Tubular

Five highlights from this week include – – –

Arizona fruit snacks.  They have a really pleasant texture and no palm oil.  Does anyone else remember the terrible-in-a-wonderful-way pina colada bottled beverage Arizona used to sell?

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Speaking of throwbacks, here’s a cherry cola slurpie(!) push-up(!!).  Would recommend.

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Beer wins.  Triple dry-hopped IPA // key lime pie gose.

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Dinner inspired by chana masala.  Made with white beans instead of chickpeas and served on cauliflower rice.

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Dinner inspired by laarb and/or fried rice.  Ground turkey cooked with fish sauce, lime juice, brown sugar, Sriracha, and Korean chili flakes / with sauteed shallot, green onion, and Thai chili pepper / plus cilantro and mint / and roasted cauliflower rice / with eggs stir-fried in.

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BECB

It was a super hectic week for us so we mostly ate take-out and were cranky but here were three things I loved…

The best chocolate milk with the best cold brew.

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Black cherry soda.  It had been at least five years since I had a Dr. Brown’s and I forgot how wonderful they are!

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Bacon egg and cheese bagel.  Soft scrambled eggs on an onion bagel with havarti cheese, mayo, mustard, and turkey bacon.  Plus five spice roasted cauliflower that was actually even better than the bagel.

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Lemon Meringue Pie

I worked (long days!) Friday, Saturday, Sunday but we still had a fun weekend with amazing date nights!  Five favorites were – –

Mekelburg’s rose black halva latte – an oat milk iced iced latte with rose halvah syrup, topped with rose petals and sesame seeds.

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Westbrook Brewings‘ lemon meringue pie gose might be even better than their key lime pie gose!

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Friday night we cuddled on the couch with nachos and ice cream and (re)watched “Love and Basketball” and it was kind of the best.  Chipotle nacho hack – order chips and a rice bowl without rice (this one had chicken, fajita veggies, corn salsa, and cheese (and guacamole on the side!)) and bake.

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We got three -epic – sandwiches from Mekelburg’s and had a picnic down by the water near Domino Park. Waygu roast beef for Adam / a bahn mi with Peking duck, duck rillettes, and sambal hoisin mayo for me / a Mekelburger with dry-aged beef, American cheese, grilled onions, fried onions, and tarragon mustard on Hawaiian bun to share.

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Chinese take-out to finish the weekend.  I got chili oil tofu with cabbage, celery and white rice.

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Chocolate Cherry And Hoppy Guava

I work all this weekend so clearly I jumped right back into my non-vacation life.  It was actually a really busy work-week for me, I’ve been updating the hospital’s parenteral nutrition guidelines which is a fun but time-consuming project (in addition to my patient load).  I am already quite excited for the next weekend – – in 8 days!

Highlights from this week include…

Espresso roast coffee with vanilla oat milk.

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Sweet and jammy jelly berry grapes.

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Double cherry truffle ice cream.  I have been more than a little obsessed with these Magnum tubs throughout quarantine and cherry was my favorite variety yet!

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These Slush Puppie ice pops fill me with an unfathomable amount of joy.  They’re a total childhood favorite throwback and delicious to boot.

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Orange soda beer float!

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Local guava IPA.

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Roasted zucchini with roasted chickpeas, baby tomatoes, kalamata olives, and crispy cheese bites.

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Spring mix and herbs lettuce mix with Asian ginger salad dressing, Guara almonds, tomatoes, and peppered smoked salmon.

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Salad with homemade honey mustard dressing, honey butter almonds, and a fried egg.

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Birthday Week

Today is my birthday!  Woo-hoo to getting another year older!!

We were supposed to be home in St. Thomas to celebrate so Adam and I have actually been on vacation staycation this week.  A tropical island is obviously always the preferred option but social-distancing fun in the best city isn’t a bad second choice.  We’ve taken several long walks, had lots of cuddling time with Webster, and watched a ton of Seinfeld and The Office.  Plus we’ve eaten so many good things!  If I was going to name ten of my top favorite foods I’d say Diet Cherry Coke Zero, vodka, espresso, sweetened condensed milk, soursop, nachos, cheeseburgers, ice cream, roasted green beans, and Pad See Ew and I’ve eaten all but three of those things in the past week.

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Highlights include…

A ton of yummy things from Win Son Bakery.  The standouts were the mochi doughnut and the Fan Tuan (rice roll) with egg and Chinese cruller.

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A fancy picnic (from Ellen’s) in our car at the end of the North Fork.

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We had a lobster roll and duck fried rice.

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Plus a local passionfruit IPA.

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Soursop ice creams.  I’ve been wanting to go to Taste of the Tropics for a decade and their soursop ice cream did not disappoint.

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I actually preferred Island Pops though.  Soursop + nutmeg.

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IPAs at Greenpoint Harbor Brewing.

