Recycled Beer Journal

So I have been working on this idea for quite some time now, and I think it turned out great.

It's a recycled beer journal, which is made from a 6 pack carrier with a special logo. You can record information about your beer tastings and include your rating on the 30 sheets inside.

Currently, you can purchase them via my Etsy shop. There is 6 different beers covers available, but there will be more to come! Each journal is handmade with recycled paper, is spiral bound, and costs $8.

It's time for you to start recording your beer adventures!

I should be posting more handmade items very soon!

Beer Graphics!

I know its barely noon... but I'm a beer lover, and I like to see when new graphics are developed for marketing.

Red Brick Brewing by 22squared | Uinta Tilted Smile by Leia Bell (Crooked Line Series) | 3 Floyds Moloko Milk Stout by Zimmer Design (featured on Martha Stewart)

vino&pizza

We had an excellent evening with friends this past weekend for a "vino&pizza" party. Together we came up with recipes for 5 different kinds of pizzas, and each couple had to bring two bottles of wine to pair with a chosen pizza. The pizza's turned out yummy, and the wine paired well.

Pizza's in the pictures above include the "Meatless Mediterranean" and the "Broccoli & Cheese Baked Potato". All of these pizzas would make an excellent meal any time of the year. Check out the menu below for the list of toppings and the wine pairings and also see my post from last year to compare what was on the menu... Enjoy!

Le Vigne | Greenwich Village

A wine shop with a fabulous design scheme has opened in Greenwich Village, Le Vigne. The shop was designed for owner Carlo Orrico, by MADLAB + SPURSE. The design process (via the MADLAB press release) was described as a series of threes: 3 client meetings, 3 design drawings and 3 weeks of installation. Its amazing what they did all of this for the space in such a short amount of time. It was a great idea to re-purpose the furniture for displays, and I love how the white color makes each bottle stand out so well. Images above are of Le Vigne via MADLAB.

Weekend Fun

We spent this last weekend at some local events and spending time with family. I wanted to share some pictures to show what a great time we had.

Basque Museum Wine Festival
This is an annual event we usually attend, in the Basque Block. Its was great to try wine from local wineries and distributors who have Basque and other wines. There is also great food, such as solomo sandwiches from Bar Gernika, Chorizos, and also food from Bardenay. We had a great time trying different wines and visiting with our friends, from Indian Creek Winery. After the festival we headed to our favorite hangout, The Front Door.


Basque Dancers, performing during the festival.


Mike from Indian Creek Winery showing off their delicious wine.


Beers from the Front Door.

Saturday with Jaiden
We picked up our Neice on Saturday and had a full day of fun. We went to the Boise Zoo where we saw many different animals. Then it was to McDonalds (of course) for lunch, Camels Back Park, and finally Goody's for some Ice Cream. We did a lot of fun activities that day, but I think she liked going down all the slides the best.



Sunday at the Winery
We attended the Indian Creek Winery, Man’s Best Friend Malbec Release Party. We brought our dog Gertie, and our family. There were several dogs at the winery and their owners, which made it a fun event. Their grounds are a perfect setting to buy some wine and have a picnic on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

Vacation | Salmon River Brewery

Sorry, I was a missing for a little while...I was on vacation to Donnelly Idaho, where my husbands family has a cabin.

While in the mountains, we visited the Salmon River Brewery in McCall Idaho. Its primarily a brewery, but they serve food and have live music in their backyard. The food was a very interesting mix of smoked ribs, sushi, their own bratwurst, and vegetarian options such as veggie rolls and vegetable bowls. Their beer was pretty good as well. They have live music on the weekends... Finn Riggins who is a must-see band from Sun Valley Idaho is to play there Friday August 21st. This is a great addition to the local hang-outs in Valley County since there lots of food choices and great atmoshphere.


Back Patio-Kitchen. Love the wood bar table, and the golden bird.


Miscellaneous photographs of the interior/exterior and the fabulous food.
The dining tables in the house were an awesome fit (via IKEA).


