High Summer—High Jinx

The summer temps are beginning to reach their norms. The crops that were slow to germinate and sprout are now kicked into high gear and well on their way to producing a wide variety of delicious veggies and herbs. Time for some fun!

First of all—our musical guests this week are two founding members of the Blackberry Winter Band, Marideth Sisco and Dennis Crider. It is an honor to have them join us Friday night. Previously they have packed the house. So if you want to enjoy their tunes while enjoying your dinner, you'll want to be sure to make reservations. We'll be limiting the seating to what the Fire Marshall allows. Make that reservation today.

Now back to the food—As I said we are in high season with regard to produce and I intend to make the most of it.  This will be a great week to expand your palate and s-t-r-e-t-c-h those taste buds.

Word has finally gotten out about us enough that food producers are now coming to me to ask what crops I'd like to see grown. The first of those specialty crops is arriving this week, but in a small quantity to start. They are squash blossoms. These delicate gourmet bundles have long been enjoyed by Native Americans and as part of the Southwestern cuisine for decades. We'll be stuffing them with fresh cheeses and herbs and featuring them on some of the dinner offerings. Because we don't know what kind of volume they'll be made available, we aren't promising more than a nice chance to taste them. Assuming we are able to secure a larger quantity, we'll be adding in an appetizer that features them. We'll only be using the male blossoms and therefore we won't be cutting into the squash production. I bet less than 5 of our customers have ever tasted this delicate treat.

Did you hear? We now have hamburgers made with local grass-fed beef from Spring Creek Farm in Pottersville. We grill them up fresh and offer both a classic burger as well as a Southwestern burger. We'll highlight them on Tuesday, but they are available at all lunches.

Janet brought us some spectacular green beans and they will be served with both the evening stir-fry and as a featured side dish at dinner with shallots and fresh herbs.

Twice this week at lunch we'll be bringing out cold pasta salads that celebrate the summer heat. On Tuesday I'll make one that includes melons, feta and pancetta (Italian bacon/ham). Later in the week, on Wednesday, Amy has one that includes bacon, lettuce and tomato. Step out of your comfort zone!

And speaking of salads, Vincent suggested that we might want to make available any of our lunch salads as a wrap. We have some ginormous tortillas made just for that purpose. So for fifty cents more, just ask us to make it a wrap!

Thursday's lunch should be fun. We'll have Pork Fried Rice accompanied by Pacific Rim Gazpacho Shooters. I can't wait to bring out this chilled soup made with such fresh ingredients. Summertime and the soup is chilled!

Friday I'll make a Tuscan quiche that celebrates the harvest, as well. I'll include oven-roasted roma tomatoes, mushrooms, summer squash, onions, and fresh Italian herbs. It'll be served with a side salad.  Perfect summer fare.

Let's talk about the dinners now.  Oooo-wheee! The seafood entrée is ginger and garlic glazed ginormous gulf shrimp on a pineapple boat with Calico rice, pineapple mango salsa, and summer stir-fry.  $15.99

The Flavor Journey—Lamb ribs that have been slow wood-smoked and finished with a rosemary garlic glaze, local green beans simmered with shallots and fresh herbs, summer stir-fry plus a stuffed squash blossom. This will be available in a very limited quantity. Reserve EARLY!  $17.99

Again, this week I am offering a third dinner special option. It will be a pasta prima vera with a very light sauce to bind tomatoes, squash, onions, garlic, mushrooms, carrots and green beans. This one is vegetarian at its base, but you can add wood-fired chicken or wood-fired salmon for a bit more. $13.99/ $15.99/ $17.99

We will also have a festive beverage for Friday night—peach bellinis. This luscious mix-ture combines ripe peaches, lemon juice, and sugar with sparkling wine. We'll offer this wine cocktail at $5/ glass.

Desserts~ Where to begin? As always, we'll have Drew's wonderful carrot cake. Then, we'll start the week off with peach cobbler. I'll add tira misu mid-week and by Friday I plan to have coconut and corn ice cream with brown sugar syrup. This truly celebrates the arrival of local corn. Now THAT is my kind of fun!

You know~I just bet I missed something. So much excitement. Come be a part of it.

Thank you for being a part of our growth and history. We love sharing our creativity with you. You have made it safe for me to explore and stretch and allowed us to truly celebrate each new flavor that comes our way. We need to increase our customer base to maintain our own sustainability. Your word-of- mouth is important to us. If you have not done so lately, how about rating us on yelp.com or yahoo.com or tripadvisor.com? Of course, if there is a problem, we hope you will give us a chance to get it right. Have a glorious week.

