Category Archives: Special Information

Grilling vs Broiling

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by in Gameday, Grillin' and Chillin', Party Time, Photos By: Bob Young, Special Information, What's For Dinner?

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Nope! It’s not Springtime in the Rockies. Or in Boise. But, with the Super Bowl just around the corner, it could be time for grilling, if the weather cooperates. Or maybe we should just broil. Your choice this time of year. (But I’ve been known to brush the snow off the grill and have a great time grilling!)

Here is some information on Grilling vs Broiling from Derrick Riches from About (dot) com. Here is an excerpt from that article.

For whatever reason, there are times when you just can’t go out back to grill. It’s these times when you need to know the basics of broiling in your oven. There are similarities and differences that can make your broiling successful. Many recipes give instructions on the use of a broiler as an alternative to grilling, but they just don’t explain the fundamental differences that you need to know.

Grilling and broiling both use intense direct heat to cook foods. They both require the same watchful eye to avoid burning. And they both provide a similar charring and caramelization that give food that distinct flavor. However, grills and broilers work differently to achieve these goals.

… And like a grill you want to preheat the surface that is going to be in contact with the food so preheat the broiler pan. Since you are cooking by direct heat you don’t have to worry about preheating the oven itself.

Click on the link above to read the rest of the article and get ready for the Super Bowl or the Senior Bowl this Saturday, January 28 on the NFL Network. Enjoy!

Change In Blog Elements

24 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in Special Information, What's For Dinner?

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There comes a time when web pages and or blogs must be updated or changed in some manner. Now is the time for the Boise Foodie Guild blog to re-design. I am taking the Special Pages Index from the sidebar and placing it directly under the header. Look for it just above this article and click Home to return to here.
There are several restaurants in Boise that we use as our benchmarks.

  1. The Buzz – A great bistro and wine restaurant that has some awesome home cooked and prepared meals. Look for their monthly Wine Club Dinners.

  2. Le Café de Paris – Great French cooking, bakery items and the occasional Thursday night special wine dinners.
  3. Sushi Joy – Superb Asian cuisine. Definitely a Boise benchmark for this ethnic food.
  4. Brown Shuga Soul Food – A change in cuisine tastes. Awesome Soul Food like Collard Greens, Black-Eyed Peas, Pulled Pork, Fried Chicken and Sweet Potato Pie to name just a few. Truly authenic.
  5. El Gallo Giro – In Kuna, just south of Boise. Absolutely the best Mexican food in the area.

As I get these pages developed, you will see them listed above. And you will probably see the categories that I have established. They are all based mostly on ethnic foods – that is, specialized to a specific region in the culinary world. We are extremely lucky here in Boise because we have a very large selection of diversified restaurants. Whatever your taste or desire, you will probably find it in Boise or close-by. The object is not to list every restaurant in Boise of different foods. I will only list those that we think are the best within a specific style. An interesting project, to say the least.

Brown Shuga Soul Food, Boise

13 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in Brown Shuga, Main Dish, Soul Food, Special Dinners, Special Information, What's For Dinner?

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Need and want something different for dinner tonight? Try this –

Brown Shuga Soul Food is having BBq chicken and pulled pork for lunch today will only be on Chinden til 2pm today. Then moving to the Red lion downtown this evening from 5 till 9pm for our monthly food truck rally tonight. The menu for dinner will be bacon and potato soup, mac and cheese, black eyed peas and bbq chicken with peach cobbler for dessert.

Let Yvonne know you saw the menu here on this blog. If she sends the menus, I’ll post it! Cheers and enjoy the food!

Kiffle Kulture

09 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in Dessert, German Recipes, Party Time, Pennsylvania Dutch, Special Information

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So what is Kiffle Kulture?
From Living Here In Allentown, we find that Kiffle Kulture is:

… the kiffle is ubiquitous around homes in the Lehigh Valley and can even be found in local supermarkets depending on the time of year. However, the kiffle is not traditional to the Pa. Dutch nor was it traditional to the Palatine on the Rhine region of Germany from which the Pa. Dutch emigrated. In fact, the kiffle’s roots are much further East in the Austro-Hungarian empire. It was brought to the Lehigh Valley by eastern-European and Slavic immigrants around the turn of the twentieth century.
I don’t know too much about the food-history of the kiffle. I can’t even find an etymology of the word in Hungarian, English, or German. They are a simple pastry made from flour, eggs, butter, and cream cheese. Unfortunately, they have to be homemade if you want top quality. Kiffles bought from the store taste flat and dull to me. (They are also quite expensive and not worth the money). Additionally, I am told that there is only one commercial baker in the Lehigh Valley who supplies all other retail markets so it is unlikely that quality in the retail kiffle market is going to rise anytime soon.

The link above will take you to the recipe and more information on this dessert. Have fun with this recipe and the blog page from Allentown, PA. (The photo is from that blog.) Thanks John Jay for sharing this information. Cheers!

Yeast

01 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by in German Recipes, Special Information, Things To Do, Thought For The Day, Yeast

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Here is an interesting study of yeast and a great resource link. I got this information at one of the food blogs I read, My Best German Recipes. (Sign-Up for their weekly posts.) The complete article can be found by following this link: All About Yeast. There is a good recipe for making a sponge starter, poolish, or levain.

Yeast Dictionary

German Baking is using a lot of yeast and some recipes require fresh yeast. In any case you should have questions about yeast, this post will clarify it.
Source: Leaven Yeast, the Cooks Thesaurus. (This link will give you the same information as the link above, just a different site.)

Yeast Notes: Yeast is a one-celled fungus that converts sugar and starch into carbon dioxide bubbles and alcohol. This has made it a useful ally in the production of bread, beer, and wine. There are many varieties of yeast. Bread is made with baker’s yeast, which creates lots of bubbles that become trapped in the dough, making the bread rise so it’s light and airy when baked. A small amount of alcohol is also produced, but this burns off as the bread bakes. Beer yeast and wine yeast are used to convert sugar into alcohol and, in the case of beer and champagne, bubbles. You should never eat raw active yeast, since it will continue to grow in your intestine and rob your body of valuable nutrients. But once deactivated through pasteurization, yeast is a good source of nutrients. Brewer’s yeast and nutritional yeast, for example, are sold as nutritional supplements, and Australians are fond of yeast extracts–like Vegemite, Marmite, and Promite–which they spread like peanut butter on bread.

Read the complete article by following this link: All About Yeast. Enjoy!

Salmon with Lemon Curd

13 Sunday Nov 2011

Posted by in Main Dish, Salmon, Seafood, Special Information, What's For Dinner?

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The other day, we had a very good salmon at Shige here in Boise. See Dinner At Shige on this blog. So this past Friday, we decided to have salmon again. We do try to eat seafood at least twice a week and we keep a supply on hand. Robin asked how I was going to make it and I told her with a little fresh tarragon. She suggested that I try it with lemon curd. Good idea! It is Mackays Lemon Curd (Mackays Lemon Curd)and we get it from the World Market here in Boise.

I took two salmon filets, 4 oz each, and placed them on a pyrex dish that had some olive oil spread on it, about 1 teaspoon. Then I put about 1 teaspoon of the lemon curd on both sides and baked the fish at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes and then on broil for 5 minutes. Served this with a vegetable mixture that was steamed and it was awesome. Try it —– You’ll like it.

Watermelon – The Superfruit

11 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by in Special Information, Watermelon, What's For Dinner?

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Robin found this in the Idahostatesman today, 11/11/11. Interesting reading. Enjoy!

You Docs: There’s a new superfruit in town
The You Docs Tip of the Day:

– Statesman wire services
Published: 11/11/11

http://www.idahostatesman.com/youdocs
Unless you live in San Diego or Key Largo, scribbling watermelon on your grocery list in November is about as likely as the Cardinals winning the World Series. Be like the Cards: Do it anyway! Watermelon’s racking up health points. The latest:

1. Watermelon degunks arteries. Swapping watermelon juice for water reduces body fat, lowers LDL cholesterol and — the biggest effect — cleans heart-threatening plaque out of arteries. Early days on this research, but it fits.

2. It drops your blood pressure and boosts circulation. Watermelon is one of the few food sources of citrulline, a protein that’s a real powerhouse. Got borderline hypertension? Citrulline lowers systolic blood pressure by as much as nine points, enough to prevent full-blown hypertension. That’s because it helps produce nitric oxide, powerful stuff that opens and relaxes your arteries. Citrulline also turbocharges blood flow, enhancing circulation to all your vital parts (much the way Viagra does). And citrulline helps wound healing and cell division.

3. It’s loaded with lycopene. This potent plant polyphenol is thought to fend off heart disease and some cancers (though prostate cancer looks like a bust). Tomatoes are considered the lycopene all-stars, but cup for cup, watermelon has 40 percent more.

4. It’s naturally low-cal. There are only 96 calories in two fill-you-full cups of sweet watermelon.
Whether you slice it, dice it or juice it, eat watermelon year-round, not just on the Fourth of July. Happily, it’s increasingly a salad-bar staple. And, yes, you can buy 100 percent watermelon juice; if your local health-food store doesn’t have it, Amazon.com does.

The You Docs — Mehmet Oz, host of “The Dr. Oz Show” and Mike Roizen of Cleveland Clinic — are authors of “YOU: Losing Weight.” To submit questions, go to www. RealAge.com. A King Features syndicate.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/11/11/1873548/theres-a-new-superfruit-in-town.html#ixzz1dRJVko5r

It Must Be Halloween In The Bronco Nation!

28 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by in Bronco Nation, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Special Information, Things To Do

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I have only seen three blue pumpkins this year. Maybe we’ll start a trend!

Happy Halloween!

Cucina Gemelli in Twin Falls Has Moved!

18 Tuesday Oct 2011

Posted by in Cucina Gemelli, Special Information, Things To Do, What's For Dinner?

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I read his on Facebook about Cucina Gemelli in Twin Falls. Thanks to Owner/Chef Lynn Sheehan for this information. It is an excellent restaurant and well worth the trip to eat here. (The address on the graphic is incorrect! The correct address is in the article.) Cheers!

CUCINA GEMELLI HAS MOVED!!

Yesterday, with the help of our great staff and many friends, we completed moving to our new location in the Historic Warehouse District of Twin Falls (233 5th Ave. South). The new digs are part of an old 1920s brick building that once upon a time was the food distribution depot for Magic Valley markets. High ceilings, big sunny windows, and a wide covered patio (the former “loading dock”) make the space warm and inviting.

For the coming few weeks, we’ll be hard at work remodeling, restoring, and coming up with delicious new menu items! Stay tuned for an update about our Grand Opening Party in the first week of November – it’s going to be a doozy… you won’t want to miss it!

Oh… for any of our customers who have Times-News Gift Certificates: don’t worry! We’ll be extending the expiration dates for a whole month – til the end of November.

Backyard Chickens!!

10 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by in Special Events, Special Information

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Gretchen Anderson, author of Backyard Chicken Fight, had this posted on her Facebook page. (Left-Click the graphic to view full screen) If you make the program, let her know you saw it here! Here is what she says about the evening. Enjoy!

What to do with the “girls” in the winter? Never fear! Chickens are actually pretty easy to care for in the colder months. Come to one of these workshops and learn!
For those of you who want a fun evening and to learn the tricks and tips of “wintering the girls” here is a schedule of workshops around Idaho. The only workshop that has a cost is Boise Community Ed (part of the $15.50 tuition includes a FREE book!)