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

W/E June 15th Making healthy ingredient choices

Last week I mentioned what we were doing to reduce our carbon footprint. This week I felt it was time to remind you of some of the ingredient choices we make when we prepare your foods. Those choices most commonly come down to the least adulterated, closest to nature options we can make. Here are a few of the choices you'll see:

• Butter—we NEVER use margarine. If you are a fan of butter you already know how unreliable most restaurants are for using the real thing. How many times do the waitstaff even know if they are serving butter or margarine? When Jon and I eat out we take our own butter unless we know for sure butter is available.
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil—We go through about 1.5 gallons of this per week. There is a big cost difference. With few exceptions it is the oil we use to make salad dressings, sauté, or grill. EVOO uses no heat and is made up of only the first pressing of the olives. The flavor is brighter than other olive oils and the cost is much higher. But we feel it gives us an edge flavor-wise and it is much healthier for you than many other oils.
• Salt—We use either kosher salt or sea salt in our cooking. Again, this costs a bit more than the usual table salt. Also, we try to be very light in the use of any salt.   
• Black pepper—We grind our own peppercorns as we go. This gives the pepper a brightness that already-ground pepper lacks.
• Herbs—Whenever possible we use fresh herbs instead of dried ones. This includes parsley, cilantro, basil, garlic, tarragon, dill.
• Flours—Unbleached flour and whole grain when available. We often will use gluten-free flours—like rice flour, corn flour and potato flour when the option is open to us. Our bread uses a high-gluten flour for texture. We make most of our own breads.
• Grains—In addition to wheat flour and above mentioned gluten-free flours we also will offer other grains such as rice, corn, quinoa, barley and farro. 
• Beans—For the most part we cook our beans from scratch. Our black beans, garbanzo beans, pinto beans, white kidney beans, Great Northern beans and lentils are almost always soaked overnight and cooked fully for freshness and ingredient control.
• Mayonnaise—We are using the highest quality we can find. It is rich and made with the highest quality ingredients. We NEVER use "Miracle Whip" or a mayonnaise substitute.
• Broth—For many of our dishes requiring a broth we use our own in-house vegetable  broth created using our weekly peelings and produce scraps. While we do occasionally use a canned broth, we carefully have selected a variety that contains NO MSG. 
• Dairy—Our milks and creams are selected to be as whole as possible and the cows are raised without the addition of hormones and prophylactic antibiotics. We avoid all use of "artificial creamers."
• Cheeses—We use a high quality feta in salads, Monterey jack in quesadillas and baby Swiss in sandwiches. The Swiss is sliced for us and bought often to ensure freshness.
• Deli meats—We do not buy prepackaged deli meats. We have them sliced to our specifications and we buy often to keep things fresh. We use an oven roasted turkey (as opposed to pressed and processed cheap turkey) and Black Forest ham which is made from a full ham and not pressed chunks.
• Bacon—We use only applewood smoked bacon which is much more expensive than most restaurant varieties. To my taste there is a world of difference. The individual slices are considerably thicker too.
• Seafood—While our options are more limited in land-locked Ozarks, we make conscientious choices to buy sustainably harvested seafood. We buy wild-caught as often as we can and farmed only when we know about the conditions used. I am careful to avoid over-cooking the flesh so the true flavor comes through. Most often I buy wild-caught fish that is cut and flash frozen while at sea. I prefer to buy fresh from the boat with over-night delivery. This option is taken when I know we have a popular seafood that our customers will gobble up. We keep a much tighter profit margin on these items—like fresh oysters, stone crab, fresh mahi-mahi and can't afford loss. We don't order this way often, but it is always a hit when we do.
• Produce—During the summer months we are able to source our tomatoes locally. We also use organically raised spinach and arugula from local sources as well as herbs.
• Beef—We have recently added local grass-fed beef to our lineup, and we make our hamburgers from it. These cattle spend their entire lives in the fields, not in feedlots. The flavor is clean and rich. The fat content is quite low. 
• Salad Dressings—We make ALL our own dressings using high quality ingredients like extra virgin olive oil, high quality mayonnaise, fresh feta cheese, fresh herbs, honey and dark sesame oil. No hydrogenated fats are used.
• Eggs—All year we use locally sourced eggs. During the summer months the eggs actually come from some of our customers. They have free-range chickens that happily scour the farm yard turning bugs and grains into high quality eggs with deep golden yolks. 
• Wood-fired meats—The flavor profile you taste with much of our chicken, the tilapia in our fish tacos, the salmon and tuna on your salads and the corn in your salsa and guacamole are all cooked on a wood fire to give them that smokey flavor. We do that ourselves and feel it gives us a flavor profile all our own.
• Nuts—We buy the raw versions and toast or season them in-house. This gives us control over ingredients and prevents the use of  unknown allergens. We use pecans, walnuts, pine nuts, almonds, pistachios and peanuts.
• Pesto—We make it weekly from scratch using fresh basil, pine nuts or walnuts, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. It is used in our pesto pizza and  pesto chicken sandwich as well as on some of our pastas.
• Guacamole—We use only fresh avocados. Many places that serve guacamole buy their pulp in bulk form in a bag. Even when it looks like simply scooped out hunks of avocado, we know from experience there is a big flavor difference. Occasionally we run out of avocados because there are simply none available locally that are ready for use. We NEVER use an unripe avocado.
• Salsa—We make ours fresh. No preservatives, nothing funky. Just pure fresh flavors of good produce and fresh herbs.
• Sauces—When faced with decisions regarding sauces we are most likely to choose to make it fresh and use ingredients that pack a punch of flavor without just bulking it up. An example would be the shrimp pasta. Most places would use an alfredo sauce that uses flour to thicken and add heft. We use fresh heavy cream and aged Parmesan.
• Sprouts—We use fresh alfalfa sprouts in many of our sandwiches. They add a nice light crunch and a very fresh taste. As far as we know, no one else within 50 miles offers fresh sprouts.

