1. Drawing pad






1. Drawing pad
When we are in Boise, we have a short list of restaurants. Near the top is Bardenay, the first restaurant-distillery in the U.S. Bardenay distills its own rum, vodka and gin on site. Its name is sailors’ slang for cocktail. The restaurant’s owner Kevin Settles describes it this way: “our food and drinks are a reflection of where we live--comforting, affordable yet somewhat sophisticated--in an Idaho sort of way.”
Bardenay’s original location is housed in a renovated warehouse with a Northwestern vibe on the Basque block in downtown Boise. It’s a relaxed yet cosmopolitan kind of spot--you kind of forget you are on a quiet street in the middle of Idaho.
Bardenay Eagle is about 15 minutes from downtown and sits on the bank of the Boise river. You can walk right around the outside and fish from the sandy banks if you have a hankering.
What’s better than a cocktail in the afternoon when you’re on vacation? The indulgence of it is so glorious. Our resident gin expert, Joe Gozdowiak, opted for a martini to “taste the purity” of Bardenay’s product. He chose the Blue Cheese-stuffed olives over the Basque-seasoned olives and gave the concoction his rousing approval. The food was fresh and delicious across the board--satay, burgers and salads.
One personal note--Bardenay’s website is all wrong-totally incongruent with the ambience of the place--look beyond it and stop in if you’re in the area.
Downtown Boise
610 Grove Street
208-426-0538
Boise, Idaho plays host to the International Basque Festival, known as Jaialdi (pronounced HI-ALL-DEE), or ‘party’ in Basque, every five years. More than 36,000 people showed up for events held between July 27 and August 1, at the Boise fairgrounds.
Basque communities from Nevada, California, Idaho, France and Spain were represented in traditional dance exhibitions and sport competitions.
We caught a part of the stone-lifting competition where participants raced to hoist 220-550 pound rocks over a pulley system as many times as possible within a given period. We watched as the weight of the stones lifted the competitor rhythmically from his feet--very entertaining.
The festival is actually more about drinking and than eating. Concession stands sold mind-boggling quantities of one of the most popular Basque cocktails, kalimotxo (callie-MO-cho), made from red wine and coca-cola. The ticket-taker advised us not to bring our kids to the romping all-night Saturday dance party, headlined by a local Basque band.
Vintage and replica wagons used by Basque sheepherders stood on the lawn of the fairgrounds and were open to walk through. While sheepherding was not a traditional profession in the old country, Basque immigrants found it worked well for their new life in America. Herders didn't have to own land or rely on their English skills to be successful.
Jaialdi was a good time in a jovial atmosphere, but probably not worth a special trip unless you want to reconnect with your Basque heritage.
3 More Salad Recipes
Just home from our final vacation of the summer and ready for some raw food. Here's the encore performance--three more reasonably healthy salad recipes. The ingredients for the BBQ chicken and Southwestern salad are almost the same. Any of these salads can be topped with grilled chicken or salmon. The “Just Chicken” grilled strips in TJ’s refrigerated section make adding meat easy. I'm experimenting with quinoa recipes so hope to have a tasty one up in the near future.
BBQ Chicken Salad
Bag o’ Romaine
1/2 cup sweet tomatoes
3/4 cup corn
3/4 cup black beans
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1 diced red pepper
sea salt
freshly ground pepper
avocado, sliced
BBQ sauce (diluted slightly with water)
Mix ingredients, toss with BBQ sauce to taste. I’ve seen a dressing for this type of salad made from BBQ sauce mixed with equal parts ranch dressing or BBQ sauce mixed with mayonnaise in a 2:1 ratio. Garnish with avocado.
Southwestern Salad
Bag o’salad: Romaine
1/2-3/4 cup corn
1/2-3/4 cup black beans (preferably uncanned)
1 diced red or green pepper
3 or 4 radishes, chopped
1 Avocado, sliced
sea salt
freshly ground pepper
Salsa
Lazy Vinaigrette (optional)
Mix ingredients and toss with salsa to taste. Add vinaigrette for a more ‘salad-y’ flavor. Sprinkle crushed tortilla chips and place sliced avocado on top of salad. (Salad photo: Bazu)
Greek-ish Flair
Bag o’ Romaine
1/2 large cucumber, diced
3/4 cup small, sweet tomatoes
1/3 cup feta cheese
1/3 cup whole kalamata olives (optional)
5 Tbs toasted pine nuts
sliced red onion (optional)
sea salt
freshly ground pepper
Lazy Vinaigrette
Sometimes I make this salad without the lettuce. (Photo: Stephanie Levy)
Lazy Vinaigrette
The magic ratio is 3 to 1 in a vinaigrette--3 parts oil to one part vinegar. For this size of a salad, I usually toss 1 Tbs balsamic or red wine vinegar, 3 Tbs of Olive Oil with the salad and a splash of agave nectar, honey or liquid stevia to temper the vinegar. I call this version ‘lazy’ because i don’t pre-blend the dressing--just pour the liquids directly into the salad and toss.I think the French might call it heretical vinaigrette (Photo: Daveleb)
When a book called Pampered in Paris: A Guide to the Best Spas, Salons and Beauty Boutiques (The Little Bookroom) crossed my desk, all I could think was that the author, Kim Horton Levesque, is a genius. Book publishers, listen up: I will survey the best of everything a fabulous locale is renowned for on your dime and give it a cute alliterative title. Pampered in Paris?! How aboutPizza in Pisa? High in Humboldt?
I don’t mean to downplay Levesque’s considerable work--as a beauty editor who has been to the City of Light numerous times, I learned a lot from this book, including how to say “can you please avoid massaging the chest area?” in French, the addresses of a few beauty boutiques I’ll have to check out and treatments I never knew existed (henna spray tans?!). The spa reviews feature beautiful shots by Kristyn Moore and detailed back-stories of the spaces, plus descriptions of the treatments, which can be very useful in unfamiliar territory like, say, the largest hammam in Europe. God bless you, Kim Horton Levesque. -Holly Siegel
**It's pretty awesome how I became a beauty editor in this piece--I also like the fact that I've (only) visited Paris numerous times...