A delicious beer sampler of their house brews.

Happy Birthday Gertie!

Just wanted to say happy birthday to my dog Gertie {Gertrude} who is 4 today. She can be a little rambunctious but we love her!

"More Doggie News!"
July 9th, Idaho Humane Society auctioned off the Indian Creek Winery 2007 Malbec label for $2500. ICWinery will feature the winning bidders dog on the upcoming 2007 vintage Malbec. They will also be donating a portion of all 2007 Malbec sales as well.

The 2007 Malbec is to be released in early August and ICWinery plans to have a "Doggy Dayz" festival out at the winery.

ICWinery on Twitter, Facebook

Vineyard Pictures

Wanted to share some great photos my dad took of the vineyard he has taken care of for over ten years. I even spent a couple of summers out there helping with the trimming and the original planting. The vineyard is in Homedale Idaho and is called Woodriver Vineyards which is part of Woodriver Cellars now. Grapes from this vineyard have been sold to wineries around the valley.

My dad is fascinated that many of the plants already have fruit, which is early for this time of year. Since there was lots of rain they are expecting to see some great crops.

Our other friends at Indian Creek Winery are doing some great things as well, check out their blog here.

Mountain Brewer's Festival

We had a great time in Idaho Falls this weekend for the Mountain Brewers Festival. Wanted to share some pics from our trip. Also please take a peek at Treasured Valley, since we traveled together with them on our trip.

First stop was in Pocatello at Portneuf Valley Brewing, where I had one of their tasty pizzas along with some of their Krystal Weizen. They have great artwork for all of their beers and very catchy names.

See pictures above for our visit to Brownstone which is a Brew Pub along the river in Idaho Falls. Each person at the table had a sampler, I thought the Amber Bock and Nut Brown were okay. The interior was a great use of an older building, and a perfect space for a brewery.

Picture of a vintage sign on our way to eat at Snakebite on Friday night. Their food was pretty delicious, and it was our second time there. When we left the restaurant we had to run to the car through a huge rainstorm. As you can see in the picture above only 1.5 hours earlier the weather was perfect.

Beer Tent #1 (of 2), Huge tent full of thousands to people trying some great brews. My favorite new small brewery to win awards this weekend is Barley Brown's from Bakers City, Oregon. Also some great beers from Utah and Montana where in the list of brewers pouring. Check out this link for all the winners.

Images above show the storms which came and went all day. There were many mud puddles which formed, we avoided them while some people decided to mud-wrestle. But the rain nor the mud stopped us from having a great time!

In all it was a great trip. We got to spend time with friends, try new beers and food. I am excited to try it again next year!

Seattle

My husband and I just took a trip to the great city of Seattle at the beginning of April, and we had a marvelous time (as per usual). I went before him to take an exam for Interior Design certification (NCIDQ). It was a tough test, but I am glad I finally took it. I don't find out for 14 weeks total if I passed any or all of the sections, which is stressful... but at least I am done studying for now.

Day Two (night before last test)
My friend Erin (who is proud to call Seattle her hometown) and her boyfriend, picked me up from my hotel and they took me to Georgetown (a new development in the industrial part of town). In Georgetown we peeked in a few shops and had dinner at Smarty Pants, which is a great place for sandwiches and local brews.

Day Three (after testing)
I was picked up by my husband and his cousin from the Hilton. We then met more family for dinner at Taste of India... a fabulous Indian Restaurant. Where we had the most gigantic Nahn bread we had ever seen. After dinner we went to the University of Washington to see the Cherry Tree's in bloom, and scope out some of its beautiful architecture.

Day Four
We headed to the market (Pikes Public Market), and had breakfast at Lowell's which had a fabulous view of the city. Since the weather was so perfect and sunny.

After breakfast we headed to Discovery Park and hiked all the way to the beach, where we had a excellent view of Mt. Rainer. We then hiked back to the car and toured an open house... a brand new home in Seattle... I was curious of course.

