Boise Feed

Boise Feed

Keto Friendly Fare in Boise

Keto Friendly Fare in Boise

Sip a Champagne Cocktail in Boise

Sip a Champagne Cocktail in Boise

Boise's Best Cheese and Wine Spots

Boise's Best Cheese and Wine Spots

Where to Dig into Korean Cuisine in Boise

Where to Dig into Korean Cuisine in Boise

Sample Some Sour Beer in Boise

Sample Some Sour Beer in Boise

Patio Sipper: Cucumber, Gin and Rose Cocktail

Patio Sipper: Cucumber, Gin and Rose Cocktail

This refreshingly boozy patio sipper is essentially Hendricks Gin, the cocktail. It's got a little rose water, a little fresh juiced English cucumber and a few unusual ingredients to spice things up. I'm not typically a fan of cucumbers in food—they strike me as more filler than delicious—but I've always enjoyed them in a drink, whether it's ice water or a fizzy summer cocktail. This drink isn't bubbly, but it certainly is summery, stunningly green and, like most of my favori

How to Make Hoosier Pie

How to Make Hoosier Pie

Hoosier pie, aka Indiana Sugar Cream pie, is one of those simple staples born out of necessity. Containing just a few basic ingredients, this indulgence was invented for lean times when all you had around was a dairy cow, some sugar and a sack of flour. But despite its humble origins, this pie has garnered quite the cult following. Our catering company, Wild Plum Events, recently catered a friend's birthday party and he requested Sugar Cream Pie for dessert. Not having the fi

The Best Chicken Liver Pâté Recipe

The Best Chicken Liver Pâté Recipe

It's been a bit too long since my last post, but I've got a pretty exciting excuse: Alex and I recently launched a boutique catering business, Wild Plum Events & Eats, and we've been awesomely, exhaustingly busy this past month! From holiday soirees to classes to dinner parties, we cooked up a storm. One of the stand-out dishes that we whipped up was a chicken liver pâté based on Chef Jim Drohman's Gateau de Foie de Volaille, or smooth chicken liver terrine, from Seattle's dr

Cooking Octopus at Home, Round One

Cooking Octopus at Home, Round One

I'm a mega fan of good, fresh octopus. Sadly, it's hard to find done well around these parts. Octopus generally shows up as a chewy, cold cost-saver on a chef's special sushi plate. Which is a tragedy because when it's cooked right, it's oh-so tender and buttery. Alex and I had some epic wood-grilled octopus on our honeymoon in Tulum, Mexico. It was super fresh and lightly licked over hot flames, lending it a subtle crunch. The not-so-great cell phone shot below is from the T

Bacon Tomato Toast, A Love Letter

Bacon Tomato Toast, A Love Letter

Bacon Tomato Toast is one of my absolute favorite things to eat in the summertime. It's a bit like a deconstructed BLT, but the focus is more on the T than the B. It's super simple to make: Dice up some fresh garden tomatoes, toss them with slivers of crisp, smoky bacon, a couple sprigs of fresh tarragon, a splash of sherry vinegar, a pinch of salt and a healthy glug of olive oil. Pile the colorful mixture onto a slice of warm toasted sourdough that's also been bathed in oliv

Idaho Huckleberry Dinner Party

Idaho Huckleberry Dinner Party

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

Make Some Nocino Today!

Make Some Nocino Today!

According to Italian tradition, June 24 is the best day to make nocino, a lightly sweet, bitter black liqueur made from unripe green walnuts. This day is said to be the prime time to pick walnuts for nocino-making because they haven't yet formed their hard interior shells. Expanding on a tradition I started last summer, we hosted a little nocino-making party last night. Alex gathered a basket full of pungent, Pine Sol-y green walnuts from a neighbor's tree and we got to work

Summer Vegetarian Italian Dinner Party

Summer Vegetarian Italian Dinner Party

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

Potato Vodka Tasting and Russian-Themed Dinner Party

Potato Vodka Tasting and Russian-Themed Dinner Party

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

Make This: Spruced Up Cobb Salad

Make This: Spruced Up Cobb Salad

I repurposed the leftovers from our Barbecue Chicken Dinner Party and made an epic salad for lunch yesterday. It had all the hearty awesomeness of a Cobb salad, with some extra crunch from fresh local veggies and a wonderfully creamy dressing. I fried up a couple pieces of Applewood-smoked bacon leftover from my from my Bleu Cheese, Bacon and Honey Bites, chopped up some of our remaining barbecued chicken, thinly sliced some purple cabbage and snap peas from the Boise Farmers