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Tamarind + mango + tequila = our new all-time favorite homemade cocktail.

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East Wind Snack Shop makes our favorite dumplings in the city.  Dry-aged beef potstickers // Shanghai vegetable steamed dumplings with ginger scallion sauce // veggie noodles.

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Happy birthday to me! 🙂 

Soursop And Szechuan Peppers

Today is my 1st day back in at the hospital after a day off and a two-day stint of project days at home.  I had to recertify in ServSafe and I had a big task to work on (updating the Nutrition Department’s Clinical Practice Guidelines to be more current/evidence-based) so my boss let me work from home, which was lovely.   I got to leisurely brew Phin coffee and sip while I worked!  Plus I ate a million snacks.  <– Normally I sit in the ICUs and wear an N-95 for most of the day so I took full advantage of having a free face!

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Highlights included…

The company that makes the instant espresso we love for Dalgona coffees also makes a really good espresso roast.

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Plain Greek yogurt bowl with blackberries, peach, cashew butter, and a chopped up Bueno Bar.  <– I realize it is ridiculous to stir a candy bar into your lunch but this was breath-takingly good and I’m glad I did it!

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Vanilla skyr yogurt bowl with blackberries, black plum, cashew butter, coconut chips, and starry sprinkles.

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Adam and I had to go into Manhattan for a doctor’s appointment so we stopped by Bibble and Sip for a cream puff.  A cream puff topped with crème brûlée and filled with milk tea cream and boba!

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I snacked on nuts every day this week.  These sweet Thai chili almonds were a favorite.

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Still obsessed with Hal’s caffeinated cola seltzer.

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Adam and are both head over heels for these dinner mints.  We made it through 12 years of marriage before we realized we are both fans of these guys!

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This soursop ice cream was possibly the very best packaged ice cream I’ve ever tasted.

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I topped this cheese enchilada meal with more cheese, sour cream, and Crystal hot sauce and it was 10/10.  P.S. I highly recommend Amy’s frozen meal options, this one is good even if you aren’t over the top about it.

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There’s a newish poke place in our neighborhood that lets you add a thousand toppings.  This was white rice with crabcake, tofu, eel sauce, spicy mayo, cucumber, shiitakes, shredded carrot, string bean, green onion, tamago (shredded egg omelet), oshinko (pickled veggies), inari (tofu skin), garlic crisps, and lotus chips.

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Blistered green beans – sauteed with garlic, ginger, and chili oil – with Trader Joe’s mini chicken and cilantro wontons.

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Have a great – safe, distanced – weekend!

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Boots On The Moon

Five things from the past week —

{1} I really enjoyed these two cans from Nitro Coffee Company.  The nitro gives them a super velvet-y mouthfeel.

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{2} A very hydrating cocktail.  Vodka with lime, watermelon juice, and watermelon seltzer.

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{3} We made twice-baked potatoes that were delicious.  Stuffed with butter, sharp cheddar, turkey bacon, green onion, Kewpie, and fish sauce.

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{4} A very loose take on homemade okonomiyaki.  Made with shredded brussel sprouts!

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{5} Did I mention yet that we adored Space Force?  We also loved the new SF-themed ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s.

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Summer Fruits And Veggies

It was a very good week in fruits and vegetables here!  We went to Whole Foods on Saturday to stock up.  With our new, pandemic-induced, bimonthly grocery schedule our first week of dinners/snacks always feels a lot fresher than the second week.

Highlights include…

Could Perfect Bars be any more perfect?  They are the optimal balance of sweet and savory.  I loved this trail mix flavor.

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My parents sent us a box of tamarinds and I found these strawberry cherries at Whole Foods.

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I also snagged a bag of genips (<– Caribbean fruit that I grew up picking from a tree near my house but have had an impossible time finding in New York) on the street corner near my hospital!

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Watermelon-themed things since it’s almost July 4th.  The winner of the bunch was definitely the Hal’s Seltzer.

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This dinner was brought to you by the color orange!  Salmon/trout salad bagel melts / local heirloom tomatoes with a bit of salt and pepper / roasted gold zucchini.

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We have been loving this black-eyed pea salad combo for almost a decade.  This batch was actually made with fancy heirloom yellow eyed beans since BEP were sold out at the store.  Beans, green pepper, smoked almonds, sharp cheddar, and green Tabasco.  It is such a simple combination but super satisfying.

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Roasted green zucchini topped with Moroccan tofu cubes and a simple yogurt sauce (plain skyr, mayo, olive oil, sumac, paprika, salt, and a little water).

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Our best meal of the week was this trio – baked tofu (cooked with a mix of soy sauce, rice vinegar, fish sauce, Sriracha, and honey) / Chinese smashed cucumber salad / fancy mushroom medley sauteed with salt, pepper, and butter.

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