A Side of Sweet

San Francisco Date Night :: Omakase Sushi

Pat and I are always looking for a great date night place to splurge on for a special occasion. We absolutely love Japanese food and dream about someday take a trip there. Until then, we’ve found the next best thing – the omakase tasting menu at the new Omakase restaurant in the SoMa neighborhood of San Francisco.

Omakase’s head chef, Jackson Yu, has been preparing sushi since he was a teenager and it was amazing to watch a master of his craft prepare the dishes in front of us.

Omakase offers three fixed price tasting menus. The quality of the fish is incredible – it’s flown in three times per week from the Tsukiji Fish Market in Japan. Everything at Omakase is perfect down to the last detail. Chef Jackson actually traveled all over Japan to tiny villages to track down master craftsmen to make the perfect pottery and stoneware to serve his dishes on…. Read More »

How to Taste Wine Like a Pro + Video Tutorial!

Even though it shouldn’t be, learning how to taste wine can be pretty intimidating. It seems like there are so many steps and so many things to think about! I remember when I was first learning how to taste wine I would try to do the wine tasting steps like the people I was with, but I didn’t really know why I was doing them.

I thought it would be fun to break down wine tasting into just a few easy steps, and also talk through why each step is important. I also made a video on how to taste wine like a pro to go with the post so you can see just how to do each step!

Click through for more details about each wine tasting step…

Chickpea Deli Salad from the Sprouted Kitchen

Vegetarian Vegan

An easy and healthy recipe for vegan or vegetarian chickpea deli salad from the new the Sprouted Kitchen Bowl + Spoon cookbook. Makes a great main dish, picnic dish or dish to pass.

Simple and inspired whole foods recipes to savor and share.

That’s the tagline of the new Sprouted Kitchen Bowl + Spoon cookbook, and I’m so into it. As a longtime reader of the Sprouted Kitchen blog, I’ve made many of their delicious healthy recipes. I was so thrilled to find out Sara and Hugh were coming out with a second cookbook and even happier to get my hands on a copy to review.

As I flipped through the pages of the book, I wanted to make every recipe. There’s a nice mix of everything from starters to desserts, all, as you might guess based on the title, meant to be served in bowls. I settled on this chickpea deli salad recipe. It’s super healthy, fresh and versatile. It is naturally gluten free, raw and can be made vegetarian or vegan. I wasn’t disappointed. It was delicious and is one of those great dishes that gets better after a day or two in the fridge making it the perfect healthy snack to keep on hand or a made ahead dish to pass.
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Gold Leaf Thank You Notes DIY

DIY gold foil notes will make your message so much sweeter! The gold leaf words can easily be customized with your message.

Hooray for handmade cards! They are something I enjoy doing and even more enjoy sending. It seems like everything is digital and online these days, which makes receiving a snail mail note that more special. There are obvious reasons to send a thank you card, like a bridal shower or a birthday, but I think the best ones are complete unexpected. “Thanks for the ride home the other night.” or “Thanks for letting me borrow a dress for that wedding!”

I’ve shared many versions of DIY Thank You Notes and Greeting Cards on the blog, but these are probably one of my favorite. I mean gold leaf, come on! The gold foil look is classy and elegant and I’m definitely proud to put one in the mail. I also love that you can customize them with any message, like the “Let’s Do Brunch” ones I made along with the thank you notes…. Read More »

Philadelphia Foodie Guide

When I found out that I would have to spend two weeks in Philadelphia for work, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was in Philadelphia in middle school to check out the classics like the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, but I honestly didn’t know much about the city beyond the tourist stuff. My first inciling as to what a treat I was in for was how excited people who previously lived in Philly got when I told them I was headed there. They had lists of restaurants I needed to check out, ice cream I needed to eat and places to go to grab a drink. And these are people who are well-versed in the San Francisco foodie scene.

So I ate my heart out for two weeks in Philly. All in the name of research, you know? So I could pass all of my recommendations and favorites on to you.

I hope you make it to Philadelphia to check out some of these amazing places to eat. By no means is this an exhaustive guide. This is the selection of restaurants that I enjoyed the most over the two weeks I spend in Philly. There are so many that were recommended to me that I just didn’t have time to check out. If you have a place that you think deserves to be on this list, let me, and everyone else, know in the comments!

Dream Vacations :: Luxury Yurt Airbnb in LA

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I spent a week in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. It was such a fun trip as LA has an amazing food scene. One of the coolest things I did there was stay in a yurt that I found via Airbnb. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but it was an awesome experience! It was so peaceful it was easy to forget that I was actually in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the country! On top of that, it was gorgeously decorated.

I love AirBnB for travel. You can really find something to suit almost any taste. Last year, Pat and I stayed in a treehouse in wine country!… Read More »