Weekending Feb 2nd-Ground Hog's day, already!

We have been blessed so far with a nicely mild winter. I know. I just probably jinxed us. But I have already heard rumors of the occasional brave narcissus raising its head. The forsythias are beginning to put their energies toward buds. It can't be too long. However, I am still awaiting the true harbinger of spring--the eau de skunk.

A couple of week's ago I had the opportunity to take a good hard look at where I really wanted to take our cafe. I shared many of my thoughts with you. I am happy to say that, without any delay what-so-ever, some new talent made a point of reaching out to me. While we are still establishing just what the roles will be, I am confident that I now have the staff to make those goals happen. I have always wanted this game to be much more than what I personally could make happen. I love treating this as a happy game and I am loving having others around me who want to play this game, as well. It is WAY more fun to conspire with others to create a game plan. I am looking forward to mining those talents and plugging them into the direction we are going. Please welcome the new faces. I'll introduce them to you in the next few weeks via this blog.

The opportunity to bring in the tuna last week went really well. Thank you for supporting us by ordering it. We sold out pretty darn fast. I had lovely feedback. Thank you.  By the way—if you'd like to tell the world how we are doing, please feel free to leave comments on our Facebook page. In fact, if you'll "like" us you'll automatically get notified when we have updates on the menu.

There are just a few slots left available for the Filipino Flavor Excursion. While there are still a couple of things to be finalized I can tell you that there will be 5-6 courses with 5 wine pours and one specialty beverage.The cost is $60 per person including the wines. The date is Saturday, February 23rd at 6 pm.

I have had several requests for a Valentine's dinner. I am still putting the menu together, but yes, we will do a special dinner. Valentine's Day falls on a Thursday so we'll be open that night, anyway and the full menu should be available. I would encourage reservations.We are also planning on having a photographer on hand in case you'd like your "valentines" photo taken. That will be fun. I'll try to post the special dinner menu later this week.

Several people have requested that we do more beef items at dinner. This week the "Flavor Journey" will take us to Russia for Beef Stroganoff. This dish, whose name most likely was chosen to honor the famous Stroganov family in the 1860's, has many variations. After the fall of  Czarist Russia  it was served in the upscale hotels of China. Americans were introduced to it by returning servicemen in the pre-communist era in China and following the second world war. As a family dish it probably was at its hey day  in the 1950s. Many of you probably have fond memories of being served it by your grandmothers. Nowadays it is most often made with a good cut of beef cut into either skinny strips or small bites. Those pieces are seared and sautéed with onions and mushrooms. We'll serve it over egg noodles but in Russia it is most typically served over what we would call "shoe string potatoes".  The creamy sauce has a characteristic bite brought on by the use of a bit of sour cream.  I'll serve it over egg noodles plus a braised red cabbage and pan-roasted broccoli. Includes soup or salad. $13.99 Available as of Tuesday evening

The seafood entrée will be a combination dinner of a crab cake and grilled shrimp. The crab cake will be made with back-fin crab meat, fresh herbal seasonings, egg, mustard and just enough panko breadcrumbs to bind it together. I'll top it with a roasted red pepper coulis. That is a thick sauce made with red peppers and onions that have been sautéed until tender and sweet and puréed.  Also I'll have a skewer of marinated shrimp and pineapple served with a coconut curry sauce and served over a bed of quinoa mixed with parsley, cucumber, craisins, almonds and snowpeas. Includes soup or salad. $15.99. Available as of Wednesday evening.

~~Lunch Specials~~

Tuesday~ California rolls( real crab meat) Miso soup, cucumber-wakame (seaweed) salad $7.95

Wednesday~ Antipasto salad (if it's Italian, it is in it) $7.75

Thursday~ Pork tamales with salsa verdes and Spanish rice $7.75

Friday~ Beef empanadas with black beans and tostones (fried plantains) $7.75

Flavor journey~ Beef Stroganoff over egg noodles with braised red cabbage and pan roasted broccoli $13.99 Tuesday- Friday

Seafood Entrée~ Crab cake plus grilled shrimp with pineapple, atop a quinoa pilaf.$15.99 Wednesday-Friday.

I hope you have a glorious week. Watch for fresh plantings in the pots outside. I am itching to get my fingers in the soil; even if only a pot. We've already got pea shoots started and I'll get chives, parsley and oregano going ASAP. As always we delight in hearing about your family happenings, food wants and silly jokes.

