Ah yes! Life in the kitchen in one of the hottest July’s on record at The Captain’s Shack (The Shack). But so much fun to make and serve. Some of these dishes are “eye candy”, too. Some have recipes; Some don’t. (If you want a recipe, just let me know. I’ll see what I can do.) As with most photos on this blog, Left Click them and see them enlarged. Enjoy these photos and if you make any of the recipes, let us know how you liked them. Thanks and Cheers!

Here is the recipe: Idaho Trout Nage

with
Tomato and Bacon Sourdough Toast

Recipe: Crab Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

Recipe: Chicken Yakitori
We modified the Yakitori sauce somewhat and have our own Teriyaki sauce that we use. Here are the recipes: Sauce Recipes.
From Our Kitchen To Yours!
18 Wednesday May 2016
Posted Acme Bake Shop Breads, Alley Gardens, Appetizers, Apricots, Arugula, Avocado, Backyard Garden, Bacon, Baking, Basque Bread, BFM, Boise Area Food Adventures, Boise Farmers Market, Breakfast At The Captains Shack, Brussels Sprouts, Buy Idaho, Cabbage, Captain's Shack, Comfort Food, Crab Cakes, Dessert, Dinner At The Captains Shack, Eggs, Greek Food, Green Salad, Healthy Eating, Herbs, Herbs and Spices, Ice Cream, Idaho Chicken, Idaho Dairy, Idaho Eggs, Idaho Greens, Idaho Lamb, Idaho Vegetables, Local Markets, Meadowlark Farms, Ohana Micro Greens, Omelet, Photos By: Bob Young, Rice Family Farms, Salads, Sausage, Scallops, Seafood, Spice Blends, Spices, Spring Greens, True Roots Produce, What's For Dinner?
inTags
It could be anything! But hopefully, it’s always pretty good. Mostly healthy and always has a local product element. Local. That’s what we try to feature always! Beef, pork, lamb, seafood, greens, fruit, vegetables, eggs, mushrooms, sprouts. You get the idea. And what’s even more fun – sometimes … most times – is preparing the meals. Here are a few photos of some of the dishes we have made recently. If there is a recipe for the item, it may be in the recipe file as listed above or you can look for it by Clicking Here.
We were going to make Greek kabobs and I wanted to find a good Greek herb blend. There is a really good Greek restaurant near us, Mazzah Mediterrean and every time I walk by it, I get this wonderfully awesome aroma of Greek spices. So I found this chart of cultural Spice Blends. We used the Greek Spice and added Sumac and Marjoram. If you are looking for a particular blend, this may help. Save the image and print it out if you need to.

I recently saw an article where folks were planting vegetables and herbs in their front yard, instead of grass! Talk about local and fresh! But we have been doing this for years. Our front lawns, as small as it might be, is our herb garden. Pretty blooms. Great smells and absolutely fresh herbs. Something to think about.

Green Salad with Carrot Strings and Micro Greens
Greens and carrots for the salad are all local.

on
Spinach and 5 Greek Cheese Filo
Sausage Links
Apricot Chunks
Local eggs, sausage and spinach.

with
Shaved Radish and Fresh Miners Lettuce
All local from the Boise Farmers Market (I’m there every week!)
So there you have it. Not 100% local, but darn close. And this time of year with the Boise Farmers Market being open, it gets easier to buy those local products. Plus, our herb gardens are in full swing – bloom! Enjoy.
Oktoberfest At Capitol Cellars
08 Thursday Oct 2015
Posted 5-Stars, Anthropology of Food, Boise Adventures, Boise Restaurants, Brats, Buy Idaho, Cabbage, Capitol Cellars, Chef David Shipley, Classic Cuisines, Dinner at Capitol Cellars, Dinner With Friends, Dinner With Robin, Ethnic Foods, German Food, Herbs, Ice Cream, Idaho Chefs, Idaho Pork, Local Harvests, Party Time, Photos By: Bob Young, Pork, Restaurants, Restaurants To Try, Special Dinners, What's For Dinner?, Wine and Food, Wine Dinners at Capitol Cellars, Wines - German
inTags
What a wonderful dinner at Capitol Cellars in Boise to celebrate Oktoberfest!! Every bit a 5-Star dinner and celebration! We made some new friends as we sat at a table for 6. And that really added to the enjoyment of the evening. Sharing food comments. Wine comments. Beer comments. Logan Smyser and Exec Chef Dave Shipley did another wonderful job. Logan pouring and Chef Dave and his crew in the kitchen. From their website,
Capitol Cellars, LLC is a throwback to old world ideals and a different, slower way of living. To us, the kitchen is a holy place and meals are about enjoying the food as well as the camaraderie around the table. Adjusting our menu to suit the seasons, we follow nature and how its bounty is intended. This ensures the culinary creations you order and we prepare are made with the freshest and most flavorful ingredients.

