san francisco Archives - dani california cooks

Weekend Sailing on the SF Bay

August 11, 2015 by Dani 16 Comments

The birthday celebrations for Nate continued with a weekend of sailing on the bay! We left from Sausalito on Saturday morning and sailed around Angel Island, Treasure Island, right next to AT&T Park, under the bay bridge and then docked at the Embarcardero for dinner. We had a beautiful night sail back to Sausalito, where we slept on the boat.

As the crew arrived, I had brunch set up, plus a few silly decorations. Mini bagels, mini muffins, lots of fruit and champagne.

We then packed up and set sail, with mimosas in hand!

We had dinner at MarketBar in the Ferry Building, which I don’t really recommend. But it was awesome to pull up in a boat, hop off and and just walk to dinner. We had a beautiful night sail back, with views of the city that I had never seen in the dark before. I had no idea the Ghiradelli sign lit up at night! I may have fallen asleep - I was all snuggled up in a blanket and it was so peaceful!

We woke up in Sausalito and cleaned up the boat, and we out for brunch at the cutest little cafe - the Lighthouse Cafe! I love when Nate orders a full size breakfast, and then a pancake on the side. These pancakes were HUGE! I ordered the breakfast scramble special, which had garlic artichoke sausage, spinach, mushrooms, and onions. It was so. good.

I was absolutely wiped out the rest of the day. It’s kind of remarkable what a day in the elements (plus drinking) can do to you. Sunday was spent blogging and getting my nails done and going for a detox run!

We Ate Everything in San Francisco This Past Weekend

August 4, 2015 by Dani 13 Comments

I’ll keep this post short on the writing and full of pictures. Mama and Papa Dani California Cooks drove up for a weekend to see our new place and explore SF! And by explore San Francisco I really mean just eat everything. The weather couldn’t have been better, and we had so much fun. Come again soon, please!

Dinner at Nopalito on Friday night was awesome. We shared totopes (already salsa-fied chips) and some ceviche, and then I had fish tacos as my entree. Great tequila cocktails too. Nate’s carnitas definitely stole the show! (Tip for this restaurant - you can place your name on the waitlist over the phone!)

As if we weren’t stuffed enough, we got our hands on some Bi-Rite ice cream! We were the last ones allowed into the store before they closed, so we didn’t even have to wait in the line that normally clings around this store. I had a delicious vegan strawberry coconut ice cream on a gluten free cone. Happy camper!

We took a great run through the Presidio on Saturday morning, dodging golf balls left and right. Lunch at Radish was pretty meh. Everyone around us was ordering the French toast and the pancakes and the chicken and waffles so I think we just made poor ordering decisions with going for the salads. Even the homemade root chips left something to be desired. This place was super popular though - we waited an hour - so I think we just ordered wrong!

Wandering through the colorful Mission neighborhood.

Took a couple of naps in Dolores Park watching this dancing robot. We thought it was a costumed human for a solid hour before realizing it was remote controlled.

Modern Vietnamese dinner at Out the Door (the more casual sister restaurant of the Slanted Door) on Fillmore. The ribs were amazing! But I think my spring rolls are better :).

Ice cream at Smitten, where they make your ice cream to-order using these nitrogen freezing machines. Seriously - you watch your ice cream being made right in front of you! I went for the vegan valrhona chocolate popsicle. It was amazing!! (There may have been a second trip back to Smitten on Sunday…)

Sunday morning started out with lots of oatmeal and then a great run through Crissy Field. Great for people and dog watching! Healthy (unpictured) lunching at the Plant in the Marina topped off the weekend before the parents headed on their road trip to Big Sur. The Plant’s menu is awesome in all ways. And I love that they have kombucha on tap. The food frenzy continued into the work week - make sure to check out tomorrow’s What I Ate Wednesday post!

Running the Angel Island 12K and Other Scenes from the Weekend

July 28, 2015 by Dani 11 Comments

This weekend was filled with a ton of socializing, with a great run, a great nap, and lots of kitchen experimenting in between.

On Friday night we “loaded up on carbs” (read: drank margaritas) before waking up on early Saturday morning to catch the ferry to Angel Island to run a 12K! The run was VERY hilly to start but overall a great course with some stellar views of San Francisco and the Bay Area. It’s amazing how easily you can escape SF and be in total wilderness - one thing I love about this city. The second half of the race was pretty downhill and we all finished strong - the boys finishing in less than an hour. I think my total time was 1:25, which included some bathroom breaks in the wilderness and photo taking :).

I wasn’t feeling so hot after the race, so I ate my breakfast sandwich…in bed (don’t tell Nate!) I spent the afternoon recovering and lolling around.

