Happy Holidays!!

Right now we are so excited about visiting with grandkids we can hardly stand it. It has been 2 years and there is even a new face to meet. Our youngest grandchild is 2 months old and we get to meet her next week. Our older ones are now old enough to clue us in about who they think they are and remind us what they think a grandparent should be like. We are so out of touch in that manner it is pathetic. We expect to get a hands-on education. Please keep in mind that Friday will be our last day until the 9th of January.

Our hopes for the holidays begin with the hope you'll come visit us at least once this week. This is a slow time of year in the food business and being closed for 2 weeks doesn't help with the expenses. Does your office have a party? Do you need a dessert or platter prepared? Contact us early in the week and we'll make it happen for you. Keep it easy on yourself! You've got plenty to keep you busy. And don't forget about gift certificates, artwork or music! We can fix you up!

Looking over the last year we are so proud of how far we have come. You have been so much a part of our success. For us, this is a new game and you have been very generous in your suggestions and very forgiving when we haven't hit the mark. Most of all, you have shown you care. That, by itself, means more than you would ever believe. It takes huge amounts of faith and gumption to jump off into unknown territory without a safety net. We are no longer the young, brave kids we once were and fear occasionally rears its ugly head. But time and again, our customers have reminded us why we are here and how much our being here matters. Thank you. It gives us the umph it takes and the "let's go back and get 'em" attitude we need to make this work.

A change in the legal status of our company has slowed things down a tinch in getting the tavern permit. We had originally planned on filing as a sole proprietor but our attorney convinced us we needed to be an LLC. So now we are moving forward with that paperwork.  Hang in there. Once all is in place you'll be pleased and we'll all be relieved.

When we come back we are already planning our upcoming Friday night line-ups. First out of the New Year's gate will be the Renee Wood Trio. Renee plays saxophone, Tom plays guitar and David keeps them all onbeat via drums. They are focused on jazz and it is a wonderful accompaniment to our dinners. If you have questions about our Friday nights, give us a call. Friday the 13th will be our debut Friday night in 2012—probably still without the permit.

I am delighted to tell you I have been in my studio again. Over the last year and a half I have pretty much set aside my fiber creativity as a necessary element for us making this café work.  What little time I have spent in the studio has often left me wondering if my artisitc itch was being scratched by other means. Yesterday I spent several hours there working on a long overdue commission. I am so grateful that I had this commission to keep me wandering into my studio. Otherwise, I might just have become permanently dis-engaged. Whew!  I was so enthralled with the piece that I got totally swept up in the create and lost track of time. Oh, yeah! That is what it is all about. I returned from my studio, not worn out from the work, but energized by the magic of art. I am a lucky girl!

This week, in honor of the solstice, I am introducing a new salad for the winter. I'll call it Winter Salad but you could as easily call it Susan's favorite. It starts with arugula which has a peppery taste very similar to watercress. I'll top it with fine slivers of red onion, sliced almonds, chunks of avocado, chunks of red grapefruit, pomegranate, feta cheese, a bit of tomato and wood-fired chicken. The recommended dressing will be a honey mustard made just for the occasion. The flavor note is on the tangy side with the edges removed because of the avocado and tomato. The honey, almonds, grapefruit and pomegranate add a level of sweetness to it and the feta gives it a creamy foundation. I never get tired of this salad and very much look forward to the winter months when the ingredients are readily available. Before I discovered arugula I used to make it with spinach. It provides a touch milder bite but equally satisfying. I can make it with either green—just specify. I hope you'll give it a try and enjoy it as much as I do. I'll have it starting on Monday and it will be at a special price all week.

We'll start the week out with meatball, kale and pecorino soup as well as French onion soup. On Tuesday I'll make a tomato ginger soup that should be quite festive. As this is our last week for a couple, we'll be scrambling to use up ingredients that might suffer from a 2 week layoff. Hence the onion soup, again. We know it is a favorite.

Tuesday Bruce will shine with his Chicken Cordon Bleu tamales. These morsels of chicken are wrapped in ham and masa and steamed. Then the sauce compliments the flavors and brings out the top notes of ham and Swiss cheese. He only makes about a dozen orders, so if you are so inclined, call in your order early to avoid disappointment.

