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The Weekly Newsletter |
Menus and Stories for May 28 - June 1, 2007
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| What a view!!! |
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The sweet couple is now in Croatia (or Ireland - they planned to go to both places on their honeymoon), but this picture tells a bit of the story of last week's big fete. Located two hours from here, on the very top of a mountain, this was probably the most spectacular spot we've ever had the pleasure of visiting and working.
Though it had been chilly in the days leading up to the party, last Saturday was lovely, warm and very clear. The guests sipped Margaritas and enjoyed Shrimp Tempura with John's Dunk Sauce as the sun made a dramatic disappearance over the mountains in the background of this picture. Then the moon came up, a thin sliver of a thing, with Venus hovering in its arc. Oh it was beautiful, I tell you.
None of the guests noticed that a pre-dinner gust of wind ignited a buffet tablecloth (!) because Jaime happened to be standing by and quickly covered the edge of the cloth, dousing it and changing it for a new, unsinged one in her able, expert way. At that point the guests were inside the tent enjoying grilled pears and the various components of our Southern Antipasto salad. The buffet dinner followed, perky Adan just-grilled, and Delicious with a Savory Bread Pudding and local Polenta and Trout and Tenderloin.
The guests finished their desserts around midnight, underneath the moon and her planet, now fully overhead. Our the crew cleaned up for a couple of hours before heading down off the wedding's mountain and over the highways - two hours back to the shop. Whew!!!
All in a night's work.
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Setting up the bar |
Not a bad spot, wouldn't you say?
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| Another day, another party! |
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On Sunday, as I said last week, Chris made dinner for me and my sisters and some of our friends. Four of us had had birthdays in the previous week so we all brought presents and did that fun present-trading game. But that was way after dinner which we ate on our new deck. These plates are ones I found in Deruta, Italy and they make me so happy, their bright colors being the most perfect thing to see (and to put food on, for that matter.)
I'd blown a bunch of ornaments the previous week and each guest got one with a hand-stamped card for a place marker. My sister and I put the table together earlier in the day and I kept going out to look at it. The sun shone brightly and everything just glistened and sparkled. Oh so nice. Later the candles took over as the day's light left. And we all ate homemade Strawberry Ice Cream as we told stories and laughed and traded presents and all. It was just perfect.
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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 May 28 Pesto Chicken Pasta with Walnut Sauce 9.95
Tuesday May 29 Rosemary Roasted Chicken with Parmesan Potatoes 9.95
Wednesday May 30 Caribbean Pork with Sweet Potatoes 11.25
Thursday May 31 Miso Tuna with Avocado and Cucumber Slaw 13.25
Friday June 1 Shrimp Cakes with Chipotle Aioli
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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:
Baked Eggplant with Three Cheeses
Full 28.50
Half 14.25
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Riana |
I think I've shown her picture to you before. She mostly works on Saturdays, since she has been a full-time student for the past few years. But she just graduated and is soon going to leave to go home for the summer to study for the LSAT, hoping to apply to law school for next year. Whew! I hope she'll come back after she takes the test - hopefully in September. She's thinking of spending the year in our area - hopefully here. If you see her before then, wish her well.
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| Russell |
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This is Russell, an old family friend of Adam, our shop manager. Russell is new to Asheville and, by extension, new to us. He studied jazz guitar at the Berklee School of Music in Boston (think Django Reinhart or Wes Montgomery), traveled around a bit after school, and is now a student of massage here in Asheville. When he's not in school or teaching guitar or performing, he is here, being sweet and getting into the Zen of slicing meats and cheeses and making sandwiches and helping the guests. I, for one, and happy about that..
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Heather |
And this is Heather, our newest cook. Heather comes to us via all sorts of places, one of which was working with Anne Quatrano at Bacchanalia and Floataway Cafe in Atlanta. She's a terrific addition to our kitchen and cooking staff, ably mastering all of our favorites and bringing her own spin to the mix.
In her away-from-here time she does commercial photography with a focus, so to speak, on black and white. She also is a gardener with an emphasis on heirloom varieties of all sorts of things. She was "grill babe" on the big wedding last weekend and the four hours of driving gave me a chance to find out a little bit more about her.
Again, lucky me, lucky us, lucky you.
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| A Note From Laurey |
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May 26, 2007
People sometimes ask me about my work day. What DO you do?
Today is a fairly perfect example of a normal day. Here’s my report so far – by noon:
An early morning stop at the tailgate market where I picked up two flats of baby lavender plants. I’m going to put them in at home, right on the lip of a stone wall that we had built after the addition to the house was finished. Chris suggested Lavender and I’m all for it. That spot, in full sun, will look great with the southern-French plants. Whee!
Got to work, said hello, got the morning coffee going, checked my e-mail, found out that a distributor I’ve been writing to is finally about to place her first order for my new book. Hooray! I’m doing well getting it out to small places but her distribution network is much bigger than mine, so it’s nice to know that this is about to happen.
Stepped across the street to my neighborhood tailgate market to get muffins for the morning crew here. The raspberry pie looked great so I bought a whole one and took it back across the street to the cooks in my kitchen. Oh, and on my way I bought a few fat handfuls of cornflowers for the café tables’ vases, put on a hat, went into the kitchen and arranged the flowers and had a piece of pie with some coffee.
Came back to the office and started working on the newsletter. Stopped to go pick up some needed extra provisions that our supplier had dropped off at the Grove Park Inn, ten minutes from here. Got there right on time, chatted with the truck driver, got our boxes, came back to work, unpacked my car, and returned to the newsletter.
Went up to the kitchen, took some pictures, put them in the newsletter, answered a couple of questions from the kitchen, and then answered the phone and planned a 50th wedding anniversary party for a couple of weeks from now. Started working on my “note.”
Stopped writing to go pick up some bread from our bread baker’s shop on the other side of town, ten minutes from here in the other direction from the Grove Park Inn. We’re open on Monday but the bakers are not. We’ll need bread by then. We don’t have a normal delivery person on Saturdays and, since I am the least involved in the day’s food production, I’m the best one to go on errands.
On my way out to get the bread I ran into my sweet friend Wes who runs the Segway Tours from our Chamber of Commerce. Ours is his “snack” stop with his tours. Today as they were parking their machines in our garden, I heard one of his guests say, “I’ll be right in but first I MUST take a picture of this car!” She was referring to our new Honda Element, a bright blue sweetie pie with, you guessed it, “Don’t Postpone Joy” written on the back. I like that, a guest from out of town wanting a picture of my delivery vehicle. Wes and I shared a knowing wink but didn’t say anything. Cute!
On my way back in with the bread I had a nice chat with the daughter of a friend/client who is just back from a year in France. This is such a fun time of year, as all these kids return with stories to tell. But once again I got distracted.
I’m now back, having unloaded the bread, which is already on its way to becoming sandwiches. I hear people filling up in the café but I need to just sit here and finish this note or else, well, I’ll never finish this newsletter.
It’s a great day. The kitchen is humming with preparations for another couple of weddings and graduations and celebrations. I’m happy about all of it. I like the distraction and the concentration. I like the visiting with unexpected guest and the scattered nature of it all. I like meeting new people, even on the phone. I like focusing on their events, and I like flitting around touching this and that. It suits me (most of the time) and this glimpse is just a fraction of the kinds of things that happen all the time in this life that I have created. Fun.
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My place at the table |
Oh isn't this pretty? Sun, glass, Italy, outdoor birthday dinner.
Need anything else?
Oh - people - they showed up a little bit later.
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