See ya!!!

~~Susan

All about rhythm and changes thereof

This week marks the rhythmic transition from summer to fall—school starts this week for many. We recognize that you may be somewhat distracted this week, but hope we see you anyway.  Gone will be the days of scorching hot sun and a perception of available time. Schedules will be kicked into high gear and a certain amount of frantic-ness might occur. Time for a deep breath and maybe a healthy lunch or dinner.

Many of you took the time to congratulate us last week and to add your encouragment on our growth. Thank you. That feedback is quite vital. We have been pleasantly surprised at the speed of our growth of late. While we try to keep up the quality of our food, you are helping to get the word out. We are keenly aware that word-of-mouth recommendations are the best way for us to grow. We know you might prefer to keep us as your little secret, but our sustainability depends on your sharing. We are all about sustainability!!!

Before I dive into this week's specials and flavor journeys, I need to mention that party season will be on us before we know it. We are already getting requests for holiday catering and use of our private dining room. So if you have in mind you'd like us to cater your holiday party or host your event in our space, don't put it off. In order to give your event the time and effort it deserves, we will limit our bookings.

Gordon Johnston will join us again to entertain on Friday. You may remember his easy-to-listen-to keyboard renditions of Van Morrison tunes or the locally-sourced themes of his own tunes. Gordon lives in Poplar Bluff and makes the trek out of a love of playing. Please tip him well. We want him back.

Last week we flew fresh, wild-caught Pacific Coho salmon in from Alaska. I hope you were among those who got to experience the incredible fresh flavor of this fish. Over the weekend we took one whole salmon and wood-fired it. You'll see it on the Tuesday lunch menu in the form of salmon tacos with pineapple mango salsa. There are about 12 orders available. $8.00

Tuesday night will usher in this week's Flavor Journey—our country of origin will be Vietnam. We'll do an appetizer of stuffed rice paper called summer rolls. The rice paper (like wonton skins but made with rice) will be filled with cellophane noodles, mung beans, thin sliced pork roast, carrots, cucumber & cilantro. Unlike wonton skins, these are served cold.  A dipping sauce will accompany. The entrée will consist of a Vietnamese beef salad topped with an Asian marinated flank steak, red onion, mung beans, cilantro, cucumber and shitake mushrooms. The dressing will be a light rice vinegar one.  It is totally gluten free!!!!  $11.99

Wednesday I'll bring out the Antipasto salad. This salad has a strong following. On top of a bed of Romaine I'll add provolone cheese, kalmata olives, red and green bell peppers, pasta, ham, fresh basil, Juliet tomatoes and red onion. These extra ingedients will all be tossed with a dressing made with lemon juice, oregano, olive oil, mustard and Worchestershire—aka 1905 dressing. The salad will be through Friday. $6.99

The seafood dinner entrées this week—please notice two seafoods of note~ first is fresh rainbow trout from Rockbridge. I'll simply pan-fry it and serve it with a saute of zucchini and fresh tomatoes plus a starch of buttered linguine or garlic mashed potatoes. As always, accompanied by a side salad. $14.99

The second seafood will be a shrimp and scallop manicotti in alfredo sauce. I'll use that lovely black pasta to make the manicotti. With a side salad, of course. $14.99

Thursday lunch will be the Couscous Salad with curried turkey, almonds and raisins. It is served over a bed of Romaine and is somewhat sweet. It is probably the coconut milk in the curried dressing that makes it so. One of the crowd favorites for hot summer days. $7.50

Friday lunch will be shrimp and scallop shish kabobs over a lemon rice. Simple, luxurious and yummy. $8.00

Desserts this week~~ I made a luscious New York style cheesecake topped with sweetened sour cream and drunken berries. $5 We are continuing to grill our poundcake with fresh fruit and serving it with our homemade vanilla bean ice cream. Also, I am playing with fresh figs. One of our customers brought me a couple of pounds of them. I am thinking fresh fig tart with goat cheese as an appetizer or maybe a fig and mascarpone something. Still creating....wait for it.....

