Heat wave! 😎
This week’s newsletter is 60% cold brew.
Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, let’s stay cool as the temps hit an unseasonably high number. As always, this newsletter is completely unedited by AI or any human for that matter. For pictures and videos, check out my Instagram @fivethingsiate.
Tomato focaccia from Cafasso’s Fairway Market
1214 Anderson Ave, Fort Lee, NJ 07024
I was admittedly very very nervous about moving to the suburbs as a former NYC apartment indoor cat, but I shouldn’t have worried so much. Like everyone else who survived the COVID-19 pandemic, I’m no stranger to Animal Crossing. Well, living in the ‘burbs turns out to be exactly like Animal Crossing: You owe a large amount of money to Tom Nook/the bank, and you go around chopping wood, chasing out bees, and bringing small gifts to the neighbors. Oh, also people actually ring your doorbell which I find quaint. Sometimes I space out and they just sound like <Animal Crossing noise> to me as well. I didn’t particularly like playing Animal Crossing because it’s basically just… idk chores and capitalism? But I do really find comfort in the fact that my life is Animal Crossing now because it’s quite familiar. And overall it’s cuter than playing Frogger x Grand Theft Auto in NYC everyday. Speaking of neighbors, our very kind, very Italian American neighbors dropped off what I’ve decided is the peak housewarming gift: A bottle of red, a large hunk of parm, and the best tomato focaccia I’ve ever tried. I sliced it in half and toasted it and made a sandwich with Trader Joe’s vegan kale pesto, smoked turkey, tomato and cucumber and it was the best sandwich I’ve ever made. The focaccia is so fluffy and cloud-like, be sure to toast it for best results!
Cinnamon vanilla style cold brew at Rook
This week the temp hit nearly 90 degrees(!) and I missed being at the Jersey Shore so bad that I shipped a box of Rook Coffee to our new place. Rook Coffee is the coffee of the Jersey Shore and my favorite part is their cold brew, which comes in many limited edition flavors (catnip to my brain). My favorite flavors are their banana toffee style, which I can never seem to nab, and also blueberry pie, two flavors of coffee that only I could love this much. The quintessential summer favorite, though, is cinnamon vanilla, which honestly tastes more cinnamon than vanilla. I like to have it shaken, not stirred, with a lot of ice, a splash of full fat Oatly, and a drizzle of maple syrup. It’s really smooth and easy to drink every morning.
Mint mojito mocha cold brew at home
This is the cold brew I used.
Rook makes a mint mocha flavor, but since it’s a seasonal, limited edition, and I don’t live at the Shore anymore, I had to create my own. I found this absolutely adorable chocolate mint plant at the Stew Leonard’s nursery so of course I had to take it home. (I also picked up a strawberry mint plant. Apparently there is a Willy Wonka mint factory out there!) The OG best mint coffee comes from Philz, of course, but it’s easy to make a simple dupe by adding a nice big sprig of mint (washed, of course) to the bottom of your tumbler, filling it to the top with ice and a drizzle of maple syrup, and shaking the heck out of it until the ice begins to crush and the mint is nice and smattered. Add your cold brew concentrate (or mocha cold brew), shake more, and then top with oat milk.
Mexican mocha style cold brew at Rook
Here she is.
I am no stranger to odd food combinations. After all, I love minty coffee. But this week I learned that apparently I draw the line at SPICY coffee. I don’t mean PSL sort of spice, I mean cayenne. Coffee already makes spicy food worse, and despite having a morning diet that no dietician would approve of (caffeine, sugar, dairy), I really don’t feel like fucking around and adding SPICE to that mix. When I chose the Mexican mocha flavor I thought it meant cinnamon but alas it’s CAYENNE. This is a pass for me, so if you’d like my nearly full bottle, let me know!
Banana bread with walnuts at home
I had exactly two ripe bananas and about 2 cups of flour left in the house, and no milk or substitutes so I Googled until I found a banana bread recipe that uses two bananas and no other liquid ingredients. The result was this recipe, except I substituted chopped walnuts for chocolate chips. I often find that chocolate chips really overwhelm banana bread, but I also like chocolate, so I’m 50-50 on them. Anyway this bread turned out to be a little dry, not moist like its title, but in a pleasant way? Like it’s firm and easy to slice and it actually feels more like a bread for breakfast. I’m beginning to realize I like banana bread that’s more bready than cakey, even if my usual ranking methods favor the latter.
Have a good (rainy, cold) weekend!
Soph
Just don’t plant the mint in the ground! It will take over!!!!