Red Velvet Cheesecake

Red velvet cake layered with cheesecake and topped with white chocolate frosting. Sugary sweetness overload...but good. This was dessert at the Cheesecake Factory Saturday.

Chinese Pork Buns (Cha Siu Bao)

What a treat! My friend, who owns two Chinese restaurants in the Boise area: Mandarin Palace and China Palace, made up some Chinese pork buns at home this week to share. Sweet pork, cabbage, oyster and soy sauces inside a yeast bun that is steamed.

Pepitas, Cranberries and Almonds

A home-assembled snack mix: pepitas, almonds, sunflower seeds and dried cranberries. A similar mix is for sale in stores for $$. The only tricky part is finding roasted pepitas (pumpkin/squash seeds). I found some sold in bulk at WinCo. I tossed everything together with a little sea salt.

Naked Asparagus

A treat in our organic box delivery this week: fresh asparagus. I steamed it up and put it in this glass just for fun for my daughter. Just about every time I serve asparagus, I tell her that when I was a kid, we used to pick our own along the ditch banks in the countryside. It will be one of those stories that 'mom' told over and over again.

Boise Cream Pie

Why should Boston get all the fun? We're calling it Boise cream pie, and it's becoming a birthday cake tradition. This was the pie for my day yesterday. That's my daughter eyeballing the maraschino cherry. I picked this up at Pastry Perfection - a locally-owned bakery on Glenwood that's a regular stop for us.

Panko Shrimp

I've said before that panko crumbs are magic...here they are adding that crunchy touch to butterflied shrimp. I bought these ready-to-bake ones at Costco.

Blueberry Ketchup

We finally made it to Boise Fry Co. on my French fry tour. This is their mobile fry unit - we ate inside the restaurant.
We had regular red lady friends and Russet homestyle fries. My daughter wants to go back and order yam fries. My husband ordered a bison burger "on the side."

And this is a gem: blueberry ketchup. Boise Fry Co. has many seasoned salts and dipping sauces available. I liked the red lady fries the best with plain salt!