I've always been a big fan of birthdays. I assumed my enthusiasm would wane over the years, but it’s inexplicably still going strong. These days it’s less about the presents than it is the opportunity to host a party with all my favorite people. So this year, I decided to celebrate my 31st with a dinner party based loosely around Renee Erickson's lovely cookbook, A Boat, A Whale and A Walrus. Erickson's Seattle seafood shack, The Walrus and the Carpenter, is one of my favorit

Last weekend, Alex and I took a trip to McCall and foraged buckets of plump huckleberries, fat from all the warm summer rain. Everywhere we turned in the damp mountain forest, there was another huckleberry bush drooping under the weight of its abundant berries. It was an epic harvest that stained our hands a vibrant purple and left us with more huckleberries than we knew what to do with. Since we returned home, we froze some, dried some and still have plenty sitting in the fr

A couple of months ago, Alex and I started a regular dinner party with another couple. Every two weeks, one couple hosts and cooks dinner for the other. It has turned out to be such an enjoyable undertaking and a great chance for us all to catch up. For this week’s dinner, I had some leftover polenta that I wanted to use up. I was picturing a caprese-style stacked appetizer in my head, but couldn’t decide on the execution so I started scouring the internet for recipes. I didn

Last night, I hosted an Idaho Potato Vodka tasting for an upcoming article in the Boise Weekly. I used the tasting as an excuse to whip up some Russian-themed snacks, including smoked steelhead trout and cream cheese on rye-caraway crackers and crispy potato latkes with sour cream and fresh cherry compote. I based the latke recipe off this one from America's Test Kitchen. To get the latkes extra crispy, you wring out the raw shredded potato and onion mixture then wait for the

We had my folks over for a little dinner party last night. It was a such a sweltering day that I was afraid the chicken might cook itself in the car on the way home from Whole Foods. Thankfully it didn't, and once I walked through the door into the cool AC, Alex slathered the bird in some sea salt and let it dry brine for 45 minutes. After he rinsed off the salt, he rubbed the chicken in a little olive oil and fired up the Traeger on the back patio. While the chicken was on t

The buds on our rose bushes are just starting to bloom, our peonies are unfurling their feathery petals and the farmers market is brimming with pink and purple radishes. To celebrate this rosy spring, with all of its lush dampness, we had a couple of friends over for a little dinner party last night. From the mock Depression Era pink wine glasses filled with French rosé to the King salmon on our vintage, pink-rimmed plates to the rhubarb compote at the bottom of our panna cot

On Saturday evening, Alex and I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural DinnerSpace, hosted by former TMP dancer Brett Perry and State & Lemp prep cook Kevin Huelsmann. The curated dinner party took place at MING Studios, a gallery on Sixth Street currently showing the vibrantly patterned work of Dutch artist Marijn van Kreij. Billed as “a curated experience of food, art and conversation,” the evening’s theme centered on a challenge put forth by GOOD Magazine to “bring in