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The Weekly Newsletter |
Menus and Stories for July 20 - 24, 2009
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| What's new today? |
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Anne had the great idea to pull out this little chalkboard and jot down the new produce of the day. She and the other shopsters keep it up to date, listing what we have and who grew it.
Take a look the next time you're here for lunch. The board is in the corner of our shop window.
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Frank's Potatoes in a Salad |
Frank Teneralli is one of the farmer's who was featured in last night's Dinner with the Farmers. His 9-acre farm is in Hot Springs. He grows medicinal herbs and plants, and also has a revolving crop of vegetables.
Here's Martha's Nicoise-inspired Potato Salad which was part of the dinner. She made enough that it was featured in our deli case too. Nice!
The next Dinner with Farmer's will be on August 13. Do join us. This is a unique and very interesting thing to do - sharing a meal with the people who grew the food you are eating.
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| Zoom Zoom |
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Today is a bustle. Walking by the windows that look into our kitchen I saw Deb's set up for 100 wrap lunches in progress. That same group is having a repeat of the order tomorrow which is a fine thing in my book.
In the background Lito whipped up some wonders for the lunch offerings here in our deli case. The blur you see is Chris, whizzing around cutting up fresh fish, grilling local meats, whipping himself into a controlled frenzy.
Zoom indeed.
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Dinners to go (or to stay!) |
Dinners come with a freshly-made green salad, salad dressing of the day, and made-right here bread (or rice cakes) 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.
New pickup hours!!! Dinners are now ready to pick up between 3:00 and 8:00.
Monday July
20 *Fig and Chevre Stuffed
Chicken 10.50
Tuesday July
21 *Grilled Tuna with Tapenade
Potatoes 13.25
Wednesday July 22 Herbed Meatloaf and Garlic Potato
Gratin 10.75
Thursday July
23 *Babyback Ribs with Eastern
NC Cole Slaw 11.75
Friday July
24 *Wild-caught Salmon with
Asparagus Risotto14.25
Please note that we will be closing at 4 pm due to Bele Cher on Friday. And we will be closed on Saturday the 25th (Our street is closed because there will be a stage in front of our front door... Go eat a funnel cake and come see us next week.)
* Gluten Free!!
(now offering gluten free breads or crackers in place of our baked right here breads)
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Our website |
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| Special casserole of the week |
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We make a special casserole each Wednesday.
Order by noon or so.
Order a half if you have around 4 folks. If you have a bigger group,
or just like leftovers, order a full sized one.
Then come pick up between 3:00 and 8:00. (Bring a gang and enjoy your dinner right here.)
Wednesday, July 22
*Polenta with Chicken and Summer Vegetable Ragout
Full 35
Half 17.50
*Gluten Free!
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Bounty from OUR Garden |
It's so nice to be able to keep our tables perky. All we do is stroll through our own garden. Sweet! Rub a mint leaf while you dine. The scent is light and delicious.
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| Cutie purses |
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A few years ago Noel, in our office, gave me one of these little purses. I use it as my stick-in-my-pocket wallet. Now three years old, it is as perfect as it was when she gave it to me. I even carried it in my jersey pocket on my bike ride and even that amount of battering has not hurt it.
We just got some for you. Come see.
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and new lunch bags |
Emily, our amazing shopper (everyone should have one) found these small, cute lunch bags. She browsed, chose some favorites, ordered them and the rest is up to you. They are displayed on our "happy Center" right under those fun gums that we have for sale, right by the cash register.
Here are some of those gum's sentiments. The art is fun too:
"We met on facebook"
"You're so cute I could eat you up, but I won't."
"Bite me!"
"Be nice or leave. Thank you."
We hope they'll make you smile.
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| A Note from Laurey |
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July 17, 2009
Friday. Busy day for LCM (me). Whoosh. I’m trying to get a step ahead and so am writing my next week’s note today. Tomorrow I will be in a meeting for the entire day (I’m joining the board of the North Carolina Outward Bound School and will be away from the internet and will not be able to write tomorrow anyway.)
I thought you might like to know about yesterday’s jam production. As it was unfolding I thought that if I imagined WRITING about it, it might be a bit less frustrating than it was feeling as it was happening. Let’s see how it goes.
