Olive Oil

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Food & Comedy in San Francisco

Day 1: Friday

That’s right. 12 balconies. The condo we recently stayed in while visiting San Francisco had 12 balconies in it and it was on the 21st floor of a building in the financial district!

When our friends Darin and Vanessa (also our monthly dinner friends) invited us to hang out for the weekend, we had no idea what was in store for us. Vanessa had stayed in this place before and didn’t let on any details. Which was kind of cool, because it was a lovely surprise.

Not only was the condo a-mazing, but the whole weekend trip was one of my favorite visits to the city. N’Gai and I were in the city for my 30th birthday 5 years ago and this recent trip was the week before my 35th. I’ve been back since for business trips but it was nice for us to take this trip together again. Everything we did was fun!

Tommaso's

Tommaso’s

We went to Tommaso’s Italian Restaurant in North Beach for dinner the first night. It was in walking distance from our condo, which except for Tipsy Pig (more on that later!) everything was! If you check Tommaso’s Yelp reviews you’ll see that they get 4.5 stars out of 5. And we agreed!

We ordered their spinach pizza that almost faked me into believing I was eating salad They make the pizza and then put fresh spinach on top right after it cooks so that when it arrives at the table, it’s just barely wilting but tastes fresh and slightly crunchy. So good! Of course I followed up that “salad” with a plate full of carbs and ordered their Macaroni w/Mushrooms, Olive Oil, Garlic, Parsley, & Sausage. Paleo what?

Tommaso's Spinach Pizza

Tommaso’s Spinach Pizza

Later that evening we went to Punch Line Comedy Club, also walked there from the condo. This walk was very necessary! There we saw Joe Klocek open for The Sklar Brothers. The Brothers were good, Joe was better. He was funnier, more natural and un-rehearsed, and killed it. I hope he comes to The Comedy Store in La Jolla so we can see him again.

Here are some additional pictures of our trip, posted to my Facebook.

Day 2: Saturday

I’ve never been to the San Francisco Ferry Building and felt especially fortunate that we got to experience the Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning. We have farmer’s market’s in San Diego, but they are nothing like this! In fact, the next time I plan a weekend trip to San Francisco, I’m going to make a point of visiting this market again.

From San Francisco's Farmer's Market

Grapes, Manchego, and Rosemary Bread from the Ferry Building’s Farmer’s Market

We had so much fun eating, looking at all of the vendor’s goods, and buying a few things to bring back to the condo. Namely, grapes that looked like they rode the truck to the city, straight from wine country, manchego cheese, and rosemary bread from Acme Bread. I want to live in San Francisco just to eat this as a snack every Saturday!

I also bought a bottle of olive oil from Stonehouse California Olive Oil. I liked the idea of buying semi-local olive oil. Plus, it’s good.

Since July was Darin and Vanessa’s turn to make our monthly dinner, they instead took us out to dinner at the Tipsy Pig in the Marina District. Wow! The food was SO good! As you can see from my Facebook album, it wasn’t exactly swimsuit food. But it was really great and we ordered a variety of items on the menu to try.

Overall, it was our most fun trip to the city and we thank Darin and Vanessa for inviting us along!

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Paleo Punks

Paleo Friendly Food

Paleo Friendly Food

My husband has officially turned us into cave people. I am the first to admit that my cheese head tendencies make me want to do the Atkins version of low carb eating. But I know that the Paleo lifestyle is much healthier.

I come from a big Italian family where bread, pasta, butter, and cheese runs through our veins. But I also know that all of those refined carbohydrates are terrible for us. Boooo!

To help with inspiration, we watched Super Size Me last night. Neither of us are McHeads but it was eye-opening anyhow. Morgan’s vegan girlfriend cracked me up and I was happy that in the end, he was going back to protein (read: meat!).

I am going to give this a real shot. Especially since we are joining a challenge at our gym where we will be required to weigh in weekly for the next 3 months. Having to be accountable to someone is helpful. I don’t want to say that I didn’t lose a pound because I was snacking on cheese and crackers for the past week!

With this new way of eating in mind, I made a kale salad today. I first tried it at People’s Market in Ocean Beach, CA and thought it was good. Here is how I prepared it:

Kale Salad

Kale Salad

Kale Salad


2 bunches of kale
2 tomatoes on the vine
2 green onions
1 ripe avocado
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt to taste
juice of two lemons

  1. Wash the kale thoroughly, then drain. Remove most of the middle stalk with a knife, then chop the leaves down to about 1″ size. Place in large bowl.
  2. Chop the tomatoes and green onions, set aside.
  3. Juice two fresh lemons, set aside.
  4. Drizzle olive oil over kale and massage the kale until it is less rigid.
  5. Add salt, massage.
  6. Add the avocado, continue to massage the avocado into the kale to coat the leaves.
  7. Add the tomatoes and green onions and mix together.

This can be served immediately or placed in the refrigerator and served later. It’s so good that it just makes me want to continue to eat healthy!

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