So much to be thankful for

As we enter the season of chaos that will prevail for the next few weeks, it behooves me to take a moment to pause and note some wonderful blessings.

Our Staff—As noted by more than one customer, we have a staff of very dedicated, focused folks who really care about doing a great job. Without exception, they are a joy to work with and make our jobs both more fun and easier. We know we are only a part of their lives but they make us feel like the cafe and you are very important.

Our suppliers—Maranatha Farm has been our "go to" source for local organic produce. Mary and Skip have managed to provide us wonderful greens year round and keep us in tomatoes, seasonal produce and herbs.

Sea to Table has provided us with the freshest seafood possible. Our orders are shipped the same day the fish/ seafood are removed from the water. The fishermen are careful to select species that are sustainable and not over fished. We take pride in delivering fresh seafood to the land-locked area we live in.

Jason McLaughlin has been making some of our breads for a while now. He understands my passion for quality ingredients without short cuts. He makes our dinner breads as well as the French baguettes we have used for specialty sandwiches.

Rockbridge Trout Ranch provides us super fresh rainbow trout during the warm months. We'll have it again come March.

Our landlord—With the patience of Job, Toney Aid has provided us with a space that totally suits our needs and has the personality we wish to convey. He and his wife, Kathleen, have been pivotal in their ongoing encouragement and support.

Our customers— I feel like the luckiest cook around. I get to cook the dishes I like the most while still having the wiggle room to try out new dishes and tantalize your taste buds. After 2 years, you have gained enough trust to let me bring new flavors to your palate. You even have let me know when it wasn't quite right—so I could fix it. I love having the mission to expand your palate. It allows us all to grow. Thank you for being there.

This week's schedule:

Tuesday and Wednesday will be regular hours. If you're planning on dinner on these nights, it would be helpful to us to hear from you in advance with reservations. Not necessary, just appreciated.

Thursday we'll be closed.

After doing a quick survey we determined that being open this Friday evening would be beneficial for all. We have heard that you like to show us off to your visiting friends and family. How delightful. So we will be here for you. But not at lunch Friday—only dinner. Reservations are encouraged so we can plan for the right amount of staff.

The menu this week starts with soup. If you were in on Friday you, no doubt, were able to smell the lovely fragrance of onions slowly carmelizing as they cooked for many hours. Come Tuesday that will become French onion soup. We'll top it with croutons and parmesan disks.

Tuesday~Crab Quesadillas. This upscale quesadilla will be made with carmelized onions, gruerye cheese and Monterey jack and, of course, back-fin crab. We'll pair it with a pineapple salsa, guacamole and sour cream. $8.50

Wednesday~Creamy chicken enchiladas. This is one of our customer favorites made with fresh spinach, lots of poached chicken and a creamy cheesy sauce. Served with a side salad. $7.50

At dinner~

Seafood~Wood-fired wild caught Alaskan Salmon Pasta. I did a similar version last week using lox. We have wood-fired the planks of salmon, and I'll use them to top pasta that has a bit of roasted red pepper sauce, cream and parmesan, plus a bit of fresh dill and shallots. This will be slightly lighter than last week's version and have a larger portion of salmon. I expect this will become a regular menu item. $14.99

Flavor journey~Baby back ribs. So many ways to prepare them! We'll stay pretty traditional by giving them a dry rub first, then a 2.5 hour braise in the oven. We'll finish them off with a BBQ-y glaze and carmelizing heat. Approximate serving size will be a half-rack. We'll serve them with oven baked sweet potato wedges/fries and a side salad or soup. $13.99

We welcome you this crazy week and hope you find time to unwind with us. Have a joyous week and celebrate all our wonderful blessings of good food and loved ones.

~~Susan

EEWWWWWW! The smell of spring is in the air!

As one who is a transplant to the Ozarks from the lower South, I am keenly aware of the building excitement that precedes the bursting forth of Spring. To me the first harbinger of Spring is the smell of skunks in the air. Getting into West Plains presents a virtual black and white slalom. But the scent of skunks is the trigger that tells me that Spring is really approaching quickly. So I am already getting excited. As happens each pre-spring, I am thinking ahead to what I might successfully plant. I think I'll stick to mostly herbs this year and a few flowers, since I only get to use the containers. I think this will be their best use. I am not a terrific plant Mommy. Survival of the fittest marks success in my garden. For the first time, my rosemary has actually survived the winter. I am hoping my lemon grass has as well. We use lots of mint, oregano, rosemary, parsley and marjoram around here; so they will get my first priorities and biggest pots. I'll also do lots of jalapeno peppers and nasturtiums. They make pretty container plantings and produce lots of usable fruit.

