New Restaurant Opening In Boise: "Salt Tears"

14 Friday Jan 2011

Posted by Bob and Robin in Boise Adventures, Local Markets, Restaurants, Salt Tears, Things To Do, What's For Dinner?, Wine Dinners

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In the IdahoStatesman and Michael Deeds’ column Words and Deeds this morning, there was an article called Ex-Milkyway Owners Open Salt Tears Cafe and Noshery about Andrea and Mitchell Maricich, previous owners of the awesome Milkyway Restaurant in Boise, opening a new restaurant.

The good news for restaurateurs Andrea and Mitchell Maricich: They live just a few blocks away from their new cafe, Salt Tears Coffeehouse and Noshery, 4714 W. State St., so commuting will be a breeze.

The bad news? Salt Tears plans to open daily at 6:30 a.m. “I’m a night owl. It’s so scary,” Andrea Maricich admits with a chuckle. “I’m trying so hard. I set my alarm for 6 yesterday and I couldn’t even do it. I couldn’t get up. I slept till 7.”

Beginning Monday, Jan. 17, you can bet that Maricich’s kitchen-operating blood will have her bouncing out of bed. That’s when Salt Tears opens next to 20th Century Lanes bowling alley in Boise. It’s the first eatery the Mariciches have launched since closing their upscale MilkyWay restaurant Downtown in 2008. Salt Tears will not be a MilkyWay II, Maricich said.

And then from Salt Tears Facebook page,

Salt Tears Coffeehouse and Noshery is our café and coffee shop showcasing unique sandwiches, soups, salads, breakfast bites, as well as “snacks” or “noshes” (as we say) to accompany a unique selection of beer, wine and occasionally cocktails later in the day. Salt Tears will serve a simple breakfast, the best coffee in town and have an all day menu serving until evening. You are sure to find many “happy places” on our menus! The concept has been developed and brought to fruition by us, Andrea and Mitchell Maricich, formerly of The MilkyWay in Downtown Boise; our focus is on simple, high quality café food and coffee, at comfortable prices.

Salt Tears Coffeehouse and Noshery is about community, creativity, quality and comfort. Our cuisine will have a strong focus on straightforward, perfect offerings made by hand with love. Were going back to the basic dining, delicious food, featuring seasonal ingredients using local, natural and organic products whenever possible…

Breakfast will be easy and fun with five or six or maybe seven items that will hit the spot. For lunch the focus will be on lighter, delicious, homemade baguette sandwiches, fresh salads and daily soup specials. In the evening stop by for a small bite and something to wet your whistle or you can mix it up after breakfast, we have an all day menu.

We’ll have a small, but clever wine list, that will change frequently based on great values along with chalkboard offerings every day. We will be featuring house wines by local winemaker, Angie Riff of Periple Wines. Other awesome selections will be offered, by the glass, carafe, in-house bottles and retail to-go. We will also have a great selection of micro brews, domestics and imports, from near and far, and homemade sodas. The selections will be fun, interesting and reasonably priced too!

Great prices: we will strive to make wonderful food and beverages at reasonable prices. We will keep plate prices down while sticking to an exceptional level of quality, not leaving anything to be desired.

Fun Happenings: Salt Tears Coffeehouse and Noshery will be a hot spot in Boise. We will have a really interesting and ever changing calendar of events including beef cheek dinners, live music, guest featured bartender nights (yes, we will have a liquor license), wine fight nights and pairings, whole roasted pig nights (yep), cooking classes (maybe) and whatever else suits our fancy, or yours!

So there you have it. We will be trying this out when it opens. Hope you will, too! It looks like they are goingt to have an adventuresome event list and maybe menu. Cheers!

"Empty Bowls" – A Program of the Idaho Foodbank

27 Saturday Nov 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Boise Adventures, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Pottery Dishware, Special Dinners, Special Events, Things To Do, What's For Dinner?

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On the Friday after Thanksgiving, The Idaho Foodbank holds it annual affair, Empty Bowls. You purchase a pottery bowl for $10.00 and receive a bowl of soup and, of course, the bowl you purchased. Here is some information from their website, Empty Bowls, about the event.

“On the Friday after Thanksgiving, The Idaho Foodbank hosts its annual Empty Bowls event in downtown Boise on the Grove Plaza.

Throughout the year, we collect handcrafted and handpainted bowls from professional and amateur artisans, students, and studios. The event gives you the opportunity to select a unique bowl from these thousands of options, and then enjoy a hot bowl of soup, generously donated by several of our finest local restaurants. While guests enjoy their meal, we encourage them to remember that not all of our Idaho neighbors are able to meet this basic need and their financial support at the event helps us to provide free, emergency food to those in need.”

