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 July 13th Skipping along through summer

When all in life is going well it is easy to approach the future with a light heart and a touch of insouciance. When life seems a bit more serious it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking more effort is needed. Effort doesn't necessarily translate into more results. Actually I have found the opposite to be true. If I look at ways to make the journey more fun, light hearted and downright silly, life seems to get brighter and go more smoothly. After a week of "serious effort" I am far more exhausted and likely to be frustrated than a week of "let's play a game." Each can get the results but the second leaves me far more satisfied and happy. It all comes down to "energy management." The amount of energy needed for the light hearted approach requires less energy and tends to be self-regenerating.

Why do I mention this now? Because we are finally beginning to see our summer business picking back up. We had a few weeks of wondering what had happened. Fortunately, even when the lull seems to go on way too long, we are humbled by the strength of the returning force when it hits. We have been striving to keep things light and now we are rejoicing. We missed you!

You came back just in time to celebrate the abundance of the season. Each week, in addition to what we are finding at the local produce stands and Mary and Skip Badiny's garden, we are also being gifted with some fabulous fresh herbs and veggies. Just last week we were brought French tarragon, oregano, parsley, winter savory, poke weed and chives as well as fresh eggs. We love that you share with us. If you are about to leave town and don't wish your crop to go to waste, we'd love to include your goodies on salads and in stir-fry.

Earlier I mentioned energy. Well the foods we have been getting in abound in it! When crops are harvested and consumed with minimal delay there is an almost direct transfer of energy from plant to you. While working in preparation I am acutely aware of the boost in energy that the freshest produce and herbs contain. Dang near visceral. When long-distance transport, cold storage and time enter the picture, the available energy is just reduced. This may seem all new-agey but we who are working with the produce are quite aware of it.

One of the experiments we added while trying to get our numbers to a sustainable level, was to be open Saturday evenings. Despite being open for six Saturdays in a row, it has not proven to be a desirable night for dining—at least during the summer. So we are ending that dinner service for now. I expect we'll add it back in come fall. We are anxious for your feedback. Please feel free to share your thoughts.   ####NOTE#### No more Saturday Evenings this summer.####Note####

This week Renee Wood Trio will play on Friday evening. This time Jon Lumsden will be the guitar player. Even though we have Renee and her trio fairly often, there are actually 2 different sets of personnel. The sets of music played are almost completely different when Tom Rowley joins her as guitarist.  Although both Jon and Tom are playing jazz guitar, they each have a different take on things and Renee's improvisation is quite different between trios. Renee plays saxophone and David Moore plays drums.

We'll have three dinner specials this week. I doubt I'll have the ingredients for all three throughout the week, so if you have a favorite, come in early.

The seafood entree this week is a low-country crawfish boil complete with corn and boiled potatoes. We'll cook the crawfish in a broth seasoned with Old Bay..  $12.99

The second option is a pork loin roast glazed with garlic jelly. I'll serve it with our seasonal stir-fried veggies plus a tomato tart. $12.99 BTW—We make the garlic jelly in-house and have containers of it available for sale. It would make a lovely hostess or thank-you gift for someone who enjoys cooking.

The third option would be the Flavor Journey straight from Italy in the form of linguine all' Amatriciano. This ones really celebrates the season with slow oven roasted Roma tomatoes, pancetta and pecorino. The pancetta is an Italian ham and the pecorino is a cheese somewhat similar to Parmesan. This makes a very pretty dish—lots of flavor and lots of color. $12.99

I have some special appetizers right now too. A fresh batch of goat cheese plus some lovely smoked salmon brings out the water crackers and dill.  The second and third appetizers celebrate the arrival of eggplant season. We have a combo platter of hummus plus babaganoush (an eggplant dip) served with pita chips and crunchy veggies. The third one will have to wait until Wednesday evening before I'll get a chance to bring it together. It is grilled eggplant rolls stuffed with feta and kalamata olives. Each of these is for a short time only while the ingredients are readily available and fresh.

