Sept 27- October 1~~White chicken chili, Pesto Chicken Sandwich & Th/Fr sushi

It's really beginning to feel like fall now and with the rain out of the way, the courtyard should be perfect. I have ordered new batik fabric to change out the tableclothes to a more appropriate color-scheme for autumn. The next batch of mums should begin blooming and a few pumpkins added to the mix should be just about right.

I've been awaiting this weather to bring out the white chicken chili. Finally!!! We'll be using Jon's wood-fired chicken as the base. I'll cook navy beans from scratch, add onions, garlic, cumin, chili powder, some newly roasted New Mexico Hatch chilis, and so on. I'll top it with Crema Mexicana and toasted Pepitas and  serve it with a jalapeno cornbread muffin. Bring on the cool weather!!!

For the sandwich this week we are bringing back the Pesto chicken sandwich. I am using what is probably the last of Mary Badiny's basil to make fresh pesto. This is the "spread" on the sandwich. Then a few slices of wood-fired chicken, fresh tomato, provolone cheese and sliced avocado. If you missed it the first time, here is your chance. We had people asking for it well into the next week last time.

For you sushi fans-- I am making sushi but only on Thursday and Friday. I will make spicy shrimp rolls and serve it with miso soup. You might wish to reserve yours a day ahead--just to be sure.

In case you missed it, we have brought the fish tacos back as a permanent item on our menu.

The "return" goody~~for those of you making a second or more visit during the week~~ your goody will be a bar cookie of some sort. I make those for delivery beginning Tuesday. So I am reserving my decision on which one right now. It's a surprise.

We now have several people helping us find our perfect next spot. We are looking for some creative thinking to make it all work. Progress is being made. Your continued visits are making it happen. Your spreading the word even farther will make a huge difference in the long run. Thank you!!

If you haven't been back in a bit, please make this the week you do so. There are lots of improvements-- larger quesadillas, more meat on the sandwiches, umbrellas shading the tables & a community table. We've gotten quite a bit faster as we learn to streamline some techniques without sacrificing quality.We continue to make our own breads each day, use fresh ingredients and source locally as much as we can, and we really care  that you get a meal you thoroughly enjoy, at a cost you find reasonable, in a timeframe that allows pleasure. We actively seek your feedback and listen to what you say.

See you this week!

Sept 20-24 Roasted Butternut Soup & Ginger Chicken Lettuce Wraps

This week marks the last days of summer and the first of autumn. Hopefully, we will have more glorious weather like last week. It was sheer joy to look out on the courtyard and see virtually every table filled. It also made me realize some things about myself.

welcome to the courtyard!

We have begun our search for possible indoor locations. As I have told you previously, I have never been a restaurant cook. My cooking has always involved friends and family being nearby, usually chatting with me and often participating. My joy in looking out and seeing happy diners made me realize that I have zero desire to be stuck in a back kitchen, out of sight of my customers. Well that changes things, doesn't it? So our search for space now includes being able to create a kitchen/work space that is right out in the middle of things. Instead of being tucked away and hidden, I want to be able to speak with my customers, share with them what is happening and most of all, let them enjoy the many fragrances released while cooking. Just as I want you to be able to enjoy the sensory overload of eating outdoors, I want your nose to tell you "this is gonna be GOOD!" We figure we can create a galley kitchen along one side of a retail-type location. We are not in a fat hurry to move indoors but at least have begun a gentle search.



Plenty of shade to keep you comfortable

This week's specials selection began with an email from Mary Badiny telling me she has some butternut squash ready to harvest. Well, I'm ready to roast them and make a lovely fall soup. Roasted Butternut Squash Soup is the soup special this week.There will be sauteed onions and garlic and a chicken broth base.This will all be pureed with roasted potatoes to make it fairly smooth.  I'll top it with crema mexicana (similar to sour cream or a creme fraiche) and pepitas (toasted seasoned  pumpkin seeds). I'll serve it with a whole-wheat cornbread muffin. Yumm-o!!! My mouth is watering already. Usual soup pricing will prevail- $3.49/ cup(8 oz)  and $4.99. bowl(12 oz)