Our new dinner service is going fairly well. For me it has been a real skill expander. Learning to cook items to order and have the timing of several different meals come out at the same time has been my biggest hurdle. I'm MUCH better at it now than I was 3 weeks ago. Bruce was already a master of the sauté pan. He's been teaching me. On Friday nights he mans the stove top while I handle the other end of things.

This week the fresh seafood is fillet of sole. The sole is a flat fish that skims along the bottom of warm seas. Bruce will be stuffing the fillets with crab and shrimp, a bit of cheese and bread crumbs. This fish has a very delicate texture and equally delicate taste. They will be baked to order, so they are a nice low-fat option. Available Wednesday—Friday, it is served with a choice of soup or salad and accompanied by stir-fried bok-choy and aromatic veggies (garlic and onions), plus a bit of white rice. $14.99

The Flavor Journey for dinner this week takes us to Indonesia and the Philippines. Adobo is the acknowledged national dish of the Philippines. While we may associate adobo as that sauce that is in the can of chipotles, the Filipino version is quite different. The word adobo is Spanish for sauce. In this case the basics are soy sauce, cider vinegar, garlic cloves, bay leaves and pepper. This version also uses coconut milk in the braising liquid.  I am using skin-on chicken thighs as they are most flavorful and the skin, after being crisped, is craggy enough to hold onto the sauce. It will be served with  choice of soup or side salad and accompanied by my stir-fried bok-choy medley and white rice. $9.99

A new option for the dinner menu is the Coleman Natural grilled chicken breast. These chickens are raised totally without growth hormones or antibiotics on small farms and allowed much more space than most commercially-raised chickens. I am delighted to have this option available for you. We'll have 2 versions. The first is a simple grilled breast topped with olive oil and herbs. The second, we'll call Chicken A La Carte, is topped with goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and a basil lemon butter sauce. Both will come with a choice of soup or side salad. The simple grilled version comes with garlic mashed potatoes and the daily stir-fry (10.99 for a single breast, add a second for $3 more). The "A La Carte" version will come with pesto linguine (12.99 for a single breast; add a second for $3 more).

The soups this week~ We'll start out with the roasted root vegetable soup. By Wednesday we'll also have French onion.

Now onto the lunch menu for the week~
Tuesday~Celebrate Mardi Gras! We'll have red beans and rice cooked with andouille and boudin sausage. Laissez les bons temps rouler (Pronounced:(Lay say lay bohn tohn roo lay)~ Let the good times roll! A big bowl for $6.75.
Wednesday~Lemon chicken pasta salad served over a bed of arugula. $6.75
Thursday~Chicken gumbo tamales with buttered orzo $6.75
Friday~Arugula, mushroom and tomato quiche served with a side salad $6.75

The music this Friday night is the duo of Rick Mize and Dustin Collins aka Chief Wahoo and the Electric Tonic. The sound is Irish Folk and it is fun and bouncy. We had lots of great feedback when they joined us last time.

Regarding the "Tavern License", the city council will review our application this Tuesday. We expect to receive approval on Wednesday. Then we have to submit our packet to the state. We have most every particle for that submission ready to go. Our target is to be ready to serve beer and wine by St. Patrick's Day. Not sure we'll make that target, but that is what we are shooting for.

Thank you for sharing this journey with us. Every day we are learning something new. Our relationship with our customers and our suppliers is as important to us as the food we prepare. We welcome your feedback and input. I have been especially appreciative of the warmth with which our new dinner menu has been received.  Remember~ the "Buy one-Get one" dinner special is only available until the end of the month. Pick up your coupon when you are in for lunch.

Have a lovely near-spring week~~

Susan

Autumn colors

Last week was nothing short of delightful. We were all able to enjoy glorious weather and the variety of colors being presented. Jon and I actually took a walk in the woods for the first time in weeks. Since it was at Grand Gulf I wasn't afraid of getting shot by happy hunters.

We chose to be closed last Friday night. My mother has had yet another mini-stroke. Cat scan showed no changes since last year, so I guess it was minor but it wore her out and me, as well. We know it is not good to confuse our customers with days being closed unexpectedly, but our priorities remain that Mom comes first. It has been that way for 5 years and I don't plan to change that. Happily, she will now be able to get some physical therapy which should help bring back the loss of control she is experiencing on her right side. I see her daily in her new digs at the Manor where she is quite content. I am sorry if it messed with your plans. We do plan to be open all week, this week. On Friday we have Dustin and Rick, aka Chief Wahoo and the Electric Tonic. Their renditions of Irish folk tunes and sweet sound are a joy to behold. If you were at the performance of Blackberry Winter last week, you got a preview. I encourage you to join us for their music. You won't be disappointed.