For desserts I have a real treat. Last week I took a whole large plant's worth of basil and blanched it—cooked quickly in boiling water and then tossed in ice water to stop the cooking. This intensifies the flavor. Then I made a simple syrup (half water /half sugar) and cooked it in that a for several minutes to make a basil syrup. That was then blended with juice from a whole honey-dew melon, some fresh lemon juice and a pinch of salt and then frozen. The result is a basil granita served on a bed of fresh sliced peaches. The flavor is delicate, summery and bright.

By Wednesday evening I hope to have a fresh local blackberry cobbler ready.

Now here are the lunch specials for the week~~

Monday~ Stuffed manicotti with creamy tomato sauce and side salad $7.99
Tuesday~ Solstice Salad 20 cents off. A base of romaine topped with fresh mozzarella, fresh Roma tomatoes, wood-fired chicken and fresh basil. Served with balsamic vinaigrette $7.39
Wednesday~ Baja chicken tacos with side $7.99
Thursday~ Pork Bahn Mi sandwiches $7.99
Friday~ Summer squash and 4-pepper smoked sausage quiche plus side salad $7.99

As always—we are grateful for your support and continued sharing of our little secret. Amy, Drew, Vincent and Haleigh all welcome you when we are not around. In the evenings you'll see those faces plus Christina and Sharon and, of course, Jon and me. We invite your input and encourage you to write reviews of our services on sites such as yahoo.com, yelp.com and google.com or even just a quick word on our Facebook page. 

~~Susan

w/e June 29th Summer fun!

Welcome to the first real week of summer. With the solstice behind us now we'll  see the days begin to shorten. I've never quite reconciled that even as the days get shorter we'll continue to warm up. It seems there is a situation where the world doesn't quite keep up with itself.

Music this week—After last Friday's more lively music, we're returning to those old, laid-back tunes from the Great American Songbook, played by Jon on his 7-string guitar. Music starts about 6:30 PM. Join us for a relaxing dinner!

With my new schedule that focusues on my cooking the dinner meals, I have been able to concentrate on making them really stand out as exceptional. 2 days a week we are here for the duration— 8:00 am through closing at 8 pm. During those long hours I am spending my time prepping dinner for the week as well as helping the kids serve lunch. They are doing such a fine job they really don't need me. But I need those long hours to get the week set up. When it is feasible, I will have the seafood entrée and the Flavor Journey's both available on Tuesday evening. This won't be one of those weeks.  I am trying to make sure that in addition to having specials dinners each week that celebrate local sourcing and seasonal dining, I am also creating special appetizers and desserts that are unique to the current week.

So in addition to the featured seafood and Flavor Journey, you can watch for appetizers that you won't find at other times of the year. This week I have portabellas sautéed in duckfat perched on lovely polenta.  The polenta is made from corn meal, so it is gluten free, if you are of that persuasion. The polenta is a thick base of corn-flavored goodness seasoned with chicken broth and cheese. I chose the portabellas because they have substance and hold up well to a sauté. I am using duck fat because it gives a wonderful lusciousness, an unctuousness. This is a term that addresses mouthfeel—or how it feels while in your mouth. Creamy, rich, savory. We also have some lovely smoked salmon. I am topping water crackers with fresh goat cheese, smoked salmon, fresh dill and chopped Roma tomatoes.

The other area I am able to address is desserts. Drew continues to make the outstanding carrot cake frosted with sweetened cream cheese and toasted pecans. Also, this week we'll have double chocolate waffles supporting a sweetened cream cheese and topped with local fresh berries that have been simmered and sweetened to create a compote. With both blueberries and blackberries making themselves available, we have a flavor treat.

One minor area I am changing is regarding the dinner side salad. It is now optional for $1.49 more. But I am also introducing a slightly more upscale salad that celebrates what is ripe right now. Currently that is the Italian Flag Salad, aka Caprese Salad. It is made from slices of fresh "buffalo" mozzarella, local heirloom tomatoes and local fresh basil drizzled with fragrant extra virgin olive oil. This is not a salad you make when you don't have the best ingredients, because each ingredient is so vocal. It is an appetizer option at $4.

