Elmer’s Store

396 Main Street – Ashfield, MA  01330

(413) 628-4003  Elmersstore.com

Breakfast seven days a week, Dinner on Fridays

AnnaBread Delivered fresh Thursdays through Sundays—

Breakfast Sandwiches available instantly to go every weekday morning!

The Inn at Norton Hill is perfect for family reunions . . . .!

Send e-mail to Nan@Elmersstore.com

So, there I was on the side-stage at Jazz Fest watching the Nevilles play last weekend and who should I find beside me but Chef Carlos!  Not that that would be a big surprise since it was his big-ole family on the stage playing, but I just love the tiny little world of the universe!  So while we were there I yelled above the music, “Hey!  Would you cook next weekend?  Son needs the evening off!”  And he yelled back, “Sure!” So Chef Carlos is cooking tomorrow night.  He got back from New Orleans last night and is jumping in the kitchen today – re-filled full of New Orleans culture, music and love!  And food for you!

Here’s what he’s making, a good summer menu:

Friday Dinner Menu                              

Anna Baguette

with Goat Rising chevre and kalamata olives     

Bread Plate

Goat Rising chevre, gouda, cheddar, kalamata olives,and Anna baguette, add salami  

Salt & Pepper Shrimp

 Savory mixed greens salad tossed in cumin-lime dressing and topped with grilled salt & pepper shrimp 

Chilled Cucumber & Avocado Soup

Garden fresh cucumber & avocado puree with basil, tomato, olive oil and sea salt

Shrimp Creole Soup

 Sautéed jumbo shrimp with herbs, vegetable medley and white wine in a light seafood tomato broth

BBQ Jerk Chicken

 Free range organic chicken quarters lightly seasoned with sweet BBQ sauce, collard greens and a southern style biscuit 

Grilled Vegetable Napoleon

Marinated and grilled mirliton squash, eggplant, red onion and bell pepper with a roasted garlic and herb ratatouille sauce, and avocado on a toasted baguette with citrus compound butter 

Local Burger  

Steady Lane burger on a Gretchen-made bun, with salad and chips  with cheddar, blue, swiss, or gouda 

Speaking of the tiny world of the universe, I ran into FOUR separate Elmer’s customers at Jazz Fest this year!  Not just people from Western Mass, and not just four people who have been to Elmer’s once before in life,  but actual present-time on-going regular Elmer’s customers who live in Western Mass that I recognized and everything!  (Even though it’s always hard to recognize people out of context.)  That’s not only a small world;  that’s four Elmer’s customers out of 60,000 people per day out at the festival!  And we happened to meet up at the same time, same place! ……….. Just think how many Elmer’s customers were there that I DIDN’T run into!

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Now I know you know this, but Sunday is

Mother’s Day

and what better place to take your mama for breakfast than to Elmer’s with the Brand New Shiny Floor!  It’ll be like the first time you ever took her there!  OR, you could really surprise her and take her to breakfast at Elmer’s on Saturday morning – then you’ve taken her to breakfast just because you love her and not because it’s Mother’s Day!  And then the next day you can give her flowers! Surprise! That is BRILLIANT!

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This morning I went to a ground-breaking for a new Whole Foods Market here in New Orleans (I’m still here – it’s post-fest tear down week) and this ground-breaking was truly ground-breaking in its scope.  This new store is going in at the old Schwegmann’s Grocery Store over on Broad – a building that has been empty since Katrina.  And it still looks like it.  The close-surrounding area is low-income and is not where you think a Whole Foods Market is going to go in.  But here’s what they’re doing!  This store will include a project called Liberty’s Kitchen that teaches at-risk kids to cook with an aim towards becoming restaurant professionals.  Liberty’s Kitchen as been going for a little while now with great results – the addition now being that Whole Foods is lending them space for both the kitchen and their own café, credence and all that goes with hitching ones wagon to Whole Foods Market!  They also have the Liberty’s Kitchen Healthy School lunch program which provides scratch-made nutritious meals for schoolchildren while providing an additional training opportunity for students and recent graduates of their youth development program in a high-volume, high production environment.  You can read more about them at LibertysKitchen.org.

A second initiative Whole Foods is working with at this one is the partnering with Tulane Medical School and Johnson and Wales Culinary School to begin teaching medical students about nutrition as medicine!

Those are some great programs to undertake! 

