Friday Nite Buzz And 1st Saturday Market

21 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by Bob and Robin in Appetizers, Local Farmers Markets, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Red Feather/Bittercreek, Special Events

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The first day of the Boise Saturday Market!!! Yea. It looks like there was going to be a good sized crowd today. This photo was taken at about 10:00am, thirty minutes after opening, and it looks full. The market has grown this year, too. It’s bigger and Better! Enjoy these photos of the activities this weekend, at least some of the activities. The Buzz and the Boise Saturday Market are a great way to start this weekend. Plus great weather – clear skies, gentle breeze and 76 degrees!

Malbecs were featured on the Friday Night Tasting at the Buzz. Good selection! We just might make this a regular. Good wines. Good food and Good friends.

This was a super, awesome appetizer that Cristi came up with – Shrimpcargot Shrimp in a crimini mushroom cap with green onion, cheese and a garlic butter sauce.

Gnocchi, Baked Sweet Potato Fries and Green Salad. Great bistro food.

Great crisp with coffee ice cream

Our friends Geno and Debra who are back in Boise for a while after being in Arizona and Alabama. Welcome back!

Eggs Benedict from the Red Feather Lounge at the Saturday Market. The food was good … can’t really say that about the service. Maybe because it was very busy at the market. We’ll give them another chance.

Some of the people at the market. It was getting crowded.

And just to prove that it is Spring in the Treasure Valley, here are Gennieve’s flowers. Wisteria, and red and yellow tulips.

Treasure Valley Food Coalition

26 Friday Aug 2011

Posted by Bob and Robin in Party Time, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Red Feather/Bittercreek, Special Events, Special Information

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It was great to be part of the Treasure Valley Food Coalition program last night, Dinner and a Movie. (The movie never arrived!) It was a great discussion night and hearing what others are doing in regards to their own sustainability. I.E., raising backyard chickens and writing a book about chickens. Creating hydroponic gardens so as to have fresh vegetables all winter. Backyard, frontyard, alley and raised bed gardens. Look in the sidebar for the link to the Treasure Valley Food Coalition.

And once again, it was great to have the Red Feather Lounge in Boise providing a fantastic, locally produced dinner for us. Look at the photos below for the wonderful entrees we had.

Broccoli Soup

Buffalo and Vegetable Pasta

Mixed Local Fruit with Whipped Cream

And to slightly change the subject, we read in the August 24 – 30, 2011 issue of the Boise Weekly an article named Bye Bye Mystery Meat – Farm to School program brings local produce to cafeterias. The article, written by Tara Morgan starts off by stating that:

If you grab a plastic tray and shuffle through an Idaho school lunch line this fall, things will look a bit different than you might remember. In addition to whole grain pasta and brown rice, you’re also likely to find a Healthy Choices salad bar and bright posters advertising “incredible edible Idaho” grapes or honey.

“More than 70 percent of our schools in Idaho are serving locally grown food, but nobody knows about it,” said Heidi Martin, Idaho State Department of Education Child Nutrition Programs coordinator.

Read the entire article so that you are not one of the people that do not know about the schools in Idaho using locally produced products. That’s what the Treasure Valley Food Coalition and the Sustainable Community Connections (Links in the sidebar) is all about – to use locally produced agricultural products at home, in the school systems and in locally run restaurants. The Red Feather Lounge is but one of the restaurants in town that really advertise the use of local products. See their link in the sidebar or above. Cheers and Think Local please, whether you are in Boise, Twin Falls, Moscow, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta or wherever.

20 X 20 Affair at Red Feather Lounge in Boise

22 Monday Aug 2011

Posted by Bob and Robin in Local Harvests, Locavore, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Red Feather/Bittercreek, Things To Do

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20% of your food purchased and consumed from local farmers and restaurants by 2020! That should really be possible. I know Robin and I really do try to adhere to this. As an example, I can 13 items each year of which 8 are produce totally from the products of the local farming community or from our garden or friends gardens. That’s 62! We get our freezer packed full of local lamb each year from a local 4-H farmer. And we use buffalo raised at the Brown’s Buffalo Ranch in Nyssa, Idaho.

