A little too much Argh!

I'll tell you straight off—this is going to be a simplified week. Rick has been battling intensive neck and shoulder pain and Jon and I are sporting cat bite wounds attained while trying to capture our semi-feral cat for a neutering visit to the vet. None of us are purring—yet. By keeping it simple I think we'll maintain a happy atmosphere and have a chance to heal.

I obtained a case of duck. My intention is to divide the ducks into wings, legs and thighs, breasts, skin and the rest for making duck broth. I was going to do it this week but I need to have bit more focus to pull that off for the first time. So we need to find a different Flavor Journey this week. I'm afraid this one may be closer to home. Instead of taking your tongue traveling, it may, instead take you right home to your grandmother's house. Comfort food. We'll do kielbasa sausage, mashed potatoes and steamed cabbage. We'll serve it with a side salad for 10.99. Available Tuesday-Friday for dinner.

Heads up, tuna fans! NOT FOR THIS WEEK—however, I do have a new lead on sashimi tuna that I am pursuing. Fingers crossed for next week. In the meantime, I am doing a rice and Italian herb stuffed tilapia topped with locally foraged coral mushroom sauté and fall veggie stir-fry. $13.99 Available Tuesday-Friday for dinner.

Keeping with the simplicity at lunch—

Soup~ we'll start with potato soup. Of course, it is made from scratch. We'll use fresh yellow onions, red potatoes, add in vegetable broth and cream. It'll be thick but not too heavy or too creamy.

All week~the new Equinox Salad~spinach/arugula, wood-fired chicken, bacon, apple, pear, feta, roasted red pepper, red onion, almonds and a hot bacon dressing 50 CENTS OFF $6.49

Tuesday~Trout burgers 50 cents off $7.00

Wednesday~Gyros 50 cents off $6.49

Thursday~Quesadillas 50 cents off $6.49

Friday~Tuscan chicken salad sandwiches 50 cents off $6.49

We will have some devine desserts. We'd love to see you. I'm sure I'll have more to say next week when it might not hurt so much to type. Have a great week!

~~Susan

 

Marching through the season

As you may have noticed, someone turned up the RPMs on the merry-go-round, again. You are not the only one thinking it is getting downright urban-feeling with the current pace of life. I take great personal pride in hearing our customers tell me how much of a refuge they feel our place is—a place where they can chill-out and let the pandemonium fall away. Sounds like a nice place to go.

As the season moves along, we are getting more and more requests for personal catering. We did a bit last year and are willing to do a bit more this year. I have deliberately moved slowly in this regard so we wouldn't get in over our heads. With a year of running things under my belt, I feel much more confident we can prepare foods for your next party that will leave you unhassled and proud. Most of what we are preparing are platters of munchables—like brushetta with Tuscan chicken salad. I am still developing our catering menu, so your input is quite welcome. The cheesecakes are proving quite a success and easily serve 12. Looking for something a bit different? Let's talk. You tell me your budget, your number of guests, type of event and any particular preferences and we can work something up. I can promise you freshly prepared dishes made with real, usually local ingredients that taste wonderful and require minimal effort on your part.

We're getting good feedback from our new meeting menu. This menu is designed for in-office meetings of eight or more. The pricing allows for savings due to methods of packaging and predictability. With 24 hour notice you'll even get free cookies. So many offices were telling us that A La Carte Cafe is their favorite source for lunch, that we felt we had to find a way to make it even easier for office managers to put together their lunches. Next time you are in, pick up a copy of the Meeting Menu. Your office manager will thank you. 

With the cooler weather, the hens are no longer on strike and we have lots of eggs coming in. Sounds like time for egg laden dishes. Remember, ours are free-range local farm eggs raised using no hormones or anti-biotics. Bruce has brought back both the Tiramisu and the lime-infused angelfood with drunken blueberries. Between the two of them, they use a dozen eggs. I’ll bring back the omelettes with wood-fired trout, cream cheese and dill/ shallot sauce. And even crepes filled with savory turkey and broccoli topped with a tarragon béchamel sauce.  

Later in the week the weather cools off again and we’ll serve baked potatoes topped with chili and cheese.  

