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The Weekly Newsletter |
Menus and Stories for March 5 - 9, 2007
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| Come try some Waffles |
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We'll (Emily and Kris are coming too) be in Chapel Hill tomorrow, Sunday March 5th from 12 - 5 at A Southern Season. They've told me we'll be "right up front" and are setting us up to make my mother's Sour Cream Waffles. We're going to bring some of our Blueberry Jam to go along with them, oh and some books, too.
Come say hello if you're in the neighborhood.
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A Southern Season |
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Another Word about our Coffee |
A friend of mine just wrote from Honduras where she is traveling and learning Spanish. She happened to write about the degradation of the forests and about how important it is to support fair trade coffee. "I'll never ever buy anything else," she said.
Ours, as you know IS fair trade. Counter Culture Coffee Roasters buys coffee ONLY from small farms, many of whom they have visited themselves. So if you come here and have a cup of coffee (it is REALLY good coffee too, by the way) you can rest in comfort that you are also doing a very good thing in supporting distant small farmers.
I think I'll go have another cup right now.
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Counter Culture Coffee |
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| Swannanoa School of Culinary Arts |
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I've been meaning to tell you that I'll be teaching again at SSCA this summer. I'll be sharing the counter with Susi Gott this time. She lives in France and so has invited me to teach French things. I'll also be doing a demonstration of some hors d'oeuvres for the opening reception the first week.
This is a small, intense, and very delicious school right down the road at the Warren Wilson Campus. Do check it out. If you've always wanted to go to culinary school but don't really want to spend two years doing it, these week long classes are the next best thing.
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Swannanoa School of Culinary Arts |
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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 March 5 Maple-glazed Chicken with Gorgonzola Polenta 9.95
Tuesday March 6 Swedish Meatballs with Egg Noodles 11.25
Wednesday March 7 Jerk Pork with Pineapple Chutney 10.50
Thursday March 8 Chicken, Cauliflower and Caramelized Onion Tart 9.95
Friday March 9 Citrus Baked Tilapia 11.95
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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.
This week's offering is:Beef Stew with Carrots and Couscous Whole 37.50 Half 18.75
Would you like to add a salad and bread? Just ask and we'll fix 'em for you.
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A new cookie? A contest! |
The shopsters have decided that they'd like to see a new cookie added to the mix of the ones we always make. And instead of having US decide what to make, they thought it'd be fun to see if YOU have any suggestions.
Do you?
If so, and you're open to sharing the recipe with us, send it to us or drop it off. Write "winning cookie recipe" so we know to pay immediate attention. We'll try them all and, depending on how many submissions we get, we may have a cookie taste-off! The winning recipe will enter our "Canon" and will be given YOUR name. "Michael's Fabulous Chunky Weirdo Cookies" (for example.)
We can't wait to try 'em out.
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| Egg shells? No, Compost! |
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You do know we save all our vegetable scraps, right? I got to the kitchen too early this morning to find any enticing finished product shots to share with you. But really, to me this is a perfect as it gets. I recently met with a fellow who is trying to convince other restaurateurs to do this. He quizzed me on the logistics and the costs and the this and the that.
I answered his questions and thanked him for doing what he was doing. I hope it works. His pilot project has importance. If I didn't have this job I might tackle that one. For now, I just collect these things and hook them up with someone who knows how to turn them into rich dirt. That's a grand thing.
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A little bit more glass |
These sit in the window right outside my office. They are so pretty with the morning sun streaming in. One of these days I'll be able to make this sort of thing with great confidence. As it stands, I'm still at the stage of being pleased with their mere color. The tweaking of the forms will follow.
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| A Note From Laurey |
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March 3, 2007
Oh good morning! It’s gorgeous here today.
Last night I went home, changed clothes, and took my pup for a much-needed walk. She is now very accustomed to being left at home and does that sulking thing, a real “hang-dog” expression when I go to work. But when she gets to come along she explodes with excitement. Last night was one of those times.
We went down to the university and wandered down by their stream. She raced around, exploring and visiting and leaping with excitement. The moon, full, or almost that, blazed at our backs. We stopped for a family that was also out for an early evening stroll.
“It’ll be a total E-clipse tomorrow,” the dad said, emphasizing the first syllable of the word. (I’ve always said “e-CLIPSE” but who’s to say what’s right.) Tye doesn’t care so much about that sort of thing and scampered ahead, anxious to keep up the walk and her exploration.
We got back to the car at almost-dark. She could have kept going for a lot longer but I was tired and hungry and ready to go home and I am the driver so she had to do what I wanted. Some other time she’ll get to make decisions. This time, no.
On the way home we stopped at a red light near a gas station near my house. Tye perked up and then, hearing what caught her attention, so did I.
Peepers!
I think I mentioned them last year in a note to you but you might have forgotten and anyway now it’s a new year and – just like that - the peepers have returned. Baby frogs! Just hatched. Singing by the side of the road. A funny thing is that I heard nothing when we were on our walk, and we passed lots of ponds and streams and standing water. But there, in that vacant lot, they prevailed.
The light changed to green and we had to move. We went home, had dinner, and went to bed. I dreamed of spring and pussy-willows, which I actually saw in a store last week, and peepers. Lulled by the remembered smells, sounds, feelings, we fell asleep.
Say, did you know that the time changes next week? It’s early this year. Thought you might like to know.
I’ll be in touch next week.
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"Wonky" but pretty |
A new word for my vocabulary. It means twisted and goofy and, well, not quite right.
But this piece is my first "encalmo" which means that I made a blue cup-shaped piece and a green striped cup-shaped piece of the same size and then, with a lot of help, "stuck" them together and fused them and shaped them into the bowl-like piece pictured here.
Wonky.
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