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.  Bring friends or share ours. 

My sister, Heather, will sing as will the lovely Jenna Lindbo. 

 

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.)

 

We make a dinner to go on Christmas Eve each year.  The dinners are ready in time for you to come pick them up, have an early meal, and still get to the Christmas Eve events that you may have.  or - if you go to an early service, our dinner will be all ready for you when you get home. 

 

Here are the details:

 

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

 

Monday, December 10          

Chicken Enchiladas Suizas 8.25

 

Tuesday, December 11          

Beef Bolognese with Penne and Garlic Bread 8.95

 

Wednesday, Decembe12       

Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Pork 8.25

 

Thursday, December 13         

Bone-in Chicken Mole 7.95

 

Friday, December 14             

Grilled Salmon, Lentils, and Kale 9.95 (GF)

 

Wednesday, December 12

Cider Chicken with Cheddar Potatoes

Whole: 45 Half: 22.50

 

Friday, December 14

Traditional (with beef) Lasagna

with Spinach and Artichokes

Whole: 60 Half: 30

 

We're making a New Year's Eve Dinner to go too. You do know that to ensure good luck you should eat hopping john and collard greens. they say you're supposed to eat "hog jowl" too but we're skipping that particular bit this year - deciding instead to make a vegetarian meal.

 

Here are the particulars:

 

New Year’s Eve Dinner to Go

For Monday, December 31

 

Ring in the new: a Vegetarian dinner

Hoppin’ John (Black-eye Peas and Rice)

Southern-style Collard Greens

Sorghum-glazed Sweet Potato Wedges

Cornbread

Pear Upside Down Cake

 

 

Price per person 12.95

Please order by Friday, December 28 if possible 

Here is a fun idea - bring your friends to our cafe for lunch.  Then, escort them to the Grove Park Inn to see the Gingerbread Houses. This is exactly what one of our guests did this past weekend.  They had the Garden Room to themselves and enjoyed their stay quite a bit.

 

The Garden Room (the back of our cafe) is such a sweet place to gather.  More and more these days folks are claiming the space as their own, having meetings, simple gatherings, and many other things with us.

In this case, our guest/host, took over, rearranging the tables to suit her gang.  She made party favors and decorated the room, chirping with delight all the while. 

 

Boy - this is the sort of thing that can take a LONG time to complete!

 

We finally managed to get all heads together and the new sings were installed this past week.  We think they work much better than the ones they replaced.  Those old ones had been edited with masking tape and sticky notes (not really) until they were nearly illegible.  These new ones, especially this big Sandwich and Salad board, are so much nicer.

 

It IS beginning to look like Christmas at my house and at the shop.  Today I took a drive up to the Penland area to visit a couple of studios and found the sweetest little tree along the way.  My house is now fragrant, the beneficiary of a garland of Frazier Fir and White Pine and other things, along with a wisp of shiny gold wire.  It is on my mantel place and it just is a lovely thing.

 

The tree is a tiny spit of a thing, complete with its own roots.  I am told to put it in a bucket, keep it mosit - but not wet - and then, once Christmas is done, to plant it.  I noticed that last year's tree, completely dried up, is still under my porch.  I have not paid attention to all the things I normally do this year.  It IS, to be sure, time to recycle that one.

 

At work the Christmas decorations are out.  We are not big on decorating before Halloween.  The mood is striking us now so you'll see bits and pieces of glitter and lights as Christmas nears.  What's the rush, right?

 

I'm sure you know that I am about the get my last treatment.  Tuesday is the big day and I am READY to be done with the weekly chemical infusions. Don't get me wrong - I adore my nurses and the doctors and the facility and the entire staff.  BUT I am really tired and am happy that my body will have a chance to regain its strength.  I know sleep is a good thing, and I am grateful to the gang at Laurey's who make it all possible for me, but I am really done, really glad to know that I will start remembering things again, start to rely less on naps soon, and will have quiet time to assemble the vision of my life again. 

 

Going into the dark time of the year is perfect.  It is the time when we hunker down, go into hibernation, stay home and mind the fire.  That just about fits me right now.  Today I feel pretty good, but yesterday I did not and when I do not feel good it is hard to remember that I ever felt good.  But today is today and my house smells like Christmas and I will be done with these treatments in just a couple of days and that is a very fine thing. 

 

I'm looking forward to sharing our Dinner and Conversation evening with you.  It is a very special time for us, a time when we slip into the quiet with each other and take time to appreciate what we have.  Candles and carols and wonderful food.  It's my favorite night.  I hope you can come.

 

So now it is Sunday night and I want to go light a fire in my woodstove and hug my dog and make some spaghetti and watch a movie.  Tomorrow is the day before the last treatment and I want to just think about things.

 

I'll be in touch next week.

Here's a picture of me and our Color teacher, Alicia Keshishian, at The Penland School this past spring. 

 

Spend a very fun day with her - a full day of playing with color 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!