Beyond the race, there was a variety of fun to be had this weekend, including a house party in the Mission on Friday night, a friend’s housewarming party in Nob Hill, cheering on the San Francisco marathoners at mile 20, going to our local farmer’s market, and a BBQ on Sunday afternoon in the Marina. Lots of eating and drinking! 20150726_093138

A HUGE benefit to dating a guy who grew up on an organic vegetable farm is that pretty much every question I have about vegetables can be answered without google. For example, “look at that absolutely DEFORMED carrot?! how in the world could that happen?” Well turns out that since carrots grow in the ground, if when baby carrot is growing and it hits a rock or something, it will sprout out and kind of grow around it. Hence, deformed carrot over here.

We ended Sunday with a casual evening BBQ with a big group - the food was cooked by our good friend’s boyfriend who also happens to work at Saison. You know, the #1 restaurant in San Francisco, the #56 restaurant in. the. world. Just watching him do the most basic things in the kitchen, like cut bell peppers, was really quite amazing to watch. He had a couple of colleagues from Saison helping him out in the kitchen, and when they gave a thumbs up to my dessert, I think I blushed. The food was great, and we had awesome views to boot!

Celebrating Summer SAIL-stice with a Weekend in the SF Bay

June 24, 2015 by Dani 14 Comments

As if hiking 20-miles last weekend in Big Sur wasn’t enough activity, we spent the weekend sailing in the San Francisco Bay as part of the international Summer Sail-stice event! AND ONE OF THE SAILBOATS MADE A JACUZZI. Emphasis on made.

Setting sail for #summersailstice! Captained by @natewapner ⛵#sailsf

A photo posted by Dani Nemzer (@danicaliforniacooks) on Jun 20, 2015 at 11:36am PDT

So let’s just take a step back here [apologies for the consultant lingo]. Nate’s a big time sailor - remember our awesome week-long sailing trip to the Bahamas? Well he’s since joined a club out in Sausalito and us along with our trusted sailing buddies spent the weekend sailing on the bay, with an overnight anchorage at Clipper Cove on Treasure Island. To be honest, I was a little nervous before this sailing trip just because the last time we had been out on the Bay it had been pretty windy and choppy and I just wasn’t comfortable with the whole heeling aspect yet of a monohull. But I knew I was in good hands, so I put on an anti-seasickness patch just in case and we set sail on a beautiful morning!

The first thing we did was sail out out Sausalito and went underneath the Golden Gate Bridge! That was definitely the windiest most wavy part of our trip, but one of the most epic and exciting. And I wasn’t panicked at all (a gluten-free beer helped, I’m sure).

Crossing under the GGB!

Suddenly it was lunchtime (yay!) and I made big sandwiches with whole wheat sourdough, avocado, turkey, ham, cheese, and lettuce. I had mine sans bread and we ate a TON of salsa and chips as we sailed along the city. We then parked at the Embarcadero in the city, where one of our buddies left our vessel to tend to his dog. It was so cool pulling up to the city in a sailboat!

We then did a bit more sailing around towards Alcatraz, and headed over to Treasure Island (attached to Yerba Buena Island) and joined four other boats in one flotilla. Then it was dinnertime! I heated up crockpot BBQ flank steak and black beans and tortillas, and we had a taco bar with corn salad (recipe to come), more avocado, and salad. These blondies for dessert. Then we jumped over to the other boat where the fun really got started!

They built a jacuzzi in the cockpit using a liner to keep the water in, and a home water heater. Pretty genius. Someone had brought a keg of homemade beer, and we all blasted music and hung out in the jacuzzi. I was so impressed with this whole jacuzzi setup I couldn’t even believe my eyes. I ate so many Reese’s pieces, and I blame the jacuzzi.

Can you see the makings of a jacuzzi in there?

Can you see Dan at the top of the mast? There’s a person up there!

Nate and I slept in some small quarters, but woke up to another beautiful sunny day. I honestly never cook bacon, except when I’m on a boat. So I made a ton of cheesy eggs, bacon, and coffee which we devoured for breakfast before heading out for another day on the water! This day we sailed around Yerba Buena island and underneath the Bay Bridge, around the backside of Alcatraz, and then back to Sausalito.

Honestly, I had SO much fun. There is honestly nothing better than being on a boat, in the elements, with a mimosa, with your handsome boyfriend captaining the ship. Granted - it could have been warmer. I pretty much was dressed for winter.

Nate the sailing ninja in all black!