Wednesday Bruce will bring out his stuffed green peppers. He has a unique way of making them where the peppers are stuffed with beef and then the peppers are simmered in the marinara sauce. This will be his first time to make them this season. They were really enjoyed last winter.

Thursday's and Friday's specials will be announced later in the week as I figure out which ingredietns need to get used up. Don't worry. We are not talking about leftovers. So stay tuned and check your facebook or email later in the week. It is this flexibility which gives us an edge over some other restaurants that have to rely on pantry ingredients and frozen meats.

We hope you have a lovely holiday spent with friends and family and come back refreshed and focused on the New Year ahead. To infinty and beyond!!!~~~~

Susan, Jon and Bruce

Directions and options

From the very beginning we have made an effort to keep you, our customer, aware of decisions that face us and have invited your input. It was after listening we learned that being able to serve beer and wine would increase the pleasure factor of eating with us. We heard loud and clear that while "made fresh" was important, so too, was speed of service. It is in that spirit that we seek your input regarding adding gluten-free foods to our regular menu.

We are seeing more and more folks looking that direction for long-term lifestyle changes. Removal of gluten from the diet frees up one's intestines from trying to digest ingredients for which many bodies are ill-equiped. Quite often we are seeing people whose medical professionals are prescribing that they eliminate gluten from their diets. In our own family, our elder son's whole family has gone gluten-free. For many families the search for solutions to too much mucous, ADHD and autism have sent them down this road. My recent research is showing that many restaurants nationally are adopting some of these practices as an option for that portion of their customer bases. Gluten-free means no wheat or barley. In the American diet, gluten is most often seen in breads and doughs. It can turn up in salad dressings and all sorts of places one isn't looking for it. It is what makes bread have that soft texture and holds the lightness together. It isn't necessarily harder to make gluten-free options but some of the ingredients are more expensive and some of the techniques are more cumbersome. Using alternative flours, such as rice flour, potato flour and similar flours replace the wheat.  For this cafe, many of those techniques are already incorporated into our style—like making things from scratch. We already offer many gluten-free options but perhaps a bread or crepes made this way would open the doors to serve more folks. Have you been advised to reduce your gluten consumption? We invite your input.

I am using this blog today for a bit of shameless self-promotion. The three of us that make this place survive are also artists in our own right. Jon is a wonderful songwriter and has his CD available. If you haven't heard it, Jon has a listening station set up near the register. While awaiting your order sit down and listen for a few moments. His laid back swing style is easy on the ears and will have you humming in no time. Bruce's photgraphic talents are available as prints of his floral portraits. I have silk scarves, flower pins and, of course, my quilts and quiltlets.

If you have a staff or family that need a holiday gift of sorts, our gift certificates are proving to be VERY popular. We can do them in any amount you choose. Twenty-five has proven the most popular but ten dollars is just as nice. If you need to buy in quantity, tell us. We can make you a deal.

It is not too late to order dishes to take to your office party. Last week we did a bunch and we'd like to do more in the next 2 weeks. Keep life simple for yourself—order a platter of something you can bring—like bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos, Tuscan chicken salad on brushetta, or perhaps a dessert such a  a cheesecake or tiramisu. 

This week the menu will work around the wait for a replacement part for our bread machine. It should arrive by Monday afternoon. Until then I'll be making the dough by hand and my time to make other parts of our menu shortened. Therefore, on Monday I'll be making a spicy pork empanada. This "meat pie" is out of Argentina and is stuffed with pulled pork, chopped olives, chipotle chilis and cheese. The crust is a puff pastry. I'll serve it with a side salad for a balanced diet. $6.50

Tuesday Bruce will tantalize us again with the Cashew chicken tamales and fried rice. This take on the classic cashew chicken has all the elements and flavors you expect in a cashew chicken but in a tamale. $6.50

Wednesday I'll bring my pizzas back with a pizza featuring mushrooms, artichokes, grilled onions and sliced Roma tomatoes over a sun-dried tomato zesto. Served with a side salad. $7.00

Thursday I'll do crepes with ham and asparagus with a swiss cheese alfredo sauce served over a bed of freshly sautéed baby spinach. Served with a side salad. $7.00

Friday brings us chicken Marsala over egg noodles with a side salad. $7.00

We are still working on the paperwork for the "Tarvern Permit" and will bring back Friday evenings after we re-open following our 2 week vacation. We'll re-open January 9th, hopefully with the permit in place.  Thanks for joining us.