This afternoon I was walking down the street in downtown New Orleans when I saw a guy talking on the phone. He looked pleasant, I smiled at him and he said, “Nan?  That’s you?”  I said yes it was and thought he looked familiar in a very unfamiliar sort of way and finally had to admit that I didn’t actually know who he was.  

“It’s Adam!”  he cried.  And then I remembered.  Adam was a kid I worked with back in 1982 at the Toulouse Theater when he was 16 years old and I was 25.  And suddenly he looked exactly like Adam, only thirty-one years older.  How in the world he remembered me, I have no idea in the world.  And oddly enough, I had just been thinking of Adam yesterday, wondering what ever might have happened to him.  And now I know:  He is a construction worker with a girlfriend that he calls Sweetie (which is who he was talking to on the phone when I saw him.)

And then a couple hours later, I was walking further down the street when a young man said, “I love that skirt you’re wearing – that’s that old school style!  My mama used to wear skirts like that!  You remind me of my mama like that!  Makes me happy!  Happy Mother’s Day, hear?  And then he carried on down the street.

New Orleans is a very familiar kind of place.

Now go on over to Elmer’s and have dinner with Carlos on Friday and breakfast with ya mama on Saturday and Sunday!  It’s a good weekend for it!

Elmer’s Store

396 Main Street – Ashfield, MA  01330

(413) 628-4003  Elmersstore.com

Breakfast seven days a week, Dinner on Fridays

AnnaBread Delivered fresh Thursdays through Sundays—

Breakfast Sandwiches available instantly to go every weekday morning!

The Inn at Norton Hill is perfect for family reunions . . . .!

Send e-mail to Nan@Elmersstore.com

We open our e-mail this evening with glad tidings of the new floor!  It is gorgeous!!!  It completes Elmer’s  in a way that the old floor just made it dark.  This new floor fairly glows with potential and anticipation!  Thank you to Frank and Evelyn Vincenzo of Ashfield who, through their company Mr. Sandman put in the new floor, thank you to Rob who ripped out the old floor and stained, buffed and clear-coated the new one.  And thank you to the old ice machine that blew up and flooded the floor last November so that we actually had to get the new floor!  It is BEAUTIFUL!!  I’d show you a picture, but this new e-mail program makes that hard, and besides, you should come and see it!!!   We will be open again tomorrow morning at 7 am, just like usual, with Annabread and everything.  But take off your shoes when you get there . . . . naw, just kidding.  Just walk on your tippy toes.

Walk on your tippy toes!

And the second thing I have to tell you about is tomorrow’s (Thursday’s) Magic Portal

where, for this week’s Workshop Elmer’s very own Michael Hulburt (he’s probably made you pancakes if you’ve come for breakfast) will be teaching a bike repair and maintenance workshop. The Workshop will run from 6-8pm. Bring your bike and learn how to fix it up and maintain it. Get it ready for spring and summer!

The Workshop will be followed by the Quantum Curtain Open Stage. Come share music, poetry, dance, or any other medium. We’ll go until about 11pm.

As always, all are welcome and there is no charge for the event. Food and drinks available, all ages.

And the third thing I have to tell you about is this week’s dinner:

Friday Dinner Menu

Anna Baguette

with Goat Rising chevre and kalamata olives           

Bread Plate

Goat Rising chevre, gouda, cheddar, kalamata olives,

and Anna baguette, add salami 

Rancher’s Salad

Boiled black bean, fresh tomato, avocado and cojita cheese on mixed greens, with toasted cumin tortilla and house ranch dressing

Beef Chili

Smoky southwest seasoned ground beef, black beans, bell pepper, sweet onion in a good and spicy fresh tomato and cilantro base, served with sour cream and cheddar-jack cheese

Fresh Gazpacho

Creamy garbanzo bean, fresh onion, tomato, pepper, garlic,

basil, oregano, lemon, sea salt and cracked pepper in a

chilled tomato base

    Tex-Mex BBQ with Chipotle Cream

Adobo seasoned grilled organic chicken breast with black beans, spinach, and southwestern cornbread

BBQ Grilled Chayote

Oaxaca-style BBQ squash with saffron and tomato risotto, spinach and avocado guacamole

Local Burger  

Steady Lane burger on a Gretchen-made bun, with salad and chips  with cheddar, blue, swiss, or gouda 

And that may be all I have to tell you about.  The Jazz Fest starts in two days and there is still much to be done!  