The Flavor Journey will be available all week beginning Tuesday evening. I have shitake mushrooms and local wild coral mushrooms and am creating a stuffing utilizing those luxury ingredients. I am stuffing cornish game hens with the mushroom mixture. I'll be topping those oven-roasted game hens with a sauce made from rich pinot noir. Our very seasonal stir-fry will round out the plate. We get comments every week on how much folks enjoy the stir-fry. It changes weekly depending upon what is available from our organic supplier and mushroom guy. I know you'll experience greens and vegetables you might not normally persuade yourself to try. STRETCHING that palate.

The Seafood Entrée will be available from Wednesday night on. Because it requires a bit more ambitious preparaton, there is no way I could get it, along with the featured desserts AND appetizer ready for Tuesday. By Wednesday, however, I'll delighfully present grilled red snapper with a Thai Red Curry Butter Sauce served over polenta, topped with peach mango salsa and accompanied by our seasonal stir-fry. These beautiful fillets are very high quality red snapper—mild, small flaked and delicious. I have made a point of researching out various wine-pairings and beer pairings to accompany the entrées and have made those recommendations.

This week's lunch specials take advantage of known customer favorites as well as new introductions that celebrate the season. Monday~ as always, the special is vegetarian. Amy created a pesto pasta using the fresh, local produce in our stir-fry mixture. Tuesday we'll remind folks of the awesomeness of the Roman Sandwich by pricing it 50 cents lower for the day. It is somewhat modeled after the flavors in the Schlotsky's Original, but our bun is unique. It is available regularly (as long as I have the buns made). Wednesday, Amy will create a sliced turkey and apple panini seasoned with bleu cheese and toasted to perfection. Thursday will feature an Asian lettuce wrap filled with turkey and couscous and lightly seasoned with curry. It'll be crunchy and filling without being heavy. Friday we'll feature the Rainbow Trout Burgers on Pretzel buns at a discounted 50 cents off.  These sandwiches have been working their way into people's hearts with a lovely flavor. We add our sea-sauce, fresh tomato slices and alfalfa sprouts. Here is the condensed version—

Lunch specials—

Monday~ Pesto pasta primvera $6.99 with side
Tuesday~ Roman sandwich with side $7.49
Wednesday~ Sliced oven-roasted turkey and apple panini with side $7.79
Thursday~ Asian lettuce wraps with turkey, couscous and curry with side $7.79
Friday~ Trout burgers with side $7.49

Flavor Journey~ Available Tuesday-Saturday evenings. Oven-roasted Cornish game hens stuffed with wild mushrooms and topped with pinot noir sauce. $14.99

Seafood Entrée~ Available Wed-Saturday evenings. Grilled red snapper atop polenta with red curry butter sauce and peach mango salsa. $15.99

We treasure your business and hope you'll continue to support our efforts. It is your energy that keeps things moving forward. Our team is committed to your dining pleasure and welcomes your presence. And by the way, thank you so much to those who have come in on Saturday evening for dinner!

Do you know of an organization that might wish to rent out space on a weekly or monthly basis for meetings? We'd like to reduce our rent pressure by making the annex available periodically for a fair price.

Thanks for being there~~

Susan

A little relief for all!

After a seemingly endless wait we finally got a good rain. The forecast for the week is lovely AND bearable. In fact, I expect to see quite a few folks enjoying lunch al fresco this week. It will be interesting to see how the local flora responds to the sudden influx of water in abundance. Will there be the flowers we missed due to dryness early on? Will we skip right to the late summer sunflowers and asters? Watch and see.

We have music this week. Look for details at the end of my blog.