My Week in Pictures (mostly eats)

June 9, 2015 by Dani 4 Comments

This past week was filled with good eats (as per usual), exploring, dog sitting, sailing, and lots of time with family and friends. I didn’t have to travel last week, so lots of good reasons to work out of new coffee shops in the city (FYI - wifi in SF coffee shops is NOT a given). I’ve also been going on a lot of “friend dates” to meet more girlfriends. It’s a lot more casual and less awkward than that sounds. On the sweaty front, I tried out ClassPass for the first time so I went to a new workout studio every day. Still loving YogaTree for the best yoga in the city by far, though!

THE EATS

Dinner and drinks at West of Pecos in the Mission with friends…a few too many drinks, I must say!

Admiring all of the beautiful breads at The Mill..where the $4 toast craze of San Francisco took off! Vegan noodle salads at Herbivore with a teammate. Tuna salads (always my favorite) at The Grove - nice al fresco lunch outside after a day in the office! Enjoying using up the awesome produce from my CSA box with this hilarious vegetable-carb ratio of a sandwich! We’ve been on a major green smoothie kick over here for breakfast. This one had spinach, bananas, blueberries, almond milk, PB, ice, and vanilla protein powder. Indulgent homemade desserts included this “smores skillet” one of our roommates introduced us too - melted chocolate and peanut butter with broiled marshmallows on top. Graham crackers and fruit to dip - or you can just use a spoon!
Doing some healthy gluten-free recipe testing…trying out a new crumble topping!

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#LUNCH was this INSANE tea smoked salmon!! #happydance

A photo posted by Dani Nemzer (@danicaliforniacooks) on Jun 2, 2015 at 1:59pm PDT

EVERYTHING ELSE

Meeting cute puppies at the Union Street Festival!

Long dog walks to the Presidio. LOVE that we live so close to this absolutely gorgeous park. Sailing out on the bay on a sunny day when Nate’s siblings were in town! (See the golden gate bridge in the background?!)

That’s all for now!

Bay 2 Breakers 2015 and Weekend Eats

May 19, 2015 by Dani 2 Comments

Happy Tuesday, friends! I feel like I covered all the bases last weekend from invigorating yoga classes to absolute craziness with the citywide Bay to Breakers event. But first..some eats.

I made my Banana Walnut Oat Pancakes for us on Friday morning…in heart-shaped form. I was feeling romantic ;). This shot was oddly popular on my Instagram!

We had a fun work event towards the end of the day with a fabulous spread! I particularly liked this vegetable-and-dip set up - so creative (and sustainable). And there were two huuuuge trays of chocolate covered strawberries. People were bringing platefuls home.

Date night at Blackwood was delicious, and the company even better, of course. Highly recommend the red curry!

Saturday morning was breakfast tacos, since we were out of bread. I used farm fresh eggs and these heirloom corn tortillas from Rancho Gordo in the Ferry Building that were SO good. At first I was uninspired by this breakfast but one bite into those special tortillas I was sold. It really is a whole different kind of corn tortilla. I need to go back and stock up!

Solo lunch after a day of shopping and manicuring at The Plant - I got an acai bowl because I had been craving one for a while. Love the plating! This wasn’t my favorite of acai bowls, but I’m looking forward to going back to the cafe and trying the rest of their very tasty-looking and healthy options.

We had a very hearty breakfast pre-Bay 2 Breakers on Sunday morning - a homemade toast “bar” with toppings of choice - sliced banana, blueberries, hemp seeds, peanut butter, apple butter, Earth Balance. I tried Trader Joe’s brand of multigrain gluten free bread and was pleasantly surprised. We also had some coconut yogurt and gluten free granola on the side. And sampled some of my new gluten free cornbread muffins. And mimosas and coffee. Wow - that sounds like a LOT of food.

Well, we had to fuel up for the chaos that was to come. Sunday was the annual Bay to Breakers race. We had heard that it was a city-wide event and that people dressed up for it and it was a really fun time, but honestly, we. were. so. unprepared. The race starts at the east side of the city and cuts right through the middle to the other side - a little over 7 miles.

There are several thousand people who run the race, but the majority of people dress up (or don’t wear clothes at all) and just follow the race route in parade form and walk it. All the houses along the route open up for giant house parties, and there are DJs and live music and CRAZY costumes and drinking and lots of families and dogs and it’s just a REALLY cool tradition.

The costume memo was kind of lost on us, but we went with “warmth”. I have no idea how people were walking around nude!! It was chilly!

beb2

We walked 2-3 miles of the route, and met up with one of our roommates who completed the race! The streets were filled with revelers and it was just good fun. It reminded me a lot of Mardi Gras - steeped in tradition and craziness, but pretty well maintained to be honest. Next year I want to run the actual race and see the whole course! But now you understand why I needed to detox yesterday with the Triple Green Quinoa…