The Weekly Newsletter
Menus and Stories for February 4 - 8, 2008
Coffee on the branch

This is no stock photography shot. Here are coffee beans growing in Nicaragua. Adam, our shop manager, visited there in mid-January, guests of the folks who roast our coffee. Counter Culture Coffee Roasters not only roasts the beans, they also source them from all over the world. This coffee is from Finca Esperanza Verde, an award-winning coffee from high in the Nicaraguan mountains.

We're going to have a tasting and a chat with Adam and the Counter Culture folks pretty soon. Stay tuned.

A new favorite

Richard likes to make these parmesan tacos. You never quite know what he's going to tuck in them on any given day. These look like grilled chicken, avocado, lettuce. They went like, well, like parmesan tacos, I guess. (It doesn't seem quite right to say they went like hotcakes.)

We know you like variety. This newsletter is a look at one day's offerings from last week. Come see what we're making this week. (Some people come many days a week which makes me pretty happy.)

Winter Bliss

Well, these are not bliss potatoes. Local Yukon Golds. Martha slices them, tosses them in olive oil, adds some seasonings, and finishes them with shredded cheese. They fly out too. The other day I offered some to a mother of a bride to be. We're planning their Spring wedding and these will be the base for one of the passed hors d'oeuvres. The mother managed to eat all of the samples, and seemed happy about the whole thing.

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 is this week's menu:


Monday February 4 Chicken Marsala with Noodles 10.25
Tuesday February 5 Cajun Shrimp and Scallop Gumbo with Rice 12.75
Wednesday February 6 Honey-thyme Pork Loin with Cornbread Stuffing 11.25
Thursday February 7 Home-style Chicken and Dumplings 9.95
Friday February 8 Citrus-baked Tilapia 12.95

Our website
Special casserole of the week

We make a special casserole each week, usually on Wednesday. Order before noon 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, February 6
Roasted Winter Vegetable Pot Pie
Full: 29.50
Half: 14.75

The day's burritos

Another of Martha's creations. She fills whole wheat tortillas with the season's greens, rice, cheese, that sort of thing. One friend came for breakfast a while ago, bought two, one for his lunch. He ate them both, he said, before he'd gotten to work. Now he comes on a regular basis, as do many others. Another of my friends recently yelled across the gym to me, "Hey those burritos are GREAT!!!" and then he went on to praise them, loudly, to all his friends.

They are both right. They are great. (Do try some with Martha's "Twang" hot sauce.)

Apple Wellingtons

And here's another new one from Richard. Baked Apples. Toasted, spiced nuts. Puffed Pastry. Bake 'em. Eat 'em. (I do, often.)

Taking the long view

I mentioned to the kitchen staff that lots of new things in the case are a good idea. Of course we keep the standards for you, but without a set menu we can respond to the weather, the contents of our refrigerators, and the whims of the cooks. Here's a shot of the deli case last week. Hard to know what to choose, isn't it? (Don't forget we have an "A Little of Each" option. Pick what you want. We'll give you a taste of anything you choose and will weigh the assortment - minus the weight of the plate, of course. This is what I usually do.)

A Note From Laurey


February 2, 2008

Hiya,

I’m at home. Kind of fun, different, odd to be typing here, at night, rather than at my desk at work, on a Saturday morning. I did go to work this morning but the internet connection was not working. I went over to the local coffee shop to check for any urgent messages and then went off to spend the day at Bee School.

I’m hoping to keep bees this year.

Gosh, what an intense day! We spent this entire day learning about bees. Bee body parts. Bee hive construction. The history of bees and bee keeping. We learned a little bit about bee keeping equipment, about bee stings, about honey. We heard about how bees make honey, how and when they expand their colonies, what happens if they decide to swarm and move away. Tomorrow we’ll learn more and then we have two more days next weekend. Whewf! It’s intense.

Did I tell you about my friend Barbara? She lives in Oakland and has bees in her back yard. They used to be in her house but she found a fellow to come and move them into a hive. I visited her once when they were still in her house and she amazed me by sitting at the entrance to the hive, her head covered with them, cooing and purring and almost petting them. She did not get stung. A few years ago she gave me some honey. And, as I told you, I now know I am not allergic to honey bee stings, so I’m going for it.

My friend Lyne was there teaching for some of the day today. She’s the one who won the blue ribbon at this year’s state fair, one of the ones whose honey we sell. (Dave is another and we’ll hear from him tomorrow.) There are hundreds of bee keepers in our area so Lyne’s ribbon was no small prize. She showed slides of her hives, stacked on her deck, painted a goldeny, mustardy yellow, each pile topped with a sculpture. What a beautiful picture. She does, she added, have them surrounded by a bear fence because the big fellows (and gals) were climbing up and making a mess of the hives, not to mention eating all the honey and bees. Still, I couldn’t see the fence in her picture, just the hive piles and the art and the beauty of it all. Hives, they tell us, do best when they face east and rest in full sun. I think I have a good spot for them here in the garden. I hope there are no bears. I’ve never seen one and don’t really want to, especially in my yard, know what I mean?

I’ve been thinking about food and life and my business and local things. You know, we try very hard to buy from local sources. And we try very hard to buy the best food we can. It’s hard sometimes, because that is by far not the cheapest option for us. I really hope that this choice matters as much to you as it does to me and to us. I feel so strongly that we have to support our farmers and our local vendors. They struggle. Everything gets more expensive. It’s hard to make the choice to farm rather than to sell one’s land to a development. So thanks for understanding and choosing to continue to come to us for lunch and dinner and meetings and parties. Thanks a lot.

So now it’s time to send this off, make some dinner, settle in, digest the day’s bee lessons. Tomorrow will be another full day and I need to let some of this sift out to make room for the next lessons.

I’ll be in touch next week.

The newest

I get to spend Mondays at Penland these days. Here's something from two weeks ago. I'll go up this week and pick up the things from last week. The lag between making and seeing the pieces keeps it all suspenseful for me. I can't quite remember what I made during my last session, and so it's always a fun moment to walk in and look in my little "cubby" to see what is there. This is what I found last Monday. I might show you more next week. We'll see.

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