We are celebrating all sorts of happy harvesting right now. The tomatoes have finally started coming in. We are getting fabulous ones from Maranatha Farm as well as some heirloom locals. There's a no more classic way to celebrate the fresh tomatoes than a panzanella salad. Lots of fresh chopped tomatoes, toasted homemade bread soaked in tomato juices, wine vinegar and garlic, lemon and capers. I'll grill some lovely squash and bell peppers to top it off. That will kick the lunch menu off on Tuesday. $6.99

Wednesday we celebrate the classic combination of fresh green beans, ham, black-eyed peas, bell pepper and rice in the form of Hoppin' John. The name is thought to come from a bastardization of the Haitian Creole term for black-eyed peas: pois pigeons (pronounced: [pwapiˈjawn]). I'll serve it with a side for $6.99

Thursday brings on a celebration of another sort—fresh mozzarella! We have begun to use fresh mozzarella on our pesto pizzas now. They will also have fresh Roma tomatoes, fresh in-house pesto, wood-fired chicken and sliced mushrooms and onions. $6.99 includes a side.

Friday brings back the 1905 Salad from the Columbia Restaurant in Tampa. To Romaine lettuce we add ham, turkey, swiss cheese, tomatoes, romano cheese, Kalamata Olives (the original had green olives) and a dressing featuring worchestershire and lemon juice and an oregano vinaigrette. This salad has developed a strong folowing with our customers. $6.99

Thank you to those who took the time to give me feedback on an upcoming Flavor Journey. Your feedback strongly directs our actions and we DO care about what you have to say. I'll try to schedule a special dinner in the next month or so.

In the meantime, due to one response, I have planned a Flavor Journey this week. The focus will be Cubano. I am still trying to locate one of the major ingredients and will add it if we can locate it—that ingredient is plantains. The influence of fresh ingredients is very key to Cuban cuisine. Pork, chicken and fish/ seafood are the primary meats. In this case we are going to use chicken breasts marinated in a mojo sauce. Mojo's major flavor influences are cumin seeds, fresh orange juice, fresh lime juice, garlic and chilis. We'll start the meal with a salad made of Chayote squash which has been peeled and boiled then tossed with a light oil and mustard sauce. The main course is Spicy Cuban mojo chicken with warm mango and avocado salsa. It will be sided with black beans and yellow rice. For dessert I'll make a traditional flan—a caramel-topped custard. IF I can locate any plantains I'll add in chichachirritos or fried plantains served with a mojo sauce. The dinner is $11.99 and the flan is $4.

My seafood this week is two-fold. The first starting Tuesday night is shrimp, scallop and grouper cheek kabobs. My kabobs will be assembled with onion, red peppers, squash, cherry tomatoes and marinated seafoods. We'll grill them and serve them atop rice with "sea sauce", fresh citrus slices and with a side salad. You'll get 2 kabobs for $14.99. Add a third for $4 more. The second is Mussels!!!!! We'll have fresh mussels straight from Prince Edward Island delivered Thursday afternoon. I'll make a curried shallot wine sauce to braise them in. They'll be served with a rice pilaf and stir-fried squash, onions and tomatoes and come with a side salad. $14.99.

The music this week comes from a new source for us. State fiddling champion Vinny Ray will be this Friday's musical entertainment. Vinny will be playing original jazz compositions with his trio. Several of our customers asked if we had heard Vinny play and suggested he would be a great fit for our Friday night music.  You may have heard him at the recent Old time music festival where he played on the OMC stage with 2 other band members. Don't miss out! Reservations strongly recommended. No cover charge but you are expected to tip the band and we prefer that you join us for dinner. As always—we never try to "turn the tables." You are welcome to stay through all the music.

Have you tried our new key-lime bar with coconut ice cream? Here's a photo of it. It is rich and cool and refreshing—all in one piece. We make the coconut ice cream in house as well as the key-lime bar. It is one of our new line of "grown-up" desserts. Another is the grilled pound cake with grilled fresh peaches, whipped cream and caramel. $5.

Have a lovely week!~~

Susan

Withered and seeking cool relief

The month of July has gotten off to an August-type start. We moved up here to escape the Texas weather! Luckily we grew up with this weather and know the value of a) staying inside in the cool, and b) foods that can make it seem a bit cooler.