13th Street Pub/Vegetarian option
Arid Club/Southwest sweet potato & chorizo
Asiago’s/Salmon Chowder
Boise Centre/Lobster Bisque
Bonefish Grill/Seafood Chowder
Brick Oven Bistro/TBD
Cottonwood Grille/Banana Squash
Cucina di Paulo/Cream of Roasted Butternut Squash
Doubletree Riverside/Chicken Noodle
Dry Creek Merc/Chicken Tortilla

Emilio’s/Chicken and Wild Rice
Goldy’s/TBD
Highlands Hollow/Roasted Red Pepper Bisque
Locavore/Pumpkin Sage
Parilla Grill/Vegetarian option
Shaka Shak/TBD
Sizzler/TBD
The Basque Market/Turkey noodle
The Flicks/Minestrone
Westside Drive In/Baked Potato
Zee Catering/Butternut Squash

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As you can see, it takes a lot of hard work and soup to make this event happen. It was a cold, breezy day and sometimes breathing into a Kleenex helps one to keep warm. Enjoy the photos of the event, and if you are in Boise next year the day after Thanksgiving between 11:00am and 2:00pm, plan to attend the event. Cheers!

Some of the people getting their pottery bowls.

Some people we met in line.

The Pottery Bowls all decorated by local artists.

One of the two bowls we purchased and some soup and bread.

Contemplating the Empty Bowls situation.

Boise City Market – Fall Season

02 Saturday Oct 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Boise Adventures, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Things To Do, What's For Dinner?

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Actually, I went to the Boise Market this morning looking for cabbage. I didn’t find any. The Boise City Market will stay open until Saturday 18 December. Rather I had another market that I frequent and they had it. He asked me, “Making sauerkraut?” I said “Yes.” “That’s why I can’t keep cabbage on the shelves. Everyone is making kraut!” I took his last 4 heads. And I’m glad I went there …. They have fresh huckleberries! Yea, here comes some more Huckleberry Jam. But look at the start of the kraut below. Cheers!

The shredded cabbage with some of the spices

Spiced and salted cabbage into the crock!

So there you have the process of making the sauerkraut. Now wait until about November 20th, 7 weeks or so. Turkey with Kraut for Thanksgiving? (Türkei mit Kraut) Keep the kraut covered by the liquid and I have an airtight crock to process it in. Here is The Recipe. Last year, we got many “raves” and “cheers” for this kraut. The main suggestion was to make the shred finer. That I tried to do. We’ll see.

What’s For Dinner?

05 Sunday Sep 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Boise Adventures, Chicken, Curry, Food, Party Time, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Recipe: Bob and Robin Young, What's For Dinner?

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So this morning, while I was contemplating the Bronco victory in Virginia, Boise’s hot air balloons were taking off over Julia Davis Park in the center of town. There is also the question of What’s For Dinner? I asked Robin if she wanted chicken. She said yes with some curried rice. Her wish is my command!

Le Menu

Braised Chicken in White Wine and Pomegranate Molasses
with
Sauteed Leeks and Garlic in Orange Infused Olive Oil

Curried Rice
with
Red and Green Tomatoes and Summer Squash

Serve all of this with a wonderful 2008 Casablanca Valley Chile Root:1 Chardonnay and you have a wonderful Saturday evening meal. Cheers and

GO BRONCOS!!

Eggs ‘N Nests

22 Sunday Aug 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Boise Adventures, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Recipe: Bob and Robin Young, Things To Do, What's For Dinner?

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So after the very, very exciting evening last night in the wind storm – winds peaked at 68mph and the record set on 24 July 1981 was 71 mph – it was time this morning to try some comfort food, sorta! (There was no damage noticed on this house. However, the electric and phone lines may be in jeopardy. I only got a recording at Idaho Power.)

So look at these eggs. Fun to make and I will probably change the procedure as Robin suggested. Bake the potatoes first and not broil them. Enjoy!

Shred 1 large potato. Leave the skins on. Grease (Robin says use bacon grease) the cup cake tins. Place the shredded potatoes in the cup. Press down in the center and bring up along the walls. Add a touch of salt and pepper. Bake off in a 400 degree oven until the potatoes are browned. Remove from oven a let cool slightly. Add some fresh cut chopped chives and fresh picked shredded basil to each cup. Place one egg in each cup. Broil until the eggs are set.

Gently remove each nest from the cups using a flexible, narrow spatula, trying not to break the “nests”. Plate with some un-burned bacon (oops!) and garden fresh sliced tomatoes topped with chopped chives.
These are fun to make and you can do almost anything with the eggs as you wish. Robin likes the soft cooked eggs, so that’s what we had here. I may try a scrambled egg next week with maybe some cooked Country Ham pieces in the egg. Hmmmm. Enjoy!

