A Side of Sweet

Nob Hill San Francisco Staycation

With moving apartments, busy work schedules and the holidays, Pat and I were definitely (over)due for a vacation! We decided to take advantage of a three day weekend and do a teeny staycation last weekend. We really wanted to check out a neighborhood that we haven’t previously explored. After much deliberation, we decided on Nob Hill.

Nob Hill is one of the fancier neighborhoods in San Francisco and has amazing views. It was the perfect setting for a 24 hour escape from reality. We also made it a priority to leave technology out of our trip. Of course I couldn’t resist taking a few photos, but other than that we were completely disconnected from everything except each other…. Read More »

Visiting the San Francisco Flower Mart

Hey friends! Today I just want to share a few photos from my trip to the San Francisco Flower Mart! I visited during my last #SanFranciscoStaycation in November! I’m actually on staycation again, as my vacation at work happens in two week chunks. Sometimes that means a big international vacation, but because Pat has a job too, it often ends up with me taking the time to relax at home and explore my pretty city.

I’d been wanting to go to the San Francisco Flower Mart almost since we moved to San Francisco but it feels like I’m always at work! I seized the opportunity to visit during those blissful two weeks. I couldn’t resist coming away with a literal armful of flowers. It was fun trying my hand at making my own bouquet at home.

Greek Yogurt Brûlée Recipe (Opt. Vegan)

Vegetarian Vegan

Sometimes a recipe comes along that just has it all – easy, healthy, quick, and gorgeous. The kind of recipe that people still mention when they see you six months later. It’s one of those things that’s hard to predict though – I’ve made caramelized white chocolate (yes that’s a thing) and made homemade dulce de leche, layered seasonal veggies to create a gluten free sweet potato galette, added bourbon to make an already delicious recipe spectacular, and many other things that I consider far more impressive all for them to be never mentioned again.

This recipe for Greek yogurt brulee though, was something I just threw together on a whim. It doesn’t require any shopping trips in search of special ingredients. It’s naturally gluten free and dare I say it, healthy. This is the recipe that brought down the house.

I’ve served this healthy and easy version of creme brûlée at two separate brunches both to rave reviews. In addition, Pat and I eat it for our lazy morning breakfasts on the reg. … Read More »

Friday Faves // 11

Phew, the New Year has already been a busy one, both at work and outside! I thought it would be fun to share a few things that I’ve been up to, both via blogging and in my free time.

What I’ve been up to:

Working on fun projects :: I recently worked with a brand to talk about how important neighbors are! We recently moved to a new neighborhood in San Francisco and one of the many perks is that I now get to call my friend Katie a neighbor! Luckily she’s always up for helping me out with projects, we had a little photoshoot last weekend. Pat was at work, so we did it all by tripod! This meant a million outtakes! I couldn’t resist creating a blooper GIF, which is posted for your enjoyment above. It was so much fun!

Cleaning up my Twitter act :: I was so inspired by a post by Colorado Moms about “reclaiming” your Twitter feed that I followed some of her steps! I used JustUnfollow.com to unfollow all the people who don’t follow me back, as well as those who haven’t tweeted in the last 6 months! This took me from following 10,200 people to about 5,200 now! I also try to manually unfollow all of the people who are posting lewd messages or spammy links when I see them. Honestly, this hasn’t affected my number of followers at all and it felt so good. My next step is to start creating Twitter lists with TweetDeck so I can keep in touch with the people and businesses that I most care about! Even following 5,000 people is overwhelming so I think this will really help.

Adventuring with Pat :: We recently spent a day at Point Reyes National Seashore, which is about an hour north of San Francisco. Even though it was a weekend, it was still incredibly peaceful and not too busy.

Here are some other things I’m loving around the web:

12 Things Dog Owners Have Come to Accept

Welcome to the Millennium!? I created a Facebook page!

This story in California Sunday magazine about a town of 200 people in Alaska who all live in the same building! It was fascinating!

Thanks so much for reading A Side of Sweet! For more Sweet in your life, you can find me on Instagram, Pinterest, Bloglovin’, Facebook, or Twitter, or subscribe to receive a weekly email with new posts (see sidebar).

Always the Season for Chunky Knits & Colored Denim

One thing is sure, when a blogger hosts brunch it will be an occasion to remember. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to join some other bay area blogger babes at Jessica from Team Wiking’s house for some delicious found and even better company. If you read Jessica’s blog, you’ll know she has a great sense of style. Simple, elegant with a modern twist, her house was absolute design heaven. Every last detail was done up to perfection!

Read more and check out all the pretty details from Jessica’s brunch after the jump!… Read More »

Making the Perfect Cheese Platter + Cultivar Wine

Pat and I are getting settled into our new place and it has a gorgeous living room that is just begging for a party! I’m not quite in the “throw a huge multi-course meal mode” due to needing a few more things to make our place perfect, but I’m definitely in “put together a gorgeous spread of wine and cheese mode”. I just wanted to share a few photos of the fancy cheese platter I put together and share some tips on how I put together the spread. Because I can never just keep things simple, read on to also find a recipe for an amazing lemon curd recipe as well as a bit about Cultivar Wine in Napa, which is our new favorite place to get wine from!