Weekending October 19

I am loving the weather this year. While we have read of extremes around the country throughout this year, we have been experiencing some of the mildest weather I can remember. It makes me want to get out in the woods and enjoy the weather. Oh yeah...I can't. I don't hunt and am not likely to share the woods with someone armed with either a gun or bow and arrow. Sigh.

Perhaps, while the intrepid hunter is stalking wild prey, said person might also be foraging for wild edible mushrooms like the coral mushroom, or the fall morels...or paw-paws...or persimmons. I can hope.

This week my extensive display of quilts comes down. We had hoped to sell a few of my quilts to finance the expansion of our cafe to include a kegerator for regional and local craft beers. My thanks to those of you who expressed interest and to those who bought some of my smaller pieces. As no bigger pieces were sold, we will have to postpone our plans until a later time. As bright ideas sometimes go...it seemed like a good idea at the time. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to share with a few of you my vision and inspiration. Onward and upward.

This week we bid a fond farewell to Vincent as he leaves us to join Haleigh in South Carolina. We know he will do well at anything he attempts. He has a strong work ethic, is true to his word and really bright and loads of fun to work with. He stuck around a couple of extra weeks to help us get someone properly trained to replace him. NOT an easy task. Emily has stepped up to the plate and is reeling in the amount of data Vincent has to share. Fortunately, much is being written down so it can be referenced later. We are still needing someone for prep who can work Monday and Wednesday mornings and Friday evenings. We need someone who is bright, friendly, willing and able to learn, preferably 21+ for prep and back-up. If you know someone like this, please send them to talk with either me or Amy. We are also looking for a person who can be back-up waitperson and/or support for Friday night. We know you know the best people.

This past weekend we had a really interesting group of travelers join us for a catered dinner Saturday evening. They are traveling by bicycle from the west coast to the east. Several of the folks were from out of the country. You'll probably get to read about it in the Quill as Terry Hampton managed to carve out some of her weekend to interview and photograph the group. Thanks to all!

Entertainment this week comes twice. Thursday evening the After Hours Big Band plays in the Annex. With my display down they'll have room to spread out. It is always a lively performance. As usual, we'll give you the option of dining IN the room with them or in the main dining room which is noticeably quieter. On Friday, the Renée Wood Trio with Tom Rowley and David Moore will play for us. They are crowd favorites and we love having them.

HEADS UP CRAB LOVERS! NEXT week we'll have stone crab flown in fresh from Tarpon Springs, FL. I am giving you plenty of notice so you can plan ahead. We'll bring in 30 pounds. It's scheduled to be delivered on Wednesday. That gives you 3 days to get in and enjoy. I do not expect there to be any left. We do this only once or twice a year.

This week's Flavor Journey  brings back the Beef Rendang. This Malaysian recipe renders a very tender beef dish that is quite complex in its flavorings. Similar to mole in the number of layers of flavor, it has a decidedly Eastern flavor profile that includes cardamon, anise, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, fennel, turmeric and chilies. We'll serve it with jasmine rice and our seasonal stir-fry vegetables. $16.99  In the past, this dish garnered many comments about how it was both flavorful and very tender. We'll be using flank steak as the basis for this dish. It will be a bit spicy but not generally overwhelming.

The seafood will be Sole Meuniere. This method of serving fish begins with a very light dusting of seasoned wheat and corn flour. It is seared on the griddle, then topped with a lovely wine sauce made with shallots—that precious bulb that mixes garlic with mild onion—butter, white wine, parsley and lightly topped with sliced almonds. I'll add a pilaf of wild rice and our seasonal stir-fry. $16.99

This week's lunch specials~
Monday~ Green Goddess grilled cheese with tomato soup  $7.29
Tuesday~ Chicken curry and rice  $7.79
Wednesday~ Pulled pork salad  $7.59
Thursday~ Chicken pot pie and side salad  $7.79
Friday~ Baja shrimp tacos  $7.99

I hope you are able to get out and enjoy the various entertainment treats nature has bestowed upon us this time of year. There are pumpkin patches and corn mazes, wine and beer festivals, and good music. Have a terrific week. Thanks for being a part of this journey. We're glad you are along for the ride.

