Welcome to The Savory City. Follow our adventures on food, drink, travel & healthy living in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.
Love,
Grant &Teresa
Grant and I have a new roommate. He’s messy, clingy, and doesn’t help with the mortgage, but he’s also incredibly sweet, loving, and loyal. Meet Ragnar!
The Fourth of July was always a holiday I looked forward to as a kid. It meant packing up our picnic blanket in the afternoon and staking out a good spot in our city park, which would be packed with hundreds of people by nightfall.
The events of the past week have reawakened a social conscience and a sense of duty to speak out and act against these injustices. Tearing down ancient, systemic oppression can seem like a daunting task— almost impossible, perhaps. But it’s not. There are real, concrete steps to make sure our fellow human beings are treated with dignity.
t wasn’t until recently that I reflected deeper on what I expect from this shelter-in-place experience. Maybe it’s ok not to tick off every single item on my ambitious list. Maybe it’s ok just to veg and binge watch series after series (I’m looking at you, Netflix, Hulu, Starz, and Prime). Maybe this time at home isn’t necessarily about thriving, but surviving— focusing on wellness and being kinder and more forgiving toward ourselves and others. That shift in perspective has helped me adjust my expectations. I have my health and wellbeing. If I can accomplish a few goals on the side, then that’s icing on the cake.
It’s Day 71 of the quarantine and we’re in the middle of a certified Bay Area heatwave. Yesterday peaked at about 95 degrees and today’s temperatures jumped into triple digits.
n a toast to those future adventures, we’re sharing a video we shot during our most recent trip to Lake Tahoe this past November. It was the first video we shot on our GoPro Hero 7. We drove up to Tahoe after work on a Friday afternoon and hit the usual Bay Area rush hour traffic.
It’s hard to believe that Memorial Day is nearly here. The unofficial start of summer. Here’s wishing all of you a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend. We hope you do something fun and a little out of the ordinary. Cheers!
That’s why I was so excited this week when Grant got me Magnolia Table, Volume 2. One thing that struck me was that Joanna begins the book with a reflection on the art of gathering. She talks about the human need for connection and our use of food as a reason to get together, a poignant point with new meaning in the time of social distancing.
For social distancing reasons we haven’t been able to host a proper game night in months, but we’ve found some virtual alternatives that are filling the void in the meantime.
Here are some of the best games to play while social distancing.
Having this new trimmer set made it exponentially easier to give a quarantine haircut compared to the old trimmer and single comb I had to work with for Grant’s first haircut. The comb guards were my safety net, letting me relax knowing that I wouldn’t accidentally cut his hair too short.
Happy Friday, everyone! I don’t know about you, but this week has been very busy for us workwise and we’re ready to just relax and leave it all behind for the weekend. Cheers!
Grant loves, loves, LOVES these brisket tacos. They’re sweet, tangy and super addicting. The best part is that your pressure cooker does most of the heavy lifting. Plus, all the ingredients are compliant to the autoimmune protocol (AIP) diet.
Do you have a sweet tooth like we do? Here’s a simple recipe for autoimmune protocol (AIP)-compliant blueberry crumble. It only takes five ingredients and seven steps, which makes it an easy treat to make during your shelter in place.
I guess it’s our lucky day because we found this 10-in-1 trimmer set during a grocery excursion to Costco today. I can use it to give Grant haircuts and he can also use it as a precision beard trimmer. We’ll be sure to post pics of our handiwork.
It’s the first rainy day we’ve had in months. There’s just something about rainy days that always puts me in the mood for a cup of tea. It reminds me of when I lived in England and tea was a sacrosanct ritual. Tea was a part of my daily routine. I had tea and a piece of Nutella toast for breakfast, tea at lunch, tea with sandwiches while I wrote my papers in the afternoon and tea when I needed something relaxing before bed.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas out there! Enjoy your special day and thanks for all you do!
Tonight is the season finale of our favorite show, Outlander. We have our snacks, drinks and tartan. Slàinte mhath, sassenachs!
I believe in the power of one-pot cooking. It’s less of a mess to clean up and it’s also a snap to reheat. So, here’s my weekend gift to you: an easy recipe for one-pot pineapple chicken “curry” that’s autoimmune protocol (AIP) compliant. We’ve been working on our big pot of this stuff for the past couple of days and I love it.
One thing I’ve learned from this shelter-in-place life is the importance of self-care. When each day can kind of blend into the next, it’s nice to treat yourself to something a little out of the ordinary. I’ve decided my special treat is to do an at-home spa day with whatever products and I already own.
t’s called picadillo, a Filipino beef stew inspired by Cuban and Latin American flavors. It’s also known as Cubano in the Philippines. Think of it as a subtly sweet pot of chili. The traditional Filipino recipe includes a few items that are not allowed on AIP, such as pepper, peas, tomatoes and regular potatoes. I subbed a few ingredients to make this a completely AIP-friendly version.
