The Weekly Newsletter
Menus and Stories for October 8 - 19, 2007
Flowers and light

Okay - it is time to think about the holidays. People have been calling, reserving, planning. You might want to too. All the pictures in this newsletter were taken in our Garden Room. It is the nicest space for a private event.

We can comfortably seat around 50 and can easily host a stand-up, mill-around fete for 100.

Give us a call and we'll help you with YOUR plans!

Joy is...

We sometimes set the buffet up in the front of our space, right under this lovely quote by Teillard de Chardin. (We've printed the quote with a local letterpress printer and, as soon as the envelopes arrive, we'll be offering it for sale in our shop.)

Decked out

Our place dresses up so nicely! Here are some tables with their red cloaks, ready for guests, food, frivolity. Candles and sparkly lights make the whole place twinkle.

Dinners to go (for two weeks)

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 the menu for the next two weeks
(I'm going to be on vacation and won't be back until too late to write next week's newsletter...)


Monday October 8 Orange-Glazed Roasted Chicken (bone-in) 9.95
Tuesday October 9 Pub-style Fish and Chips 12.75
Wednesday October 10 Shrimp and Avocado Quesadilla 13.25
Thursday October 11 Chicken with Herbed Dumplings 9.95
Friday October 12 Crabcakes with Roasted Pepper Aioli 12.25

Monday October 15 Lamb Stew with Classic Vegetables 11.75
Tuesday October 16 Gorgonzola Chicken Fettuccine 9.95
Wednesday October 17 Roast Pork Tenderloin with Granny Smith Apples 13.25
Thursday October 18 Spinach and Chevre Beef Wellington 14.95
Friday October 19 Grilled Tuna with Marinated Cole Slaw 16.75

Our website
Special casserole of the week (for two weeks)

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, October 10
Beef Tips with Butternut Squash Puree and Rice
Full
38.00
Half: 19.00



Wednesday, October 17
Seafood Cottage Pie
Full: 45.00
Half: 22.50

A Christmas assortment

Here's a small hors d'oeuvres buffet all set.

(Please know that I don't want to rush you through fall, just want to get your imagination going.)

Ready for the guests

We can do (and have done) cooking demonstrations, classes, frolics of all kinds. Got 25 people and want a fun evening? We're good at that.

How about a culinary trip to Italy or France or Spain or, um, our mountains? You ask. We do. Easy?

A peek into the kitchen

We do have an open kitchen. Makes it fun for us and for your guests.

A Note From Laurey



October 4, 2007

Hiya,

Oh tra la. I am going on a vacation this coming week. It might seem like I’m gone all the time but almost all of the jaunts are work-related. This one, this time is just for me (well, me and Chris.)

We’re headed out to Abiquiu, New Mexico. This is where Georgia O’Keefe spent time. It is also the home to spectacular scenery, wonderfully different tastes, clear air, and hot air balloons. It is also full-fledged fall there, with colors that are completely different than the ones I am familiar with.

The challenge for me, probably for you, too, is that no matter when I make a plan to leave, something comes up that just seems gigantic and insurmountable and impossible to miss. This is a busy time at work for us and I feel a cloud of pressure (self-imposed0 about how it is all going to get done. I’m not too “hands on” these days, so it might not matter too much if I am here or not, but I struggle with it. Should I have taken a vacation now? Would it have made a difference?

It’s tricky.

I grew up in our Inn and no one ever took a vacation. We WERE the vacation for all our guests, after all. Of course, my parents worked all the time, valiantly putting on a show for everyone, acting like they were just fine, not tired, happy to be surrounded by the bustle of everyone. We did go on trips, but they were always timed around a publicity trip for one of my mother’s books. The one vacation I remember my parents taking was at this time of year, a cruise to Bermuda. They ended up getting caught in a hurricane and that seemed a clear message about vacation. It was not really such a good idea.

Vacation IS a good idea. I know this. It is good for all of us to go away. And if I don’t, no one else will either. (That may not be true…but it is important for me to “walk this particular talk,” - for me as much as for them.) So I will go. I am looking forward to it. It will take me a couple of days to sink out of this and into that, and then, no doubt, it will take me some time to re-adjust when I come back. But it is good, worth doing, important to clear my head and remember that there is a good, rich life out in the world that does not involve making food for people or any of that.

I’m thrilled that we are so busy here and I know that our staff will do a bang-up job. The team of folks here is exemplary.

I had a dear friend who had a personal motto for his multiple friendships: “Love with no guilt.” With us it never mattered if we’d seen each other a lot or a little, if we’d spoken recently or not. We were best friends – no matter what. So I’m adapting his words to my life (or I’m trying): “Work with no guilt(about not playing enough). Play with no guilt (about not working enough). Life – with no guilt.” I’m practicing. Not there yet, but trying.

I’ll take some pictures and I’ll show them to you when I get back.




Ready and waiting

Though we say "The Garden Room" most parties spill out into our whole space. When you have your party here, you get the whole thing.

Not all nights in December are available any longer. Want to see about having your event here? Call (quick!)

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