Welcome to dishSF

My name is Emily.  I am 30 years old, and I live in a little yellow house on a hill in San Francisco with my boyfriend, Gerry, and our cat, Lucy.  By day I am an attorney, as well as co-owner of a very successful event planning company.  I work a lot.  But when the day is done, I am happiest in my kitchen, cooking dinner with Ger.  I love to cook, and he loves to eat what I cook, so we make a really good team.

With two jobs, a social life, and a relationship, I've found that I have to be super organized if I want to eat the way I like to eat.  I set aside time for myself every Sunday, when I sit down and work out our meals for the week.  This usually involves stacks of cookbooks, dog-eared issues of Bon Appetit, links to various recipes from the food sections of newspapers, and food blogs.  I sit on the couch and browse through all of the things that jumped out at me recently - a Loretta Keller recipe for tuna steaks, or some taco from Rick Bayless that looks especially good.  Or I get something in my head - lamb stew, maybe - and spend an hour looking for something that catches my eye.  Maybe something Moroccan.  I figure out main courses, and then branch out into side dishes, vegetables, salads.  I organize, I make a shopping list.  I triple check the pantry, and then I head out to the little local grocery store, followed by the larger specialty store for odd items, and twice a week I peruse vegetable offerings at the famous Ferry Building farmers market down the street from my office.  At farmers markets I am like a kid in the candy store.  I see gorgeous cranberry beans, or a pile of early girl tomatoes, and with stars in my eyes I hand over dollar bills and take my little bounty home to the yellow house.  And I make something delicious. 

I love our process of eating well, creating lovely meals.  I love focusing on local and seasonal eating, which I know is much easier in San Francisco than in many parts of the country, and that is why I am so thankful to live here. I want to share this with you.  My plan for dishSF is to post our weekly menu for you, along with recipes as I've adjusted them.  I'll also post our shopping lists too, so that you can pick up what you need without thinking about it too much.  A few times a week we dine out, and often we eat repeats - our favorite meals over again.  But when we are trying something new (or new to the blog), I will post about it.  I have loved reading through my favorite food blogs, trying their recipes, and picking up tips along the way.  I hope to share a little of that with you here.  Welcome to dishSF.