Some kind of fun!!!! weekending January 26

Holey Moley! Last week was so much fun! I cannot fully describe the utter joy I felt serving the ginormous shrimp last week. We actually made our way through most of it and the remainder have been frozen for use in an upcoming week. Yee-haw! This is the kind of thing that keeps me excited and motivated through the weeks where not everything has gone so smoothly. We've added some organizational structure to our preparations and that alone has taken much of the guesswork out of the equation. So I'm thinking...smooth sailing!

And speaking of sailing...boats...fishing... after nearly a year of searching I have located a source for #1 sashimi grade tuna. It is too costly to include as an upgrade on salads—that is still to come. However, this tuna will be perfect for a seared tuna dinner special and I am planning for that this week. Look for more details in the latter part of this blog.

Music this week is the Renee Wood Trio. She brings us fresh jazz served by saxophone, guitar and drums on Friday night. Reservations encouraged.

My search for ingredients has spread and my suppliers are coming through for the upcoming Filipino Flavor Excursion. It'll be a while before the final menu is determined but I am setting the cost at $60 per person including the paired wines. A couple of questions have surfaced and I thought I'd address them now. First of all, it'll be a very mixed menu—so if you don't eat shellfish or pork there will still be plenty of other tasty morsels involving other fish and chicken and you shouldn't feel you have missed out.  If you are a bigger consumer of wine than the single pour per course, you can simply pay more for that extra, as needed. I expect there will be a range of wines with a variety  in our costs. So we'll just work with you to be fair for all.
I am delighted to tell you that we are already nearly half-filled on reservations. If you are wanting to participate don't delay getting in your reservation. We are only opening this to 20 the first time. This is going to be a very fun event. The date is February 23rd at 6:00 pm.

I fed my need-for-fiber fix this weekend by purchasing some new batik fabrics for tablecloths. I may not have time for sewing quilts these days but I still love seeing, touching and using beautiful batik fabrics. To me they give the added splash of color needed this time of year. It gives hope that Spring can't be too far off.

In my recent research for using local ingredients I discovered that the clumps of sumac you see growing on the banks of the local roads are the same sumac collected and used extensively in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean foods. So instead of sprinkling paprika on the top of the hummus appetizer we are now going to sprinkle sumac. Its characteristic flavor profile is somewhat astringent or lemony. By the way, we do not use canned garbanzos for our hummus. Instead, we soak the beans overnight and cook them on the stove-top. Let us know what you think of the slightly different flavors.

specials this week~~

Lunches~~
Tuesday~~Mushroom, Leek and Fontina Frittata made with Willow Mountain's portabellas and local free range hormone and antibiotic free eggs plus side salad. $7.75
Wednesday~~Baked potato( a big one) topped with pulled pork, carmelized onion and cotija cheese with side salad. $7.75
Thursday~~Spicy Italian sausage and white bean stew plus side salad $7.75
Friday~~Customer favorite alert! Creamy Chicken enchiladas made with fresh spinach, monterey jack and lots of pulled chicken in corn tortillas plus pinto beans $7.75

Soup~~ Lentil and sausage soup with cornbread

Desserts~~The warm gingerbread makes its return swimming in a base of coconut almond cream and topped with in-house cinnamon ice cream! Later in the week I hope to get made a Calvados (apple brandy) Crepe filled with cinnamon apples and topped with Calvados and vanilla or cinnamon ice cream. Oh yum!!!

Seafood entrée~~As I mentioned earlier I finally have found a sashimi (high grade) tuna worthy of serving as an entrée. In fact my dish this week is Ahi Tuna Served Three Ways—yep! 3 ways in one dish. It'll give you a chance to taste it in ways you have perhaps never experienced. I would have brought some in earlier but it required a $500+ gamble on my part and I wasn't willing to stick my neck out that far. So Way # 1 is seared tuna wrapped in harlequin sesame seeds with a lemon miso sauce, and wasabi oil served with sticky rice, pickled ginger and pomegranate seeds. Way #2 is Texas Ruby red grapefruit, sesame oil and soy sauce marinated tuna tartare Summer Rolls (rice paper rolls)(x 2) stuffed with alfalfa sprouts, jalapeno slivers, cilantro cellophane noodles, red pepper slivers and cucumber. Way #3 rubbed with wild harvested Ozarks sumac and stir-fried with rice noodles, Maranatha Farm rainbow Swiss chard and mizuna plus Willow Mountain shitake mushrooms. I think you'll find it a worthy combination. Presented with your choice of soup or salad. $21. I'll have about 15 servings available for the week beginning Wednesday.

My Flavor journey this week is a Fiesta chicken platter featuring chili lime marinated boneless chicken breast    grilled and topped with a cilantro lime sauce, accompanied by grilled fresh pineapple topped with chili and cotija cheese, a bacon wrapped jalapeno popper and calico rice. Available beginning Tuesday. $12.99

I hope you and yours have escaped the threat of flu and are enjoying this relatively mild winter thus far. Have a glorious week. We hope to see you soon.

~~Susan