I know, fireworks and farmers aren't usually uttered in the same sentence, but why not? In San Francisco you can have up close and personal access to both at these special events.

Every year KFOG puts on a fireworks extravaganza. You can fight the crowds on the pier or treat yourself to an upgrade. Head to Waterbar, the best spot in town for viewing the fireworks and nibble on oysters on the half shell, prawn cocktails, pizzas, gougere sandwiches, artichoke crab crostini, risotto fritters, salt cod fritters, gravlax, ceviches, tartare and mini meatballs.

What: Kaboom, VIP Event
Cost: Tickets are $65 and include passed hors d' oeuvres (cash bar)

When: May 10th 7 - 10 pm

Where: Waterbar, 399 The Embarcadero, 415.284.0161

How: Purchase tickets online

Macy's at Union Square puts on a variety of terrific culinary events. Catch the third part of the series "Get Green Cooking" where local farmers are paired with chefs who explain the ins and outs of sustainable farming, the importance of organic seasonal produce, and the tremendous impact your food choices can have on your community.

Sara Tashker of Green Gulch Farm and Annie Somerville of Greens Restaurant will discuss their partnership, organic farming, vegetarian cooking and more. Plus, they’ll cook something delicious!

What: Get Green Cooking Demo with Sara Tashker of Green Gulch Farm and Annie Somerville of Greens Restaurant
Cost: $10 donation to CUESA (the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture) includes a sample of the featured dish, a glass of Benzinger wine, a canvas Ferry Plaza Farmers Market bag, plus a deluxe sample from Origins Organics, in celebration of their new USDA-certified organic skincare line
When: May 14th 6:30
Where: Macy's Union Square, Cellar Kitchen
How: Seating is first-come, first-served starting at 6 pm

The San Francisco Zen Center is a rich part of this city's history. With their City Center on Page at Laguna, the Green Gulch Farm Center in Marin, and the Zen Center at Tassajara, the Zen Center has helped thousands of visitors further their Zen practice. In addition to meditation, the Zen Center has a large focus on food with organic farming at Green Gulch Farm and the successful creation of Greens Restaurant at Fort Mason, which has been a premier vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco for over 25 years. Home bakers will be familiar with the Zen Center due to their publication, in 1970, of The Tassajara Bread Book.

Ed Brown, the author of that book, is the subject of a new movie, How to Cook Your Life. Brown is an ordained Zen priest who was Tenzo, or head cook, at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. But this is not your ordinary Zen priest -- Brown is tempermental, goofy, and altogether human. "You get to watch me being me. Oh well." Brown said at the San Francisco preview of the movie last night.

How to Cook Your Life is a documentary that uses Brown to explain how integral food is to the guiding principles of Zen Buddhism, and how we can all go about using these principles in the way that we approach cooking. "When you cut the carrots, cut the carrots," Brown says. In this world of media overload and processed foods and going through the motions in the kitchen, Brown asks us to stop and pay attention to what we are doing. "People ask me, 'How are you doing'," said a baker in the Tassajara kitchen. "I say, 'I'm baking.' It's what I'm doing and how I'm doing, through and through."

But it's not all roses and meditation. In the movie, we watch Brown struggle to rip into a store-bought package of cheese, raging the entire time about why a company would choose to subject consumers to such awful packaging. We watch him try to contain his temper through breathing after almost exploding at a student to be quicker about adding an ingredient to a soup. This humanness makes Brown all the more relatable, as he comes across as one of us.

This movie really resonated with me. I find peace when I am cooking, and I am able to ground myself in the kitchen more than anywhere else. And that's what this movie is about -- the essential place that the kitchen holds in many of our lives.

How to Cook Your Life is beginning Friday at several Landmark Theatres throughout the Bay Area. It will open in more cities in the coming month.

Here is the preview: