Seafood For the Preakness Stakes Race

20 Sunday May 2012

Posted by Bob and Robin in Oysters, Party Time, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Seafood, Shell Fish, What's For Dinner?

Seeing as how the Preakness Stakes are in Baltimore, it is only fitting to have seafood for the party. (Thank-You Margaret for joining us!) I bought 8 nice and fresh medium oysters from Reel Foods here in town. After shucking them without leaving my DNA all over the place, we had them with a wonderful Champagne vinegar, cracked Tellicherry Pepper and Green Onion. Wonderful! Then we also had some fine diced cucumber, too. These turned out really great.

The crab cakes, on the other hand, tasted great, but they fell apart. The mayo, chili sauce, green tomato relish and Cholula pepper sauce was good and made the crab cakes awesome. The party went fine and we all enjoyed ourselves. We even opened some of our 1995, well aged, dark beer that we made. Now for the Belmont. Can we get Coneys? and grill them? with sauerkraut and mustard? Hmmmm.

Pallet Garden Update

19 Saturday May 2012

Posted by Bob and Robin in Alley Gardens, Boise Adventures, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young

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Here are two photos of the pallet garden. The first is right after I built it and planted it on April 28. The second photo was taken today, May 19, and shows the growth. Left-Click to see full screen.

This is really an interesting process and experiment. It looks like it is working. What will I do with the tomatoes on the top? Keep them trimmed to the make-shift cages. Should be interesting.

Baked Salmon and Cumin Sour Cream Sauce

19 Saturday May 2012

Posted by Bob and Robin in Party Time, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Salmon, What's For Dinner?

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They may be calling for snow in the mountains tonight, but we had this awesome salmon for dinner.

Baked Copper River Salmon
with
cumin/sour cream sauce, capers, sauteed crimini mushrooms and spring onions

Buttered Corn

Spinach and Romaine Salad
with
sliced strawberries and pear/gorganzola dressing

2010 Shy Chenin Chennin Blanc

You just can not go wrong with a dinner like this. Fun to prep, cook, serve and especially eat. Can’t beat that salmon. Cheers!

Rhone Night at Le Café de Paris

18 Friday May 2012

Posted by Bob and Robin in Ethnic Foods, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Traditional Food, What's For Dinner?, Wine Dinners

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Wow! Another fabulous dinner at Le Café de Paris last night. We were treated to Dinner In The Rhone. A wonderful meal and Café de Paris still holds their 5-Star (out of 5) rating. If you would like to see more detail on the restaurant, please look at . The service tonight was more relaxed than I have seen it in some time. There are also some new faces. And the food was again, wonderful! Here are some photos of our meal. Enjoy! We did.

These are the two wines that we chose. Out of these two, we picked one.

This is the one we picked. A Rhone blend that went very well with our meal. 14% alcohol made it somewhat “hot”, but it was fruity enough to blend well with the meal. Besides, it has a great label.

Caviar des Canutes
Saucisson Brioché
traditional lyonnaise style lentil salad, with brioche wrapped garlic saucisson sausage

Salade Verte
field greens, roquefort bleu cheese crumbles, house vinaigrette

Poulet Farcis aux Morilles
sauce mercière, spring onion gratin, seasonal vegetable
(Out of the two entrees, we liked this best.)

Quenelles de Brochet
chardonnay braised river pike, watercress sayboyon, sautéed butter beans
(Loved those butter beans)

Bugnes Lyonnaise
Poire au Beaujolais
lyonnaise style beignet, red wine poached pears

Open-faced Fish Tacos

17 Thursday May 2012

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

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Robin came up with this really fantastic Open-faced Fish Tacos. Using rolled out and browned in Crisco, she used Grand Biscuits. Then a sour cream, lime and cumin mixture is spread on the browned rolls. (Left-Click the photo and go full screen to see the layers.) We used talapia and placed that on the rolls. Topped with shredded cabbage, cilantro, avocado and a dollop of the sour cream mixture. Add to that a Pico de Gallo I made this afternoon that has diced English cucumber added to the tomato and green onions, and you have an awesome sandwich. Serve with an iced mixture of unsweetened Pomegranate juice, fresh made ginger ale, lime juice and a splash of Cholula Hot Sauce and you’ve got a super treat! We’ll have this again …. guaranteed! Enjoy.

Chicken Florentine

16 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by Bob and Robin in Chicken, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, What's For Dinner?

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Such a dinner –

Chicken Florentine
with
Almond Milk Bechamel and Roasted Pine Nuts

Romaine and Sliced Beet Salad
with
Pear Gorgonzola Vinaigrette Dressing

2010 Shy Chenin Chennin Blanc

Rolling the pounded fillet – Lemon Thyme, Mexican Tarragon, Toasted Pine Nuts and Fresh Spinach

The rolled chicken in the pan ready for the oven. 395 degrees F for about 30 minutes. Tooth pics are used to hold the roll together.