Boise City Market Is In Full Swing

07 Saturday Aug 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Boise Adventures, Local Farmers Markets, Local Markets, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Vegetables, What's For Dinner?

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This time of year, summer is in full swing in Boise, the Boise City Market thrives with participation from both the vendors and the visitors. And, if you look at the photos below, a certain amount of color and beauty. I think I heard somewhere that about 10,000 people visit the Market each Saturday. The photo to the left is an overview of the Market … Well one small section, at least.

The Market now covers a much larger area then they did at the beginning of the season and they have even blocked one intersection for the safety of the people walking. It is good to see that the City of Boise allows this type of activity to take place, even if it does mean that a large section of downtown Boise is for “pedestrians only” each Saturday morning.

Fresh beans and squash are among some of the produce offered.

Many varieties of lettuce are available for that salad tonight!

Fresh beets, turnips and cucumbers can make an enjoyable dinner or salad.

Fresh tomatoes, cabbage, Swiss chard, kale, carrots and turnips!

Hope you make it down to the Boise Saturday Market and support our local farmers in their endeavor to bring us the freshest and most delightful products. Vegetables are not the only thing available: Try some elk, lamb, beef, buffalo, chicken, eggs, fruits, honey, artisan breads, fresh cut flowers, plants and a variety of “take out” dinners. I know I have missed some items, but right now I’m hungry! Probably going to do a Leg of Lamb with Sauteed Chard and Onions.

Buddy’s Peanut Butter Cookies

10 Saturday Jul 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Boise Adventures, Buddy, Photos By: Bob Young, Recipe By Buddy, Thought For The Day, What's For Dinner?

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OK. I know what you are saying. “Buddy, the American Eskie, has a recipe for cookies? What’s this got to do with Roasted Root Vegetables and Poached Kokanee?” Actually a lot. The roasted vegies and kokanee are awesome and we tried his cookies. Like the old Buster Brown Shoe ad, “My name is Buster. I live in a shoe. My dog is Tag. He lives there too”. Buster lived in a shoe and Tag liked the shoe. Buddy likes these cookies and so will you!! These are his cookies, not yours! You eat the Chocolate Chip cookies and Buddy will eat his Peanut Butter Cookies. (Better than dog bisquits!)

Buddy’s Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:
1 c All-Purpose flour
2 c Rolled Quick Oats
½ c Adams peanut butter
1 T Garlic granules (no salt or sugar)
1 lg Banana, ripe and mashed
1 t pure Vanilla
½ c Applesauce, unsweetened

Directions:
Pre-Heat oven to 350°F

Mix together by hand the flour, oats, peanut butter and garlic.

In a separate bowl, combine the mashed banana, vanilla and applesauce. Add this
mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix to combine by hand.

Roll out on a piece of parchment paper to about ¼” thick. Score to the desired size with a pizza knife. Lay on a cookie sheet and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the top is slightly brown. Remove from oven and let cool. Break the cookie apart at the score lines. Buddy loves these cookies and, by the way, we ate one also and they are not bad.

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There you have it. Try one! Cheers!

Common Ground Farm, Surprise Valley, Boise

08 Thursday Jul 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Boise Adventures, Common Ground Farm, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Things To Do, What's For Dinner?

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So Wednesday July 7 was a busy day for us. Falcon Watch in downtown Boise all morning, blog photos to work on, Fox TV interview and the Common Ground Farm opening in East Boise in Surprise Valley. This is one more in a growing community garden theme for the refugees coming into Boise. They grow the produce and make these picnics and we attend and buy dinner and fresh vegetables. They are productive and earn an income and we get to eat some fantastic cultural food. Look at these photos for a sampling of the event.

Rice Pilaf and Kabob. Made right here in the picnic grounds and it was very good.

I’m sorry, but I don’t know the name of this dish, but it too, was prepared fresh at the picnic.

Here is Michael Boss, Behind The Menu, tasting fresh honey right off of the comb. It was delicious!

Some of the crowd that was there. You can see the garden in the background and it is very large. They are going to put in another 5(?) acres across the street.

Michael Boss and his wife, Patrick and Barbara Mahre and Robin. I’m taking the blurry (Oops) photo!

Cheers and maybe we will see you at the next one. Every Wednesday from 4:00pm to 7:00pm.

First Thursday In Boise – July 1

02 Friday Jul 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Boise Adventures, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Things To Do, What's For Dinner?

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During the summer, there are just so many things to do in Boise. The First Thursday celebrations are no exception. We were looking for a specific art exhibit, but were really disappointed when we found it. So, we had to find a place to eat. We ate at the Cazba, a Mediterranean restaurant – Greek, Egyptian, Lebanon style food. That is where we met Lynette Berriochoa from Cypress Tours, tours of food and wine in Italy.