The Weekly Newsletter
Menus and Stories for June 25 - 29, 2007
Bea, Maria, and the new pot
I've wanted to have some color out in front of the shop forever. The other day I found this fabulously gigantic pot. I went to the market this morning, bought some flowers, came to work, filled my new pot with dirt and planted my new plants: echinacea and cosmos and coreopsis and balloon flowers and a bit of rosemary too - voila!

And then Bea and Maria showed up in the PERFECT dresses (made by their Poppy) and - voila #2.

One of the new fans

Andrew, one of our chief shopsters, had "the idea of the century" (that's what Adam said) to get some ceiling fans. Wasting NO time I called our friend JD who came right over, assesed the situation, and agreed to come the very next morning to install them if I bought them. I scurried right over to Lowe's and, now, as if they'd been there forever, we have a whole lot of fans moving the air around like a charm.

Thanks Andrew!!! (And JD and Clark who put them in.)

Sarah's greens

Our Sarah, some time shopster, some time cook, and some time party server, is also a farmer/gardener. She and her husband farm some land up by Max Patch in Madison County. She's been bringing us bags of this and that. Keeps us on our toes - and fills our deli case with yum.

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 June 25 Chicken, Leek, and Mushroom Fettuccine 9.95
Tuesday June 26 Curried Shrimp with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce 12.25
Wednesday June 27 Coffee Roasted Flank Steak with Potato Fritters 11.50
Thursday June 28 Pork Enchiladas with Pineapple Salsa 11.25
Friday June 29 Grilled Tuna with Orange Butter 13.25

Our website
Special casserole of the week

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:

Wednesday, June 27
Smoked Salmon and Potato Casserole
Full 42.50
Half 21.25

Oh, we'd happily make a salad and provide bread for you if you like, just let us know when you call and we'll get you all set up.


Oh peaches!

These are the beginning of the summer's haul. We got quite a freeze at Easter, so I was worried we wouldn't end up with any peaches, but here they are. Glory be! Come see what the cooks are doing with them. You just can't predict.

Carolina Beauties

Did I mention that we are only using North Carolina sweet potatoes now? Seems like the right thing to do, since we grow so many here in this state (more than any other state, I'm told.) Have you tried one of our Sweet Potato Ham biscuits? Oh my, oh my. Ask for them at your next party.

Judith's bounty

And I'm so thrilled that Judith's zinnias are back. She is a flower arranger down the street at The Bloom Room, but she fills our cafe tables with color all summer long. This week she brought queen Anne's lace and tucked it in the table's jars. Gorgeous!

A Note From Laurey

June 23, 2007

Good morning. What a great day – already! I’ve been to two tailgate markets already, bought and planted the pot I showed in the first picture, and am excited about dinner at home tonight where I am going to make cheese grits with Wayne Uffleman’s Hawkin Prolific corn grits (the kind of corn used to make moonshine, he tells me) and then Peach Shortcake for dessert. Chris is in charge of the main course.

She just got back here from a few days in Washington, DC where she cooked for her Washington US Senators (Chris is from Seattle, you know.) Apparently the guest of honor at one of the dinners never managed to even get to the dinner because she couldn’t leave the Senate floor until the energy bill she was working on went to a vote. Ah well. Life in the fast lane. (The bill did make it and did get voted on and did pass. Thanks to Senator Cantwell.)

I’m gearing up for the next few days at Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor. It’ll be a whirlwind of listening (Emily and Adam and I are attending a seminar about business visioning, talking (I’ve been invited to be on “Radio Free Bacon” the Zingerman’s radio variety show to talk about Elsie’s Biscuits) and signing (there will be a bunch of different book signing times at both Zingerman’s Deli and The Zingerman’s Roadhouse. We are all eagerly anticipating seeing the Zing crowd’s take on Laurey’s foods. Fu-UN!!!

Then we come back for a minute before I do my final Chamber of Commerce speech at the Annual Meeting. It’s been a FULL year with them as Board Chair. I’m honored to have been so involved with them over this past year and also think it’ll be just fine to have a bit more time to do other things.

Then – zip zip – off to Vermont for book readings and signings. Did I tell you I am also going to scout for a Delicious Expedition to Vermont. They are making extraordinary cheeses these days and I would love to spend a long weekend up there visiting some of them – with you. Monroe, my European travel buddy, says he’s in too. We both have been too busy to do a trip to Italy for a while, but a shorter, closer trip sounds very doable.

Jean Anderson, a cookbook author (jeanandersoncooks.com), just wrote a very nice review of Elsie’s Biscuits on her website. (In her “What’s New” section she wrote about my book and Patricia Well’s new book – wow!) It turns out Jean was a junior editor at Ladies Home Journal when that magazine bought the serial rights to my mother’s recipes and ran them every month. Jean and my mother never actually met but I love the completion of this particular circle.

After that I come back here and get to teach some classes with Swannanoa School of Culinary Arts. What a way to kick of the summer, eh?

Okay – I need to finish up some things. I’ll tell you all about Zingerman’s next week.

Take care and eat some watermelon pretty soon (that’s what I had for dinner last night).


Martha tends the garden

You do know that we have a lovely garden right behind the shop, yes? This is Martha's baby, and you'd do well to take your lunch back there, sit and lose track of the day and let the breeze lull you a bit. There are birds and flowers and bees. Dream away.