~~Susan

W/E October 1st—Full Swing Fall

What  a lovely last couple of weeks we've had. Thanks to you, we've had 2 weeks of record breaking numbers and anticipate another with 3 of the members of Blackberry Winter being our entertainment for Friday night. This is a rare opportunity to see these guys locally. They've spent much of 2010 touring the US. Last month, Blackberry Winter had a CD release party at our establishment and we were able to schedule them for your entertaiment. Marideth Sisco, Dennis Crider and Linda Stoffal all live in West Plains and have a loyal following. Word is still coming in on the other members. We've now heard that Teddy- the bass player-will also join us. We expect the room to fill and overflow into next door on Friday night. Please be a part of this joyful occasion. But get those reservations in early. We're already over 20 reservations. Due to the high number of reservations expected, you will either be buying dinner OR paying a $10/cover.

The cooler weather has, indeed, allowed us to keep the doors open and the screen doors slapping. For the most part we've been able to streamline a couple of parts of our operation to get the orders out even more quickly. Several people have commented on this on their survey cards. Progress!!! The survey questions with your answers are really a big help to us— next we want to know about your beverage choices. Have you tasted regional wines or beers? We plan on offering several regional offerings, in addition to California wines. Surprisingly, very few establishments in the state have chosen to highlight these beverages—even though Missouri now has over 75 wineries and I don't know how many small breweries. Most experimenting occurs at the individual wineries, themselves, or at liquor retailers/package stores. The wineries are not located in the immediate area except for a couple in Mountain View and Seymour. Because this isn't a big tourist mecca of wines trails, many locals have never even tasted the goodness of the Missouri wineries. In the last few years more attention has been given to grapes that can be made into less sweet wines. The Chambourcin is one of my favorites along with Norton and St. Catherine. If you think Missouri wines are all sweet, you have treat coming—as soon as we get that license, that is. Progess is definitely being made on the paperwork. I hope that when we start the new year it will be with a liquor license.

I'll have 2 different soups this week. Monday will be the white chicken chili that proved so popular last winter. Tuesday and the rest of the week I'll have roasted butternut squash soup. Last winter this was the 2nd most popular soup. This is a rich, nicely rounded soup with a veggie base but a creamy finish without being a full-fledged cream soup.  It'll fill you nicely but not weigh you down. Standard soup pricing prevails.

We'll start the week off with a bang! Monday I'll introduce a special of Rustic Lamb Chili with shitake mushrooms served over roasted red potatoes. My mouth waters in anticipation. This is local grass fed lamb and it is delicious. We'll be pricing it like an entrée special—$6.50. It'll be served with a side.

Tuesday we'll have Mystery Tamales. That means I don't remember what variety Bruce told me last week he would be making. I'm sure he knows. I'm sure they will be terrific and I bet they sell out before noon. So take a chance and call to save yours Tuesday morning. (We'll know the variety by then and can tell you.) Usually they are served with a side of rice. $6.50

Wednesday I have chicken and mushroom crepes. We are fortunate to have access to the lovely mushrooms from Willow Mountain Mushroom and I like to take advantage of that. I'll mix shitake, portabella and button mushrooms for the sauce on these chicken-filled crepes. They'll be served with a side salad. $6.50

Thursday the pizzas will be BBQ chicken pizzas with a tossed arugula/ lettuce salad. The slightly bitter greens of the salad will be a nice counterpoint to the sweetness of the BBQ sauce on the pizza. We make the dough from scratch and are using local Amish whole milk mozzarella. $7.00

Friday will be a wild one so I am keeping the lunch a simple one. I am bringing back the Waldorf Salad. This was a big hit last time and I love incorporating the apples coming into season. We'll have Missouri pecans in it as well. $6.50

Friday dinners:
Seafood: Spicy garlic grilled shrimp skewers with rice pilaf and a side salad. $12.

Meat: Pasta Puttanesca—the pasta with the interesting origin. Originally created by the whores of Sicily or was it Naples? Anyway, it is somewhat salty and very full of traditional southern Italian ingredients. I'll serve it over rotini with a simple side salad. $12

Vegetable entrée: Sweet & Spicy veggie stir-fry over rice with skillet stuffed onions and a side salad. $10.

When you call in for your Friday reservations, please be prepared to give your entrée choice or tell us you'll just be paying to watch the band. The music will start about 6:15.