Out on the Town

My husband (Ryan) has been writing a blog post on our friends local site called, Treasured Valley. The posts are called "Out on the Town" and are restaurant reviews he does of local places in our area. The image above was taken from his last post from Baguette Deli, I was excited that the photo turned out so good. Plus I love to tag along and try out new food!!

on a trip... sun valley

We had a great time in the Sun Valley area of Idaho this weekend. Its a three hour drive through the desert to different kind of place. Sun Valley is a ski town that is full of beautiful vacation homes and condos. It also has great scenery and great outdoor activities to offer. We stayed in Ketchum at a reasonable hotel, and visited some great local eateries and shops.

And the list of some of the local spots we visited.The Cellar Pub; Great place to meet and mingle, we had dinner there and drinks.The Pioneer Saloon; Lots of history in this establishment, had a great time looking at all the antiques they have collected over the years.. They are always packed with people waiting for dinner or having an after dinner drink.The Kneadery; here we had a yummy breakfast, I had the Huevos Rancheros... delicious. Cabin style interior with a close to home cooked meal.CIRO (Restaurant and Wine Market); Fantastic Oven fired pizzas and local fare specials. Wine list is decent, but also spendy. Great modern rustic atmosphere and excellent house made ice cream for dessert. Ketchum Kitchens; Amazingly jam-packed kitchen store, where you could of course find just about anything. We found some great plastic stemless wine glasses for our trips to Shakespeare. Belissimo; Beautiful store full of housewares. Contains all things to dress your home from the bathroom to the kitchen. Also had a great selection of cards and gifts. Java in Hailey; Nice to see a familiar coffee house. They have an amazing drink called "bowl of soul". If you are ever in Idaho you should try it out.

Art | Ben Wilson

Ben Wilson is one of my favorite local artists. He is a graphic designer/artist who has created show posters for bands as well as t-shirts, he also does illustrations for our local arts newspaper, the Boise Weekly. You can also find his fantastic commissioned art at the Boise Fry Company. His art is very charismatic in reflection to the subject of each piece.

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.

Delsa's in Boise

We visited the newly re-opened Delsa's Ice Cream Parlour in our neighborhood on Saturday... since it was my birthday. Delsa's has been a landmark in Boise for many years, and we are glad to have it back. My husband and I had an ice cream bar from Delsa's at our wedding, which was yummy! Check out this article in the Idaho Statesman for the history of the place.

The decor is very fun inside... along with their new and original fantastic flavors such as Huckleberry Cobbler and Black Licorice.

Boise By Bike | Sunset Magazine

I noticed at Big City Coffee today there was an article posted on their doors, it was from the June issue of Sunset magazine and it was named "Boise by Bike" (click for article). I have included some pictures from the article below. It lists the great places Boise has, many of which I frequent on a regular basis.

Boise Greenbelt, Idaho Mountian Touring, Big City Coffee
{photos: John Clark, Jess Thomson via Sunset Magazine}

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!

Bottles = Drinking Glasses & Countertops

Sustainable Futures in Boise, Idaho has been taking wine and liquor bottles to turn them into drinking glasses and filler for counter-tops. As part of their non-profit organization they employ incarcerated women to teach them how to make these products.

Here is a link to a great article about them and what they are doing.

I had purchased some glasses from the Bistro awhile back for some friends, and was so happy to hear about it becoming such a big deal. You can purchase the glass ware at some of the local eateries who are using them in their establishments. The can be found at the Dream Cafe, Red Feather Lounge, Bittercreek Alehouse, Pair and the Brick Oven Bistro.

Chef Dustin Bristol finalist for James Beard Award

One of our local favorites Chef Bristol of Brick 29 in Nampa has been nominated and is a finalist for a James Beard Award, for the the Northwest. This is one of the most prestigious awards that you can get for food.

If you haven't visited Brick 29 yet, you will enjoy it. The restaurant was also named Best Idaho Wine List in the Wine Press Northwest Magazine.

Bristol was also included in the Chef cook-off last September at Taste of Idaho, my husband and I watched him win the battle against Jered Couch (another excellent Idaho Chef) of sixonesix which has now sadly closed.