Monday, 5/11/26

 Quick dinner of pasta arrabiata and salad (first greens of the year from the farm!).  I don't even remember the last time I made this, but it's a lot of bang for the buck, time and ingredient wose. Added a little fresh mozz at the end for protein.

Sunday, 5/10/25

 I was loosely inspired by a recipe from Ali Slagle for salmon, avocado and rice bowls, in that I did use salmon, avocado, and rice. I went off book for everything else: skipped the vinaigrette and used an ersatz  ponzu sauce (soy sauce and fresh lemon) instead; and used smoked salmon. Topped with sesame seeds and cucumbers, thinly sliced. I loved this---incredibly easy, sort of light feeling and really tasty. I love a rice bowl, I guess.

Saturday, 5/9/25

 We didn't have any dinner because we were too full from eating everything in sight at Priya. It was Game Night, though so we had to rally and eat dessert. I made another rhubarb spoon cake (even quicker than usual since I doubled the compote yesterday). I think people really liked it but my experiment with adding a touch of salt to whipped cream does not need to be repeated.

Friday, 5/8/25

 Dinner with Jen and John. We attempted to make a version of noodles that John's mom used to make, using only the sketchiest of recipes. They weren't the same, but they were pretty good (maybe a little too thick and chewy?) Also had various sausages that John picked up from the local butcher and local asparagus, that only needed a quick roast with olive oil, salt and lemon. Dessert was the first rhubarb spoon cake of the season, with whipped cream. I added a little sour cream to the whipped cream to stabilize it and I think it was successful? Time will tell as I set some aside for Saturday.

John and I enjoying his hat

Thursday, 5/7/26

 Pizza night! One of my favorites of late: ricotta, a little mozzarella, roasted red peppers, kalamata olives and thinly sliced zucchini.  This was unexpectedly light, and allowed the texture of this puffier pizza dough to really shine. I really enjoyed this combo.

Wednesday, 5/6/26

 I don't remember why Jason wanted bread and cheese for dinner; maybe he wanted to make cranberry walnut bread because we have so many dried cranberries? Anyhow, we also had some Brie in the fridge so it was a good combo. I sliced up a cucumber and added it to the leftover pickled red onion brine for a quick side dish.

Tuesday, 5/5/26

 Aloo Gobi, in the Instant Pot (a recipe from the Ministry of Curry). Good flavors, although

a. I par-cooked the potatoes a little too much

b. I forgot to tell Jason to use basmati rice.

Also it could have used some chutney or pickled veg or something else to perk it up. Still, pretty quick and certainly not objectionable.

Monday, 5/4/26

 I did not do as much prep over the weekend as I would have liked (at least it was for fun reasons!), but I quickly marinated some chicken from the freezer before work and we had grilled chicken sandwiches. A hodgepodge of toppings: pickled red onion, cherry tomatoes, Calabrian chilis, spinach, avocado and roasted red peppers. Quick and good and used up a couple of orphan grinder rolls from the freezer.

Sunday, 5/3/26

 Repeat of roasted carrots with whipped feta (from Hettie Lui McKinnon; recipe in email). I think I made the exact changes I did last time: only one can of chickpeas, swapped out the harissa for Calabrian peppers, and left out parsley and cinnamon. Served with some pita bread. Super tasty.

Saturday, 5/2/26

 Happy Pride! Started the day with tasty brunch items (kudos to whomever brought that tater tot and sausage casserole), walked down to watch the parade, Jen ordered pizza for a late lunch, and then we stuck around to have dinner. 3 Blue Aprons! One didn't have its instructions, but "chili chicken verde" seemed pretty obvious and if I didn't do it as planned, I still made a damned tasty stew. Also a Moroccan chicken with carrots, couscous and dates, plus a Lebanese-ish ground beef situation on pita with yogurt and tomato-cucumber salad. all delicious as always. Tried to make it a fairly early night so we were home before 10. 

Friday, 5/1/26

 I was not excited to eat some frozen enchiladas from the freezer, since I hadn't really liked them the first time around. However, Jason and I were both pleasantly surprised that they had somehow improved? Soggy, yes, but far more flavorful. Maybe it was all the extra pepperjack I added? Anyway, it was actually a good dinner. We may or may not have eater a pint of ice cream after.

Thursday, 4/30/26

 We found a bag of barley at Deals & Steals for only 99 cents, and we had some sweet potatoes that were on death's door, so barley bowls for dinner. Roasted the sweet potatoes, and sauteed some zucchini with garlic and canned green chiles. Served with some cotija cheese and some quick pickled radish (also saved from a certain death), jalapenos, and red onions. Both satisfying and yet not too heavy.

