The Weekly Newsletter
Menus and Stories for July 14 - 18, 2008
Jam Babes - at it again!
Oh boy!!!  The "Jam Babes" (um, me and a gal I hired to help...) turned out a bunch of cases of Blueberry Jam last week.  It is SO good, not-too-sweet, just the way I like it. 

I brought the filled cases back to work and opened one, just as a sample.  This "sample" is the one I made for Adam but before he got to taste it, I snagged it for a snap. 

Blackberry Jam is next up, and will be followed by Peach Chutney.  This canning gets squeezed in between other things, so production is, shall we say, limited.  But do come and stash it away.  Our jars fit perfectly in the bottom of a stocking.  (Do not say I didn't give you fair warning...!)

Marty's Challah
You could, if you are so inclined, slather some of my jam on Marty's bread.  Or you could let it sit around for a little while and get a little (tiny bit) stale at which point you could turn it into French Toast. 

He's been making it on Fridays.  Come by that day if you like, or, better yet, call ahead to order some.  There might be some left over on Saturday or, then again, there might not.  And, by the way, have you tried his Trifle?  Oh my.

We get to have a meeting here
Our Garden Room has been the site of a lot of gatherings lately.  The other night we got to have it all to ourselves.  Sky organized everything, tidying up and putting information (and chocolate) on each seat.  Deb and Martha made some snacks and all I had to do was show up and, oh yes, run the meeting.

We really have a terrific group here right now.  Everyone talked about how great the others were - each team sharing stories of great things other team members had done.  I, in my position, get to shower praise on all of them.  That, in my humble opinion, is the best spot possible.

(If you'd like to have your meeting or gathering or party or wedding or special event here, just give a call.  We'll see what we can do.)

Dinners to go for this week
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           July 14             Herb-crusted Chicken Cordon Bleu 9.50

Tuesday           July 15             Thai Fish Cakes with Peanut Noodles 11.25

Wednesday      July 16             Lamb Meatballs with Sage Butter Fettucine 11.50

Thursday          July 17             Chicken and Pepper Enchiladas 9.95

Friday              July 18             Ginger Roasted Salmon with Coconut Rice 14.25

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, July 16

Chicken and Local Vegetable Lasagna

Full: 32.00

Half: 16.00




 

Off to school
This coming week is going to be a busy one for me.  Fun.  Full.  Good.

On Monday morning I am going to teach at the Swannanoa School of Culinary Arts.  I'm sharing the morning with another chef and together we are teaching about tomatoes and squash and onions.  Knife skills will be emphazed as will local food and things like that.

I went shopping this morning and picked up these perfectly wonderful squashes.  We'll saute them and cut them and make them into hors d'oeuvres and casseroles and fanciful things for the lunch that we'll then sit and enjoy.

There might still be room for you to sign up for Week 2 (though I am not teaching then...)

Swannao School of Culinary Arts
Used to be compost
I HAVE told you about this before but I cannot get over how gorgeous these things are, and how terrific it is that our compost gets turned into rich soil and then becomes the growing medium for these babies that then get sold back to us.

It probably would make more sense for us to have our own farm, and I know some folks do that, but the kids who grow our food at Buncombe Community School stay out of trouble by learning how to farm and that, in my book, is a grand thing too.

The heirlooms are here!
These tomatoes will become part of my class on Monday.  I'm using one of my mother's recipes for this Squash Casserole, though I'm using our local artisanal cheese and our local tomatoes. 

After the class I'm driving to the airport and am going to Vermont.  Hopefully all will go well because I have a book event on Tuesday morning with a group of Vermont writers.  After the reading I'm going to go swimming, I think, and will visit some friends, I think and will go up to Blueberry Hill to see what is different and what is the same and then, on Thursday, I'll get on another airplane and will, "good Lord willing and the creek don't rise," come back to my home here.

A Note From Laurey
July 12, 2008

Hiya. 

Oof!  It’s 3pm and I’m just NOW sitting down to write my note to you.  The day has been filled and good and fun, but the newsletter did not get out at it’s customary time today.

This morning I helped Marty decorate cakes. We have two weddings this afternoon and one is celebrating with multiple cakes: carrot, lemon poppyseed, ultimate chocolate, perfect white (with chocolate cream cheese), and coconut.  “We’re cake buddies!” he chirped, as I moved into his space this morning.  Cake buddies!  What a fine thing to be.  HE makes the cakes and HE makes the frosting and HE organizes everything.  I get to stroll in and just decorate.  The New York Times crossword puzzle sometimes has the word “icer” in it – usually on one of the easier days like a Monday or a Tuesday.  Originally when I did those puzzles, I could not imagine that someone would have a job of just icing.  Now I AM one! 

I had some friends come to dinner the other night in celebration of one friend’s 60th birthday.  She invited everyone and I cooked.  This meant that some people came who had never been to my house before.  I’d stopped by the market earlier in the week and made Shrimp and Grits for the main event.  The grits are Wayne Uffleman’s “Hawkins’ Prolific” and I’m going to be making them again in a week or so for a magazine feature.  I wanted to test them out and I was very happy with them.  The shrimp also came from the market, fresh-caught, never frozen beauts from South Carolina. 

Today was a three-market day for me again.  I visited up north first (the North Asheville Tailgate Market at UNCA on Saturday mornings), stocking up on a few more lavender plants (I don’t think you can HAVE too many of these fragrant lovelies) and scouting for a big dinner I’m doing later on in August.  I ran into the market manager and said yes to being the market’s guest chef on August 16th – Tomato Day.  Want to learn how to make Fried Green Tomatoes?  Come by.  I’ll be there for a few hours in the morning. 

Then I wandered to the new City Market for the squash.  In addition to them I got a couple of cases of pristine green beans.  Richard and the gang will have them here on Monday so do be sure to come try ‘em out.

Finally I went across the street to my home market, picking up some of Barry’s onions along the way.  These visits all felt so comfortable and so old-fashioned and so right.  It is unbelievably luxurious for me to get to go to three markets, all filled with produce, before 9 in the morning.  I’m encouraged to see so much activity there, so many farmers, so many shoppers.  Do make it a point to get to these local markets.  We’ve got to keep the farmers busy so they will keep growing wonders for us all. 

And yesterday Jaime and I drove to a spot up in the mountains to the south of us to scout for another party we're doing in August - a mountainside birthday extravaganza.  On the way she kept shrieking with delight at the flowering trees alongside the road.

“Sourwood!!!’

“Locust!”

“Walnut”

“Sourwood!!!”

She, like me, is a new beekeeper, and she, like me, has a new appreciation for flowering anything.  Sourwood is the next thing to bloom in quantity around here.  Neither of our beehives is far along enough that we’ll be able to take advantage of these blossoms this season, as our bees are vigorously building up their colonies in preparation for winter.  But our mentors’ bees will certainly be making the most of this “honey flow” so we’ll definitely have this year’s sourwood for you – soon.

Okay – time, like this day, is slipping away and I have some more things to do to get ready for my class and my trip and so I’ll sign off now and will be in touch next week.

Take care until then.

Laurey

Henry's first meeting
It's good to know someone who thinks about how cute it would be to take a photograph and find a place on the Internet which makes "onesies" (those little tiny one piece t-shirt-y things).  Sky is the gal around here who does that sort of thing.  Here's Henry in the one she made for him.  He slept through his very first staff meeting, waking up only at the very end.

I think he is a good sleeper.  He's certainly a big distraction, but the sweetest one I can think of (other than my niece and nephew, that is.)

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