My other special will fill the niche of BOTH salad and sandwich-- Ginger Chicken Lettuce Wraps. We are marinating the chicken and grilling it over a wood fire. Then I am adding rice, shitaki mushrooms, onion, red pepper, cilantro and Asian seasonings. These are served with three lettuce leaves so you can roll them up and munch them down. I'll add a side of peanut sauce for dipping.  Hungry yet? This is one of my absolute favorite flavor combinations. Forks are optional, though suggested. Napkins...required. $6.25

I want you to know I am having a great deal of fun cooking for you. Making food that isn't the same ol', same ol' is important to me. I love being connected to the seasons by working with the freshest, just-harvested ingredients. As the seasons evolve, so do the herbs, the peppers, the starches. They will change along with their availablilty. Do YOU have something growing at home? Wanna share? Wanna trade?

I almost forgot! We are now making the Fish Tacos a regular item on the menu. So you can get it every day. Not so the Egg Salad Sandwich. We are taking it off the menu as it doesn't have a following. If I get a demand for it, I may being it back occasionally as the sandwich of the week.

Jon and I are very attuned to your input and comments. While cooking what I love strokes my ego and feeds my own sense of joy, being viable and creating what you really want is also very high on the priority list. So your input is not just welcome, it is vital to keeping this gig rolling.

Occasionally, I would love to do a Friday night dinner that is a fixed menu (I choose the menu) of seasonal ingredients served spectacularly. We would dress things up a bit and have fancier ingredients. I have to find out about the laws on bringing your own bottle of wine. Does this sound like something you would enjoy? If the weather is nice, do you enjoy dining al fresco at night? Torches, live acoustic music, perhaps a firepit. Hmmm? Talk to me!!!!!

I am making a yummy chocolate cookie as dessert for you who are making it by more than once this week. These are not available for purchase. They are my special "thank you" to let you know I really appreciate you making the choice to join us more than once in a week. We know you have several choices available and appreciate you choosing us a one of your regular lunch options. Thank you. We look forward to seeing you and hearing about your week.

September 13-17 Fish Tacos are back!

What a crazy week last week was. Holidays and non-stop rain do not a busy week make. What, to many, may have seemed a depressingly slow week turned out to be a week where we had time to really look down the road at our goals. We were able to put some things into perspective and prioritize some actions. I can give you more details later. But right now, let's move on to what you really care about-- this week's specials.

our courtyard before we got the umbrellas for the bigger tables

They may each seem familiar as we have featured them at different times over the last few weeks.

One of our most popular specials were the fish tacos. Well, they are back this week. To those who haven't tried them, they are on soft corn torillas and you get 2. We wood-fire tilapia and finish it with creole seasoning. Kicky! Then we top it with a slaw that has lime, chili, and cilantro as major flavor contributors. We sold out each day we made them. So if you know you want them, get your call in early in the day ...or even a day ahead to reserve your serving.

The soup is Tom Ka Kai. You may know this as Thai coconut chicken soup. This fairly light weight soup, by that I mean it isn't thick and heavy, has a (home made) chicken broth plus lots of shredded chicken, ginger, cilantro, onion, carrot, bell pepper & lemon along with coconut milk which gives it a distinctly Asian slant. We trotted this out our first week when it was 100F. It was sadly overlooked as NO ONE was thinking soup that week. Hopefully there are a few of you ready to think soup again. If I judge by last week, as slow as it was, you are definitely thinking soup.

The third special is a return of the Anti-pasto salad. This is a very dense salad that will fill you right up. Beginning with chopped Romaine, we add provolone, woodfired chicken, cabicola and pancetta (seasoned Italian hams), Kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, bell pepper, red onion, tomato, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, pasta, basil and parlsey. It is tossed with a dressing based on a lemon juice/ olive oil mixture seasoned with oregano, mustard and worchestershire. This is almost an extreme salad and it generated lots of positve comments the week we introduced it. I will serve the tapenade with it as well along with a few crackers.

