I first visited the original Grand Epicerie in the 7th arr. years ago; it was a bustling and inspirational shopping spot but not really “beautiful.” This new location on the Right Bank is absolutely gorgeous, and I can’t wait to visit.
This video had the effect of both soothing me and making me wish I could hop on a plane to Paris right away. Let’s all dream of some day in the future when we can visit this beautiful place.
Continue reading “Amuse bouche*: eating in Paris”Steve and I had a date night on Friday and decided on dinner at Bouchon in Santa Barbara. It’s a great French-inspired restaurant, but not connected with the French Laundry Bouchons that you may be familiar with.
We have been to the restaurant a few times before for special occasions. Steve saw online that they had expanded their outdoor dining, and we decided to check it out. And we are making an effort to support local restaurants these days, as many people are.
Continue reading “Date Night Dinner at Bouchon in Santa Barbara”Road trip tacos are the perfect lunch after a few hours of driving on Highway 101 between the Bay Area and Santa Barbara. And there aren’t a ton of great food options along the way. But after our recent Santa Barbara trip, we found a great taqueria in King City called Tacos La Potranca de Jalisco (about a mile off the highway) that serves terrific Mexican food and the perfect road trip tacos. And the burritos aren’t drippy, which is an important consideration when eating while driving! 🙂
Continue reading “Amuse Bouche*: road trip tacos”This period is rough on all of us, for a lot of different reasons. Keeping sane during the pandemic can be hard; health, financial, educational, social and other worries are on our minds. There doesn’t seem to be an end to it in sight. I’d like to share some of the things I am doing to manage my mental well-being during this time. These are no substitute for professional help from a therapist or doctor, so don’t hesitate to reach to one if you need it. This isn’t the time to hope you can just “muscle through” this crazy time.
Continue reading “How we’re keeping sane during the pandemic”It was terrific to get out of the house and experience some new Carmel restaurants during our three day weekend. Kate has given you the lowdown on our cottage rental and activities last weekend, and I’ll be sharing our food and restaurant choices.
First stop was Parker Lusseau in Monterey. Sophie and I left the Bay Area around noon, before having lunch, so we were very happy to find this lovely bakery around 2pm. We snagged a couple of sandwiches on brioche (tuna and egg salads), some macarons, and a lemon tart for Kate, who would be joining us at our cottage at Holman Ranch later that afternoon.
Continue reading “Eating our way across a few Carmel restaurants”Like everyone else in the Bay Area, we freaked out a little bit when we were ordered to shelter-in-place and rarely venture out for groceries and other essentials. Online food shopping was a large source of our groceries from the start.
My husband has more patience than I do- so he was drafted to mask up, stand in line right when the stores opened, and scour the shelves of the local Safeway, Diablo Foods and Trader Joes for (pretty much) anything he could find- and that’s why we have a motley assortment of 50+ cans of beans, soups, chili and other staples (not exaggerating), filling the pantry and the garage (not too far from our home gym actually!)
Continue reading “Best sources for specialty online food shopping”