Fun things from this weekend – we early voted and it only took a couple of minutes! The weather was gorgeous and we took a bunch of long, beautiful walks.
Food highlights included…
In a fit of out-of-season joy I bought and loved a peppermint mocha ice latte.
Brunch at Emilia’s Bakehouse in Melville. We had great lattes.
And a preztel croissant.
Loved this Aura Bora flavor. They have two new seasonal flavors I am dying to get my hands on.
I also tried and loved two new boozy seltzer cans. The June Shine passion fruit vodka soda has all my favorite things!
Great new flavor from Chip – a brown sugar cookie made with apple butter, stuffed with a caramel apple filling, and topped with cinnamon sugar.
Desserts in Astoria. Baklava and Knafeh.
Thai food in Astoria. I got extra-spicy drunken noodles with extra veggies and mock duck.
Plus we shared great crab rangoon.
Trader Joe’s pumpkin-shaped pasta with homemade meat sauce (pizza sauce with ground turkey and ground chicken, garlic, salt, pepper, urfa pepper, smoked paprika, and three cheese blend). Plus rainbow cauliflower.
Siggi’s pumpkin spice skyr with blackberries and granola.
Trader Joe’s vanilla bean Greek yogurt with pumpkin puree, maple syrup, chia seeds, blackberries, and grnola.
Pumpkin pie smoothie. Pumpkin puree with milk, plain Greek yogurt, frozen banana, maple syrup, cinnamon, and mace.
Trader Joe’s scallion pancake / canned salmon with mayo and Sriracha / roasted zucchini / all topped with Kewpie, Sriracha, and furikake.
Roasted cauliflower and chicken salad – shredded chicken breasts, mayo, yellow mustard, honey mustard dressing, and roasted almonds slivers with Sichuan salt.
Breakfast burger sandwiches. Whole Foods’ plant-based burgers, gouda, and a fried egg on a whole-wheat bun with blueberry jam. Plus leftover cauliflower.
Is it supposed to be a balanced breakfast or a gourd-based breakfast? La Colombe pumpkin spice canned coffee plus Perfect Bar’s pumpkin pie seasonal flavor.
Lifeway pumpkin spice kefir. I am on a years’ long hunt for the eggnog version.
Trader Joe’s pumpkin Greek yogurt with plucot, chia seeds, and granola.
We liked but didn’t love Elysian’s Night Owl pumpkin ale.
Trader Joe’s Howling Gourds pumpkin ale makes it into Adam’s top five favorite beers.
And Southern Tier’s canned craft cocktail of their Pumpking whiskey and cola is officially in both of our top five for all-time-favorite beverages. I bought this months ago and squirreled it away and devestatingly I have been unable to find it again.
The nights we didn’t get take-out (we’ve had kind of crazy work weeks) we hit it out of the park with what we cooked for dinners. Super salad night – local lettuce with miso caesar dressing, bacon-flavored crunchy mung beans, Gardein vegan crab cakes, red bell pepper, and avocado.
Broiled salmon with a miso glaze plus baked green beans. Adam had his with rice but I went with bbq potato chips.
Emily Mariko style salmon bowls! Plus a side of smashed cucumber salad.
Our first trip (of hopefully many!) to Lady Wong. We loved the coconut pandan steamed rainbow cake.
More rainbow – I added sprinkles to my epic Hanoi Dessert Shop sundae. Bright Eyes: vanilla soft serve, hot fudge, egg custard, chocolate sesame crunch, and Vietnamese coffee over crushed ice.
Cheese plate dinner! Mini brie / bell pepper / feta dip / cheddar crisps / seasoned pretzels / chocolate sea salt almonds / beef bacon / apple pie rice cakes / extra-sharp cheddar / smoked almonds / crackers / dried apples.
A feast at Au Za’atar. We shared fried halloum with garlic, honey, and olive oil.
