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The Weekly Newsletter |
Menus and Stories for January 22 - 26, 2007
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| Sweetness in the winter |
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All this news about freezing weather in California is very sad indeed. I love grapefruit and I especially love eating it when the weather is chilly, as it finally is around here.
We try to have local and seasonal things available for you as much as we can. Grapefruit graces our fruit salads these days and will continue to do so as long as it is available.
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Good morning! |
Muffins, sweet breads, burritos. What a way to start a day.
Yesterday Kether made some Oatmeal, Cranberry Ginger Coffee Cake. Today Elyse popped out these Cherry Almond treats. We don't have a set menu which allows for flexibility (not to mention keeping things different for you and for us).
What's in our ovens today? Hmm...you'll just have to come see for yourself.
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| Margy and her Toffee |
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This sweet gal showed up the other day with a shopping bag full of Toffee. Adam called back to the office for us to come try some candy and up we jumped, making a bee line to her. Margy makes toffee in Chicago at the moment (though she seemed tempted by our mountains) and, after one small bite, we were all hooked. She uses rich ingredients: (Guittard Chocolate, Plugra Butter - that's the extra rich stuff), and other high quality things.
After devouring her samples and making her promise to send them as soon as she got back to the Windy City, we sent her on her way. I hope the sweets get here quickly. You'll see what I mean as soon as you get a taste.
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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.
As a reminder, 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.
Maybe you'll win next month.
Order a lot? Enter a lot!
Good luck!!
Here's this week's menu:
Monday January 22 Chicken Paprikash 9.75
Tuesday January 23 Ginger Honey-glazed Tuna Filet 12.50
Wednesday January 24 Plum and Apple-stuffed Pork Tenderloin 10.75
Thursday January 25 Chicken with Cornmeal Leek Dumplings 9.95
Friday January 26 Shrimp Linguine with Roasted Tomato Alfredo 12.25
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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. Order before noon on Wednesday and we'll have yours ready to pick up between 4:30 and 6:00 that very afternoon. Order a full for 9 portions or, if your gang is smaller, opt for the half-sized one, which serves 4 or so.
They do freeze perfectly so if you want to stock up for the holidays, go right ahead!
This week's offering is:
Wednesday, January 24
Winter Vegetable Ragout with Cheddar Grits
Full - 29
Half - 14.50
NEW!!! - Would you like to add bread, butter, and a salad? Just ask and we'll get it all ready for you.
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Indian spices from North Carolina |
Wait just a minute! You thought our retail shop just carried things from the United States! True, true.
This is a snap of some new curries and chutneys that Adam just found - and they are all made right here in North Carolina. We have nothing against things from other countries - we LOVE things from other countries, but we don't have room in our little space. BUT - what a treat to find such rich, pure, authentic mixes from Southern India and to see that they are also North Carolina products.
We'll be featuring these in the next few weeks. Come see what you think - and then take a jar or two home. Winter and Indian foods are a perfect match.
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Kerala Curry |
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| Dancing with the Stars |
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Oh WHAT was I thinking?
In a moment of inattention I recently said yes to being a "star" at a local fundraiser. Actually, it will be fun (I hope) and we will raise a lot of money for The Reid Center (I hope). My partner is Joe Damore, head of Mission Hospital. I won't reveal exactly what we have up our sleeves (um, we haven't COMPLETELY finished our choreography...) but if you don't have anything to do next Saturday night, January 27th, please do come and watch a bunch of us make fools of ourselves. It starts at 6, I think. The Reid Center is on Livingston Street.
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Chow Down with the Chamber - January 25 |
This coming week also finds us participating in a new fundraiser - this one for The Chamber of Commerce. A number of Independent restaurants here are going to have special dinners, special greeters, special things. We'll do our usual low-key breakfasts and will fill our deli case with freshness for you. Dinner, for us, will mean a dinner to go (Chicken with Cornmeal Leek Dumplings). We'll send a portion of the proceeds on.
Oh - we'll also send a portion of all catered events so if you would like to have a special lunch at work give us a call. That's 252-1500 in case you forgot.
Cheers!
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| A Note From Laurey |
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Hi there,
It’s a beautifully sunny day here in our mountains. Later on I’m going to go home and take the dog out for a stroll or a run or a whatever-she-wants. I’ve been too busy to give her much attention lately and her pouting can no longer be avoided. I miss our walks too so I’m looking forward to it.
Last weekend was so good. Chef Ann Cooper, who I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, graced Asheville with three days which we crammed full. She spoke, she met, she ate, she spoke some more, and some more and some more. All in all I think that she must have met over 200 caring souls. Her message is about her work in the schools, how essential it is to improve the foods we serve our children. She’s doing it in Berkeley, though it is a struggle, even in a place that we outsiders assume is a shoe-in for embracing healthy eating. It ain’t necessarily so, even there. But childhood nutrition directors and teachers and parents and kids and cooks and chefs and a whole bunch of other people heard her here and I feel hopeful that her visit will help make things better around here.
And right here we are continuing to work on our sourcing, looking for reliable farms and products and streams of goods to have available to put in our food. Next week I am meeting with some farmers from near here to talk about bringing some of their goods in. I’m sure we’ll be meeting with Barry pretty soon to see what he’s going to plant. The egg lady continues to bring us her eggs. More and more we have Appalachian grown products. And I have visits to others on my list. These dark days are times for planning and thinking and working on it all. We’re pretty close to having organic dairy products on a regular basis. Yes, it’s true that we could drive to the grocery store every day to buy it but we’ve been working with our distributor which will, we hope, make the products available to us – and to other restaurants - on a wholesale level. It’s surprisingly hard but worth it, we hope.
It’s all about tweaking, really. Something can seem good enough for a time but then, either gradually or all at once, that ceases to be the case and it’s time for something to change and change is hard but, well, change we must. And so we do.
In other news, I hope that my book will ship out next week. I did mention that the official release date is February 17th, right? Come to Malaprops that night to hear some stories and get a copy of the book. We’ll also have it available here, of course. Gee maybe by next week I’ll be able to put a picture of it in this newsletter. It’s frankly incredibly hard to believe that this long process is about to end – or start, I guess.
And so it goes.
Have a nice weekend. Get outside if you can. Emily and Adam (two of our managers) are in Mexico as I write this note, basking in some of that sun. Ours, while not as strong, is pretty nice too. Yes it is.
I’ll be I touch next week.
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Something new |
Well I'm back at it in the glass studio. These are my second attempt at making tumblers without any help. I can do them pretty well with a helper, but I'm trying to do them on my own and that's a whole new trick. The first week's attempts were crooked or thick or slanted or, well, broken. The second week's were better, good enough to take a picture of, at least. Hopefully I'll continue to improve but I thought I'd give you an image to remember when I finally am able to show you a matched set of lovelies. So far, these're as good as I've got.
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