One of my favorite cookbook resources is Cook's Illustrated. It is the magazine version of the America's Test Kitchen. Going way beyond simply presenting recipes that taste good, they also go into the scientific and mechanical reasons why certain methods work better than others. Had I not gone immediately from teenager to Mom I would have probably wound up being an oceanographer. So it appeals to my scientific side. I've been gobbling up my copy of the 2010 "best of" cookbook and enjoying the newest issue of the mag. They get read cover to cover. Some of my recent offerings have come from those sources and the reviews have generally been quite good. It encourages me to try more dishes. Yeah.

The soups this week are old favorites. All week I'll offer Chicken Tortilla soup and later in the week Bruce will do another round of his French onion soup. That recipe uses 10 pounds of yellow onions cooked for most of a day. If you wonder how it gets so rich—now you know.  

I love getting the fall vegetables and roasting them in the oven. The flavors are so intense. On Monday I'll serve them with grilled pork chops. As a side option you can have a regular side salad or a spinach salad. $6.50

Tuesday Bruce will bring back his cashew chicken tamales. This innovative version of his tamales were a terrific hit a few weeks ago. All the flavors you expect, wrapped in a corn masa blanket and topped with the traditional cashew sauce. He usually makes 11 servings and last week we were sold out entirely by 11:30. So if you want some, either show up early or call in to reserve! $6.50

A few weeks ago I made creamy chicken enchiladas. They, too, disappeared before most got a chance to eat them. That time an office called and bought out the "whole enchilada." Hee-hee. I'll make them again on Wednesday. This time I promise to reserve the batch for the rest of the world. The recipe is based on one from Rick Bayless who owns Frontera in Chicago. It is very rich, very creamy and extraordinarily tasty yet not too heavy. Again—call in to reserve. $6.50

Thursday I'll do my pizzas. This time I'll have thick applewood smoked bacon, local shitake mushrooms, grilled onions and roasted red peppers piled on top of my fresh pesto base. I have a new, regionally-produced, Mozzarella we'll be trying. Most of the Mozzarella I have seen has been a low-moisture, skim milk version. This whole milk version promises to have a richer flavor. It costs us more in ingredients. Tell us if you think it is worth the difference. I'll serve them with a side salad. All week you can request spinach as your side salad, if you wish. As usual, the cost is $7.00.
   
Friday I'll do a massive club salad featuring oven roasted turkey, black forest ham, Swiss cheese, red onion, chopped hard boiled egg, roasted red peppers; all served on a bed of Romaine. It will be paired with a fresh sour-dough roll. $6.50

And now for the dinner entrées~
Seafood~ Jon will wood-fire the wild-caught Pacific salmon filets and I'll finish them in-house. If you had that lovely seafood sauce I served with the Cojo salmon a few weeks ago, you'll get the chance to enjoy it again. The recipe for the sauce (which will be served on the side) came from a long-time defunct restaurant in Austin called the Garden Café. It is simply soy sauce, mayonnaise, lemon juice, cayenne and I add a bit of horseradish to the mix. But it is the perfect accompaniment to the salmon. I'll stir-fry a bunch of those fall veggies and we'll serve a side salad to get you started. $12.

Meat~ I'll do a pork Marsala over egg noodles with a side salad. Marsala is a unique fortified wine that, when added to the mushroom sauce adds a richness that makes the tongue dance. The chicken version I did a few weeks ago disappeared at lunch rather quickly. I expect the pork to be popular, as well. I'll make some sweet potato biscuits to go with the fall theme. $12.

Veggie~ I'll finally get to make the deep-dish fall veggie quiche. I don't believe in whimpy quiches. Look for all manner of late summer and fall veggies to load up the pastry. The seasoning will lean toward the Italian flavorings of oregano, garlic, marjarom and thyme. Roasted potatoes and sweet potato biscuits will accompany as well as a starter side salad. $10.

We love having you join us for both lunch and dinner. When you bring in your family and friends we couldn't be more proud. Thank you for sharing your time, friends and support that keeps us rolling. This time last year we were still trying to figure out what would be next when the cold weather hit. You helped make this happen and are keeping us going. Thank you...and keep coming!!!

Have a terrific week!
~~Susan