~~Susan

Hitting the Floor Running

Sometimes the faster you go, the behinder you get. That seems to be the case right now. I hit Monday morning with all sorts of good intentions. I'm looking at getting extra desserts done, an extra soup to offer another choice, etc. We still are working on the paperwork for the Tavern License. It is done in 2 steps with the first one being the step that gets the city's permission before you can even apply for the state one. That should happen this week. With that in hand, I can then apply for the state permit. The only thing I've ever done that had such a long runway was applying for Quilt National. Since I have yet to ever have a quilt accepted by Quilt National (yeah yeah, I know—an oversight on their part) I have a bit of a wary side in this regards. Unlike Quilt National, which typically has 3400 entries for a coveted few 63 slots, the Tavern Permit doesn't have as tight a quota system. But there are still pages of rules, and all sorts of preliminary steps—like measuring the distance between our front door and the nearest school or church. For us this would be the Student Union Building on campus. Must be 300+ feet. While I am glad that there is oversight, I am amazed at the sheer number of hoops and hurdles presented. At least I finally know the accurate name for the permit—tevern permit. I've been calling it a beer and wine license. Nope. That only allows one to sell those items for consumption off premises. We want to sell beer and wine for consumption on premises. We also have to sell much, much more food in ration to the beer and wine. Otherwise we could only sell beer. See? Hoops.

The catering is picking up. That is great. We've developed some more appetizer types of offerings that can be presented by the platterful. Among those are bacon-wrapped, cheese stuffed jalapenos, garlic shrimp on individual canapés, sushi rolls. By the end of the week we'll have another batch of smoked catfish dip. The weather is currently intervening on that. I have the catfish brined and Jon will smoke it within the next 24 hours. We hope you might be thinking of including one of our platters at your company holiday party or personal open house. Please remember to give us 24 hours advance notice so we have everything we need. Unlike larger operations that have corporate support, we shop on a smaller scale and buy what we know we need. We also shop more often so our ingredients are fresh.

A few of you have taken advantage of my offer to add arugula to your salads. I do this by request only and there is no additional charge for it. To me, arugula adds a nice bright note to my salads. Building a salad is much like building a fragrance or painting an image. There is a background or bottom note—the darker greens. Then you add a wide balance of flavors or in the case of fragrances, the mid-range scents. These are the most prominent or dominant flavors. Then you have the top note. This is the one that adds the extra sparkle, extra interest or complexity. In a salad, that could be a tangy cheese or pomegranate, or something that is still light yet flavorful. Nuts might also be a part of that—especially if they have been toasted and seasoned. 

I am delighted that we have a wider access to fresh greens during the winter months. As counter-intuitive as that sounds, it is because the local greens are raised in a greenhouse. During the warmer months valuable crop space is given to more space demanding crops like squashes or tomatoes. I am making a concerted effort to make our side salads more complex and tasty. your feedback is wanted—so speak up!!

Time to get on with this week's menu—
Soups~ we'll start the week with a big batch of French onion soup. I'll add white chicken chili Tuesday or Wednesday.
Monday~Shrimp and grits plus side salad. That'll warm you to your toes. $6.50
Tuesday~Pulled pork tamales with Colorado sauce plus buttered cumin rice. This the the most traditional of Bruce's tamales. I've had the pork braising all day Sunday in prep. It has smelled SOOO good. $6.50
Wednesday~Kapusta with salad. This is Bruce's stew that features spare ribs and cabbage. It has a very loyal following. $6.50
Thursday~ Roasted mushroom and chicken crepes with a tarragon cream sauce—as requested.With side salad. $6.50
Friday~ Tuscan chicken salad sandwiches. Fifty cents off.

Remember~ no Friday night dinners until January.
Have a great week.
~~Susan