~~Susan

w/e May 11 Staying Alive!

As each day passes we often wonder what the future holds for us. We've seen the years pass by so quickly. We were astonished to realize that our two grandsons are now 14 and 10 respectively. The elder even has a girlfriend. As they live in Florida we have missed whopping chapters in their lives over the last 13 years we have lived here. Decisions were made to be near my parents as they aged and though I don't regret that decision, it has left us missing out on some great kids. We have missed as much from our granddaughters' lives, as well. I hope over the next few years we are able to spend more time with our own kids as well as theirs. In the meantime, we live vicarious lives enjoying the positive efforts of those physically closest to us. Ashley Romans has been our primary waitperson on Friday nights for over a year. She is astounding in her ability to conquer new tasks and always have a terrific attitude. Somehow, while juggling being the mother of 4 kids under 10 she has managed to go back to school and is getting her RN next week. We are so proud of her and hope these new skills find her doing something that satisfies her and feeds her soul. The medical field is going to be a lucky one. Ashley will be with us off and on over the summer but by fall she'll be working full-time in her new career. We hope you have a chance to give her your warmest wishes for a bright future. Ashley, you will be very missed.

I am thinking this may be the week we have all been waiting for. The weather forecast looks promising for a more moderate range of temperatures and it may finally be safe to risk putting out those warm weather plants. With the soil barely warm, it may be awhile until we see those seeds sprouting and plants in the ground thriving. It would be nice if this meant we'd have a cooler than normal summer. But we know better than to expect that. No doubt in the next  two weeks we'll be experiencing warmer than normal temps to bookend the cooler than normal temps. Aaah. The Ozarks.

We have music twice this week. Thursday night the After Hours Big Band will play in our Annex. The band loves to play in that room because the acoustics are really good for their sound. If you love big band you'll enjoy the full immersion experience. If that is a bit much for you, you may still enjoy the sound from the next room in our main dining room. Friday night brings The Renée Woods Trio with jazz guitar, saxophone and drums. It is helpful to us if you call in a reservation.

Garden update: We finally have a few tires set up in back and this week I'll get some dirt in them. I had hoped to get a rain barrel set up to help us water out back...but it hasn't happened yet. I am grateful that I wasn't terribly ready to plant things as the weather has proven less than cooperative. Finally, procrastination pays.  The first things to go in will be the fast growers—lettuces, if not too late, radishes and peas. I am harvesting some spring onions from my home garden—or what is left of it. Mary has begun bringing in the new late spring crops of arugula, pak soy, and some other greens I am quickly becoming familiar with. I love being able to change up the stir-fry as the seasons move along. We'll be adding in some sugar snap peas over the next few weeks along with fresh local garlic and garlic scapes. Scapes are those long skinny things sticking out of the tops of soft garlic. They are somewhere between a flower, a stem and a seed pod.  We got in some ginormous carrots that we are slicing micro-thin and adding to the stir-fry and the sweet red peppers have been outstanding lately.

This week's special sandwich has been a while in arriving. I finally found some decent quality tuna steaks that we are wood-firing and then making into a tuna salad. I'll chop the meat up, add a bit of wasabi oil, mayonnaise, pickled relish, spicy mustard, sriracha and serve it  with sprouts, slivered cabbage, and tomato slices on ciabatta rolls.  $7.79 with side.

I am bringing back the beef rendang this week as the Flavor journey. When I made it the other two times customers were quite vocal in how much they enjoyed it. It is Malaysian dish that is pretty darn kicky in its spiciness. Just as chicken mole takes lots of steps and uses lots of fresh and dried spices and herbs, this dish is quite involved. It begins with a flavor base of dried chiles, fresh shallots, garlic and ginger and even some  galangal which is a root, like ginger, but spicier. Then it gets a whole spice blend of cloves, cardamom, anise and cinnamon. THEN it gets a ground spice blend of coriander, cumin, fennel and turmeric. The beef I am using for the rendang is flank steak. The rendang itself is cooked in coconut milk, a tamarind concentrate, limes, lemongrass, brown sugar, cilantro and even fresh coconut. The outcome is a stew-like, very flavorful but tender beef dish that will transport you to another world. It is served over jasmine rice and paired with our seasonal stir-fry. $15.99 includes a side salad

The seafood is a lovely mixture of shrimp, scallops, sugar snap peas, shitake mushrooms, and shallots and sherry. Six S's. I'll serve it over a bed of lemony pasta made with lemon zest and lemon juice. It should be a really nice celebration of spring. $14.99.

