Oh I LOVE this dinner - now just about a tradition here! My sister will be with us again, singing and leading us in Christmas Carols and dark of the winter songs. Brendan has planned a wonderfully comforting, local meal for us. I can't think of a nicer thing to do on a Friday night.

 

Here's this year's menu:

 

Brendan’s Country Pate with Pickled Vegetables and Onion Jam

 

Pears and Pecorino with Local Honey

 

The First Course: an all-local Salad

Wilted Local Greens with Roasted Beets, Delicata Squash

and Goat Cheese

 

The Main Course:

 

Bolognese with Hickory Nut Gap meats

served with Made-right-here Tagliatelle Pasta

and Locust Grove Pecorino

 

Braised Brussels Sprouts

with Housemade Bacon

 

Foccacia

 

For Dessert:

Warmed Chocolate Cake

With Vanilla Ice Cream

and a Caramel Sauce

 

Price per person: 45.00 + tax

Please add 12.00 if you’d like wine and/or beer

 

Some friends of ours in Fairview had a really smart idea!  They got together and arranged with the folks at Trout Lily market - on the Fairview Road - to be a central delivery location for our dinners to go. 

 

Here's the way it works:

1. Call us by 12:00 to place your dinner to go order for that day.

2. Tell us you want your order to be delivered with the Fairview/Trout Llily order.

3. We will deliver your dinner by 4pm.  You'll can pick it up at Trout Lily before 7.

4. You will pay us with a credit card.  And we'll add a minimal (2.00) delivery charge per order (i.e. if you order dinner for 4, the charge will still be just 2.00)

 

Note: this will work for the casseroles and lasagnas too!!!!

 

Monday, December 5

Classic Chicken Piccata with Pasta 7.95

 

Tuesday, December 6

Mushroom Risotto w/ Butternut Squash + White Beans 7.25

 

Wednesday, December 7

Beef Sirloin Tips w/ Caramelized Onions and Roasted Potatoes 8.75

 

Thursday, December 8

BBQ Spareribs with Sorghum Roasted Sweet Potatoes 8.75 (GF)

 

Friday, December 9

Beer Battered Shrimp with Apple Cole Slaw 9.50

 

Give us a call by noon and we'll have your dinners ready by 3. You can come until 7.

 

Call by noon and then come pick up between 4 and 7 that day!

 

Wednesday, December 7

Full: 48 Half: 24

 

Friday, December 9

Marty and Barbara keep pretty busy with cookies and bars and cakes and the dessert of the day.  BUT, do keep an eye out in or on our deli case, because they have been known to make little pies and cobblers and small sweet breads for your delectation.  Snap 'em up when you see 'em! 

 

The kitchen gang makes all kinds of things.  Don't be disappointed if the dinner to go is not to your liking that day because if you come by you will always find a "simple supper" and many dinner-y things that will please almost anyone (well, except someone who only wants cereal.)

 

Brrr!  It is winter here and the bees have hunkered down into their winter cluster, gathered around the Queen, keeping her nice and warm.  When the sun hits the hives and raises the temperature, the workers might go out to get a breath of fresh air and do a little housekeeping. 

 

 

December 3, 2011

 

Howdy to you. It’s beginning to feel like December, beginning to feel a little bit like Christmas. Andrew has interspersed the Saturday morning music playlist with some Christmas music. Right now I’m listening to “A Cactus Christmas” (yippee ki yi oh!) Sigh.

 

The building next door, the Aloft hotel that is under construction, has hoisted a Christmas tree up to its top. My friend Rachel says that means the building is as high as it’s going to go. I’m still enjoying the building process. Every day a lot gets done. The window openings are now visible and it is getting easier to imagine the finished building. This block is a hub of activity and that, to me, is good.

 

Around here things are bustling along too. The cold reminds us all that holiday time is coming right up. People are relaxing a bit and are calling for Christmas parties. Hooray for that! I’m thinking of having one myself. We’ll see about that. The Comfort and Joy dinner is a pretty close thing to a personal party for me, come to think of it. What pleasure to be surrounded by friends and my sweet sister, wonderful food and candles. Hope you can come!

 

My bees, as you see, are tucked in for the winter, barely getting a touch of direct sunlight. The sun is almost at its southernmost spot on the horizon. The morning rays come in my side window of my bedroom right now but I know that in just a few weeks it will start, slowly, to make its way back and will, before too long, once again wake me up with bright light on my face, coming right in the windows in front of my bed.

 

I, too, am looking forward to re-emerging. This coming week I will have my 11th chemotherapy treatment (assuming all looks good with my “counts.”) That will leave just one more to go and will allow me to begin to bring my life back from the treatment focus to the healthy girl focus. THAT will be nice. Actually, even after treatments are done I may still have some stuff to do, but this particular activity will, I hope, be a thing of my past. Yes!!!

 

Here in the office Noel and I just put up next year’s calendar. Surprisingly we have a number of confirmed parties for 2012 already. For the moment they are not written on our calendar. To me, the blank calendar is a clean slate, open and available for adventures. Personally this blank calendar fills me with light and hope and the idea that this time is not the end but is just another beginning. Hmm – I wonder what will happen THIS year?

 

Tomorrow my sister and I will decorate my house for Christmas. When I was watching her decorate at The Biltmore Estate I found out that the head decorator there puts a decorated tree in EACH room of her own house! I, who have always been quite content with one tree, am feeling more expansive this year and am finding myself drawn to the more-than-one approach. We’ll see what transpires in our decorating session tomorrow. (And I’ll show you some photos next week.)