This past weekend, we had the delightful experience to attend the 20X20, 20 course dinner for $20.00 at the Red Feather Lounge in Boise. (The photo on the right shows part of their wine cellar. Pretty photo, but not necessarily part of this program. ) The idea was to raise funds for the Sustainable Community Connections. Furthermore, the Treasure Valley food Coalition states on their web site that, “The Treasure Valley Food Coalition, a program of Sustainable Community Connections, is a network of community members working together to create a sustainable local food system.

Statement of Purpose
Supporting sustainable agriculture, our local food system and community food security in the Treasure Valley. All Treasure Valley citizens deserve access to affordable, fresh, local, sustainably produced food.” With all of this in mind, please do visit these two web sites and enjoy the photos of the meal that we were served. Many, many thanks to the Red Feather Lounge and their staff for closing the restaurant to the public and allowing us to have this program. Thanks too, to the Service Staff! Enjoy the photos! Left-Click any photo to see full screen.

Friends of ours, who we have not seen in several years, Robert and Annie Malcolm Moore.

Check this menu out. And yes, the drinks were included. The drinks I likes best? Number 1, Fuzzy Leopard (vodka, basil, lemon/lime) and Number 7, Arancita Bebida (gin, orange and olive oil)

Chicken Salad Tea Sandwich

Tomato Apricot Crostini

Soft Boiled Egg and Anchovy Aioli

Summer Squash Fritters and Pesto

Cucumber and Lox

Grilled Halloumi with Cherries
(I liked this one as one of the best)

Papas Bravas with Garlic Aioli

German Meatballs (Pork and Beef)

Pastry Cream and Fresh Market Berries
(I liked this one as one of the best)

Raspberry Red Velvet Cake

I planted this Quince bush in our Alley Garden last year. This is the first of the quinces that the bush produced. It has nothing to do with this dinner except to let the readers know that you can plant a productive garden any place!!

I know, we need Smellivision to get the full effect of these photos. Just believe me: It was delicious! Cheers! And remember: Think Local! We do.

TVFC Hosts "Dinner and a Movie"

29 Friday Apr 2011

Posted by Bob and Robin in Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Red Feather/Bittercreek, Special Information, Things To Do, What's For Dinner?

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On April 28, Dave Crick, Owner of the Red Feather Lounge and the Bittercreek Ale House in Boise, hosted the monthly Dinner and a Movie event for the Treasure Valley Food Coalition. From their web page, “2011: The Year of Idaho Food is a grass-roots, year-long, statewide look at the surprising variety of foods grown in Idaho — and not simply focusing on the foods themselves, but also on the social, economic and environmental significance of those foods. The Treasure Valley Food Coalition is one of many statewide organizations that are involved in the celebration.” You can also find more information about the “Year of Idaho Food” at Guy Hand’s Northwest Food News. Basically, as Dave Crick explained, it is a “20/20” program – 20% of the food on your table is Idaho produced by 2020. The dinner tonight, created by Dave Crick and the Red Feather Lounge, is an example of that goal. Cheers!

Cold Springs Winery Hot Rod Red Blend – Hammett, ID
Cold Springs Winery

Green Salad with Fiddlehead Fern

Salmon Risotto

Beignet with House Butterscotch

One fascinating point brought out during the discussion after the movie – and there were several points – was that the average distance a dinner product travels from producer to your table in Idaho is 1500 miles. This is why the Treasure Valley Food Coalition and other organizations in Idaho, are so involved in the “Eat Local” program and the “Year of Idaho Food” program. Think the Saturday Markets in Boise and in other cities and towns throughout the state. And support these ventures. We all have some space for a small, yet productive garden. Try raised beds. Patio pots. Window boxes. Alley strips. They all work quite well. Thanks to Dave Crick and his staff at the Red Feather Lounge and the Bittercreek Ale House for their hospitality and the wonderful meal. Thanks to Janie Burns, Meadowlark Farms, for organizing this program at the Red Feather Lounge. Here is a link to other Resources about the sustainable food program. Cheers and think local!