Now for the lunches~
Monday~grilled portabella panini with artichoke tapenade $6.99
Tuesday~ all week actually~ wood-fired tuna sandwich on ciabatta $7.79 with side
Wednesday~Ceviche~Rockfish, shrimp and scallops marinated with lemon and lime, cilantro, fresh peppers, cucumber, garlic and scallions. Served on a bed of chopped romaine and sprouts with tortilla chips. $7.99
Thursday~Smoked sausage with garlic potatoes and steamed cabbage $7.59
Friday~ Pasta with fresh asparagus, ham, mushrooms, kalamata olives and parmesan with side salad $7.99

I hope this week finds you with a moment of time on your hands to get out and enjoy the weather we have been hoping for. Extroverting with a walk around the block can do more for your frame of mind than most anything else. Get out of your head and into the environment. Most of all—enjoy just being alive.

~~Susan

As temps drop, flavors heat up

Before I launch into my spiel about this week's foods I wanted to say THANK YOU!!!!! Last week we brought in fresh stone crab from Florida. For us, this was a fairly big financial gamble following on the heels of several mediocre low-energy weeks. You came out in force and we sold all we wanted to. (Yes, I held out 2 servings for my personal enjoyment.) I couldn't be more delighted. You've help to pave the way for more fresh seafood to be brought in. Since I usually have to order 25 pounds or more from a single dock, we don't make these purchases without a gulp or two for courage. Knowing that we now have the audience who can and will appreciate exceedingly fresh seafood—whether fish or shellfish—opens the door for more variety as well as frequency. Again, thank you for your support and encouragement. You matter.

It has been since last spring that I made Beef Rendang. The recipe I used is very reminiscent of my recent foray into chicken mole. There are LOTS of ingredients and most of them are either seed forms of spices or ground ones. In fact, there are quite a few similar ingredients. However, Beef Rendang is a Malaysian dish with a lemony bent where as the sneaky ingredient in mole is chocolate. One aspect of the the Beef Rendang (pronounced rehn-dong') that especially appealed to me was the layering of flavors—six layers! The dish begins by roasting whole spices of cloves, cardamon pods, cinnamon sticks and star anise in oil. To that is added even more spices in the form of ground coriander, cumin, fennel seed, turmeric and black pepper. Another layer with shallots, dried chiles, and ginger. Then comes coconut milk, fresh coconut, lemongrass, tamarind and fresh cilantro. I was delighted last year when this dish was so well received. I hope it continues to have a following. If you have been wishing for a beef dish that has depth and warms from the inside out, this is your dish. It will be the Flavor Journey this week beginning on Tuesday night. It is quite spicy without being overwhelmingly hot. I'll serve it over coconut rice and it comes with a side salad. $12.99

We got in a new spicy smoked sausage last week that I want to turn into a jambalaya. But then, what about a seafood entrée? Well this will offer options for both! I'll make the sausage jambalaya as the base and you can add shrimp as an option. How about that? While researching recipes I realized I had no idea what the difference was between a jambalaya and a gumbo. Trusty Google lead me to the answers. Basically, the gumbo is usually more of a soup in consistency, plus the gumbo adds okra or filé (ground sassafras root) to a long-cooked roux (slow-cooked flour and fat) for its thickening. Then it is served over rice, which was cooked separately. In a jambalaya, the rice is cooked into the whole stew and the consistency is quite a bit thicker. Both are spiced similarly and there are flavor elements they share.  These include the Cajun holy trinity of garlic, bell pepper and onions as well as Serrano chili pepper (fairly mild as peppers go), bay leaves, tomatoes and celery. As I mentioned before, the rice is cooked right into the stew with broth to make the flavors rich and well married. I'll serve it with a side salad and fried green tomatoes. Served from Wednesday through Friday at dinner. $12.99; add shrimp $4.