My mother made Blueberry Jam every year. We lived on Blueberry Hill, after all, so it was a logical thing to do. My sisters and I picked the berries, sold them to my mother, who insisted there be no stems or leaves. She made them into jam which she packed in little round jars. We stuck the label on the jars and stacked them on a table in our living room next to stacks of my mother’s cook books and the postcards that my sisters and I made. I also made potholders and sold them. In the fall I picked apples from our apple trees and sold them to guests who were completely capable of going and picking their own. Hmm – I guess it’s safe to say that I have been in the selling business for quite some time.
I make jam each year. It brings me, in a quiet way, close to my mother. I always think of her and then when I make my jam. I have found those same jars. I follow my memory of her jam as I make mine now. Hers was not very sweet. Mine isn’t either. Her label was a solid color with simple print. Mine too. Making jam is usually a meditation for me. A reverie. A time to reflect. That’s how it usually is. Yesterday was not quite a meditation.
I don’t have time to pick berries now but I found a good source and saved the morning yesterday to make my jam. I reserved the local commercial (BIG) kitchen. I cleared my schedule. All good. Annie is here visiting and stepped up to be an associate “Jam Babe.” We got to work really early, loaded up the car and headed out to the jam making place.
We arrived ahead of the facility coordinator and that was a bit frustrating. Standing in a parking lot wanting to get in. Wanting to get going. Not being able to. Ugh. But after not TOO long, in the big scheme of things, we did get in. Unpacked. Got a review of how to operate the machinery, and got going.
The berries, much to my annoyance, had more stems than I would have liked (my mother, as I said, did not allow ANY stems in the berries we picked and I’m a stickler for this.) Annie and I spent quite a while de-stemming berries. Ugh.
“Okay, don’t let it ruin your day!” I heard in my mind. That is what Emily, here in the office, tells me. I kept telling that to myself.
We finally went through all the berries and loaded up the big steam cooker and got the jam cooking. We got the jars unpacked and set up in the washing area. We got the lids ready. We got ourselves ready. We got everything in place. We calibrated the jar filler – with water. All good!
But when I went to get the first (the FIRST!) batch of hot jam, it splooshed out all over me and burned the HECK out of my arm! UGH!!!
“Don’t let it ruin your day!”
Right.
I got some ice. Arranged an portable ice bath for my arm.
Filled the jar filler.
Kept going.
Calibrating a jar filler with water is one thing but calibrating it with jam is a whole other situation. You fill this gigantic funnel. You turn the machine on. You see how full the jar is. Finding it not quite right, you adjust two screws. You turn the machine on again. You fill another jar. You see how your adjustment worked. You might need to turn those two screws again. You generally have to do this four or five times before you get it. All with boiling hot jam.
And then there is the matter of coordinating the actions of two people, hot jam, a filling machine, hot lids. A burned arm. Sigh. Annie was great, jumping in like a pro (she IS a cook too, so she fit right in and we were able to work smoothly.)
Once we got started we developed a rhythm. Scoop the hot berries out of the gigantic steam kettle. Fill the gigantic funnel. Get hot jars. Get hot lids. Fill the jars. Put the lids on. Repeat.
Four hours later we had made 288 jars of jam. I was, by then, pretty much covered in blueberry spatter. My face was a blue freckled mess. My shoes were blue. My shirt was spattered with blue. I was sticky. Hot. Burned. Annie fared better but she had a lot of blue splots too.
My mother hired off duty Airforce employees to make 25,000 jars of jam each summer. She took herself away from Blueberry Hill and spent the week on Cape Cod. Annie and I made 288 jars of jam. In four hours. And then I came back to work and got ready for our Farmer’s dinner (which was a lot of fun by the way.) My arm still stings but is getting better (try putting honey on a burn – it does a wonderful job.)
And now I’m off to help with Outward Bound. Jam will be available here pretty soon. As soon as I get time to print some labels. Watch for it in our shop area. It’s REALLY good. And if you ask nicely, I’ll show you my arm.
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Laurey Bikes (the blog) |
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Summer orbs |
It's too hot to blow glass right now. But every day at home I find myself smiling at the glass I have made that now graces my garden, my bird bath, my bee fountain. They really perk the place up and I thought you might like a reminder that the windows in our shop do have some orbs. You might like one for your pond or bird bath. You just might.
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