Happy Halloween!

Food Truck Rally!

I don't know how long Boise has been having food truck rallies; presumably they appeared sometime shortly after food trucks became all the rage on Food Network. I do know that "gourmet" food trucks have been around for at least a couple of years, having seen them around at various events (beer festival, I'm looking at you,) but as for the rallies? I first heard of them when I moved to the day shift at my "real" job, and began being able to use Twitter. (Sidebar: for any of you who use Twitter regularly and can't imagine your social media experience without it? Not that interesting on the graveyard shift.) Between fellow local foodies and such entities as the Boise Weekly and Radio Boise--both of whom are affiliated with said rally--I began to hear about it quite a bit.

Quick Bite: Fanci Freez's Budget Burger

It was a crisp fall afternoon in Boise.  Wife was at home sick, so while I normally take public transportation to work, I had the car.  This was mostly a bad thing--having the car meant finding a parking space at the university, and I didn't get to my office until twenty minutes after I should have despite arriving on campus ten minutes early--but there was one big advantage.  I could stop on the way home and get something to eat.

Grown Up Shells and Cheese (Recipe)

Macaroni and cheese.  It's a popular comfort food with people throughout the world, and my family is no exception.  However, when it comes to making it, ours is a house divided.  I like it homemade, with a thick layer of crunchy breadcrumbs topping pasta that is coated in a sauce made with the best sharp cheddar I can get.  Wife finds this type of macaroni dry, dull and lifeless.  If you ask her, macaroni and cheese is best when it comes from a box, the only cheese to be found in the form of a radioactive orange powder that has to be resuscitated with milk and butter before you can eat it.  (I imagine my description does a good job of conveying where I stand on the stuff.)  For awhile we tried to find a recipe she liked--she wants to enjoy real mac and cheese, anyway--but to no avail.  Everything from Alton Brown's "Good Eats" version to our friend's fabulous family recipe was met with reactions ranging from "ick" to "meh."  

A Taste for Blood: Part 2

If you have been reading "Catfish's Dishes" for any length of time, you know that last year around this time I dedicated an entire post not to food, but to horror films.  I really love Halloween, and scary movies in general.  It had always been my plan to write a companion piece for use this Halloween, but due to an unforeseen complication during the making of pumpkin milkshakes over the weekend (translation--they were bad,)  I have decided to bump up this installment of "A Taste for Blood."  If you hunger for the macabre, scroll down and sink your teeth into this year's bloody recommendations.  If not, I'll see you back in the kitchen later this week.

Spicy Root Vegetable & Leek Soup (Recipe)

Sometimes you just get lucky.

The original recipes I post on Catfish's Dishes get here a variety of ways.  Some are long held family recipes, the stuff I was making long before I ever felt like writing about it.  Some were once other peoples' recipes, but have mutated so much under my watch that I feel fully justified in calling them my own.  Some are even proper "blog" recipes--things I created entirely for the purpose of writing about them, the sort of dish that involves planning, research, and possibly even failed attempts.

Chorizo Spaghetti (Recipe)

Spaghetti can be pretty boring.  Thanks to the way our grocery store experience works, what ends up on most dinner tables is sauce from a jar, ground beef or sausage, and a nasty powdered mess that purports to be Parmesan cheese.  It's rarely bad.  It's also not a food that elicits excitement.  But it isn't that hard to make a good sauce at home, and you don't have to be an Italian grandma to do it.

Mandarin Chocolate Won Tons (Recipe)

Well, actually....there is no recipe to be found here.  That's because it's over at my favorite food blog Macheesmo!  Regular readers know that I tend to gush about Nick's creations, but now I have a reason to think kindly upon his blog in addition to all the great food I have been inspired to try out.  He's on vacation with his wife in Peru (and having a blast, no doubt) and he's done me the solid of letting me guest post on his much more trafficked site.  So go see the recipe for these delicious desserts over at his blog, and then keep looking around at all the amazing things he has to offer.  Just promise me you'll come back.   

Other People's Recipes: Lemon Cocoa Panforte

Although the poll I posted in last week's blog doesn't close until the 10th, one thing is clear.  Mary Engelbreit's 'Tis the Season Holiday Cookbook is dominating the competition for what "Other People's Recipes" should focus on next.  Rather than wait for the poll to close, I thought I'd dive right in and start exploring.  This is a wonderful looking cookbook, with great pictures and intricate art throughout, but I haven't really used it for cooking in the two years since my Mother-in-Law gave it to me.  Wife made the Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Torte during a mock "Iron Chef" battle we had with the kids, but until now that was it.