We then headed to the Locks which was packed with people since it was such a sunny day. Though there were no fish to look at. On our way back we stopped by the Flea Market and Festival down in Fremont. I found many new items that could be used for various crafts such as tabaco cards.

Later we went to dinner at Quinn's which is in the Capitol Hill District, there we ate Bone Marrow and Escargot, a nice salad, and Venison sausage (spicy) with a huckleberry sauce, along with a few beers from various parts of the world... very delicious, great design, and atmosphere.

On our back to the car, we stopped at Elysian Brewery where I had a sampler of their standard beers. It was one of the best set-ups for a Brewery/Restaurant we had seen, included local art and a laid back atmosphere.

Day Five

Our morning started at University Village to do some shopping, and of course we had some Starbucks while on our way (isn't there one every mile in seattle?). There where three stores in the shopping center!

After shopping we headed down to Kingfish Cafe (one of seattle's treasures) for some food. Ryan had the fried chicken salad (with sweet potatoes) while I had the Gumbo and fresh cornbread.

Then visited the Seattle Public Library, one of the newer buildings of Modern Architecture in the City. Has a great concept of the ramped levels of bookshelves down to each floor.

Back to the market area, stopping at Nordstrom Rack for some good finds. Bought a couple of t-shirts from a graphic artist at the market who made some fantastic silkscreen prints.

Then back to the house for some fresh (since we are from Idaho) clams and bbq shrimp... was delicious!

Day Six

Fly Home... Can't wait to come back again!

Mountain Brewers Beer Fest | 2009

File under: Things to look forward to in the coming months.
June 6th, 2009 (Saturday) in Idaho Falls, Idaho | Sandy Downs Racetrack

The best and largest beer festival in the state of Idaho. The beer fest is put on by the North American Brewers Association, this will be their 15th year.

The festival features breweries from Idaho, the northwest, and beyond. You can get your taste of your favorite local brews: Sockeye, Highlands Hollow... and even your domestics. Last year there were more than 80 microbreweries scheduled to pour hundreds of beers.

There is a bus system for the event that stops at the downtown Red Lion, so any hotel within walking distance is a must. There is also a cab system that runs back and forth from the park. Get your hotel reservations soon, since they sell out quickly.

We have been to this festival two times, this will be our third... and we looking forward to every minute of it. Hope to see you there!

:::Pizza & Wine :::

What a fun way to get your friends to try new things. We decided to host a "pizza & wine" party at our house this spring, and it turned out excellent. What you do is pick 4-5 custom pizzas to make including a dessert pizza. Then you invite your friends and ask each couple to bring a bottle of wine to pair with the pizza of their choice.

The first first pizza we made was "pizza margherita" - a classic with tomato sauce, fresh mozzerella and basil. Which was paired with a Merlot from north of Napa Valley - the winery: Gold Hill

The next pizza was Triple I Pie (Idaho, Irish, Italian) featuring pesto, sauteed potatos, pancetta, and dubliner cheese on whole wheat crust. This was paired with a Barbera from Fratelli Revello.

Pizza 3 was Gorgonzapple (created by our friend Chris)
Which consisted of Gorgonzola, mozzarella, green apples, toasted pine nuts, and red onions. This was paired with Chateauneuf du pape - lighter in body and great acidity to match the apples.

The final pizza before dessert was the Plato Pie - tomato sauce, red onions, feta, mozzarella, kalamata olives, gyro meat and oregano. Which was paired with the Kick-ass red.

For the grand finale dessert Ryan prepared a dark chocolate pizza with raspberry sauce. Which paired well with Indian Creek's, Ruby Dahlia Port.

It was fun to see how the pizza-wine combo's worked together, and it made for a great discussion on what makes the best wine/pizza.

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Ryan's pizza sauce recipe

makes about a jar of sauce.
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Tomatoes {28 oz} or 3.5 cups {peel and smash with hands}

Oregano {handful, chopped}

Olive Oil, 1/4 cup

Salt and Pepper to taste

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Add all ingredients together, cook over medium heat so flavors mix.

Then let it cool and put it in a jar.

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