After polling the audience (belatedly) we have decided to switch the date of our Comfort and Joy dinner to Thursday, December 20. So many of you said you were leaving on vacation on Saturday that we made the change.

 

This is our fourth year of this very lovely evening.  We'll gather at 6:30 and will enjoy a casual Italian-styled dinner.  We'll sing carols and just have a quiet and sweet evening together.  So bring friends or share ours. 

 

I hope you can join in.

 

Here's this year's menu:

 

At the start:

A Southern Antipasto (consisting of...)

with Oven-Roasted Balsamic tomatoes, Italian Sausage bites, local Brie with Cranberry Chutney, marinated and roasted winter vegetables, and Toasted Baguettes

 

Tomato and Basil Soup Shooters

 

The First Course:

Creamy Risotto with Local Pumpkin

 

The Main Event:

Adam's Beef Bracciole (Italian Beef Rolls with a Rustic Tomato Sauce)

Roasted Maple-glazed Brussels Sprouts

 

Parmesan Foccacia

 

The Sweet Finish:

Individual Molten Chocolate Cakes with Vanilla Bourbon Cream

 

The price per person is 45 which includes everything listed here.  If you'd like wine with your dinner please add 15.  (We can accommodate vegetarians too - just let us know.)

 

I know I have shown this snap before, but the colors are just too perfect if you, like me, want to talk about our Christmas Dinner to Go.

 

The menu this year is:

Apple Cider-roasted Turkey Breast

or

Grilled Salmon with Tarragon and Lemon

 

Sweet Potato Casserole

 

Garlicky Local Kale

 

Cheddar Cheese Rolls

 

Egg Nog Bread Pudding with a Brandy Sauce

 

The price for this meal will be 16.50.  We'll be making the dinners on Monday, December 24th.  You can pick them up between 2 and 4 that day, but please order no later than Friday, the 21st.  252-1500.

 

Monday, December 3

Chicken Parmesan with Fresh Mozzarella and Spaghetti 8.25

 

Tuesday, December 4

Tempeh Stir-Fry 8.25

 

Wednesday, December 5

Beef Tamale Pie 8.95

 

Thursday, December 6

Memphis-style Spare Ribs with Chopped Coleslaw 8.95

 

Friday, December 7

Garlic Shrimp and Fresh Kale 9.95

 

Casserole to go:

Wednesday, December 5

Low-country Shrimp and Grits

Whole: 60  Half: 30

 

 

Lasagna to go:

Friday, December 7

Local Sausage and Shaved Parmesan Lasagna

Whole: 59.95 Half:30

 

We accommodate all SORTS of tastes.  Here's a completely vegetarian Barbecued Tempeh (a soy bean product).  If you are Gluten Free we have many options for you.  Vegan?  Sure thing!  All-meat? You bet.

 

Marty and Barbara crank out the cookies and pies, cakes, and tarts, bars and more.  In their additonal time they do a special dessert almost every night.  Here's one from this past week: Strawberry Trifle.

 

I just love seeing our deli case filled with local things.  Each year there are more and more offerings.  This is locally grown bibb(ish) lettuce that is combined with pomegranate seeds and shaves of Parmesan.

 

My sister knows our cupcake schedule (I, I'm afraid, do not.)  She knows which days are chocolate and which days will produce a yellow cake.  She knows the coconut from the other.  And she takes advantage of her insider knowledge. 

 

We have freshly make cupcakes most days.

 

December 1, 2012

 

Rabbit Rabbit (again!) Happy first day of December.

 

I’m writing at home again. I went to work this morning and had a series of meetings but then came home to write here. I really like my home writing area/office. My desk faces the window and so I can sit, write, and look out over the trees and the deck and the sky. It’s very nice for musing.

 

I’m not quite sure how we got to December. Just this week I planted new paperwhite bulbs in a dish that, it seems, I just cleaned out from LAST year’s blooms. Somehow they had bloomed, dried out, and shriveled up while I was not paying attention (or perhaps I was otherwise engaged…) Anyway, following my own tradition, I visited my local tiny garden shop -Thyme in the Garden, and bought new bulbs. I am a little late this year, usually planting in time for Thanksgiving blooms. Ah well. They’ll be up and fragrant for Christmas.

 

Things are stirring for me. This coming week I have my last “hard” week and then, the following week I’ll have my final “easy” week of treatment. I’m really ready to be done with this chemical onslaught. I remember a body filled with vim and vigor and that has been beaten to a pulp. BUT, I am confident that I’ll get myself back in due time, probably not on December 12th, but sometime in the foreseeable future, to be sure.

 

I’m ready to get my hair back. For one thing, it is COLD to have no hair (how do all you bald guys manage?) For another, I still feel self-conscious about my appearance, still startle myself when I catch a glimpse of my hatless self in the mirror, and still, well, just want a head full of my hair again. Okay? I’m curious to see how my hair will grow back in. Will it be curly? What color will it be? Will it still be soft? Time will tell. All I want for Christmas is…

 

I watched a very nice movie this week: Sweetgrass. It is a documentary about the last herd of sheep that were herded to the Abasroka Mountains in Montana for the summer. There is very little dialogue, mostly just long shots of collies herding the sheep up mountain passes and across rivers. The farm depicted had been running sheep into the mountains for more than a century, each year stacking up on the previous ones. This movie is a beautiful, slow watch, a time to slow down, breathe, and wonder at the patience it takes to wait for the sheep to make their way along ridges and through mountain troughs. I watched and thought about my own slow journey these past two years. It is very hard to sit through hours-long treatments, imagining their completion. Breathe. Keep going. Wait for the sheep. Breathe. Keep going. Wait and keep going.

 

Here's a picture of our teacher, Alicia Keshishian, at The Penland School this past spring.  What a start - navigating through a banner of color!

 

We've decided to hold the class on Sunday, January 13th.  We'll meet in the cafe (our shop) and will have the place to ourselves to play, paint, color, dance, cavort and what have you.

 

Alicia, a color expert and rug designer (to give a very truncated summary of her talents) will guide us in a very fun exploration of color.  Some thinking, some talking, some messing around with paint and crayons (or whatever you like to play with) and much more. 

 

There is a limit to the number of folks we can accommodate so please register EARLY!  The cost for the class is 125 which covers all the class handouts and papers, glue and paste and tape and all that too.  Please bring your own paints or colored pencils or pastels...

 

If you'd like, we'll have a lunch for you for an extra 10, though you are certainly welcome to bring your own. The class will be from 10am until 4:30 with a bit of a lunch break at mid-day.  Payment is by check to Alicia.  You can e-mail me to save your spots: laurey@laureysyum.com.  And if you reserve a spot you're in!