Dinner is plated

The cross section of the chicken Florentine.

Brown Shuga Soul Food Review

15 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by Bob and Robin in Brown Shuga, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Soul Food, What's For Dinner?

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If you have been missing some down home soul food, then the Brown Shuga Soul Food truck is the place you need to be. Located at 9275 W Chinden Blvd., Garden City, ID, the food truck offers some of the most amazing BBQ Chicken in Idaho – pictured here with Mac ‘N Cheese – and Pulled Pork, both made with their secret BBQ sauce. And their Collard Greens are great, too! Check this blog for their daily menus as posted in the header above. You can also find information and reviews for Brown Shuga Soul Food by clicking here:

But then you need dessert, too. Try some of their Peach Cobbler, when it is on the menu. You won’t be disappointed. For soul food in Boise and from a food truck, this easily rates 4-Stars out of 5. It’s really that good!

And don’t forget to look for Brown Shuga Soul Food Truck at the monthly Food Truck Rally. Held the second Friday of each month in rotating locations. Check this blog for monthly locations, usually posted the Monday before the rally. Cheers!

Steamed Spinach and Shrimp

15 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by Bob and Robin in Captain's Shack, HDR, Main Dish, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, Shrimp, Vegetables, What's For Dinner?

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Here was an awesome dinner. Steamed shrimp over 2 bunches of fresh tarragon infused water. Sauteed ramps, chives and garlic in 1T bacon drippings. Add 1c of the tarragon water used to steam the shrimp. Add diced asparagus and steam for 2 minutes. Add the spinach and cover to wilt. This is a fantastic way to combine shrimp and spinach. If you try this, let us know how you liked it. I can also imagine it with some fiddlehead ferns. Cheers!

Taste208, Boise

13 Sunday May 2012

Posted by Bob and Robin in Party Time, Photos, Photos By: Bob Young, What's For Dinner?

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While I was slaving away at Taste208 and at Shawn’s graduation party, Robin, Marnie and Brenda were “slaving away” at Maysara Saki in McMinnville, OR. It appears that they are enjoying themselves immensely. I hope so … they deserve it. Shawn’s party was awesome. Good company and good food. Wonderful steaks, salmon and chicken. Several salads and a wonderful cake that Donna made. (See below)

Taste208, on the other hand, was a let down. For the $25 entry fee, you would have thought that the food would have been sample size and no charge. Instead, most of the food was full serving size and a pretty standard fee. Here are some photos of the two events. Enjoy and Cheers!

Shawn Carman’s graduation cake by Donna Scrivner. While at Boise State University he played and coached the Lacrosse team.

Donna Scrivner and Granddaughter Quinn Carman.

Terry Knivila grills the steaks.

Some of the displays. Beer, wine and vodka were the spirits. Nepalese food, Mexican food and soups were there to eat, among some others.

Bakon Vodka

Food Truck Rally Boise for May 2012

12 Saturday May 2012

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

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A super Food Truck Rally in Boise tonight. And the weather cooperated. Warm and clear with just a light breeze. I did not count the people there but there wa a good sized crowd.
The photo to the left is Peach Cobler (wonderful!) at Brown Shuga Soul Food. They do sponsor me to take photos of their food truck. You can get a general idea of the event from the photos that follow. Enjoy and if you missed this one, look for the next rally on the 2nd Friday of June. It is well worth the trip and the food is really diverse and wonderful.

Brown Shuga Soul Food truck. Look for them here and on Chinden Blvd in Garden City Tuesday through Saturday during the week.

Ah yes. BBQ Turkey Legs from Brown Shuga.

Some of the crew at Brown Shuga. Yvonne is in the black Chef’s coat. It takes a good crew to serve all of the people.

Yvonne helps a hungry customer.

Customer service is the name of the game and Yvonne does it very well.

BBQ Chicken and Mac and Cheese from Brown Shuga. This chicken was delicious. I like it better than the turkey legs. That surprised Yvonne. The wine is from the Indian Creek Winery and was a viognier. It went very well with the BBQ.

An Oyster Club Sandwich from Brick 29 and a glass of Payette Brewery IPA. Wow! This was a great combination! I’ll do this again with Brown Shuga’s BBQ Chicken. I told Sheila from Payette Brewery that I want to do a blind tasting of their IPA, Dechutes Brewery Inversion and 10 Barrel Apocalypse IPA. That would be a fun evening.

Almost needed shaved ice tonight. Definitely will in June.

Mike and Tammy McClure of Indian Creek Winery. I have no idea what Tammy is doing. Introduce yourself to them. They are great people and make a super wine.