Plus Dalaa Mahshi, braised lamb shoulder with seasoned rice. The meat was amazing, particularly when paired with the complimentary pickles and garlic tahini.
This past week has been meatball week because I am all about a good dinner theme.
Homemade turkey meatballs (juicy thanks to panade, with urfa pepper) with red sauce and roasted spaghetti squash. Spaghetti squash is amazing I need to make it way more often!
Whole Foods vegan meatballs with olives, dolmas, roasted zucchini and sweet onion, and Trader Joe’s herbed tahini sauce.
Buffalo chicken meatballs (stuffed with blue cheese and cream cheese) with sauted carrots and celery.
Crab meatballs (with panade made out of Utz crab chips!) with a simple salad.
I’m late on this post but we had too many wonderful things last week not to share! Mostly lots of very (very, very, very) good restaurant meals. Three different days I got to take a super-long city walk (including a Central Park date with the husband!). Highlights include…
Breakfast at Ursula. We shared a strawberry chamoy pastry.
And a sopaipilla with grassfed beef, green chile, refried pinto beans, and cheddar.
Breakfast at the Blue Light Speaky Cheesy pop-up. The workers could not have been more wonderful here and everything was fantastic! We shared a sandwich with pesto scrambled eggs, goat cheese, blueberry jam, and arugula; a maple lavender latte (<– topped with orange zest, which apparently is my new favorite thing); and an iced Getaway Latte with sweetened condensed milk, cinnamon, and vanilla.
Malted berry smoothie. Frozen cherries and strawberries with Greek yogurt, chocolate almond milk, and malted milk powder.
Yogurt bowl – vanilla skyr, pecan granola, chia seeds, blueberries, and cherry plums (<– both Adam’s and my new favorite fruit).
Cookie dough granola (<– amazing, the flavor is spot on!) with blueberries and chocolate almond milk.
Lunch at Bahn (<– best meal of the whole week!). Iced Vietnamese egg coffee.
Summer rolls with shrimp and mung bean sauce.
Rolls with crispy shrimp, beef jerky, green mango, Sriracha, and egg yolk cream.
Noodle salad with sizzling butter beef.
Dumplings from Mimi Cheng. Their monthly special is a collab with Pecking House and is stuffed with buttermilk twice-fried chicken and topped with the best chili crisp I’ve ever tasted.
Homemade(!) grain bowls. Farro with pesto, chicken pesto sausage, fennel greens, and sauteed celery and baby orange tomatoes.
Adam forgot his credit card at BKNY Thai so we went back sooner than we were expecting to. A serendipitous mistake because our take-out was 11/10. Fish cakes / dumplings with ground chicken, shallot, peanut, and preserved radish / beef Pad See Ew with extra Chinese broccoli.
Omekase at the Chemisty Room at Sushi Lab. We ate at the counter and the service was impecable. I only took a few photos but everything was delicious and gorgeous.
Dinner at Wen Wen. My daiquiri with rum, Cachaça, and birds eye chili was perfect and balanced.
We had numbing celtuce salad with garlic, red vinegar, and Sichuan pepper.
Hot honey popcorn chicken.
Cold sesame noodles with cucumbers and egg ribbons.
Beef noodle soup with pickled mustard greens and a 16-hour oxtail broth.
Yogurt bowl. Plain Greek with maple, chia, praline pecan granola, and chopped aprium.
10/10 loved this new flavor from Over Easy.
On the other hand, this is a reminder for myself to stop buying this Oreo coffee because I do not like it. It tastes like a watery Oreo with no coffee whatsoever.
This Whole Foods almond milk ice cream was pretty good but not as good as non-vegan ice cream.
A breakfast bowl cheese fry situation. Trader Joe’s seasoned fries with mozarella, soft-scrambled eggs, roasted zucchini, and chicken breakfast sausage.
Chinese take-out!
So much Chinese take-out. Bok choy and mushrooms, fried tofu, sesame noodles, and a cheeseburger egg roll.
Eating Chalk 