The Weekly Newsletter
Menus and Stories for August 20 - 24, 2007
Red beauties

This week's newsletter is almost all about B+L Organics' produce. I feel so lucky that the tailgate market is right across the street from us - two days a week. What a delight.

Barry and Laura, as I've told you, grow wonderful things at a higher elevation than many other farmers, which means that we get some things from them later than we do from others. But then there are others whose seasons are longer, enabling us to get, well, you get where I'm headed with this.

This week Barry brought us a lovely collection of tomatoes, including some yellow romas. The heirloom tomato salad in our deli case is deliciously colorful these days.

Orange "Sun Gold" tomatoes

More burst of tomato-ness. I pop them into my mouth like candy, hardly able to keep them on my kitchen counter at home. We have 'em here at work too. Look for them in the deli case, probably along with some red cherry tomatoes (they call them "tommy toes" around here) and some fresh mozzarella.

This is heads up that tomatoes will not, sad to say, be here for a whole lot longer. Fill up now while you still can.

Yellow Summer Squash

More from Barry and Laura. The kitchen gang has been thinly slicing these yellow babies and then tosses them with a splash of vinegar, a few red onion slivers, and, sometimes, capers. Fresh and light and perfect.

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 August 20 Chicken Country Captain with Wild and Basmati Rice 9.95
Tuesday August 21 Andrew’s Portobello Mushroom Wellingtons 10.25
Wednesday August 22 Laurey’s-style Pulled Pork Barbecue 11.25
Thursday August 23 Pan-seared Scallops with Corn Coulis 13.75
Friday August 24 New Orleans-style Shrimp Creole 15.25

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. (Yes, you can order in advance too.) Order a full for 9 portions or, if your gang is smaller, opt for the half-sized one, which serves 4 or so.

Say, we'll 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.



Wednesday, August 22
Summer Vegetable Lasagna
Full 29.75
Half 14.75

Green Cukes

Did you know that the pickles we serve with our sandwiches are all made right here? Adam and Andrew tweaked a classic recipe and have developed what is my new favorite pickle. Their pickles are brined and tucked into a corner of our walk-in refrigerator and that's about that. We're thinking of going to pickle school so that we can sell them to you in jars. Hasn't happened yet though, so for now you'll just have to come for a fresh one.

Cilantro

Our Gazpacho is a daily favorite, a nice chilled soup for the hot times we're having. I can just brush past a sprig of the stuff and get transported to Ecuador - just like that. Nice!

Kohlrabi

I included this shot because the green is so lovely.

Sarah, who works here up in the shop, and occasionally in the kitchen too, has been bringing us bounty from her garden too. She and her husband farm a plot of land up near Max Patch, above Hot Springs. Today I had some of her Lemon Cucumbers that Martha had sliced and tossed in with some of Barry's tomatoes.

Simple perfection.

A Note From Laurey




August 17, 2007

Good morning.

I’m writing this on Friday. I’m at home. It’s early and, in fact, still dark at my house. In a little while I’m off to New Orleans for a meeting, my first with the board of an organization that has meant a lot to me since joining it almost when it started. I’m about to join this board and this is my first trip with that purpose.

We’re going to have our conference in New Orleans next year so this meeting will be about that, looking around and seeing about all that we'll have to do. And I guess we’ll be doing other things too, talking about the organization, doing whatever it is that we do in these sorts of things. It’s new to me – working in this way with this group.

I have a new computer and it’s quite an adjustment. Seems silly that a little thing like this could cause such an uproar in my head, but it’s like I’ve moved homes. Everything feels different. I am having trouble finding things. In my real life I tuck things away, toss items in little boxes that I stash around my room in drawers or around my house on shelves. I remember where I’ve put these things – for the most part – and, when I need them, I go get them. Similarly, I tucked things into files on my old computer and knew where to go to get them. In this new “house” I am having trouble finding things. I hired a virtual mover to transfer things from one place to another, and, though the new placement is probably logical, I can’t always find what I need.

This computer feels different to my hands. I like the new one, and the touch of the keys is lighter and that’s a good thing, but it is different. I’m not one who seeks and revels in things being different and so this alteration, truthfully, is a jolt. It’s like at my home. When we got a new dining table, things moved around. I used to have my home office in the area of the living room which now houses that table. I was accustomed to the sound, the light, the feel of that corner of the cabin. Since we got that table my writing and work space is in the room that once was the bedroom. We now have a different bedroom so I get my own work area – not just a corner of the living room. The new bedroom has different light, different air, a whole different feel and it is, I admit, better to have my office in my own room, not in the middle of the living room. All these new things are fine, but I don’t just glide easily into the difference. Each one catches my attention, stops me, says, “hey – things are not as they were.”

Some people love it when things are different. Some people move their furniture, switch homes, change cars, repaint and move the art all the time. I am not one of those people. I feel disrupted when my car is in the shop and I have to use another. I notice when the sofa has moved one inch, when a picture, newly dusted, is ajar. I am aware of each tiny change and quickly do whatever it takes to put things back the way they were.

Yesterday, when Bill was working on getting this new computer functional, I played musical computers in the office at work. Bill was at my desk so, while Jaime was working on an estimate at Emily’s desk, I used her computer. But then she finished her work there and needed her desk back so I moved to Emily’s. Then Noel needed to look up something in the filing cabinets behind Em’s work area so I switched and moved again. Each move felt disruptive to me and I tapped at keys on their computers but my mind felt jumbled like knotted wire and the writing, which I needed to do, did not flow. Instead I brought my computer home (which is the whole point of this machine – I will be able to travel with it if I want and so I am home seeing if it works the way I want.) This computer is wireless and I could work on it anywhere, all over my house, inside or out.

Last night I tapped out some things with it on my lap in the den, and I took it to the dining room table to give that place a try. But I find myself back in the same place in my office, this new computer on my desk that I like so much and that has become so familiar to me since I moved out of the living room. I know the light in this spot, the sounds of things outside, and even the place where Tye lies when I am working. Indeed, there she is, right there on the floor, sleeping and breathing softly as I click away on these new, unfamiliar keys.

I hope I find where Bill put all the boxes. It’ll take some time to unpack, I suspect. And even though I wanted this new machine, it is taking some getting used to. Sometimes you just don’t know these things until you try them. One thing I have decided, though. Going to New Orleans for this new board is enough of a difference for me. I think I'm just going to leave the computer here on my desk. It'll be here when I get back, after all. It can go on the next excursion.

I’ll be back on Sunday and will be back at my desk at work next week. I’ll see if I can find some stories for you in the meantime. Thanks for checking in with me. I’ll be in touch soon.

and Rocket

Rocket has been in the newsletter before. Last time she was wearing a nice pink tutu! (We do live in Asheville, remember.)

Now that a little Jack Russell puppy has entered my life, Rocket catches my attention more than ever. She is deaf, by the way, and yesterday, when she was howling after an attractive-looking dog, her mom yanked her back (in a gentle scolding manner) and signed to her to stop barking. Rocket shut up immediately.

I was impressed.

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