Now that I have your juices flowing, what about lunch? Well speaking of chicken mole, I am going to feature our new chicken mole tacos all week. We've added them to our winter lunch menu for the season. Like the rendang, it starts with a huge number of dried chiles, whole spices and ground ones. All are toasted separately before being mixed together in order to give each flavor its own voice. The mole is then combined with pulled poached chicken. We'll serve them as an order of two tacos served on soft corn tortillas. Just ask for flour if that is your tortilla choice. To that we'll add our chili lime slaw you've had on our fish tacos and a bit of cotija (pronounced coh tee' hah) cheese. Cotija is a semi hard cheese and is used similarly to Parmesan. Served with a side salad at lunch for $7.75. On Tuesday we'll discount it 50 cents.

On Wednesday I'll serve shrimp and grits. I know, seems we're on a Cajun kick. Think of it as my good wishes going to the Northeast as they weather Hurricane Sandy. By the time we serve it, the worst of the winds will have abated and the aftermath will prevail. Thankfully, few hurricanes leave a pile of snow in its wake. Happy Halloween!

Thursday, Rick will take over, and he wants to serve a turkey dip sandwich on ciabatta. We'll slow roast turkey and pull it. The dressing will be a horseradish/mayo affair combined with fresh and dried cranberries. For a variety of texture we'll add a bit of thinly sliced cabbage. It'll come with a side of Cajun home fries. Save one for me!!! $7.50

Friday we'll serve pork chops with a cranberry maple syrup pan sauce, fresh green beans and garlic mashed potatoes. $7.50. You can add a side salad for $1.50.

Now about those soups~~

Early in the week~ fresh tomato bisque. Made from a slew of late season Juliet tomatoes that are roasted in their skins and then blended smooth. We'll add our homemade vegetable broth and a few fresh herbs. Crisp, clean FRESH!

Later in the week~ New England clam chowder. Of course it is made from scratch, with bacon, onions, celery, potatoes, clam juice, fresh thyme, heavy cream and our love.

Desserts~~

In addition to the tira misu, baklava and grilled pound cake with cinnamon apples early in the week, we'll have pumpkin mousse cornucopias and perhaps lemony mascarpone crepes later in the week.

Coming up November 14th—a  Wednesday, our first beer tasting. We'll pair 4-5 different craft beers with apps and tasty morsels. Learn what makes each different from the other and try out something new. Sign up now. We have a limited number of seats so we can make sure we buy enough. $10 per person. This is a really good deal. Starts at 6pm. Seats are beginning to fill up fast, so don't wait.

No music is scheduled this week. We are working on scheduling 3-4 artists for the upcoming weeks including Gordon Johnston, Andy Roos and others.

Remember~~we can provide platters of food for your office meetings and work events.

Have a glorious week!~~

Susan

Anticipation...

We are eagerly awaiting the receipt in the mail of our new permit to serve beer and wine. If you have been a customer of ours all along, you know what a long runway this has been. If you are new to us, welcome to the new era.  We are hoping to make readily available wines and beers from local wineries and breweries. We realize this may take awhile to educate our palates and discover how things are distributed. As with everthing we've done thus far, this is a new learning curve. Bear with us. If you have strong regional preferences NOW is the time to speak up. We may be a bit clumsy as we learn about each pour, but the chance to learn about such a new and vast arena is a very exciting, if daunting. Initially we will be working only with breweries that can provide beers in bottles or cans as the cost of taps is up there! With over 75 wineries in Missouiri we should be able to have quite the route to discovery. Our funds to stock up on the front end is, so far, limited. So, we will keep our selections narrow to begin with. Your input will dictate our direction of expansion. So get to in-putting!