Wednesday, 4/29/26

 Jason and Jodi had some project they were working on, so I cooked dinner from the cans of beans and tomatoes and a box of pasta that Jodi provided. I decided to go in a Mexican direction, so I sauteed up onion and garlic, added the black beans and tomatoes, and seasoned with lime juice, cumin, coriander and chile powder. I tossed the pasta in and it was a bit chili pasta thing? Served with hot sauce and grated cheese and it wasn't half bad. Jason brought over some farm lettuce but I couldn't be bothered to try it (Jodi never has good dressings) even though it looked nice.

Tuesday, 4/28/26

Tried out a new tofu recipe from the NYT: Za’atar Roasted Tofu With Chickpeas, Tomatoes and Lemony Tahini. Well, I didn't have chickpeas, but they weren't missed. I also found the directions overly complicated (maybe I was still tired from my trip?) so I streamlined it by marinating the tofu for a few hours and then roasting it along with the cherry tomatoes (note: use lots of tomatoes!). I used some of the marinade as a dressing for spinach, and then served everything over rice. So tasty, even if I did forget the garlic in the tahini (also thought the tahini would have benefited from a little yogurt or sour cream). A keeper.

Monday, 4/27/26

 Straggled home. I fell asleep watching TV in the afternoon, but then rallied enough for a quick trip to the grocery store. Jason  (bless him) made pizza for dinner: provolone, pepperoni and pepperoncinis, semi deep dish. The last one was a tiny bit doughy, but we let this one cook as long as we dared and the results were worth it. Nice and crunchy. Early bed.

I feel like we made some really good eating decisions on my vacation. No super fancy places, which was fine. A couple of really good meals (Copra, Kuma Sushi, Kinara) and ate a few really good things (pastry from Parachute, I will never forget you). One slight tactical error was planning such early dinners most days, as it meant that we felt like we didn't have as much time during the day (the siren song of getting home early and relaxing was hard to ignore). I was also let down by having my knee hurt so much. I would have liked to explore more, especially at the beach, but stairs were dreadful, I missed being able to take a walk in the afternoons while Jessica napped. But overall an excellent trip.

Sunday, 4/26/26

 Even though I didn't have to leave for the airport until 8pm, it still felt like not a real full day. We had breakfast at Le Marais, a French cafe not too far away (they used to have a spot in the Ferry Building that we tried last time I was in town). I had a sweet crepe with butter and sugar, plus a croissant type thing with asparagus and goat cheese; Jessica had le Complete, which is a buckwheat crepe with egg, ham and cheese. My only mistake was ordering just a drip coffee--it was weak and they served it with milk instead of half & half. I needed to find a hat for Carter; we assumed we could find one in one of the many souvenir shops at Fisherman's Wharf, but no. You can buy hats for the 49ers and the Golden State Warriors but not the Giants? That is how we found ourselves in a Lyft on the way to Giants Stadium. On a game day. Bedlam, as you would expect. But they sure had plenty of hats! Mission accomplished, we did a few little errands: stopped for a snack of chips and guacamole at the Ferry Building (meh), picked up a little more candy from See's, and went to the library to pick up Jessica's hold. For dinner we tried a neighborhood place called Gusto Pinsa Romana, a cute little place specializing in Roman style pizza (very puffy and light crust). We shared a margherita and one with spicy salami, ricotta and hot honey. They were both very good, but it was too much; if I could rewind we would have split one pizza and a salad. I can honestly say I had enough pizza and sushi this trip. Then off to SFO for the dreaded overnight flight home.

Saturday, 4/25/26

 A somewhat lazy day...started out morning with the pastries from Arsicault (chocolate croissant for Jessica, kouign-amann for me, plus we shared a bacon scone), The were all very good but I should have taken the time to warm then up a bit. Finally headed out and over to North Beach for lunch at Flour+Water, a pizza place I had been hearing about for years. There were mozzarella sticks on the menu to of course I had to get that, plus a salad with snap peas, ricotta, salsa verde, pistachios and dill (lovely) and we shared a pizza with mortadella, crescenza, ricotta, spinach, green garlic, lemon oil and asparagus: great flavors, perfect crust, I didn't need the mortadella. Things were going great until we each ordered the salted caramel soft serve (like I was going to be able to say no to that). It was too filling but I couldn't stop....I got two ice cream headaches and was also cold for the next hour. We ducked back in to MoMA for a bit as I wanted to look at the Kara Walker exhibit more closely. I also demanded that we grab some cookies from Jane in case we wanted dessert later (spoiler: we didn't). It was too dank and chill to really walk around much so we just went home and relaxed for the evening. Dinner was Jessica's delayed birthday meal at Kuma Sushi. The good news is that it's only a couple of blocks away; the bad news was that we couldn't get a table until 8. Honestly, we still weren't even that hungry by then but it didn't stop us from hosting down a crazy amount of raw fish at dizzying speed, like little sushi trolls. For some reason, I insisted on having miso soup (still recovering from being cold, maybe? It was great) then we shared a bunch of stuff:

hamachi crudo with ponzu and jalapeno

hamachi belly sashimi

sweet potato roll

Fresca roll: Spicy tuna, pineapple, and avocado, topped with walu ceviche and spicy oroshi.  (my favorite of the rolls)

