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The Weekly Newsletter |
Menus and Stories for July 3 - 8, 2006
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| Fourth of July!! Ka-blam!!!! |
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We're making a special Dinner to go for the 4th.
Here's the menu:
Barbecued Chicken (the real kind, bone-in, slow cooked....)
All American Stars and Stripes Picnic Potato Salad with Bacon
Broccoli and Cheddar Salad
Parker House Rolls
and a Red, White, and Blue Berry Cobbler
Zounds!
Please order by the end of the day on Monday (call 252-1500.)
Orders will be ready for you to pick up between 2 and 4 on Tuesday.
(By the way, we'll be closing early on Tuesday so come before 4.)
The price? Just 14.50 per person.
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A slice of Summer |
Nothing like a slab 'o melon to say it is finally summer.
I was in New York earlier this week and had a terrific watermelon salad as my appetizer one night. It had arugula and watermelon and olives and feta and all sorts of mixed up bits of this and that. It was very good.
But so is a wedge of pure, unadulterated red. We've got it if you can't wait to get home for a slice.
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| Yu - UUUMMM! |
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I usually prowl around the kitchen on Saturday mornings, looking for a good picture opportunity. Richard happened to be pulling this tray of ribs out of the oven at just the right time for today's shooting. These ribs are going to go to a wedding in a little bit, but he promised that he'd have some in our deli case too. Come see.
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Dinners to go |
Dinners, as you know, 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.
Here is the menu for this week:
Monday, July 3 - Cheddar and Cornmeal-crusted Chicken 9.75
Tuesday, July 4th - Whee - see the special dinner to go at the beginning of the newsletter
Wednesday, July 5 - Roast Pork with Sweet Potato and Carrot Puree 10.00
Thursday, July 6 - Hickory Nut Gap Beef Stuffed Peppers 10.00
Friday, July 7 - Citrus-baked Tilapia with Sauteed Arugula 10.50
By the way, every time you order a dinner to go you are eligible to enter our drawing. Just drop a card in our drawing jar (a business card works or fill out one of the cards that we have right here) and, at the end of the month, we'll pull one card which will be good for two free dinners-to-go. Inaugurated a few months ago, our first winner was delighted! Maybe you'll win next month.
Order a lot? Enter a lot!
Good luck!!
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Our website |
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| Special casserole of the week |
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We make a special casserole each week on Wednesday. Please give us a call by the end of the day on Tuesday and we’ll fix yours for you. Come by between 4:30 and 6:00. Get a half (for 4 appetites) or a full sized pan (for 9 or so.)
Wednesday, July 5
Chicken and Shitake Mushroom Cassoulet (a French-inspired casserole)
Full: 32.00
Half: 16.00
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Peach "Iced Cream" |
Here's a closeup of another of Richard's recent offerings: fresh peach ice cream. He describes it as "Philadelphia-style", which, he says, means that it is not a cooked custard at the start but is a simpler version, iced cream - with fruit.
(I had a cup as I was waiting for my computer to get going just now. I recommend it as a PERFECT start to anyone's morning, though you could wait for dessert if you are feeling more conventional.)
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| Hearts of Broccoli Salad |
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Another of today's salads. Fresh and light and summery. Very nice next to some fried chicken or some tuna. I'd suggest adding some to a "Try Three" (that is a serving of three different salads) for a daytime lunch. And, by the way, isn't it great that those broccoli stems have a second life?
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A view of the tents |
This is a shot of us getting ready for last week's "Party for a House." We brought makings for a very nice picnic (remember the mountain of greens from last weeks' newsletter?) I was "grill babe." As I got the coals ready we could hear a rumble off to the east and a darkening of the sky. My friend Arvil, the fiddle player for the bluegrass band that was going to play when the bagpiper was done, thought the rain would hold off, at least long enough for me to get the chicken all cooked. It did - but the skies opened up before all the guests had finished the ice cream and brownies - turning the lawn into a soggy mess.
