The Weekly Newsletter
Menus and Stories for April 28 - May 2, 2008
New pond floats
My friend Allison, the color wizard, is coaching me on what colors make people spin these days.  These are my interpretations of her comments and suggestions.  For now this basket sits in the window of the shop and are spring-like, portents of summer. 
 

Paperweights
When I start, the first thing I do is clean my tools, which involves warming them up, wiping off any accumulated wax and detritus.  I hate to waste those moves and that glass, however, so I've started turning those initial movements into paperweights.  Seems much more sensible to me - and the resulting orbs, sitting here in a window or on a pile of "to-dos" on my desk are pleasing.

New tumblers
Here are this week's take on Allison's colors.  People around here pick them up, hold them to the light, murmur "Margarita" or "Lemonade" or - "Nice!"

I like just looking at them, right in front of my desk, tucked into the windowsill.  But you could, if you liked, take them home and fill them up with your own chosen beverage.

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           April 28            Cornmeal-crusted Chicken w/ Caramelized Vidalia Onions 9.95

Tuesday           April 29            Crab Burger with Avocado Aioli 12.25

Wednesday      April 30            Roast Beef, Gravy, and Mashed Potatoes (YUM!) 11.75

Thursday    May 1      Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Fig Relish 11.75

Friday   May 2   Wild Salmon with Fresh Asparagus 15.00

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,  April 30

Mushroom Barley and Roasted Vegetable Bake

Whole: 29.75

Half: 14.95

Crab cakes - oh my!
Oh yes, there is more to this place than my glass forays.  The food just keeps getting better and better.  These next three things graced our deli case last week.  Fresh lump meat Crab, made into patties and served with a fresh herb cream.  Yu - UM!

Breakfast OR lunch
 The other day I was running out the door with a carload of lunches.  I was headed for the cookie shelf but Cate, our resident yoga practitioner (and healthy gal) gently suggested that I veer toward something a bit, um, healthier. 

"How about some eggs and cheese and, er, protein.  It'll last longer, you know."

She was right.  The cookie, though delicious, would not have sustained me as well as that local egg wrap did.  Have you had one?  They are ready at 8.  Mine had sun-dried tomatoes too.  If you prefer, choose one with sausage.

Artichoke Cakes
These were in our deli case too (along with about 40 other things).  Artichoke cakes with a light, fresh Tomato Coulis.  I admit it's hard to know what to choose.  Oh go ahead, taste "A little of everything" (that particular option is one I select many days - and it's even listed on our cafe menu.

You pick.  We serve it up.  Then you pay and you get to eat.  Sound reasonable?

A Note From Laurey

April 26, 2008

Hiya,

Oh what a nice day it is here.  The air, soft, invites.  Come play!  Come walk, loll, laze.  Soon, I say.  Right now I am at my desk, tidying, organizing.  Saturdays are that for me and it’s just fine.  The quieter pace of the day suits me most of the time.  It’ll kick up in a little while as lunch visitors drift in.  In the kitchen things bustle, preparing for a nice wedding this evening.  It’s a perfect day for that sort of thing.

I had a fun early part of the day today.  I was one of the speakers at the 21st Annual Meeting of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society.  Miss Rawlings was a Northerner who moved to Florida, and who became so well known for The Yearling and Cross Creek.  When the organizers of the conference met me, a Northerner who moved South and wrote about food and place, and heard about my mother, a Northerner who moved farther North and who cooked and wrote about food and place, they invited me to read.  What a treat for me.  The audience, people who read and mull and appreciate words, listened perfectly, rapt and appreciative, laughing when they should, becoming chocked up right along with me when that seemed right.  I read, signed books, and left, feeling good about being a person who gets to live and eat and remember and write and then, some lucky days, read those words in front of people.

AND, drum roll, it is finally time for my bee story to go to the next level.  We’re getting bees this Monday.  (If you’re reading this note on that day, wish me luck – I’ve still never even looked in a functioning bee hive and I’m about to have two on my very own property!!)  The weather has been warm enough, the queens are ready, the workers are set to go, and the drones are looking forward, I suspect, to their summer.  I can only hope that all this is true.  It seems like I’ve been waiting forever and it’s all about to happen.

Whee!

In the meantime, my yard is roaring with color.  The big rhododendron plant in my upper garden is full of blooms that just popped open this morning.  Lilacs are about as full as they get around here and the path to the back of the house is richly graced by Lilies of the Valley (my birth flower – right on time for next month’s festivities.)  The apple trees have a bloom or two (I hope the bees will make that situation different next year) but the Redbuds are grand, filling the perimeter with their delicate purple blossoms. 

Birds are here in a huge way too and sing with vigor and pleasure in the still dark hours of my mornings.  I haven’t managed to sleep until my alarm in weeks, which is actually just fine.  I slip awake, tiptoe outside, and let their songs surround.  It’s a very good feeling.

So much is good these days.  We spent the first of four sessions here last week in our Sacred Geometry class, drawing circles and connecting dots and thinking about breathing in with each line, out with each image.  I felt drawn into their simple and strange forms.  I couldn’t explain it, but it felt really good.

I’ll be in touch next week – with BEE pictures!!! Tra la.

 

New Glass
This one made me very happy the other day.  Finally I made a square, symmetrical, centered base.  Finally the thickness of the glass was even throughout.  Finally the spinning out to transform the piece into this plate was smooth (sometimes I crash into the side of the oven) and finally, even two days later, I can say that I really like something I made (I often get very critical very quickly).

I put a small organic inspired orb in the hollow of the bowl and it looks just right.  (It'll be auctioned off at the Power of the Purse luncheon in June.  For the right price, it could be yours!)

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