In case you are chomping at the bit to see us this week, be aware that we are remaining closed until Thursday. It just didn't make sense to come in for a single day...when we need the rest. But I am using this resting time wisely to get ready for what comes next.

Thanks to the really wonderful support we got from our customers, there was only a single fish left from the sockeye salmon we flew in. I filleted it and Jon lightly cooked it on the wood fire. (I then froze the cooked meat.) I'll use it in 2 dishes this week for as long as it lasts. I expect to get about 8 servings of each dish. The first will be a lunch dish—wood-fired salmon tacos on corn or flour tortillas, with a peach- mango salsa. The last time we made them, they flew out the door. If you didn't already see the color of this fish's flesh, you'll be amazed at the depth of its redness.

The evening use of this salmon will be in a roasted red pepper, wood-fired salmon pasta. The sauce will be cream-cheese based. It'll be topped with fresh chopped local Juliette tomatoes and basil. It is my personal favorite seafood pasta. Of course, it'll come with a side salad, or for an additional $2.50 you can upgrade to a Caprese salad made with fresh local heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil topped with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.

Have you tried my Solstice salad at lunch yet? It starts with the ingredients of the Caprese (as above) but is served atop a bed of Romaine plus a serving of wood-fired chicken for $6.99.

Friday night the service was slower than I'd like to be known for. To the end of remedying that, we are moving Rick up to the kitchen to assist in food prep on Friday nights. His many years of experience in this arena will make my job much easier and get your dinners out faster. As has always been our policy, we are not trying to turn the tables, merely get you fed in a reasonable amount of time.

To keep things cool we are bringing out some refreshing desserts. Our newest dessert uses fresh peaches. We are grilling sour cream pound cake  and fresh peach slices in butter and cinnamon.
The plate gets a drizzle of vanilla cream. Then we top it with the grilled poundcake and slices of peaches. Then we add natural vanilla ice cream, caramel syrup and sliced almonds. Oh my!!! $5.

The next dessert is a key lime bar that has coconut, white chocolate and real key lime juice and lime zest. We'll serve it with our own coconut ice cream, whipped cream and lime zest and almonds. $5.

Survey time!~~
I want to get back to creating some special "Flavor journey" meals. It is nice to be able to add a special that takes your taste buds on an adventure but it is nothing like a whole meal geared around a specific cuisine. Recent reading has presented me with menus based in Corsica, Portugal and even Somalia. I know it would be fun to create an evening of any of these cuisines. The challenge becomes WHEN? In the past we participated in a "dinner club" that met occasionally and we did exactly that—served a full ethnic cuisine. I was able to share a bit of the history of the foods as well as why the specific foods are part of their cuisine. I think this group faded out. I'd like to bring back the concept. To do it right we'd need to dedicate an evening to JUST that MEAL. So my survey question is—what night of the week, except Friday, would you most likely be available for such a feast? We'd be bringing in special ingredients and the cost would be appropriate—probably about $30 per person, plus wine. So part 2 of the survey is—would you be willing to pay for such a feast?  We would promote it at least a month in advance and take reservations. There would have to be a minimum of 20 participants to make it worthwhile, and you would have to make a committment. Please let me know via Facebook, email, or fill out a survey card while dining at the cafe. Depending on your response, we'll be planning the next Flavor Journey soon.

So here's the short version of this week's specials menu for Thursday & Friday~~

Lunch~ (both days) Wood-fired salmon tacos with peach-mango salsa $7.50;  Pork bahn mi sandwich with side $6.99

Dinner~ (both days) Wood-fired salmon pasta with side salad $12.99, or upgrade to Caprese salad +$2.50
Italian seasoned slow-cooked pork chop served with eggplant parmesan and black-eyed peas and side salad.  $11.99 (Salad upgrade also available.)

As always, I look forward to your feedback, comments and your smiling, hungry face. Have a great week; we'll see you Thursday & Friday!

~~Susan