Boise Saturday Market and Red Feather Lounge

13 Saturday Nov 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Red Feather/Bittercreek, Restaurants, What's For Dinner?

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We had a wonderful breakfast this morning at the Red Feather Lounge in Boise and next to the Boise City Market. We met our friend Barbara there for breakfast. We have known her since about 1984, but have not seen her for several years. It was good to catch up on “old times”

Then it was time to walk through the Boise Market to try to find some products to purchase and to locate some people we wanted to meet. There is one vendor there – they used to own the Sweetwater Cafe – that we wanted to find who makes dog food and dog biscuits, but they were not there. Maybe next time.

I did find Nonna’s of Sun Valley who we met on Facebook. It was great to visit with them for a short time and to sample their sauces. Here is information gleaned from their information sheet. The photo on the left is of John and Carolina. Their business card below will give you a little more information.

Nonna’s of Sun Valley
PO Box 3122
Sun Valley, Idaho 83353

Carolina Belfiore Stevens,Owner/Creator (208) 720-3100
John Stevens, Marketing/Sales (208) 720-5795

“Nonna’s of Sun Valley offers Traditional Tomato Sauces and Dinners made locally in Idaho using Old World Recipes. In our family, recipes were not written on paper but rather learned through experiences. I would follow my grandmother around the house and garden, collecting ingredients and preparing “Sunday” dinner. We used the freshest and most local ingredients, same as we do today. Our signature sauces are Marinara Sauce, Red Wine Marinara Sauce, Puttanesca Sauce and Vodka Cream Sauce which are available all year long … We use Muir Glen 100% Organic Tomatoes in all our products. We use the highest quality natural ingredients and whenever possible, we use local ingredients such as Ballard Cheeses, Blue Ice Vodka and Cloverleaf Dairy Cream. We purchase many ingredients from Fair Mountain Farm in Fairfield, ID., Kings Crown Organics in King Hill, ID., MM Heath Farms in Buhl, ID., Peaceful Belly in Boise, ID, Rice Family Farms in Meridian, ID., Sweet Valley Organics in Star, ID, Wood River Organics in Bellevue, ID. And many more Idaho farms.”

But then I did find some very good Pine Bark Toffee made with pine nuts and sunflower seeds. A very different and amazing flavor to toffee. Here is some information about them.

Here is their business card with all their information. I don’t know if they ship or not. You will have to contact them directly.

And yes, it’s time to think Turkey. Fresh Turkey! Thanksgiving Turkey! Maybe this will help to get you in the spirit. Hope so.

That was our morning on this cool – almost cold – fall morning in Boise. Enjoy and check these businesses out. They will appreciate it. Cheers!

Lunch At The Bittercreek Ale House

02 Tuesday Nov 2010

Posted by Bob and Robin in Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Red Feather/Bittercreek, Restaurants, Things To Do, What's For Dinner?

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It’s been a while since we have been to the Bittercreek Ale House in Boise, but it is still pretty good fixins’. We usually go to the Red Feather Lounge, Bittercreek’s kissing cousin next door, but only because we are way to early and usually on a Saturday. Red Feather Lounge has a great breakfast and super dinners. So after voting today, we took ourselves out to lunch. Here is what we had. Enjoy. We did. And when in Boise, this is a good place to eat. Cheers!

BC Burger with Bacon
Chipotle Corn Soup
New Belgium Lips of Faith Special Release, Sahti (Finland)

BLT
Fish Brewing Co., Spire Mountain Dark and Dry Hard Apple Cider

Bicycles

The lunches were very good as were the beer and the hard cider. I do like a good corn soup, Chicken Corn Soup from Lancaster or Lehigh Counties in Pennsylvania to be exact, but this Chipotle Corn Soup was superb. I liked it that much. $28.00 for lunch for the two of us. Cheers!