I hope you have a glorious week~~

~~Susan

Almost Spring inspiration

You know how when you are really looking forward to something, you wish you had the power to distort time. Maybe work some kind of deal—like spring sooner now in exchange for a slightly earlier fall. I know darn well that time is not going to speed up OR slow down at my whim. In fact, I know that time is likely to zip by even faster than I am ready for it to, right now. But I sure do look forward to spring.

We've lived here 11 years. With the exception of 8 years in Nashville, we've lived pretty far south. In those parts, spring is early and quite sudden. In Florida, fall and spring happen only about a week apart in late January. That's the spread between when the leaves that do fall, fall and the new growth sprouts as leaves. Here...it slowly unwraps. It is like a glorious, seductive dance. To me we are in phase II. We are past phase I—the skunks. Phase II is when the storms start and the rain comes and the fields start to turn green— but before the flowers and bushes start their show. It is when I find my awareness of my surroundings picks up and I am tuned into the possibility of inspiration. I am LOOKING for things to celebrate.

You may have noticed I brought cuttings in from the garden to put on the tables. To most it probably looks like I just brought in a bunch of sticks. Huh? Well those are forsythia stems. They've been kept in water since they were brought up about a week ago. In that time they have begun to sprout green leaves and I am pretty certain that by the end of the week there will be a few blooms. ( Just MY attempt at controlling time.)

We've been trying a few new dishes lately, which is always fun for us all. The first is a new sandwich that I am calling the Roman Sandwich. It's name comes from the name of the bread I'm making for it. The Roman bun has onion baked right into the dough and it is quite light. The remaining ingredients might make you think it is a substituski or something similar. With ham and two kinds of salami plus cheddar, monterrey jack, mustard, black olives, red onion, tomato and choice of spicy sprouts or lettuce, it is a tasty, tasty sandwich served warm from the toaster oven. We'll have it in two sizes: a 4" bun(small) and a 5" bun(regular).
small w/ chips 5.99  regular w/chips 6.99

The other new treat was created in desperation. But Man, oh man!!!!We had run out of the wood-fired tilapia Tuesday afternoon and did not have time to get more done for Wednesday because we had a good sized catering gig. I was about to put a sign on the board saying "sorry, no fish tacos today" when Bruce asked me if we still had frozen salmon. When I replied "yes", he suggested blackened salmon tacos with pineapple salsa. We did them as both blackened and directly cooked and also wood-fired and stirred up. The consensus was the wood-fired version with its distinctive smokey flavor was the most loved. So be it. We are making the pineapple salsa fresh daily, just like we do our guacamole, tomato salsa and cilantro lime slaw. Ask for the Salmon Tacos next time you are in. Their full name, if on a fancy high faluttin' menu would be "Wild caught Alaskan Salmon, woodfired on oak, served with a fresh pineapple salsa on a pair of double, fresh soft corn tortillas. Presented with a side of fresh, in-season, hand-chopped fruit." At $6.75 is it a filling meal.

We are now growing our own spicy sprouts. If you are a sprout fan, you'll rejoice at this offering. Sometimes they are called zesty sprouts. They are the sprouts of radish, onion, mustards, clover etc. They defininetly have a zing to them. A very fresh zing. You are welcome to request the spicy sprouts any time in lieu of the regular alfalfa aprouts.

We are having a St. Patrick's Day dinner on March 17th at 6pm. There will be one sitting only. Tom and Renee will entertain us with penny whistle and Irish tunes. Bruce has put together a delightful menu. It features all your typical Irish ingredients—corned beef, potatoes, cabbage. But he is presenting them with a much more contempory style that captures all the flavors in a more delicate manner. Here is his menu—
First Course~Cheese & Guinness Fondue
Salad Course~Watercress Salad ~w~ Guinness & Oil Dressing
Entrée~Oven Roasted Mustard and Brown Sugar Encrusted Corned Beef
     Served ~w~ Garlic Jelly Glazed Baby Red’s and Carrots
     & Oven Roasted Cabbage
Dessert Course~Bailey’s Irish Crème Cake ~w~ Crème Fresh
$15/person: reservations required and a maximum of 30 reservations. We have already begun to take reservations.