Barbecue Chicken Dinner Party

Barbecue Chicken Dinner Party

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

Morel Mushroom Recipe Round-Up

Morel Mushroom Recipe Round-Up

We're in the midst of morel season, the short-but-magical spring window when these honeycomb-capped mushrooms appear in the mountains, at farmers markets and on menus around town. Last night, The Modern Hotel served a special dish (pictured above) that featured fresh morels, perfectly cooked sweet peas, spinach and chewy farro in a buttery broth. Inspired by this beautiful bowl of spring, I rounded up a few other simple morel recipes from around the web. Whether you snag a ba

Blush and Gold Spring Dinner Party

Blush and Gold Spring Dinner Party

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

Make This: Radishes with Anchovy Chive Butter

Make This: Radishes with Anchovy Chive Butter

Radishes and butter are an unlikely but undeniably delicious duo. A layer of creamy fat spread on a slice of fresh baguette provides the perfect counter-balance to crisp, peppery radish coins. Add in some minced anchovy, chives and a big squeeze of lemon, and you've got a relatively simple snack that packs a flavorful palate punch. This recipe is adapted from one I thumbed across in an old issue of Bon Appétit Magazine, but it gets the Tara treatment (as so many things do in

Make This: Homemade Tarragon Mayonnaise

Make This: Homemade Tarragon Mayonnaise

I stopped buying mayonnaise a couple of years ago when my husband convinced me how easy (and tasty!) it is to make from scratch. But it wasn't until one fateful afternoon when Alex added fresh tarragon to a batch of mayonnaise that I officially lost my mind. We've dubbed this magical light green spread "tarragonaise" and there's has been plenty of ribbing regarding my name, "tara," and the fact that this stuff is "gone" as soon as we make it. I like to smear tarragonaise on t

Make This: Airy Gougères with Gruyère

Make This: Airy Gougères with Gruyère

If you've never had gougères, you're in for a real treat. These addictingly airy French snacks, pronounced Goo-jairs, are a decadent puff of savory flavors—mostly gruyère, with just a hint of anchovy umami. They're light, yet filling, and are always the first thing to disappear at a party. Adapted from a recipe on Food 52. Makes around 20 gougères: 5 tablespoons unsalted butter 10 Tbsp. nonfat milk (or 1:1 half and half with water) + extra for brushing tops 1/2 cup flour 2 eg

Make This: Water Crackers with Spring Pea and Goat Cheese Spread

Make This: Water Crackers with Spring Pea and Goat Cheese Spread

Every Sunday, we head to my in-law's for family dinner. But this isn't an order-a-pizza kind of family, even a casual dinner at the Cardoza house is a five-course affair. We start with appetizers and bubbly wine clustered around the kitchen counter. Eventually, we gravitate to the dining room table for the main course, salad course, cheese course and dessert. Not to mention, lots more awesome wine. While my father-in-law takes care of preparing dinner—everything from cheese s

Make This: Spring Salad with Purple Asparagus and Baby Shiitakes

Make This: Spring Salad with Purple Asparagus and Baby Shiitakes

I swung by the Boise Farmers Market this morning and picked up a thick bundle of purple asparagus. The vendor claimed the stalks have a sweeter flavor than the traditonal green variety, so I forked over $8 for a two-pound bunch and tucked it in my tote. When I saw a mound of delicate baby shiitakes at a nearby booth, I knew the two were destined to be together. When my husband Alex got home from work, his eyes widened at my haul and he got right to work whipping up a mid-afte

Make This: Chickpea and Rice Salad with Speck and Preserved Lemon

Make This: Chickpea and Rice Salad with Speck and Preserved Lemon

The other day at Trader Joe's, I spotted a bright yellow jar of preserved Tunisian lemon slices. I turned the jar over in my hands, trying to imagine what preserved Tunisian lemon might taste like and how you might use it. Salads? Stews? Cocktails? Regardless, I knew it had to come home with me. When I showed the jar to Alex, he gave me the why-the-hell-would-you-buy-that-when-you-could-easily-make-it-yourself face. But I was undeterred. I opened the jar and pulled a slimy sl

Make This: Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Date Cake a la Martha

Make This: Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Date Cake a la Martha

I'm no baker. All the rules and exacting measurements stress me out. But Martha Stewart has a knack for making hard things look easy, so I gave her Flourless Chocolate-Date Cake with Salted-Caramel Sauce a whirl. And by that, I mean I spent the better part of an afternoon scraping shards of dark chocolate down the sides of a makeshift double-boiler and fretting that my caramel looked like crack rocks (which it did until it magically became golden and goopy after like 20 minut

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