We will offer our full buffet that includes: cooked to order eggs, omelets, waffles, pancakes and french toast, carved slow roasted ham, 3-cheese ravioli with chicken & chevre, roasted potatoes, chilled salads and roasted onion & gorgonzola bisque. The Brunch Buffet is $19.95 and includes non-alcoholic beverages, and is served 11-3.

We will also offer our regular brunch menu to satisfy all you “bennie” lovers.(that’s my weakness, try the Portobello bennie or the seared salmon bennie)

If everybody loves brunch as much as I do – then you should make reservations now at Roux.

Like the time my dad taught me how to make biscuits and cornbread. I was into 4-H back then and entered a baking contest and went to the state finals (I placed 3rd). Even though my mother and grandmothers taught me how to cook and gave me a passion for food. I give my dad all the credit for biscuits and doing everything without regret.

Well it’s Turkey Time. This year at Roux we are preparing a Thanksgiving Buffet from 1pm until 7pm – so get those reservations in early. Adults $21.99, Children 12.99 Or – if you want to eat the same Roux quality food at home – preorder one of our Meals To Go. Meal 1 serves 10-12 for $164.00 and Meal 2 serves 4-6 for $87.00
See you soon at Roux.

On to the roof: The Herb Garden had to be moved. Even though herbs love a hot dry temperate – the roof with was just baking them. They are still on the roof, but we moved them so they could get some shade. We are in a learning curve since this is our first year. I think we will need more pots to supply our needs in the future, and maybe an arbor for a little shade.

This is new. Text Asheville to 26469 to receive a special deal from us! Then come on into Roux show the server or bartender the text to get the deal. The Text is the coupon. Pretty Cool huh.

Our Roof Top Herb Garden

We also rolled out some new menus and are starting $5 Dollar Lunches next week. New Menu Items include: Grilled Chicken and Goat Cheese Quesadilla, Crispy Calamari, Pulled Pork Sliders, Tuna Nicoise Salad, and lots of new burgers including an awesome Sesame and Ginger Salmon Burger. The new big hit on the dinner menu is a Pork T-Bone from Cane Creek Valley Farms. It’s served with Pineapple Chow Chow.

This leads us to the exciting news that we are now supporting a local organic farm: Cane Creek Valley Farm. We are buying organic produce and hormone free Beef and Pork. Add them to the list with: Claire’s ABC Preserves, Three Graces Dairy and Sunburst Trout and you can know when you support Roux that you are supporting the local farmers and local economy; something we are very proud of. Look for the green leaf on our menu that denotes these local ingredients.

Hush puppies make me think of setting up fish camp with my grandfather at Center Hill Lake in Tennessee. My dad, mom, brother and I would go for a few days, my grandfather stayed for a week or more. Lunch was usually sandwiches or hotdogs. Dinner was always the fresh catch: usually Crappie, Bream or Bass, and even Turtle. We cooked on open fires and Coleman stoves. We bathed in the lake, and they only intrusion was the occasional passing bass boat. But I couldn’t get enough of the fresh hush puppies fried in an old cast iron skillet; luckily we had them every night at the lake.

Trout, I’ll admit was not on any menu I had growing up. It’s a definite North Carolina staple and very popular in the mountains. Our Smoked Trout Dip at Roux is made with horseradish and cracked black pepper to give it some bite. Here’s the recipe enjoy.

NC Smoked Trout Dip

1.5 lbs of NC Smoked Trout, flaked
8 oz cream cheese (room temp)
8 oz sour cream
½ small red onion finely diced
3 T prepared horseradish
juice of 1 lemon
Salt and Cracked Black Pepper to taste

In a food processor blend cream cheese, sour cream, onion, lemon juice and horseradish until smooth. Add trout, salt and pepper and pulse slowly so that you don’t puree the trout. Serve with toast points and crackers.

So here’s a teaser, were working on some new desserts at roux, yeah you are right nobody eats desserts anymore- for two reasons, everyone’s watching their health and their wallets. So here is our solution: Dessert Bites, Small portions that will cost around $2.00 each so you can mix and match or just satisfy that sweet tooth

Even before my Christmas trip home I picked up a really good preserving book for the novice called Well-Preserved . It has easy to follow instructions, and good explanations. When thinking about this blog and about my food memories, I recalled a conversation I had with my Mee Mee, She is 80 years young and wanted to know what I wanted of hers when it was time to divvy up her earthly belongings, (I know… a conversation no-one wants to have) and then it hit me what I wanted was her recipes and cookbooks filled with her personal notes – and the experiences I had cooking with her growing up. The things I could never get from another person – our unique experiences. I guess by learning how to preserve I would be preserving the past.

We made jams and jellies, canned tomatoes and corn, beans and pickles. My first food memory is one of standing in a chair next to the stove stirring apple jelly with a wooden spoon while my mom and Mee Mee, (my mom’s mom) melted paraffin wax and sterilized mason jars and started the next batch. It was hot and there was always a fan going nearby. As the jars cooled you could hear them “POP” to seal in your hard work, and it wouldn’t be long for a cold November or December morning that you heard that “POP” again and then tasted it on a fresh hot homemade biscuit.

Sorry I know this has little to do with Roux. But when I got the chance to write Roux’s menu I wanted to keep some of these memories alive. We serve our meatloaf large plate with a red onion Marmalade,(we make here) and I purchase a Jalapeno-Apricot Jam from a lady I met at the Local farmers market, she’s just down the road in Fletcher, NC. Her name is Claire and she runs Claire’s ABC Gourmet Preserves. Every flavor I have tried is great. She works in small batches and when I asked her how big her operation was she replied, “It’s just me”.

Here’s our recipe for “Red Onion Marmalade”, you don’t have to do use a canning process. This is a small batch and will keep for 30 days in the refrigerator. It’s great on Beef and Pork Dishes.

In later post I’ll highlight one chef at a time with their bio and favorite recipe.

This Blog will be about: what’s happening at Roux, and my passions about food, and running a kitchen. (it’s not at all Hell’s Kitchen, but still a daily soap opera) We will share and experiment with recipes, and talk about the one constant in all our lives –food.

Thanks for your interest, please check back often, and when in Asheville, NC come by and check out Roux.