This week—

• Monday~ Antipasto Salad; Soup~hot & sour Thai chicken soup
• Tuesday~Tamale Tuesday~Black bean and wood-fired chicken tamale with salsa verde and avocado and verde sauce. Served with Spanish rice.$6.25 Posole~ Mexican Pork and Hominy Stew
• Wednesday~Trout almandine with rice pilaf and fresh asparagus. $7.50 Soup~ Potato Leek.
• Thursday~Traditional Caesar salad with wood-fired salmon or chicken  $6.75 Soup~Black Bean
• Friday~Lunch: Ham & asparagus crepes with hollandaise Dinner~ Wood-fired trout crepes with baby red potatoes and fresh asparagus topped with a lemon dill sauce.$12 Beef and ricotta stuffed manicotti with side salad $10
• Desserts to watch for this week~ tiramisu, panna cotta and pavlovas

The entertainment this week will be the monthly "First Friday Open Mic." If you know someone who would like to play for us, please check in with Jon. He is doing the line-up. Because our venue is small we are asking for volume that is space-appropriate. It is the intimacy that everyone appreciates. Come listen, come eat, come visit with friends. Just come!

Happy Holidays

 First of all--specials this week will evolve as the week progresses. My starting soup will be one I have been developing "Caldo con queso y pollo". I'll start with russet potatoes, add mild Hatch chilis, fresh chicken breasts (shredded), Cheddar cheese, and a bit of cream. While it is a creamy soup, it is not a dense cheesy one. The chicken and potatoes will add enough substance to stick to your ribs. The Hatch chilis will add a glowing warmth without being "hot". I have ordered portabellas for the soup for week between Christmas and New Years.

I will have Antipasto Salad on Monday and Tuesday. Later we will have a spinach salad as Mary Badiny's spinach is finally ready.

I'll have some cranberry nut muffins and a lemon bread as the breakfast breads.

We will be closed on Friday the 24th as well as the 31st. It looks like those may be the last 3-day weekends we get for a while.

We have once again re-instituted the "cameback treat." This little tidbit of a treat is for those who make it in more than once in the week. It is a dessert only available as a freebie to those who qualify as a "thank you." If we somehow didn't notice, on our own, that your visit is a repeat that week-- feel free to remind us. The treat changes by my whim and is seldom the same from week to week. This week--white chocolate tamales.

We are finally getting settled in our new space and we LOVE it! We are getting the lines grooved in. Those who call in orders seldom have to wait more than a minute or two for their orders. We've discovered that parking is fairly easy on the back side of the block--between us and the Quill.

We now have gift certificates available. They make terrifc employee incentive or thank you gifts. You can pay via any method-- cash, check, debit or credit card.

Did you know we have free WI-FI? Check your email, update your facebook status or download an ebook- while enjoying a cup of Starbucks French Roast coffee.

October 25-29--Beef & barley soup; Antipasto salad

Man! Life just got more interesting! We have 2 possible buyers for the trailer. What that means is that we MAY be able to move into a permanent indoor location sooner than expected. But it also could mean that we have to close completely for a couple of weeks. BUT NOT YET!!!!!!!!!

This week's forecast is pretty nice after Tuesday. I have a new recipe for Beef and Barley Soup that comes from the New England Soup Factory. Those guys are famous for their rich, from-scratch soups. It uses beef stew meat and braises for a good long while to completely soften the beef. The pearled barley is one of the most nutritious grains out there. For years one of my favorite canned soups was Scotch Broth, which is basically a beef and barley soup. So when I was reading the ingredient list I went Hmmmmm! This is a stick-to-your-ribs type soup.

The salad is familiar as I am doing the Antipasto salad again. It is also a very filling salad. Downright Manly!!!  With provolone, kalamata olives, fennel leaves, tomato, red onion, corned beef, basil, pasta noodles and asiago on a bed of Romaine and that lovely dressing that is lemon and olive oil based.

Speaking of salads-- The Fuji chicken salad we served last week got rave reviews and is now a regular part of the menu. In case you missed it, it has fresh sliced Fuji apples, feta, craisins, red onion, candied pecans and Jon's awesome wood-fiired chicken on a bed of Romaine with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing-- Heaven on a plate.

 Haven't decided on the "return visit" treat yet-- but I am pretty sure it will be chocolate-based. If you arrive in costume during the week you will also be eligible for my treat--Tuesday or later.

Bring a new customer along and you each get $1 off.your lunch. We need to get the word out very fast now, as we'll be making some changes soon and need to have a strong email list.

We hope to see you this week and look forward to visiting with you. Mancha!

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!