Elmer’s Store

396 Main Street – Ashfield, MA  01330

(413) 628-4003  Elmersstore.com

Breakfast seven days a week, Dinner on Fridays

AnnaBread Delivered fresh Thursdays through Sundays—

Breakfast Sandwiches available instantly to go every weekday morning!

The Inn at Norton Hill is perfect for family reunions . . . .!

Send e-mail to Nan@Elmersstore.com

I think about things a lot and here’s what I’m thinking about now:

Time and how it works.  I know that all you Western Massachuchans have lots of esoteric thoughts on time, but here’s what I’m wondering about:

I’ve always been busy;  it’s just the kind of girl I am.  Always have been.   And last year was the busiest year I’ve had in life.  I thought I had attained full-busy.  And now, here I am in New Orleans, the City That Care Forgot, busier than I was last year.  –Happily so;  I enjoy my work tremendously!  But now the minutes have split up into new things.  —-And here’s the other weird thing about time:  In Ashfield, time goes fast.  And I always thought it was a combination of being older (so, in perspective) and being busy.  But now I’m older than I was last year, am busier than I was last year, and time is going slower.

Okay, what’s up with that, Western Massachushans?

And, being busy, I have only time to tell you one thing else:

Remember I said we were going to close on April 29^th to re-do the floors?  It got moved up to April 22^nd!   So next Monday we will close for a few days and when we re-open we will have BEEYOUTIFUL wood floors everywhere!   You guys should have a big dance party after they’re done!

And here’s the menu and that’s all I have time to tell you about:

Friday Dinner Menu

Anna Baguette

with Goat Rising chevre and kalamata olives        

                                                Bread Plate

Goat Rising chevre, gouda, cheddar, kalamata olives,

and Anna baguette, salami

Son’s Blue Cheese Sardines

 Corn battered whole sardine deep fried, with fresh Frisee lettuce, smoky tomato and creamy blue cheese dressing

Classic Potato & Leek Puree with Sirloin

Boiled potato puree in beef stock with savory leeks,

 topped with sirloin steak grilled medium rare

Cream of Asparagus with Salted Pistachios

Grilled asparagus puree simmered in vegetable broth and cream with parsley, garnished with salted pistachios

Seafood Primavera

Grilled bass filet, jumbo shrimp, littleneck clams, and sweet lobster meat with fennel, leeks and potato in a saffron and seafood broth along a rouille topped AnnaBread baguette.

Wild Oyster with Potato Gnocchi

Handmade Potato Gnocchi sautéed with local wild oyster mushroom and spinach in a butter herb sauce

I’ve been talking about Son down here and people are so proud of him!  Even people who don’t know him.  When you’re from New Orleans you belong to everybody.   I’ll have the Classic Potato and Leek Puree with Sirloin and the Cream of Asparagus with Salted Pistachios, please.

   Oh!  You know what I re-discovered yesterday?  Putting your potato salad in your gumbo.  That is SOOO GOOD!    Son – try that next week!  Sausage Gumbo with Potato Salad on the side that you then dump in there.  I had forgotten about that!  But I had it yesterday and it was GOOD GOOD GOOD!

Okay y’all – get back to work!

Elmer’s Store

396 Main Street – Ashfield, MA 01330

(413) 628-4003 Elmersstore.com

Breakfast seven days a week, Dinner on Fridays

AnnaBread Delivered fresh Thursdays
through Sundays—

Breakfast Sandwiches available instantly to go
every weekday morning!

The Inn at Norton Hill is perfect
for family reunions . . . .!

Send e-mail to Nan@Elmersstore.com

If you are wondering how you got back on this e-mail list after you requested a while ago to be off of it and you were and then you suddenly got back on, it’s because I just switched from Verizon to G-mail to send it out and when I did, the original e-mail list got loaded into the G-mail world. (Verizon had two lists –the master list and the lists that actually got sent out. When people wanted to be dropped from the e-mail I had to delete them from the send-out list. Erasing them from the master list did no good, so I never did it, not thinking anything would ever change. But it did, and now you’re back on the list, much to my chagrin. Those who I remember wanting to be removed, I’ve done. But if you ended up back here unwillingly, write me again to say to take you off and I’ll do it off the master list (which works to do so in G-mail.) I’m sorry!

You want to know what you just never want to do? Get off the highway when you’re tired, late at night off highway 81 in Pennsylvania. It is a thankless task that will just get you driving all over creation. Highway 81 has Compound Exits. You get off thinking you know where you want to go because you can actually see the hotel and it’s right by the road! But then they have lots of streets going in lots of directions with lots of little signs pointing all over the place with cars behind you so that you can’t stop to figure anything out. You almost never end up at the hotel you wanted to be at. You’d think after seven years of driving that highway I’d figure that out.

