Our Lobster dinner is this week.  Hooray!  Just think - all that wonderful food and no need to even pack the car!

 

The Menu

 

At the start:

Baked, stuffed Cherrystone Clams

Mini Lobster Rolls

 

*

 

Traditional New England Relish Tray

 

*

 

New England Clam Chowder

 

*

 

Whole Steamed Lobster with Drawn Butter

Local Corn on the Cob

Roasted Local New Potatoes

 

*

 

Watermelon Salad

 

*

 

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

 

The cost for this feast is 60.00 which includes ALL this food,

ALL the service,and the gratuity. We’ll need to tack on the NC sales tax and, if you wish to have wine or beer, you’ll need to tack on an additional $12. Can you come? 828-252-1500

 

** Though we are closed for Bele Chere today (Saturday) do let us know if you would like to come.  We need to order the lobsters on Monday.  We'll check our phone machine for your reservation request before placing that order so do feel free to call us.  Okey doke?

Here's a fun sounding idea.

 

A group of local folks has been wandering around, stopping here and there, sketching as they go.  I'm not sure of their entire schedule, but they tell me they will be here next Saturday, the 31st, at 9 am to sip coffee, have a bite to eat, and sketch.

 

Fun! 

 

Ooo-wee!  Things with the bees are so good!

 

Let's see:

Tomorrow morning I take my "practical exam" to become a Certified Level beekeeper.  (This is the beginner level.)  Wish me luck!

 

Our "Dinner and Conversation about Bees" has been moved to August 25.  Please mark your calendars and plan to join in, learn a bit about bees and taste the VERY first crop of honey made in my hives.  WOW!

 

I am going to be a speaker at TEDxAsheville!  This is quite an honor for me.  I will give a talk for this prestigious event.  TED stands for Technology.  Entertainment.  Design.  And is all about "ideas worth sharing."  Find out more by following the link below.

 

Here are our dinners for this coming week.

 

Order by noon and we'll have your dinner ready to pick up by 3. We are open until 8 now which makes it easy for you to dawdle if you like. Feel free to stay right here with us if you like. We'll reheat your meal and stay out of your way.

 

Monday July 26 Grilled Honey Garlic Chicken 11.25

 

Tuesday July 27 * Thai Curry Shrimp with Jasmine Rice 13.25

 

Wednesday July 28 Pan-seared Duck Breast with Sour Cherry Sauce 13.50

 

Thursday July 29 * Roast Pork Marbella 11.75

 

Friday July 30 Crabcakes with Tri Color Cole Slaw 13.25

 

* these are gluten free

 

(though it is important to know that

We make a special casserole each week.

 

Order by noon or so. Order a half if you have around 4 folks. If you have a bigger group, or you just like leftovers, order a full-sized one.

 

Then come pick up between 3:00 and 8:00. (Or bring a gang and enjoy your dinner right here. We do have beer and wine by the glass, you know.)

 

Please order by phone (252-1500) or stop in to speak to one of us in person.

 

The casserole for the next week is:

 

Wednesday, July 28

 

Savannah Shrimp and Chicken Jambalaya

Full 60 Half: 30

 

We make Lasagna every Friday. Here is the next offering.

 

Friday, July 30

 

Traditional Beef Lasagna

Full: 45 Half: 22.50

 

 

Roz Savage is MY hero.

 

A successful young British businesswoman and Oxford graduate, a few years ago Roz decided to leave all that behind and in the past few years has rowed, BY HERSELF, across the Atlantic AND Pacific Oceans to raise awareness about global warming and climate change.  She's is going to row across the Indian Ocean soon.  She's an author (Rowing the Atlantic), an international traveler (she's in Vietnam as I write and will soon be taking a cargo ship back to San Francisco), an esteemed speaker (she gave a TED talk in the Galapagos this year) and a whole lot more.

 

Oh, and we're friends!

 

She's going on a short tour pretty soon and Asheville is her first stop in the US!  From the US she goes to Istanbul and Europe.  Wow.

 

There is this behemoth of a stage in front of our front door.  Our parking lot is blocked by generators.  The streets are filled with corn-dog eating tourists, and, well, the best thing to do in these circumstances is to close shop.

 

Emily is back in the office.  Henry's health gets better and better.  Adam is adjusting to being the chief cook and Henry keeper.  All is returning to a nice stability. 

 

 

July 24, 2010

 

Hiya,

 

It’s Bele Chere in Asheville, our town’s biggest street festival. Since no one can get to my shop, we’re closed. I have snuck into the office for a little while today, just long enough to write and send out my newsletter. When I’m done I’ll join my family and do a little dancing, a little snacking, a little touristing.

 

My sister Lucinda’s nickname in my family is “The White Tornado”. She is amazing. A whirlwind of a worker. She is much smaller than I am: 4 inches shorter, 30 pounds lighter, 4 years older – and WAY more energetic (I know what you’re thinking but this is absolutely true!)

 

Yesterday morning we had a gardening day at my house. Zoom zoom! Lucinda is a talented gardener and she took on a weedy, tangled patch of a garden right next to my house. Rachael, her daughter, got to pull out all the goldenrod that had overtaken the Foxglove patch. I concentrated on getting ready to put in a second wine bottle border. Heather, the sun-phobic of the Masterton girls, planted herself inside next to the sink, where she soaked and peeled labels off the cases of wine bottles I’ve been collecting.

 

A true family affair, it was!

 

My border had an old, cobbled-together rock pile in it, so first thing we removed them. That is, Lucinda removed them. I jiggled them loose and then my small/big sister came and hoisted them out of the ground, biceps bulging. My back is still sore so I stepped aside, letting her take over.

 

In the garden she was working on, masses of dried up old things had to get yanked out. A Japanese Maple, planted last year, was being shaded out by my Butterfly bush. Lucinda dug it out, cleared a spot in a nice place, and patted it into its new location. She tugged, hauled, threw out, hacked, stepped back to survey her work, and plunged in for more.

 

Rachael pulled out ten more goldenrods. Heather removed four more labels. I tapped in five more bottles. Lucinda hauled mulch, created a rock sculpture, directed the rest of us in our tasks (complimenting us as she went) and, in the meantime, planned an entire renovation of my whole yard, my living room, my kitchen and more. Sigh.

 

My sister’s yard is an inspiration. Mine, to her, thankfully, is a project. She comes once a year, whooshes through, performs magic, and leaves me in the dust.

 

After we were done, filthy and sweaty, we stopped to have a lunch that Heather scrounged from my refrigerator. And after lunch Heather cleaned up, Rachael went off to do some homework for her counseling job, Lucinda took a break, and I went to the store to get some party groceries.

 

A couple of hours after that a bunch of folks arrived to welcome Henry back to Asheville after his bone marrow transplant ordeal of this past year. Henry played with the new bottle border while Emily and Adam and the guests visited. And after most of the guests left, my family and a couple of our friends sat out on the lawn, admiring Rachael’s newly cleared gardens, my new bottle border, and, most especially, Lucinda’s handiwork.

 

A group of 36 students from Bulgaria came by for dinner the other night.  They are spending the summer studying our way of doing business, especially from an entrepreneurial standpoint.  They'd visited New York and Boston and Chapel Hill prior to their stint in Asheville.

 

We gave them a taste of our version of Southern Food and I gave them a tale or two about the evolution of my business.  I think, as sometimes happens, I got more from the evening than they did.  Such genuine spirit gushed out of them, boys and girls alike.