The Weekly Newsletter
Menus and Stories for March 17 - 21, 2008
Lights, camera...
A few times a year I go to the local ABC affiliate and film a few spots for the mid-day news show.  This is what it looks like from where I stand, facing three fat cameras.  I stand next to Julie the weather gal and have less than three minutes to make something.  That, my friends, is not much time, but it's fun, nevertheless.

Watch tv at noon and you might see me, though I never know when they will be broadcast.  If you want to see them on your own, visit wlos tv and look for the Carolina Kitchen section of the page and then, if you scroll around, you'll find my spots - and the recipes too.

(You can also follow the link just below this story.)

WLOS-TV
In our kitchen
And here's what it looks like in MY kitchen these days.  The sun pours in over the eastern mountains, fills the air and the space and makes it a very nice place to be indeed.  Perhaps that is why the food tastes so good.  (I've never been able to imagine cooking in a dark cellar...)

Nice "dispos"
In our never-ending search to bring in the best food and ingredients, we've been working to find better disposables.  Here's a snap of a box of 100% compostable cups that we now carry.  We do a lot of deliveries and pick up lunches and so it is important to us that this part of what we provide makes a positive impact on our earth.  Here's the latest attempt.

Dinners to go
Dinners, as you know, 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.

As a reminder, every time you order a dinner to go you are eligible to enter our drawing. Just drop a card in our drawing jar (a business card works or fill out one of the cards that we have right here) and, at the end of the month, we'll pull one card which will be good for two free dinners-to-go.

Maybe you'll win next month.

Order a lot? Enter a lot!
Good luck!!

Here is this week's menu:

Monday           March 17         Hickory Nut Gap Irish Lamb Stew with Colcannon 11.75

Tuesday           March 18         Roast Chicken Poblano Tostada 10.50

Wednesday      March 19         BBQ Pork Ribs with Lexington “Dip” 10.25

Thursday          March 20         Crispy Catfish with Johnny Cakes and Caramelized Onion 11.25

Friday              March 21         Crab Cakes with Roasted Red Pepper Aioli 11.50


 

Our website
Special casserole of the week
We make a special casserole each week, usually on Wednesday. Order before noon and we'll have yours ready to pick up between 4:30 and 6:00 that very afternoon. (Yes, you can order in advance too.) Order a full for 9 portions or, if your gang is smaller, opt for the half-sized one, which serves 4 or so.

Say, we'll happily make a salad and provide bread for you if you like, just let us know when you call and we'll get you all set up.

 

Wednesday,  March 19

North Carolina Pot Pie

Full: 34.25

Half: 17.25

 

We need your help
We're concerned about the proliferation of plastic.  We do have bottled water in plastic bottles but we are looking into alternatives for you.  In the meantime, if you do buy water in plastic bottles (ours is pure spring water, by the way) PLEASE make sure you put the empties in a recycling bin somewhere.  Please?  Thanks.

No more trans fats here at all!
Kether, the gal who was our sous chef before she became a mother of twin boys, pointed out that we had just two items that contained trans fats: peanut butter and puffed pastry.  I am DELIGHTED to report that we have found healthier replacements for both of those products.

Our new peanut butter contains pure peanuts.  Nothing else.  Just as you see here on the label.  We're using this peanut butter in all of our cooking now: peanut sauces, peanut noodles, peanut butter cookies.  (And peanut butter sandwiches for the boss too.)

And we've found an all-butter puff pastry.  I'm very happy.  Now all our puffed pastry bites and brie in puffed pastry and fruit turnovers and beef wellingtons and such will be made with this much better ingredient.  Hooray!

Fun gum.
It's almost time for Passover (well, this is your very early reminder.)  wouldn't your favorite Jewish Mother, or your favorite "noodge", like some of this fun gum?

A Note From Laurey

March 15, 2008 

Hi there,

Seems like it has been awhile since I was actually sitting at my desk on a Saturday.  I’ve been in the air a lot lately.  Today I am very happy to be right here.  I just got back from running a delivery of boxed lunches (I frequently get to be delivery babe on Saturdays when I am here) and the folks who received the lunches gushed about the dinner that we delivered last night.  All kids, I think, they were very complimentary about the meal.  Nice to know people, especially young people, value what we do.  On the way back here a Blue Heron flew across the road in front of me.  It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one and, as you might know if you’ve read my story about Blue Herons in my book, they are reminders to me that things are okay. 

The birds are back around here.  Mornings at my house are now filled with their songs.  My gardens, which I am gradually cleaning out from their accumulated winter clutter, are coming along too.  Spring comes right now, even though it is not official until next week.  With the time change, afternoons stretch on.  Mornings, still dark at 7 at my house these days, invite me to laze in bed, watching the light come up behind my pines.  It is a good place to be for now.

On one of my recent trips I learned how to read my e-mail messages from my snazzy phone.  I was sitting in the Detroit airport, feeling kind of miserable, sick of flying, sick of plane delays, sick of a bunch of things.  A message came through with the most glowing words about my book I’ve yet read.  The writer said that mine was not only one of the best books about food she’d ever read, but that it was one of the best books she’d ever read – period!  She mentioned that Oprah would love my book which made me laugh out loud.  When I first put my book out, not one week passed without at least one suggestion that I should be on Oprah.  Lots of people made me promise to take me with them when I do appear on her show.  Everyone wants to come to the Green Room with me.  It had been a while since her name had come up, however, and so, like the Blue Heron, that name shook me out of the moment’s doldrums, and reminded me that my little brain does not necessarily hold the only possibility and that there is much more out there.  (If you know Oprah it’d be sweet if you’d tell her about my book.)

I’ve been cleaning my gardens and I’ve been cleaning my house and I’ve been cleaning lots of things these days.  I have my first poison ivy bumps, sad to say.  But I feel better when I go outside in the mornings and see dirt and promise instead of twigs and junk and clutter.  The birds’ return reminds me of cycles and I feel relief at warmth and light.  Yesterday was the 14th.  14 is my favorite number and today I feel better than I did on the 13th.  I sit here, in my quiet office, listening to the kitchen folks puttering around, getting the afternoon’s catering orders ready, preparing for the lunch visitors.  I just stopped my writing to meet with a bride and groom.  All the while birds sing outside the new windows here.  We have the door open to our garden and the songs are sweet and another reason to feel good.

So – come visit sometime.  The food keeps getting better and better and pretty soon we’ll be filling our deli case with local produce.  We now offer fresh NC fish every day.  We have a new baker who knows how to make really great things (including cupcakes!) so check and see what’s on the plate today.  We replaced all the broken chairs (we had a lot, sad to say) and fixed the holes in the floor (there were a lot of them too – no surprise in this old building) and are striving, ever striving to keep up our part in helping the earth in our own way.  Things are good around here these days.

I’m glad to be here today.

 

 

 

What WE eat!
Okay - here you go.  True confessions, my friends.  Here's a snap of Jaime enjoying my personal favorite (when I am not having peanut butter, that is...)

Karen Miller, who used to work here, "invented" this sort-of sandwich: a deviled egg, turned upside down and smushed onto a piece of a baguette.  We call it the "Millah!"  We can make one for you if you like.  Then you can be just as wacko as we are.  (Lucky you!)

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