The Weekly Newsletter
Menus and Stories for May 12-16, 2008
The promise of Spring
Nothing sends me like this little girl.  Bailey is now three months old.  She's just starting to know about smiling and was fascinated last week when I clucked to her.  Her eyes were glued to my mouth, nothing subtle about it.  She just stared. 

She's my baby grand neice.  Lovely.  Lovely.

Columbine
In my garden at home things are very lovely too.  Many things are in bloom, many purple things, it seems.  I'm the one who planted most everything, but I am still surprised to see what pops out of the ground.  As you'll see, everything is purple.  In a week or so it'll be different.  For now - here's what's here. (I thought you might like to see too.)

Iris
A few of these are open but hundreds more are ready to pop.  Next week it'll be a riot of color right next to my little cabin.  I'm going away this week and when I come back everything will be in full bloom.  Now that'll be fun to come home to, won't it?

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    May 12    Pan-Fried Chicken, Leeks, and Mushrooms 9.95
Tuesday    May 13    Chickpea Cakes with Tabouli and Cucumber Sauce 10.25
Wednesday    May 14    Grilled Flank Steak with Vidalia Onion Gratin 10.75
Thursday    May 15    Carolina Bouillabaisse 12.75
Friday        May 16    Salmon and Asparagus Fettuccine 13.75

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, May 14

Seafood Cottage Pie
Full: 45.00
Half: 22.50

Rhododrendron
This week is my birthday.  My friend Monroe and I have close birthdays and have often celebrated together.  Once, when I had just moved into this house, he and I had a big party.  All of our families came and we had a grand time.  His parents brought a big bucket with this treasure in it.  It has never been as lush as it is this year, loaded with blooms, filled with reminders of that day, playing croquet on the lawn, cavorting with my aunt and sisters, horsing around with friends.  That was a nice day and this plant is a fine thing too.

Delphinium to be
Not everything is in bloom.  But boy oh boy, this one is going to be a beauty.  Dark blue, and tall and lush.  It's right outside my door.  All my favorite things are right outside my door.  Other beds are planted, but I sit and gaze at the close in sweetie pies.  This is one of them.

Peonies too
These were a birthday present once too.  I hope I don't miss them.  They get ready and get ready and get ready and then - just like that - they're in bloom and then done.  Could be that I'll come home to find pink petals scattered all over the ground.  I hope not.

A Note From Laurey
I'm about to scoot off for a week.  I'm headed to the coast, off to explore some places I've never seen.  After 21 years of North Carolina living, I have never visited the Outer Banks.  So here goes.

My birthday is on Wednesday this year.  I'd heard that there is something special about the birthday that happens when you turn the age of the last two digits of your birth year.  This, for me, is that year.  54.  My Golden Birthday, according to the internet.  In a quick browse I couldn't come up with much more than that it is special.  I guess time will tell in that regard.  It feels big.  I'm not sure why but it does.

My mother wrote about my birthday in her first book.  The lilacs and the apple blossoms and the shad trees were in bloom as she and my father drove to the hospital to welcome me into the world.  My  lilacs came and went about two weeks ago, as did my apple tree blossoms.  I don't know what a shad tree is, but I do know the tulip poplars are active, promising a bang up year for honey production (I won't be a part of that, since this year is about letting the bees build their colony and prepare for the winter, not encouraging them to make honey for me.  I might get to taste some, but I'll leave most of it for them.) 

This year I'll be away from everyone I know on my birthday.  My sisters and I have always celebrated when we could, not necessarily when the actual day of birth comes.  This year I'm sure we'll talk on the phone a bit but I won't get to see them together for some time.  Lucinda is training for some Endurance races with her horse and won't be able to come here for awhile.  It's our normal way of doing things, so it's okay.

We have never, in my family, celebrated a Golden birthday.  I just found out about it and, being the youngest will be the only one of us to even think about it.  We've made big deals for each other on the decade marks - 30, 40, 50... Maybe Golden birthdays are about wandering on a sand dune and figuring things out, listening to surf, watching birds, smelling salt.  I don't know.  Maybe I'll find out.

So, have a fine week.  I will too.

I'll be in touch next week.
Ciao.
Laurey

Lilies of the Valley
This is May's birth flower.  My cabin is surrounded by them and their sweetness greets me every morning these days.  I'm hoping the bees will find them.  Right now they are busy making honeycomb and collecting Tulip Poplar pollen.  But if I were them, I'd be down there on the ground, sipping this elixir. 

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