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The Weekly Newsletter |
Menus and Stories for May 16 - 21, 2005
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| Karen's sculptures |
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Karen, our catering director, makes all kinds of sculptures with food and platters in the course of her work here. These, on the other hand, are some of the pieces she is currently working on in her own time.
Karen's sculptures, and the other things pictured in today's newsletter, are all made by the gang here, "a staff of talented and interesting individuals" to be sure, just as it says in our mission statement. |
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Kris's beads |
| Kris, the chief baker babe, master of the trifle and brownie, entertains herself (and others) with these fanciful glass beads. She also sews wild garters with bangles and beads (and baubles too, I'm sure) and she brought some of them in for the art show too. They are currently on display in one of the shop's windows. |
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| Deb's painting |
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| This is one of four beautiful watercolors of flowers painted by Deb, our "crab cake queen." We have them on display on the divider screens in the back of the shop, the windows being too bright and the sun we feared, running the risk of fading the rich pigments. The one of African Violets is my personal favorite, though this Gaillardia is pretty too. |
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The nightly dinners for the week (Call 252-1500 to order) |
Dinners come with a freshly-made green salad, salad dressing of the day,
and made-right-here bread of the day. We take reservations until noon or so.
Please order by phone (252-1500), by FAX (252-02002)
or stop in to speak to one of us in person.
Dinners are ready at 4:30 and can be picked up until we close at 6:00 pm.
Monday May 16 Parmesan Chicken with Asparagus Risotto 10.25
Tuesday May 17 Crab-stuffed Shrimp with Spinach Alfredo 11.50
Wednesday May 18 Pork Tenderloin with Apples and Rosemary 10.50
Thursday May 19 Baked and Fried Chicken with Cole Slaw and Corn 9.75
Friday May 20 Wild Salmon Fillet with Roasted Potatoes 12.50 |
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Our website |
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| Casserole for the week |
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Casseroles are made each Wednesday.
Call to order on Tuesday if you can.
Orders will be ready on Wednesday between 4:30 and 6:00.
Wednesday, May 18
Seafood Primavera Cottage Pie
A New England favorite, sort of like a pot pie with lots of spring vegetables.
Full: 38.25
Half: 19.00 |
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Martha and the new herb garden |
Martha's art tends to be outside, though she also crochets like a maniac (capable of whipping up an 8' long scarf in an hour or so on the afternoon of our staff Christmas party!) She is the creator and maintainer of the garden behind the shop, where the cooks stroll and snip herbs for our salads. We had an unsightly scrap of garden next to the front parking lot, and Martha transformed it, just yesterday, into a sweet herb garden.
We hope people stay off the baby plants. We are going to try to keep from putting up a fence, preferring the earth and the herbs, you know. Actually, to me, this garden looks so tender that I can't imagine anyone being so crass as to trample it.
Keep your fingers crossed with us.
And thanks, Martha. It's lovely. |
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| A painting by Rachel |
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| Rachel, one of the "shopsters" paints these Eskimo-inspired pieces. Intricate, spiritual, thoughtful pictures, they are. She brought in a couple of pen and ink sketches too. |
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One of Oso's photographs |
| Oso, our newest cook, is a traveler, a journeyer, a cook, and a photographer (among, no doubt, other things.) He brought in five photographs, mostly of women cooking in Africa. Come see the detail in these simple kitchens and, if you are lucky enough to be here when Oso is, ask him to tell you about any one of them. The stories are captivating, almost as beautiful as the pictures. |
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| A Note from Laurey |
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May 12, 2005
Gee whiz, another week of me being off-premise for my Saturday missives. This week I’ll be in Atlanta for a Women Chefs and Restaurateurs event which means that I am writing on Thursday.
It has been a fun week. The warm temperatures are bringing out the light clothes and the light attitudes. We had a nice turnout for our staff art show, each artist bringing a few friends to take a look at these sweet pieces of work. Jon played his guitar for an hour or so before he went off to his evening music rounds.
And then, as I mentioned last week, I went off to be “water gal” (with Chris) for my sister's 50 mile horse endurance race at the Biltmore Estate. The festivities started EARLY – the 100 milers leaving at 6:30! The camp grounds were buzzing much earlier than that, as you can imagine, since it takes time to wake, feed, clean, and tack horses, not to mention the fact that it was pitch dark. In the middle of the night some unhappy camper started yelling at one of the behemoth camper/horse trailers to “shut that generator off!!!” Of course, the people asleep in the camper couldn't hear (over the noise of the generator,) so the unhappy person kept yelling. A few minutes later we heard her pounding on the door of the sleeping trailer residents and then, finally, the generator stopped. “And KEEP it off!” the gal shouted. Ah, the bucolic camping life, right?
My sister rode well, and her horse kept it’s pulse down nicely for the first two vet checks. As I said, the pulse has to be at a certain point (60) before the rider is considered finished. The crew, in order to facilitate this pulse slowing, sponges cool water over the horse, coaxing the pulse to slow. On the third circuit my sister got caught up in a little friendly competition, and found herself racing another rider to the finish. She was radiant as we went to walk her back to her cooling down spot. She had a one hour window of time to get Chocolate's pulse down to the needed rate of 60 beats per minute. Chris and I went to work, sponging cool water on Chocolate’s neck. This, the previous two times, had worked well. The pulse, those other two times, had dropped quickly, no more than ten minutes had been necessary. This time was not quite like that.
Perhaps it was the heat. Perhaps it was the racing. But after six 5-gallon buckets of ice water, Chocolate’s pulse held to a steady 80. My sister started berating herself for racing in (the smart thing to do, it seems, is to walk in at the end, ensuring a low pulse.) Chris and I kept sponging.
“Put some on her head,” my sister directed.
Chocolate, unhappy with a wet head, tossed and snorted. The pulse climbed back up to 90. Fifteen minutes to go and now 30 tics to make up. Chris and I sponged.
Gradually, frighteningly slowly, the pulse came down. With 10 minutes to go, she was at 70, and, with 2 minutes to go, she was at 64.
“I’m going to give it a try,” my sister said, leading Chocolate to the vet check.
“60!” pronounced the vet after holding the stethoscope to the horse’s chest.
My sister almost collapsed with relief, vowing, I’m sure, to go back to the conservative finish approach. No more galloping to the line. This is not, after all, the Derby.
In the end, she came in 18th out of 100 riders. Since her goal was a top 50 finish, she was understandably very pleased. And, in a special sub contest, of Half-Arabians, she came in third “best condition” (of the horse, that is), winning an armful of ribbons, buckles, blankets, plaques, and prizes. That evening we went out to dinner, sat at the bar and watched Giacomo come roaring across the line at the Kentucky Derby. I’ll bet it took HIM a good chunk of time to get HIS pulse down. (And I’ll bet his “crew” didn’t have as much fun as my sister's did.)
I’ll be in touch next week. |
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Um, Adam's record |
It's kind of hard to take an exciting picture of an LP record, but making records is one of the things that Adam, our shop manager, does. I call him a composer. He shies away from that word, but heck, he IS the one who creates this music, combining, composing, selecting, designing sounds and blending them together in his own unique way. He is a dj too, with a new show on the new local radio station WPVM 103.5FM (WPVM.org) 10-12 at night on Saturdays - for your listening pleasure. Oh, and he runs a sharp shop right here too.
What a team! |
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Contact Info: |
Laurey's (yum!) Catering
Gourmet-to-Go (and to stay!)
67 Biltmore Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801
828-252-1500
Hours:
Monday - Friday 10:00 - 6:00 pm
Saturday 10:00 - 4:00 pm |
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