Foodie Friday

Happy Friday Friends!!

It’s been a great couple of days with my family in town – especially because of the awesome food! While I have been sticking to the posted dietary routine as best as possible, I definitely used up one of my ‘cheat meals’ the other night. Since it is Restaurant Week here is SF we went to dinner at Chiaroscuro, right next to the TransAmerica Pyramid. The food was so amazing I totally forgot to take pictures….WHOOPS!!! We had an incredible four course meal complete with an amuse, intermezzo, and excellent wine. Today we’re heading out to Vie for a private wine tasting and I’ve provisioned some goodies to pair with everything – I am super excited to see how the day unfolds and looking forward to the rest of the weekend with my family and Phil.

 

’til next time, keep smiling! 🙂

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Foodie Fun

Happy Hump Day Friends!

It seems like Tuesday is our new date night because Phil and I hit the town again last night. When we first arrived in San Francisco Phil and I stayed at The Stanford in Nob Hill directly across the street The Fairmount. I had wanted to stay there and Phil had no idea so of course when he found out he felt terrible…in an attempt to ‘make up for it’ we went to dinner at Laurel Court, the restaurant in the hotel, and it was lovely! 

We found the menu both approachable and adventurous. They offered classics like roasted brussels sprouts, truffle fries & New York strip and unique plates like warm yam puree with spiced beignets – we were delighted by our options. Phil and I shared the yam puree, poured table side over spiced beignets with shaved pecorino and maple creme fraiche which was divine, probably the best thing I’ve had since we arrived in San Francisco (with the exception of my cooking). I had the day boat scallops with fennel and rock shrimp while Phil enjoy his New York Strip for entrees & we shared some roasted brussel sprouts and truffle fries along side – SOO good!!! Since we switched gears mid-lent and chose to give up cursing instead of sweets (truth be told I can sound like a bit of a sailor and THIS is much harder), we got dessert!!!!! Lemon panna cotta with macerated raspberries was refreshing and delightful – perfect way to finish the night. I have a feeling we may be coming back when family comes to town! 

’til next time, keep smiling 🙂

Foodie Friday

Welcome to the weekend lovers! I am so excited for a weekend of fun – celebrating graduations, spending time with my Dad, going on a long ride with Phil & hopefully sneaking in lots of little yoga sessions!

This week’s Foodie Friday is a restaurant spotlight on one of the most delightful meals I have ever had! Vetri is a world renown restaurant tucked away on a townhouse lined street in center city that I have been dying to go to for about a decade. When I started this blog, Phil promised me we’d go to Vetri when I reached 250 followers…thank you ALL for your support because Phil & I enjoyed a SPECTACULAR meal!

Course after course was absolutely beautiful and I couldn’t help smile a bit with each bite. From the complimentary prosecco and small bites while perusing the menu…

…to the pasta and main courses, each plate tasted devine. We had tuna involtini w/pickled fiddle head ferns, a morel sandwich, sweet onion crepe w/truffle fondue, salt baked quail, capretto w/stone milled polenta, & whole fish ‘secondo il mercato.’ And then there was the pasta….

…ramp ravioli, tavalde paccheri w/octopus, spinach gnocchi w/brown butter, almond tortellini w/truffle sauce & ragu bolognese w/pappardelle. And just when I thought there was just no more room, they brought out the desserts…

…cheese plate w/milk toast, pistachio flan w/milk chocolate gelato, chocolate polenta souffle, piccolo pasticceria & strawberry sorbet. If the meal wasn’t amazing enough, chef came out to the table and introduced himself! I am in total awe of Mark Vetri that having the chance to dine at the gem of his restaruant empire was enough, but then to be able to shake his hand…HOLY AWESOMENESS!

I have had some incredible meals in my life & this ranks right up there in my top 5 meals ever! I can’t wait to go back!

 

Happy Friday!

 

 

More than Fond

Happy Monday ALL! I hope your weekends were as wonderful as mine! I guess I have to rewind as far back as Thursday night…just SO much to share!

Thursday night was our anniversary dinner @ Fond. I got an awesome ride in before hand which made indulging in dessert an easy decision! While it was beautifully sunny, the intense winds made for challenging ride. I was all geared up for this pleasant ride, intending to push myself after a nice leisurely warm up but mother nature had other plans! I was riding directly into the wind for the first 40 minutes and felt like I was crawling…this was NOT the work out I was looking for..but turning that corner back towards home felt so good and made the initial push SO worth it! It just goes to show that even though things may not turn out the way you intend, its how you handle it that makes all the difference!

Anyway, back to dinner…

While you’re welcome to BYOB, Fond does in fact feature a full bar to compliment their Amazing American cuisine! Phil and I opted to bring our own wine (no corkage fee Tues/Thurs) and were pleasantly surprised with a delightful amuse of wild mushroom soup to start the meal! We ordered yellowfin crudo and a roasted acorn squash salad to share but opted to pick our own main courses (mainly so my man could have some meat!). My salmon was one of the best plates of fish I’ve ever had, and Phil was silent as soon as his fork hit the plate, so I’m pretty sure he enjoyed the short ribs! Of course, no meal is complete without a sweet treat! We picked the pistachio tart with vanilla ice cream and poached cherries…DIVINE! All and all we had a marvelous meal that topped off our anniversary celebration perfectly!I managed to get three incredible yoga classes in this weekend, two of which were with new instructors that introduced unique sequencing that was challenging but effortless at the same time! The other was the mala (108) class I mentioned Friday for the Spring Equinox! I had an energizing salad and motivating meeting before class to put me in the mood – talking about health and wellness always fires me up! Kristin broke the class into 4 sets of 27 Sun Salutations, dedicating each set to an intention for you, your family/friends, the community at large, and your biggest challenge, respectively. Kristin had us write out each of our intentions and tuck the piece of paper under our mat as we practiced. Once practice was over Kristin asked us each to burn our intentions sheet as a way of releasing them into the universe…talk about an awesome way to kick of spring! Phil and I spent the rest of the weekend doing our best to take in the wonderful weather. The farmers market is back so we took a stroll through the park and picked up some glorious goodness before making our way to an early dinner with Phil’s family! It was his brother’s 29th Birthday this week so his parents took us all out to Capital Grille – I love any excuse to share a meal with family!!! I used to prefer dining around 8pm because that was the popular time to be out and about but let me tell you, early seatings are where it’s at!!! We were on our way home before 8pm which made for a much more chipper…and productive…Sunday morning!

What are some of the things you are more than fond of from your weekend?!?!?

 

Weekend Wiggle Room

Happy Monday! Though the weather outside was frightful, this weekend was still quite delightful!

Since my parents went on a well deserved overnight to Atlantic City, my sister and I took care of their problem child! As I told my mother, its the blondes you’ve got to look out for…

We made some dinner, had some red wine and relived her September wedding (since it looks like my mother’s latest project is putting together a massive wedding album!).

Saturday night Phil and I went to one of our favorite restaurants in the city – Porcini. This 32 seat Italian BYOB has the best ravioli I’ve have ever had – there isn’t a single plate of ANY kind of pasta I’ve had in my life that even compares!

I was only able to get one workout in over the weekend, and my evening eats weren’t exactly the healthiest, but I am still feeling great about the way my first full week/weekend of getting back into the swing of things went. While I am definitely maintaining healthy habits most days, a little wiggle room on the weekend never hurt anyone. In fact, there are studies that show allowing yourself an indulgence day or a few indulgent meals can go a long way to cut craving and reduce the desire to binge on unhealthy foods!

Here’s to a little weekend wiggle room and the start of another healthy week!