This week's FRESH fish is salmon (available Wednesday - Friday at dinner). Between us, Bruce and I decided that a blackened version with a kicky salsa would be the best way to go. I'll do a stir-fry using primarily baby bok-choy, yellow onions, garlic and cabbage. The rice will have a sofrito (crucial to most Caribbean dishes, sofrito is made up of peppers, onions, garlic, cilantro and tomatoes) finish. The salmon will be offered with a choice of salad or soup. Market price will be determined later in the week when I learn my cost. The mahi-mahi last week was quite a bargain as I listed the price before I learned my cost. Ouch. Lesson learned.

The Flavor Journey (available Tuesday - Friday at dinner)will be a traditional Malaysian dish in which beef is simmered in a fragrant combination of coconut milk, chiles, and spices. The recipe came right out of my recent issue of Fine Cooking. This issue has so many interesting recipes that I am chomping at the bit to try them all out. One aspect of the the Beef Rendang (pronouced rehn-dong') that especially appealed to me was the layering of flavors—six layers! The dish begins by roasting whole spices of cloves, cardamon pods, cinnamon sticks and star anise in oil. To that is added even more spices in the form of ground coriander, cumin, fennel seed, tumeric and black pepper. Another layer with shallots, dried chiles, ginger. Then comes coconut milk, lemongrass and tamarind and fresh cilantro. If we had access to them, I would have added galangal, keffir lime leaves and unsweetened coconut. Sadly, without ordering those ingredients via the internet or making a trek to St. Louis, I'll have to pass. We'll serve this dish with a choice of soup or salad and a side of coconut rice.  I think you'll enjoy the complexity of the flavors as much as I do. The cost will be $11.99

Soups this week will begin with French Onion Soup and Miso Soup. I make the miso with white miso and hon dashi plus strips of seaweed, tofu, green onion and thin sliced mushrooms. Later in the week I'll also do a Greek Lemon chicken and rice soup.

The desserts should be fun. I have a crepe cake that is layered with a pastry cream and chocolate and hazelnut between chocolate crepes. Only 10 servings of that puppy. Maybe I should make it twice....
Bruce has another mocha ice cream pie ready to go.

Now here is this week's lunch menu~~

Tuesday~ Introducing the new Spring Salad 50 cents off~Spinach or arugula, snowpeas, alfalfa sprouts, feta, strawberries, red onion, walnuts and wood-fired chicken. Recommended dressing is our spinach dressing which has a pronounced toasted sesame flavor. $5.99
Wednesday~Greek Excursion~Spanakopita (spinach/ feta turnover), small Greek salad, lemon chicken kabobs over white rice. $7.99
Thursday~Vietnamese pork tamales, red curry sauce and pineapple salsa with Vietnamese fried rice. $6.75
Friday~Chicken Cacciatore Crepes with parmesan cream sauce. Crepes are filled with fragrant chicken, tomato and mushrooms and topped with a parmesan cheese sauce. Served with a side salad and buttered noodles $6.99

Remember~ until the permit to serve beer and wine is in our hands, we'll be serving only the usual beverages of iced green tea with jasmine, lemonade, pomegranate blueberry lemonade, soft drinks, coffee and hot teas. It'll happen soon enough.

We have no music booked this week. However, a rollicking good time should be had by all next Friday when Rick Mize and Dustin Collins join us again as Chief Wahoo and the Electric Tonic. I have no idea what that name means but the sound is decidedly Irish Folk. We SHOULD be able to serve beer and wine that night. Yee-haw! Okay. My Texas roots are showing.

As you may already know, my vision of this place has always been as a sidewalk cafe. Sadly, we seem to have a wind tunnel in just the place where tables would most likely go. That has put more than a few people off. I am actively seeking a wind abatement solution. So far, I have comeup with the idea of a stack of straw bales to block the wind up to a height level with the top of a sitting person. Do you have any bright ideas? I'd love to hear them. We can't do anything permanent and I don't want to haggle with permits and zoning.

Thank you, as always for traveling this journey with us. I, personally, think we are all benefitting. Have a joyous week. Don't forget to take a moment to notice spring is bursting out all over. I know that Mom will be thrilled when I take her for a drive later this week.

~~Susan