Tonight at the Magic Portal!

We’ve got something really special for this week’s Workshop – a 3-station
rotating extravaganza. Learn how to make cordage, tie knots, and make
yarn out of old t-shirts and then turn it into rugs. Pretty cool. Quantum
Curtain Open Mic to follow as usual. See below for more details.

There will be 3 stations – you can stay at one the whole time or move
between them when we rotate. You will need to bring some materials:
old t-shirts, scissors, crochet
hook (if you have one), various strings and twine. We will also bring
some extra.

Station 1: Making Yarn out of Old T-Shirts to Make Rugs

Turn unwanted t-shirts (and other scrap) into yarn! Learn how to cut
one long continuous length to get the most yardage out of that old shirt
and then use it to crochet useful things like hot pads and rugs. Bring
a couple of t-shirts and scissors or a rotary cutter & mat to get
started. A large crochet hook–I’ve been using a K but other sizes will
work–is the only other tool you need.

Station 2: Fingerloop Braids

This is a way to make strong, useful, and decorative laces, which
can be used for lacing up your shoes or boots, as drawstrings for bags,
as a necklace for a pendant, or anything else for which you might find
it handy to have a nice, durable lace. They can be made with single
or multiple colors, too!

Station 3: Knot-making

Learn useful knots for every days uses around the home and farm.

This just in from Kristin Neville. I think I have to say that
Charles’ talk last Saturday night was the best, most profound event
we’ve ever done and one of the best ever in life, in any venue.
He talked for almost 2 hours and every story grabbed you, shook you
around and ain’t let go yet.

But Kristin asked me to include this:

And then Rob (remember Rob? Who used to write the Rob Report
back in the good old days before he was a big-time newspaper editor?)
asked me to include this:

And finally, our dinner tomorrow night is:

Friday Dinner Menu

Anna Baguette

with Goat Rising chevre and kalamata olives

Bread Plate

Goat Rising chevre, gouda, cheddar, kalamata
olives,

salami, and Anna baguette

Frisee au Soleil

Crisp Frisee lettuce tossed in olive oil, white
wine &
black pepper, with local chicken egg fried sunny side up and bacon lardons

Stuffed Pork Chops

Bone-in pork loin stuffed with cornbread dressing,
pan seared with potato puree and cranberry vodka sauce

Vegetable Scampi

Roasted eggplant, tomato and garlic with herbs and olives
in white wine sauce over fettuccini pasta with manchego

Local Burger

Steady Lane burger on a Gretchen-made bun,
with salad and chips

Choice of: Extra-sharp Cheddar, Blue,
Swiss,

or Gouda

Friday night :  Night of Love and Chocolate  -  $25 per person.  Reservations begin at 5pm, call us for a reservation (628-4003)

Saturday morning:

Creole Cooking with Carlos Neville 10:00 am  – $65 per person.  Tickets at Elmer’s and at WinklePickerFest.com.

Saturday Afternoon:

Kids’ Mardi Gras Ball with music by The Primate Fiasco.  Tickets: $5 for kids, $10 for adults.  Tickets at Elmer’s and at WinklePickerFest.com.   We’ll also have face painting there.

Saturday Evening:

Dinner at 5pm at Elmer’s.  Call for reservations 628-4003

8pm:  Grown Folks’ Mardi Gras Ball at Town with Grammy-Winning Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys – $25 in advance, $30 day of show.  Tickets at Elmer’s and at WinklePickerFest.com.

After Steve Riley:  The After-party at Elmer’s with The Primate Fiasco. Entry is included with your Steve Riley Ticket

Sunday Morning:

Regular Breakfast at Elmer’s, where we will have a special of Shrimp and Grits along with our regular breakfast menu.

(Originally we had a Gospel Brunch scheduled for Sunday morning, but had to cancel that due to the choirs all having to be in church!)

2:30 pm:   Charles Neville – his life and times $10 in advance, $15 day of.  Tickets at Elmer’s and at WinklePickerFest.com.

5pm:  Dinner at Elmer’s.  Call us at 629-4003 for reservations

8pm:  Eilen Jewell in Concert.  Tickets $20 in advance, $25 Day Of.  Tickets at Elmer’s and at WinklePickerFest.com.