Now back to long term plans and priorities--

Many of you asked us what we plan to do come winter. Judging by how many of you stayed inside during the non-stop rain last week, this is a valid question. We have very mixed feelings about this. You do know that there are food wagons operating all winter in Chicago and Boston and NYC. Of course, those guys are always bragging about not being weather wimps. Over the years I have, myself, become a weather wimp. Gone are the days when  I am willing to battle the elements-- especially if it risks my life. So that means, if it is icy we will not be there. We live 25 miles down US 63 and parts are quite hilly.

We would like to move to a permanent inside location but we are not in the position to further stick our necks out on much higher rent. We figure we have until the beginning of November to build our customer base as quickly as we can. Hopefully, we'll have you hooked by then and willing to face the elements for  a lunch that really satisfies. If you can tough it out with us through the winter months, we think we can be in a better position by spring to make changes.  That's the plan as of this week, anyway.

We've always been dreamers. Both of us are active artists; me-fiber, Jon- jazz guitar, so dreaming is a foundation of our beingness. But we've become much more realists in the last few years, too. This tends to soften our momentum but not determination toward our goals. We are far more cautious that we used to be.
Aah, age!

September 7-10 Soup weather at last!

First of all-- we are closed this Monday for Labor Day.

Willow Mountain Mushroom's Portabells

Finally! The weather has calmed down a bit and one can once again confront a bowl of soup. I have those gorgeous portabella mushrooms from Willow Mountain Mushrooms and plan a portabella & brie bisque. A bisque is usually thickened with pureed rice instead of flour--so it is gluten free. The portabellas, as I mentioned last week, were the freshest I have ever seen. This week I'll saute them in butter and olive oil and a touch of white wine ( the alcohol evaporates out during cooking). The brie is a very mild cheese that melts nicely. There will be sauteed onions and garlic plus a touch of parsley and tarragon (from my garden). Simple pure pleasure. This is a thick creamy soup with a light cheese flavor- but not gloppy cheesy. Served with crackers and roasted red pepper tapenade. My tepanade is a concoction of chopped black olives, roasted red peppers, garlic, capers, olive oil and lemon juice. It often includes anchovies-- but not this batch.   Oh Yum!

I am surveying for your favorite soups. I am not using canned or powdered bases. Everything is from scratch. So speak up and get your favorite in the line-up. NO MSG!!!!!!

The sandwich--Grilled Black Forest ham and cheddar. This is a grilled sandwich. Your choice of bread and dressing. I am adding a cranberry horseradish sauce to dressing the line-up for your pleasure.  Served with seasonal fruit salad-- which right now is cantaloupe with blueberries.

The salad--Spinach salad with bacon, hard boiled egg (real farm eggs), red onion, mushroom, tomato, roasted red pepper &; grated mozzarella with glazed pecans and a sweet and sour hot bacon dressing. Served with crackers and roasted red pepper tapenade.

Good news for quesadilla fans! One of our most popular items has been the chicken quesadilla. I am increasing the size of the tortilla-- so you'll get a bigger serving. 10" instead of 8". You math wizards-- tell me how much larger that is-- keeping in mind it is a circle. Let's see-- you increase the diameter by 25%...you still get guacamole, salsa and sour cream on the side. Price remains the same. Double the chicken for $1 more.

Are you having an office meeting? Call in the day before and we'll have everybody's order ready to cart off right on time. We LOVE LOVE LOVE having office orders. Call in the day ahead and we'll even throw in free batch of cookies.

The umbrellas are in and many diners took advantage of the lovely weather and shady tables. I absolutely love to look out of my cooking spot and see happy diners enjoying the courtyard, good food and each other's company. It is totally ok to linger as long as other diners are not awaiting tables.

The community table is now available for those who wish to add company while dining.

Because it is outdoor dining, it is also pet friendly. If you bring along your dog all I ask is that you are considerate of others and have your pet leashed and under your control. I have been a dog owner for most of my life and know how seldom pets are welcome in dining areas. Need water? --no problem. Our itty bitty birdbath is just the right height.