Almond Coco Loco Flip that knocked my socks off with how fantastically creamy it was.

Speaking of sweet… I am still completely obsessed with Justin’s peanut butter cups, in all forms.

And I made the David Lebowitz chocolate chip cookies so my parents could try them, not that there are many left!

Best meal of the week – I made a variation on this recipe with turkey bacon, chopped spinach, and fresh mint. It was still delicious as cold leftovers.

Salad night. Romaine with ranch / turkey bacon / shrimp / carrots / tomato / fresh mint / swiss.

Paired with chips and dip because I’m fancy.

I picked my parents up from the airport last night. JFK is a nightmare so we stayed in Long Island afterwards and grabbed dinner at a little diner near their hotel. I actually got a pretty yummy Greek meal.

Salad with spinach pie.

Have a great weekend!

Eating Chalk

Tag Archives: turkey

26 Hours In DC

Last Week’s Top Five

Time Crunch

the free products were my only compensation for this post, all my own opinions, blah blah

Working Weekend Wrap-Up

Food To Stay

per usual, I was not provided further compensation for this post and all opinions are my own

Weekly Wrap Up

*please note – the FiberOne bars and Divella pasta were sent to me free of charge to review on the blog. I was not provided further compensation for this post and all opinions are my own.

Birthday Staycation

Birthday Week Eats