You already knew our foods tasted superior to what you might get elsewhere, but perhaps you didn't know it came down to choosing high-quality ingredients and treating them with respect. As the person who makes the weekly menu decisions I wanted you to know that I personally believe that letting the quality of ingredients and the flavor of the foods stand out, spending a bit more for them makes them more memorable. I'd far sooner spend more money on ingredients than advertising. I then know the money is going to where it has the best chance of creating a positive buzz. We hope you will continue to spread the word about what we are doing. Your word of mouth keeps us sustainable.

It is almost too late to sign up for the Moroccan Flavor Excursion on the 22nd. We need you to get your reservation in NOW. With less than 2 weeks and under 10 seats available, you don't want to miss out. We have confirmed that Missouri Life Magazine is sending a reporter/photographer to document the event for an upcoming article featuring our cafe. The tasting menu is extensive, includes several wine pours and is priced at $60/per person. Be a part of this special event. Folks are still talking about the last one.

We have the Renee Wood Trio Friday night, with something a little different — Jon Lumsden will be the guitarist instead of Tom Rowley. Renee and Jon have worked up a completely different set list of songs, so come in and enjoy the new sound!  Reservations are recommended ...

Reminder: we are now open Saturday nights through the summer. 

If you will be in town for the music festival this weekend, come on down 

for dinner before the headliners take the stage.  We open at 5 pm.   

The lunch specials~~

Monday~ Good karma curry burrito with side $6.99
Tuesday~ Tuscan Chicken Salad Sandwich on Pretzel roll with side $7.59
Wednesday~ Ginger chicken lettuce wraps plus side $7.99
Thursday~ Watermelon, arugula, spinach, feta and walnut salad with grilled chicken and balsamic vinaigrette. $7.79
Friday~ Chicken Bahn Mi sandwich on French bread with side $7.99

The Seafood Entrée this week is crabcakes (2). I make them with backfin Blue crab, shallots, mustard, wasabi, some egg and a few fresh herbs with only enough mayonnaise to hold them together.They are rolled in a light breading of Japanese panko breadcrumbs for a crispy coating.  Our Sea Sauce and seasonal stir-fry and a fruit salsa will accompany. Served with a side salad. $14.99

The Flavor Journey is Chicken Tikka Masala. This dish is from India and we'll prepare it from scratch. Boneless chunks of chicken breast will simmer in a concoction of savory spices and herbs along with tomatoes and heavy cream. It'll be served with turmeric rice, naan and a raita. Raita is a cool summer salad made with cucumbers, yogurt, mint and cumin. While this will be a spicy dish, it won't be terribly hot. Also, the raita is designed to tone down the heat of the chicken. $13.99

This should a week of quite high temps and a reminder that summer starts next week. We hope you come see us and bring your friends and family along. It is your support that keeps things alive. We thank you for your generous support that allows us to do something we think is worthwhile—feeding you the best food in the Ozarks. Have a lovely week!~~

Susan