Logan serves the beer, in this case a Hofbrau Oktoberfest. Great with our dinner. The slightly sweet component went very well with Bison Brätwurst, see below.

with
Yukon gold potato, onion, chive, parsley and apple cider vinegar
2014 P.J. Valekenberg Pinot Blanc

with
braised red cabbage, all blue potato puree, mustard cream sauce
Hofbrau Oktoberfest
“A bratwurst (German: [ˈbʁaːtvʊɐ̯st], also known as a brat in American English, is a sausage usually composed of veal, pork or beef. The name is derived from Old High German Brätwurst, from brät-, which is finely chopped meat and Wurst, or sausage. Though the brat in bratwurst described the way the sausages are made, modern Germans associate it with the German verb “braten”, which means to pan fry or roast. Bratwurst is usually grilled or pan fried, and sometimes cooked in broth or beer.” [Wikipedia]

with
breaded (Panco) Kurobuta pork cutlets, red wine mushroom sauce, whole grain mustard spaetzle, braised Swiss chard and garlic chips
2012 Pfluger Pinot St Laurent
In my opinion, this was the best wine of the evening! Fruity with cherries. Slightly hot with higher alcohol. Very smooth. The red wine mushroom sauce was superb!
Happy Birthday Sophia!
09 Saturday May 2015
Posted 5-Stars, Anthropology of Food, Boise Restaurants, Caesar Salad, Chardonnay, Classic Sauces, Coffee, Dinner With Family, Dinner With Robin, Herbs, Herbs and Spices, Ice Cream, Italian foods, Local Markets, Luciano's Italian Restaurant, Mother's Day, Party Time, Photos By: Bob Young, Restaurant Reviews, Restaurants, Restaurants To Try, Salads, What's For Dessert?, What's For Dinner?
inTags
What a wonderful place to celebrate a birthday – Luciano’s Italian Restaurant in Boise. Every bit a 5-Star restaurant. Good and accurate service. Great and varied menu and a really super Waite staff. Asiago’s – Look out! We hope, Sophia, that you enjoyed your Birthday Meal as much as we enjoyed celebrating with you. Here are some photos that I took of the dinner. Sorry we missed you, Chris. This was also Robin’s Mothers Day dinner, but we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

The bar area that is also a waiting area. There is a shelter outside where the over flow can congregate.

Caesar Salad – Really good. “Chopped romaine lettuce, classic house made Caesar dressing, and croutons with fresh parmesan, lemon and anchovies.”

Seafood Fettuccini “Prawns, sea scallops, clams, mussels and crab in our seafood alfredo sauce with garlic and fresh parmesan.”

Spumone – Chocolate, Pistachio and Strawberry ice cream. Maraschino cherry juice in the bottom. “Rich cherry, pistachio, and chocolate ice cream, mixed with candied fruit and pistachios garnished with home made whipped cream, silvered almonds and a maraschino cherry”

Tiramisu – “A classic Italian dessert with rum and espresso soaked lady fingers layered with sweet mascarpone cheese, cocoa then topped with rum sauce.”

