The Weekly Newsletter
Menus and Stories for September 15 - 19, 2008
Back at it!
It's September.  It's cool(er).  And that means I can get back into the hot shop, back to the crucible, back to messing around with glass.  What fun!

I made my first trip back earlier this week.  It is, as I told Michael, the hotshop owner, "Like falling off a bicycle!"  Well, not really.  I did pretty well, making some gourd and pumpkin-inspired shapes. 

As the fall progresses I'll be making more things.  Many of them will be on display here in the shop, spread out in our window bays.  These will probably go home with me, but I'll have some pumpkins for you in a couple of weeks.

Getting ready for a party
Sometimes after our shop closes we transform it into a party place.  Last weekend we were the venue for a sweet wedding reception.  The guests had a PERFECT day, gorgeous clear skies, balmy temperatures, soft wind.  NICE!

They showed up here right on time, mingled, visited, swayed to a solo sax's sweet music, and enjoyed a buffet dinner which was set up right underneath the windows that peek into our kitchen. 

I'd had a long day and snuck out, tired, and sloppy and anxious not to be seen.  No such luck.  After a quick snack next door, I was strolling up the sidewalk in front of our windows, trying to get an inconspicuous glimpse of the party, and bumped right into the mother of the bride.  She was happy to see me, sloppy though I was, and we hugged and smiled and shared a pleasant few words before I left to go home to my dog - who was also happy to see me.

It's apple time!
We live in Apple land and as the temperatures fall, the apples crisp up and find their way to the markets and to our kitchen and then to our deli case where they appear in cole slaws and salads of all kinds (yesterday we had braised greens, tofu, and apples - YUM!)

Of course the baker snags some too, so keep an eye out for his daily offerings.

Dinners to go for this week
 Dinners 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 (252-0200)

or stop in to speak to one of us in person.

 

Dinners are ready at 4:30 and can be picked up until we close at 6:00 pm.


Monday September 15 Jerk Chicken with Calypso Rice and Black Beans 9.95

Tuesday September 16 Local Italian Sausage Lasagna 12.00

Wednesday September 17 Roast Pork with Cider Braised Cabbage 11.75

Thursday September 18 Crabcakes with Maple Cole Slaw 13.25

Friday September 19 Tuna Filet with Roasted Corn and Leek Succotash 14.25

Our website - with menus for the whole month
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, September 17

Beef Stroganoff

Full: 39.50

Half: 19.75

A fun way to get your water
I'm not sure if you were able to see this picture last week (with the computer glitches that happened) so just in case, I'm including it again.

These are our new logo water bottles.  We have them up in our shop for your viewing (and purchasing) enjoyment.  Around here everyone is keeping them filled up.  We got them because we are trying to help you use fewer disposable plastic bottles.  These, we think, are a smart alternative.

And, if you've heard about good and bad plastic - fear not.  These are made from the good stuff.  And water, as we all know, is the ticket to good health. 

Henry helps
Many of you did not get to see baby Henry's picture either.  This one is too cute to miss, so I'm putting it in this newsletter too.  Henry, for those of you who do not know, is the son of Adam and Emily, our cafe and office managers.  Until he gets big enough to mind, he is going to come to work with his parents.  We've made room for him in our office and he is making our entire workplace sweeter.  

Wild!
If you like truffles you are not going to want to miss this new snack.  A gal in Southern Pines is raising truffles, having discovered that the climate is just like that in the area of France where truffles grow.  For now, her truffles are a thing of hope, so this popcorn has French truffle salt on it.  Soon, she hopes, it will come from much closer to home.

A young fellow showed up with some samples last week, hoping to get us to try some.  Before he knew, we'd bought up everything he had (it's so nice being small and flexible!) Do get some and do enjoy it.  I'm not sure when we'll be able to get more.

A Note from Laurey

September 13, 2008

Oh what an education I'm getting!!!

Last week, when I went home after work and checked my e-mail I noticed that half of the newsletter was missing - cut off right in the middle of the week's menu. At 8 at night on a Saturday there is not much I can do - especially from home. I checked in to see if the tech folks from my newsletter program were available but, well, it was Saturday night so of course they weren't. I fussed and fumed and stomped around my house, which was kind of stupid really. The cat and dog followed me in my idiocy, looking at each other, wondering, perhaps, what had happened to their mother.

On Sunday I was near work and stopped in to check my work computer. Sure enough, I had a lot of notes from you saying that you were missing the menu and my note and all the pictures. So, knowing that the same thing had happened to the menu the previous week, I quickly made up a new note, with just the menu, and sent IT out.

In the meantime, I had sent out a string of curt notes to the tech support people, frustrated and annoyed and basically insisting (okay, demanding) that someone come and sit with me, in my office, and fix it - on Tuesday.

I tried to let it go, but I fumed for much of Sunday AND Monday - which is really a stupid thing to do - a waste of fume, as it were. I did manage to go for a long bike ride on both days, and that distracted me, but I was not able to get rid of the just-below-the-surface annoyance with the tech support or the owners of the newsletter program or, well, anyone who might have anything to do with anything about my computer or my newsletter.

What idiocy. Really!

On Tuesday the tech fellow DID show up, right when he had said he would. (They had intercepted all my snarly notes and had apologized and given me some credits and had not charged me for the extra note I'd sent...) The tech fellow sat with me, watched as I made up a mock newsletter to show him what I was doing. He, like the very best of tech support people, calmly told me what I was doing wrong (I WAS doing something wrong, as it turned out) and showed me how (I hope) to do it correctly.

I apologized, thanked him, wrote to his boss, apologized, thanked HIM, and tried to forgive myself for my disproportionate outburst.

In my own defense, however, it seems that the glitch was a result of a "perfect storm" of circumstances. I use a certain spam filter, I use a certain writing program, my computer uses a certain internet provider, and so on. It turns out that if you click one specific key in a very specific order, and you happen to be using those specific filters, programs, and providers, my computer thinks it is supposed to delete everything! Can you imagine!!!

This explains why some of you did not get the pictures, the notes, the menus. Crazy!

I do hope I'm doing it correctly now.

And I want to send major thanks to Dustin and Lonnie at mynewsletterbuilder. This program is locally owned and operated. And my demands to their tech support resulted in getting a real person in my office. In the big on-line newsletter world, this is not the norm. So local, again, is good. (I hope.)

Oh - one more thing. If you did not get last week's note, and would like to, just send me a note and I'll get it to you. It was a particularly important note, in my humble opinion, talking about this bike ride I'm going to do next year. And if you might want to read it without asking me, you can check it out on my new blog. You can get there by clicking this link http://www.laureysyum.blogspot.com.

I'll be in touch next week.

(If you feel like it, do let me know if you get this whole newsletter. It'll help me relax about this whole issue.)

 

Laurey's blog
The full "Miracle"
My older and wiser sister reminded me that this cake is NOT the one that won the Mrs. America contest (that was a lemon cake from Mrs. Texas, Lynn Cardiff).  This cake appears in my mother's Blueberry Hill Menu Cookbook.  It is, as she said, a thing of beauty. 

Last week Marty made a Miracle Meringue Cake with fresh peaches.  De-LISH!

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