Those who joined us last Friday night got a real treat. Andy Roose drove all the way from St. Genevieve to play for us. He played all original tunes and they were quite wonderful. We hope to bring him back a couple of times a year for his Americana-style songs. We found him to be a delightful person and look forward to building that friendship.

This Friday will bring Blind Bill Hilton. You can hear his music online at myspace.com/blindbillhilton. Give him a listen. Folk, rockabilly, blues—he covers them all while adding in plenty of his own tunes. You may have heard him play at Open Mic a couple of months ago. He is quite good. Nice voice. Remember—reservations are strongly encouraged. This way you not only get a seat, you get to eat what you want. 505-0302

Now here is this week’s menu~~
Soups~ Monday we'll start with butternut squash soup; later in the week we'll have chicken and suasage gumbo.
Monday~ The trout Roman and tuna Roman are both on sale for $6.50. The trout Roman features wood-fired rainbow trout from Rockbridge. The tuna Roman features a seared sashimi grade tuna steak. The bun is my Roman with yellow onions baked into the bun. I top it with Wasabi mayonnaise, tomato slice and sprouts. They come with a side- Italian potato salad, fresh fruit or chips. $6.50 

Tuesday~ Hand-built chicken cordon bleu tamales with a Swiss cheese sauce and broccoli risotto. $6.50

Wednesday~ Omelets with wood-fired trout, cream cheese and a light shallot/dill sauce. Served with a side. $6.50

Thrusday~ Savory crepes with roasted turkey and broccoli and a béchamel tarragon sauce. Served with a side. $6.50

Friday~ Lunch~ Chili and cheese topped baked potato with a side. $6.50

Seafood entrée ~ Shrimp Scampi with bread sticks and side salad $12.

Meat entrée~ Lemon chicken pasta, bread sticks and side salad $12.

Vegetarian entrée~ Savory spinach stuffed crepes with duxelle sauce (mushroom sauce) and rice pilaf and side salad $10

Come hide out from the chaos of your work week. We love having you.

~~Susan

Fall weather brings colorful foods

The pomegranates are in! To me, this marks the official sign that fall has arrived. I just love adding the little jewels to our chopped fresh fruit. This time of year we are pairing them with apples and pears—many local. You'll see them used as garnishes, too. If you are unfamiliar with pomegranates, they originate in the Mediterranean region and are a fruit that is about 3-4 inches across. To eat it, one peels away the outer skin to finds lots of jewel-like kernels. They almost look like ruby corn kernels. There IS a seed inside, but it is so small that most people simply swallow them. The juice is very refreshing and healthy. Thanks to recent marketing campaigns by POM, they have become a sought-after addition to salads, beverages and and even desserts. I grew up eating them, and we even had a pomegranate bush in our yard in Dallas.  My brother, Bill, and I loved to harvest and eat them straight from the bush.

Our flavor journeys this week are not centered on any one area. The South is represented by the southern corn chowder that I'll be serving all week. The tamales are traditional southwest as well, as is the pazole. Then we jump across the pond to enjoy a curried couscous salad. Thursday my Pizzas are simply Italian and Friday's lunch comes back to the US with  a Club Salad. France gets the nod with the trout and Italy again with the Fri. night lasagne.

This would be a great week to be adventurous in seeking your Friday night entertainment. We have Andy Roose coming from St. Genevieve. Jon had a chance to hear him on-line and really enjoyed his style. He classifies himself as an Americana singer/songwriter. Coming this far is an act of faith on his part, and we want to make it worth his while. So often, I think, locals feel they have to go elsewhere to hear music that is new to them. This time the "elsewhere" is coming to us. If you want a chance to hear him before committing you may do so by going to www.reverbnation.com/andyroose. But I have come to trust Jon's taste in musicians and feel confident you will enjoy Andy's music. As we have grown in popularity for Friday night, we are slowly building a following that appreciates expanding their concept of what is entertaining. We take that role pretty seriously and the trust you have given us. Please help support our efforts to bring you fresh talent by joining us Friday night. By building an appreciative audience base, we can continue to delight you with new sounds and experiences. I'll continue to expand the flavor journeys. Just another attempt to take you beyond the "Same ol', same ol'."