Chocolate Cake – “Four layers of decadent moist chocolate cake filled with chocolate cream and a bittersweet chocolate ganache icing.”
Just a super party!!
Salmon For Dinner; Ice Cream For Dessert
23 Monday Jun 2014
Posted Boise Farmers Market, Captain's Shack, Classic Sauces, Cooking Styles, Dinner At The Captains Shack, Dinner With Robin, Fruit, Healthy Eating, Heirloom Tomatoes, Herbed Hollandaise Sauce, Herbs, Hollandaise Sauce, Ice Cream, Local Farmers Markets, Local Harvests, Local Markets, Oils, Photos By: Bob Young, Salad, Salmon, Seafood, Spinach, What's For Dinner?
inRidge Winery Lamb Meatloaf
13 Sunday Apr 2014
Posted Acme Bake Shop, Acme Bake Shop Sourdough, Apricots, Boise Artisan Bakery's, Boise Farmers Market, Bread, Breakfast, Buy Idaho, Captain's Shack, Comfort Food, Dinner At The Captains Shack, Fruits, Herbs and Spices, Ice Cream, Lamb, Local Farmers Markets, Local Harvests, Local Markets, Mahi Mahi, Party Time, Photos By: Bob Young, Recipe: Bob and Robin Young, Ridge Winery, Shrimp, Sourdough Bread, Sriracha Chili Sauce, What's For Dinner?, Wine and Food
inTags
lamb, Lamb Meatloaf, Ridge Winery, Ridge Winery Lamb Meatloaf, Ridge Winery Lytton East Zinfandel, sriracha
The other evening when we were at a Ridge Winery tasting, they suggested to go with their Estate Cabernet Sauvignon to have a Ridge Winery Lamb Meatloaf. We did not have any of the cab, but we do have some 2003 Ridge Winery Lytton East Zinfandel and it is an awesome wine! We still have 5 bottles in our storage. We made the meatloaf and it too is awesome. Look at these photos I took of the dinner and the the Sunday morning breakfast consisting of a Shrimp and Fresh Asparagus Omelet. Yummers!

Baked Idaho Potato
with
Crème Fraîche and Chives
Fresh Green Salad
with
Carrot Strings and Tomatoes
Fresh Idaho Asparagus
with
Idaho Wild Garlic

And then for breakfast Sunday morning, something simple and easy and non-complicated. A change of pace!
Acme Bake Shop Toasted Sourdough
And just as a note: The lamb is from the Felzien Family Farm where we get all of our fresh lamb. The eggs are from Meadowlark Farms, where we get all of our eggs. The asparagus and garlic are from the River View Gardens. The sourdough bread is from our favorite bakery Acme Bake Shop. The carrots were from Rice Family Farms. We really do try to keep our food supply local and we do Buy Idaho! Cheers.
Sweet Dessert
11 Friday Apr 2014
Posted Apricots, Captain's Shack, Dessert, Fruit, Ice Cream, Photos By: Bob Young, Pound Cake, What's For Dessert?
inTags
Personally, I think anytime that you can get good ones – notice I said good ones – is the perfect time for apricots. And when we can not get our fruit fresh off the tree, pick them ourselves, or from our local Farmers Market, then we go to Hood-Crest (Muirhead Canning) and buy one of the 6-pack of great fruits. Last night, Robin asked if we had any of the fruit left. I checked. Apricots, plums and pears. She said that we should have the apricots. So here is what I made. Simple. Easy. Good! Enjoy!
Sweet Mustard Chicken Thighs
09 Wednesday Apr 2014
Tags
beet greens, beets, chicken, chicken thighs, Idaho wine, red pepper flakes, Sweet Mustard Chicken
This was a great alternative to fried or the basic baked chicken. A little sweet from the brown sugar and a little tangy from the mustard, without the strong mustard presence. I did tweak the recipe a little since the cayenne made it a little to hot for us. Changed it to red pepper flakes. Plus the sauce was not thick enough and just a little bland. You can see the recipe here: Sweet Mustard Chicken Thighs. It is in PDF format. I suppose that if you don’t like chicken thighs – second joints – you can use legs or breasts but make sure they still have the skin on and bone-in. And the wine went extremely well with the dinner. The wine is from Idaho as were the beets, beet greens and strawberries. Enjoy!