A Taste of Honey is happening here at 6pm on Thursday, January 26th.  A fundraiser for ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Projects), who do so much for local produce in our area, it is a chance to do the following:

 

1) Help ASAP

 

2) meet some local beekeepers and (this just in) taste LOCAL Mead!

 

3) Help me (by tasting the honeys that I will feature in my book and helping describe them)

 

4) enjoy some honey-inspired hors d'oeuvres using foods that need honeybees for pollination

 

5) be part of the kickoff to a whole year of ASAP events

 

6) have fun!

 

The event is just $35.00 which gives you all of the above.  We'll have honey-lemonade for you.  If you'd like wine or beer, we'll have that for sale.

 

Call us at 252-1500 to save your spots.

 

If you live in the Fairview area you'll be happy to know that we are now delivering daily dinners and casseroles to Trout Lily market on the Fairview Road.  Here's how it works:

 

1. Call us (252-1500) by noon to place your order and tell us it is for a Trout Lily delivery.

 

2. Have your credit card ready for payment.

 

3. (There is a $2 charge per order)

 

4. We will deliver your order to Trout Lily along with your receipt.

 

5. You can pick up your order between 4 and 7, when they close.

 

Need salad, bread, or sweets - or anything else? Just let us know and we'll bring them too.

 

Emily says, "It's really that easy!"  (And I agree.)

 

Monday, January 23

Cider Chicken and Cheddar Potatoes 7.95

 

Tuesday, January 24

Winter Vegetable Ragout with Rosemary Polenta (GF) 6.75

 

Wednesday, January 25

Corned Beef, Cabbage, and Potatoes 9.50

 

Thursday, January 26

BBQ Spareribs and Collards 8.75

 

Friday, January 27

Grilled Tuna and Roasted Potato with a Spinach Salad 9.95

 

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

 

Chicken Pot Pie

Full: 35 Half: 17.50

 

Local Italian Sausage and Ricotta Lasagna

THIS is what I call dedication!  Andrew and Irvegg took the ice-maker down to its innards yesterday, taking out all the ice (LOTS of ice!) and giving it a very deep clean. 

 

That was yesterday's featured sandwich.  (And this is Andrew the contortionist of Ice Machine cleaning fame.)

 

Ever wonder what our brownies look like as they are being made?  Here's a glimpse of Marty's hand adding love to the blend, a very full 15 quart mixer with chocolate and butter and walnuts and all sorts of delicious things.  We don't recommend eating the whole thing by yourself, even licking this beater would give you quite a belly ache.  This batch will make plenty enough for a big party or many, many lunch boxes. 

 

In keeping with our "taking care of the Earth" vision, we try not to let things go to waste.  Here, for example, is a snap of the heels of the loaves of bread we use in our sandwiches.  Austin is "Mr. Crouton," carefully cutting up these still-usable ends into nicely seasoned tasties for our salads. 

 

January 21, 2012

 

What the heck is happening? I woke up with the sun filling my room, pouring in all over the place. I shut my eyes, rolled over, and woke up to thunder and pouring rain from dark skies. Harrumph! This is NOT the weather that makes one want to hop up and leave the company of two fine dogs and a warm bed. But here I am, happy, now that I am here, to be in my work office. The kitchen here is always a warm spot as is the heater next to my desk!!!

 

It’s been a different sort of week. I had major scans done on Tuesday morning, the first big check to see how my body has done with all these treatments. And though I left that scan place with a cd of the scan I don’t know how to read those odd pictures so I had to wait until Wednesday to hear how things have gone. The time of waiting can be one of the hardest times and for me it was. I tried to carry on but I found myself frightened that something would show up in a new place and then what would I do? I spun and spun and finally just had to go home and climb under the covers with the two stalwart souls (Tye and Lewis) and wait.

 

The scan report was, fortunately, good. My body has responded very well to the chemotherapy treatments – thank heavens! It has done what it was supposed to do and that is a very good thing. It would be awful to have undergone those 12 treatments for naught. Whew!

 

Tomorrow I go to Chapel Hill for part 1 of the next phase. This will be a preparatory procedure for the surgery I will have in March. And that, I dearly hope, will be the end of this pas de deux. The good thing about multiple trips to Chapel Hill is that there are great restaurants there and my sister and I are working our way through the list of recommendations. Tomorrow we’ll go visit a folk artist and maybe drop in on Brendan’s sister at “Lantern,” her place on Franklin Street. Yum! Or we might go to the German place that someone mentioned. Or the diner in Raleigh. Or the spot in Pittsboro that a friend said was great. We’ll see how we (I) feel.

 

Meanwhile, I do hope you come to the honey tasting/ASAP fundraiser on Thursday. I really need to have your input on how these 12 honeys taste. And I’d love to share some recipes from my book-in-the-works with you. My friend Diane is bringing local mead. Others are bringing local honey. It should be very fun. Do come, won’t you?

 

Lewis gets to stay with me for another couple of weeks (yay!)  My sister is home from Paris but her house is torn up from a bathroom renovation (so much for getting it all done while she was gone!)  Lewis would not be happy in all that dust so I get to keep him a bit longer.