Hey Girl roll: Tempura shrimp, cucumber topped with layers of tuna and avocado, spicy mayo, and unagi sauce (good but if somethat had to go this would have been it)

Golden Boy roll: spicy hamachi, tuna, mango, pole sauce and yuzu tobiko

This was a ridiculous amount of food which is why I am ashamed to say we ate ate it all in under a half hour. It was all so good! Who knew I wanted pineapple with my fish?

terrible shot

Friday, 4/24/26

 Started our morning at a nearby breakfast place called Heist: eggs, toast, homefries, avocado, and a lavender latte. Quite good, but I suspect it is called Heist because it is so expensive you kind of feel robbed? Anyway, we then walked downtown to check out SFMoMA which I thought had some very cool exhibits. Then out to the Richmond to finally have lunch at Mandalay! The tea leaf salad was as wonderful and unusual as I remember; we also had a noodle dish with chicken but we know why I was there.

pre mixing

Stopped in at Arsicault, a somewhat nearby bakery, for some pastries for the morning. I impulsively picked up a chocolate chip cookie too and honestly it was one of the best ones I have ever had (thin, crispy/chewy, with big slabs of dark chocolate). We didn't have time for dinner (!) because we were going to an event that was part of the SF Cookbook Week; there were snacks there but the weren't exactly ample (bags of nuts, as various hand pies that were not helped by being served cold). We weren't sure what to expect, but it was a mixture of cookbook writers talking about themselves, some unexpected improv, a pretend game show (boring) and a little drag performance. How did Jessica and I not know that one of the chefs from Noodle Night was also a drag queen? I guess we did not do our research. I would say it was 75% very enjoyable which isn't bad. Then a long Lyft home from the Presidio and bed.

Thursday, 4/23/26

 The weather forecast revealed that this was going to be the nicest day of my visit, so after breakfast at Jane  (really good quinoa bowl with sweet potatoes, kale and black beans) I dragged Jessica down to ocean beach. I wish my knee hadn't been acting up because I would have liked to do more walking, but it was still great. We tried and failed (my fault!) to have lunch at Mandalay, and ended up at a Shake Shack instead (fine; I was sad that they were out of the Korean chicken tenders). Dinner was with Stephanie at a place called Copra that I had really been looking forward to and it did not disappoint. Buckle up:

Started with oysters with tamarind, fermented chilis and white soy

Heirloom beets salad with charred citrus, amarinth, honey vinaigrette

Chutney palette with poppadoms

Rassam poori with passion fruit, mint and sprouted chickpea (it's a good vacation when you get pani poori twice)

Chaat with Madras mixture, green grapes, cashews, date chutney (texture-wise not my favorite)

Dosa (by a large margin my favorite: gigantic, served with the potato mixture on the side to avoid sogginess, and sort of seasoned on the outside? SO good!)

Something called vegetable of the day that was sort of curried and really really good

We split two desserts: something called wattalapan, that reminded me of a tropical flan, and one called jigarthanda, which it hard to describe but a little bit like a Dove bar, with candied cashews. Tasty but tricky to eat.

The room was beautiful, the service very good and overall a delightful meal. The kind where I almost wished I was alone and didn't have to politely share anything.

Fancy dessert

Ruins of the Sutro baths

Cute cups at Jane

Wednesday, 4/22/26

 Since we had cleverly brought home empanadas, there was breakfast ready to go. We tried:chicken, asparagus-gouda, and banana dulce de leche. Delicious but the asparagus was my favorite. We had a fairly leisurely morning, then went out for manicures and conveyor belt sushi in Japantown. Just as fun as it looks, and the sushi was actually quite good. There was a mochi donut place nearby, so we had a few of those, too. Jessica had never tried one and it wasn't as gross as she feared. We headed back to the neighborhood, and fearing that we were frittering the day way with no Culture, stopped in at The Tenderloin Museum. Quire small but pretty interesting.

Dinner was "Noodle Night at Che Fico", one of a series of events put on during SF Cookbook Week. There was no menu provided beforehand, so we went into it completely blind, only knowing who the chefs would be. The space was so pretty, and the service was excellent; some dishes were better than others, but there were some standouts (more deviled eggs for me, please!). I was challenged right away by a salad with snow fungus (actually delightful) and braised pig ear (chewy and crunchy at the same time; not unpleasant but not really pleasant, either) The second course brought clams which I gamely ate, and one of the desserts had the texture of the bounciest damn jello you have ever had. But overall very fun and some tasty things in there, as well

the favorite dessert

The focaccia was amazing; had some kind of salty spicy delicious stuff on the outside