Our desserts these days have been pretty exciting. Bruce has been experimenting again and last week created a new one. It is white chocolate covered cherry dream pie—oh my! It begins with a chocolate crumb crust and is filled with white chocolate, drunken cherries and whipped cream—as I said, "Oh, my!" Bruce also came up with a new cake—Pineapple right-side-up cake. Fresh pineapple, coconut and a yummy yellow cake base. Where does he get these ideas? Who knows? But he does it week after week. I personally get a thrill each time he does so. Even though he is Mr. Quiet, I think he gets a thrill, too. Please let him know how much you are enjoying his efforts.

Another area I am trying to expand our dessert repertoire is in the realm of gluten-free offerings. You'd be amazed to know how many people are cutting back on gluten. Gluten is the part of wheat flour that creates the structure that supports bread and cakes. By carefully replacing that tradtional ingredient with alternatives such as rice flour, eggs, and other less glutenous grains, we can help those reach their gluten-free goals. In the digestive system, gluten can often cause a mucous build-up that interferes with the body's ability to remove  and use nutrients. If you have ever known anyone with Celiac's disease, you know that gluten can cause all sorts of troubles. Many of our customers are referred to us by their healthcare providers that we felt we should be able to offer dessert alternatives that speak to them. But they are not in any way a compromise, flavor-wise. The completely decadent chocolate-hazelnut torte is an example. Eggs, chocolate (lots) and no wheat flour make a dense, rich dessert. Do you have other ingredients you are trying to avoid? Speak up! Even if you've found other local places can't accommodate your dietary needs, come in to see what we can offer you. But if I don't know, I can't try to help.

Just so you know, here are some other things we avoid here—We NEVER use hydrogenated fats like Crisco, nor packaged whip cream products like Cool Whip. We never use margarine—always butter or extra virgin olive oil. For the rare times I am pan-frying something, I'll usually use corn oil. The sweetener in the cornbread is honey. Our breads are made fresh daily using whole wheat flour or unbleached flour. The pizza bases are made with a combination of unbleached and semolina wheat flours. Our eggs are almost always local, farm-fresh and organic. My favorites are the Aricana eggs that I use in the spinach and egg salads—they have a naturally pretty, light green/blue color shell. The insides and flavor are the same as the brown or white but I love the drama of peeling the coloreds ones. We make all our dressing from scratch using extra virgin olive oil or real mayonnaise. Our broths are either made from scratch or MSG free—usually organic. The pie shells usually use strictly butter, but if I am making a non-vegetarian dish I'll sometimes use butter and lard. Nothing beats real lard for a flaky crust. The tamales are made with traditional lard and corn masa, from scratch and hand-built. Whenever we can find them, we use local produce. Gradually we are expanding our local resources for produce. Mary Badiny had done a superb job of keeping us in fresh herbs and greens. We get our milk and dairy from Hiland Dairy where their farmers have committed to not using BGH—bovine growth hormone. We are always looking for ways to bring you food that originates closer to home. We welcome your input and suggestions.

So the menu this week~
Soups~ all week Southern Corn Chowder; Tuesday Pozole; Wed + Creamy garlic , spinach and potato soup 3.49/4.99/5.49  or with entrée 2.50/ 3.50
Monday~Fall veggie deep dish quiche. this quiche is so loaded in veggies you won't even notice there isn't any meat in it. With side salad. $6.50
Tuesday~  Cumin rubbed pulled pork tamales with a salsa verde cheese sauce and Spanish rice $6.50
Wednesday~Curried Turkey and Israeli couscous salad $6.50
Thursday~ Pesto pizza with smoked sausage, bell peppers, and portabellas with side salad $7.00
Friday~Hefty club salad with turkey, ham, swiss, hard boiled egg, plus red onion, mushrooms and bell pepper. $6.50

Fri. night dinners~ Seafood~ Rockbridge Trout Meuniere with wasabi mashed potatoes and stir-fried fall veggies and side salad $12
Meat~Beef lasagne with side salad $12
Veggie~veggie stuffed manicotti,  baked acorn squash, side salad $10

Thanks for joining us.
~~Susan