The Weekly Newsletter
Menus and Stories for March 14 - 19, 2005

Waiting to taste the demonstrations
I spent this morning teaching a cooking class at the Organic Grower's School. What a beautiful day it was to drive over to the campus, find my way around, and then teach 40 eager listeners. The topic was "Cooking for a Crowd." The challenge was that the class setting was just that - a classroom. No kitchen. No running water. No stove. Yipes!

It went fine - and I'd say it was fun, even. And then, when it was done, everyone gathered around to taste the demos. It was crowded because, you know, most parties don't happen in the front of a classroom. It WAS cooking for a crowd - even though the class really turned out to be "Assembling for a Crowd."

(I DID like writing on the board in the front of the classroom. Hmmm, I might see about getting one here. Reminded me of grade school.)


Garbage Cans?
Who in their right mind would put a picture of garbage cans in a newsletter about a gourmet food establishment? Um, me.

See, one of the points in our mission statement is, "to make a positive contribution to our community." Compost is one of the ways we contribute. Yup. Every bit of compostable material is saved, put in cans, and then carted off to this farm or that. Over the years I can't even imagine how much of this has been saved from the landfills. And there are lots of gardens which are so much richer thanks to our cast-offs. Makes me very happy indeed.


T-shirts
Karen and I had a terrific time at the Zingerman's Customer Service training last week. As we absorb the amazing amounts of new information we'll begin to put it all into our terms and roll it out. It's not that we don't already have great customer service, rather, my biggest revelation was that we might be doing things unconsciously - making the assumption that everyone was following our lead. Our goal, now, is to define what it is that we do so that we can all be more intentional about it.

But I digress.

Zingerman's staff wear long-sleeved black t-shirts with "Zingerman's" on the sleeve.

"Did we get that idea from them?" Karen asked me.

"Um, no," I answered, "I think Emily came up with it, inspired by surfer gear or something."

But then one of the Zing service staffers told us that actually OUR had been the inspiration for THEIRS! Cool, eh?

We sell them in our shop. So you can be just like us (or like the Zings.)


The nightly dinners for the week (Call 252-1500 to order)
Dinners come with a freshly-made green salad, salad dressing of the day,
and made-right-here bread of the day. We take reservations until noon or so.
Please order by phone (252-1500), by FAX (252-02002)
or stop in to speak to one of us in person.

Dinners are ready at 4:30 and can be picked up until we close at 6:00 pm.

Monday March 14 Fajita Chicken, Guacamole, Black Beans and Rice 10.25
Tuesday March 15 Chicken Marsala with Noodles 9.75
Wednesday March 16 Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Gorgonzola Grits 11.25
Thursday March 17 Corned Beef and Cabbage for St. Patrick 10.00
Friday March 18 Scampi-style Grouper and Fettucine 11.25

Laurey's (yum!) Catering and Gourmet to Go


Special St. Patrick's Day Casserole
Casseroles are made each Wednesday.
Call to order on Tuesday if you can.
Orders will be ready on Wednesday between 4:30 and 6:00.

Wednesday, March 16
Irish Stew with Beef and New Potatoes
Whole 38.50
Half 19.25


A couple of new " Laurey's adventures in glassmaking"


The first little "bowl of the day"


A Note from Laurey
I now have two cats living with me. Chris has been here more than she has been in Seattle, so she moved her little friends here in March. It has been an interesting adjustment, since my dog is highly enthusiastic about her new roommates and they, on the other hand, have, shall I say, a different opinion.

One of her cats, Skipper, is an active fellow, spending hours roaming around outside in the dark each night. Sam stays inside, mostly moving from �her� (used to be �my�) chair to the desk where breakfast or dinner is presented.

The other night, in the middle of the night, I heard an odd sound which, I guessed, might be something flying around. It was. A bat. In my bedroom. In the dark.

�Maybe it will fly out the same way it came in,� I said to myself. (Chris is still in Seattle.) �Maybe if I put the covers over my head it will be gone when I wake up.�

I went back to sleep. (I don�t HATE bats. If it had been a snake that would have been a different story but I could SEE it and, while I wasn�t thrilled, I was not convulsed with fear or anything like that.)

In the morning I looked around, poking all the curtains and peeping into all the corners. No bat. Great!

The next night, however, in the middle of the night (again!) I woke up. This time Skipper was scratching around underneath the table next to my bed. I could hear little squeaky noises. And, just as I guessed, once I got out a flashlight, I could see he had cornered his treasure from the night before. The bat was tucked away, trying to get as far away from Skipper as possible. (Tye, by the way, was at �camp Martha� � the home of our cook � since I had to get up early to go to Michigan for the Zingerman�s training.)

I imagined myself being brave. I got up, put Skipper in his own room, tossed a towel into the corner, went to get a broom and a Tupperware container and sucked in my breath to do the eviction. But, when I got closer, the bat moved.

�What are you going to do if you get bitten by a bat and you have to stay home because you have rabies and you can�t go to work and you SURE can�t go to some customer service training with rabies and do you REALLY think you are so smart to do this on your own?� I asked myself. The moving bat was beginning to freak me out.

Skipper was clawing on the door to �his� room wanting to come back in to my room.

No. I decided. I did need help.

Two in the morning, however, is not a good time to call a neighbor.

(An aside here: a couple of years ago a snake DID get into my house and it DID freak me out and I DID, that time, call 911 and they came and removed the beast and I am still living with my sister�s disdain (�you called (911 ????�)

Exhausted and not sure what to do, I called Chris who was at a meeting in L.A. Her reaction was like mine would have been if I�d heard there was a snake in HER house.

I called 911.

�A BAT in your bedroom, ma�am?�

�Yes sir,� I replied.

�What is my sister going to say to this one,� I thought.

But by three it was over. The bat was back outside. Skipper was sulking around the house, glaring at me for letting his bat go. I was wide awake. Two hours before I needed to get up to go to Michigan, I pulled out my new crossword puzzle book and, an hour later, finally fell asleep. Sigh.


The best of the day


Contact Info:
Laurey's (yum!) Catering
Gourmet-to-Go (and to stay!)
67 Biltmore Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801

828-252-1500

Hours:
Monday - Friday 10:00 - 6:00 pm
Saturday 10:00 - 4:00 pm

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