The great part was that we had all these tents so the guests scooched in a bit, the music played on, and all the desserts managed to find their way to a plate before it was all said and done.
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| A Note From Laurey |
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July 1, 2006
Oh MY, I am happy to be here at my desk writing to you. I had a whirlwind of a week and rarely have I been more delighted to be back home.
Last Monday and Tuesday I went with a group of Asheville folks to Raleigh where we met with our legislators and senators. I was the new kid in the group, but I found that I was almost first on the agenda on a few occasions. Surprise! I studied my notes and tried to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible so that, when it came time to speak to our elected officials I was at least marginally coherent. I think it went well. I am, after all, a small business owner, and, since that is what I was asked to speak about, I did okay. But the drive there and back was in the middle of those torrential downpours so I was tired when I finally got home on Tuesday.
It was particularly frightening to be listening to the radio and have the program be interrupted by the Emergency Broadcast Network and realize that the announcement was NOT a test but was the real thing and that I was driving in the midst of the emergency area! Yipes! All of us drivers slowed way down and crept along as the sheets of water pelted us.
And then on Wednesday I flew to New York to help work on a Women Chefs and Restaurateurs’ event. Chris was the lead chef and I went along to help. Fourteen chefs from the New York area – and beyond – had gathered to cook for some 200 guests. At the start of the day there was a bare ballroom which, in a few short hours, got transformed into the party scene. It was fun to be on the “doing” end of a party, knowing that I was not really in charge of anything except helping everyone else present their courses. And of course it was fun to go out to eat a couple of times and to go to a show (I highly recommend “Bridge and Tunnel” – a one woman show with some extraordinary characterizations of assorted American newcomers.)
I flew home yesterday and it was one of those miserable travel days with way too many people flying, way too many cases of “we’re in an oversold situation…” and way too much, well, travel mania. I started out fine, a good book, a bottle of water, a good mood. But when I landed at my first (of three) stops, I realized that the agent in New York had ticketed me to point A but had not included the tickets to the second two legs. The agent at “Special Services” (right) shook her head and muttered something about “having to write this one up” and finally managed to find seats for me on not two, but three more flights. I kept my nose in my book on the next two flights, and tried to chalk it up to flying on a holiday weekend.
But on the last flight, my fourth of the day, after I was relatively comfortably ensconced in my front row seat, the flight attendant said that for some reason four people “had to move from the front toward the back of the aricraft” and that we wouldn’t be leaving until that happened. Well, trying to be agreeable, I got up, moved toward the back and squeezed into the seat in the next to the last row of the plane. The woman in the seat next to me took up a good half of my seat. The air conditioning was not working, and my head, which had been getting sorer and sorer as the day progressed, was pounding. We sat on the runway, waiting for who know what, and then we sat some more and the woman next to me was too close and I was too hot and too, well, too, you know, and I finally could not stand it and, well, motioned to the flight attendant made him let me move back up to the front of the plane, which involved calling the pilot, which made me wonder if they were going to arrest me or something. Anyay, it was just awful and the day’s accumulated madness took over and I sat, shaking, in my front row seat (once again), praying to be home.
Chris had traveled on a different airline and had similar stories but we finally met up with each other, limped home, ate a fried egg sandwich, snuggled up with the cat and dog, and went to sleep.
And that, my friends, is why I’m glad to be here.
I’m staying put this week. And next too. Hope your travels are less traumatic. Happy Fourth. If you’re going to be around, do join us for dinner. It’ll be great – and you don’t even have to turn on your oven. (Or get in an airplane.)
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Lovely |
Today's blossom is lavender. Gorgeous.
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Contact
Info: |
Laurey's "Gourmet Comfort Food"
Eat In - Take Out - Catering
67 Biltmore Avenue Asheville, NC 28801
828-252-1500
Hours:
Monday - Friday 8:00 - 6:00 pm
Saturday 8:00 - 4:00 pm
"Don't Postpone Joy!"(tm)
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