Rise Up!

Almost every morning I make a pilgrimage to Rise Up Coffee kiosk in St. Michaels. I hand them my mondo cup and homemade almond milk ( I have a dairy allergy) which they beautifully froth, add to their perfectly pulled organic espresso and finish with cinnamon. A great start to the day. Everyone ( Matt, Rich, CeCe, Katie, Laura, forgive me if I have omitted anyone) is always cheerful and gracious. The other ritual I have added to my pilgrimage is purchasing a drink for the person that pulls up behind me. I care not whether it is presented anonymously or my identity revealed. What I do care about is how important it is for me to commence my day with an action that gets me out of myself. I am in dire need of this extraction since, as a species, we all seem to be embroiled with fear, insecurity and immense polarity.
I am intrigued by the psychosocial aspect of this small act. The reactions range from complete refusal to a drink bought for the next person in line. The refusal to accept the kind gesture carries with it an innuendo of, perhaps, unrealized selfishness. What they don't grasp is the beauty of accepting this small act of kindness is also a gift.
So, let's all Rise Up and do something nice for someone!

Old School

Many of you haven't had the opportunity to meet Ollie and Annabelle. They have worked with me for 1o years (since the restaurants opening) and continue to hold strong. They both worked at Talbot Country Club. Ollie was the Executive Chef there for at least 19 years. Annabelle was there for 9 years and worked in any capacity she was needed. She washed dishes, cleaned, did food prep and banquet preparation. That is Annabelles style, ask her what you need and she will do it with enthusiasm and perfection. Ollie left the Country Club because he retired. Annabelle left for other reasons. Ollie once told me that after he retired from the Country Club he prayed to the good Lord that he would find a job where he could just prep food and be in an environment where he was treated with respect and dignity. He told me his prayers were answered when he was offered the job at Out of the Fire. Tears welled up in my eyes. These are words you don't often hear as a small business owner and when they are uttered they have a profound impact.
Both Ollie and Annabelle deserve glowing praise and recognition for their work ethic, loyalty, enthusiasm and integrity. They remain in the background and that is the way they want it. Annabelle comes to the restaurant every morning at or before 6:00 and cleans the entire restaurant. She returns at 4:00 to wash dishes until we close. She is ecstatic when we are busy even though it creates more work for her. She knows that we all prosper when we are busy. Ollie comes in everyday and preps and washes dishes at lunch. His humility and willingness to do whatever it takes commands respect. Both of them know more about the restaurant than any of us. Ask them where something is that may have been put away in storage 5 years ago, but they will know exactly where it is. They are the brick and mortar of the restaurant. These two are old school. They can work circles around some of the younger employees. Annabelle once expressed concern to me that I would let her go because of her age and I laughed and said," are you kidding, this place would fall apart without you." That is no exaggeration! Both of them have been gifts to all of us. They are those rare people who have an abundance of wisdom and courage. They show up for life everyday and gracefully take on whatever is handed to them. When we are in their presence we are shaded by greatness. Thank you, Annabelle and Ollie for your valuable lessons.

To Read or Not to Read

I have always been a voracious reader so, for me the answer to that question is most emphatically: TO READ. I had the good fortune to have parents who were always reading. They read the paper everyday and I never saw either one of them without a book. So, naturally to read or not to read was never a question in our family. For many that is not the case. The statistics among young readers is staggering and quite frankly a bit dire in my opinion. Literacy skills among teens and our country's reading culture are quickly deteriorating. Following are some sobering statistics:

- Reading scores drop significantly over the course of middle school. In Dorchester County, Maryland, scores drop from 67.2% in sixth grade to 58.9% in seventh grade to 57.3% in eighth grade.

- Teens spend only 7-10 minutes per day on voluntary reading -- about 60% less than the average American.

- 1 in 5 U.S. workers read at a lower skill level than their job requires.

- 84% of proficient readers voted in the 2000 presidential election while only 53% of below basic readers voted.

Poor reading skills directly contribute to high school dropout:

- 1/2 of below basic readers and 1/3 of basic readers fail to complete high school.

The combination of poor academic skills and low self-esteem is particularly dangerous for girls because it strips them of their power to make good choices:

- According to www.teenpregnancy.org, educational failure is a key predictor of teen pregnancy and teen pregnancy is one of the leading causes of dropout for girls.

Teen pregnancy is devastating to girls' futures and contributes to a cycle of poverty and low academic achievement:

- Only about 2% of teen mothers have a college degree by age 30.

- Teen pregnancy costs the U.S. at least $9 billion annually.

- Children of teen parents are 50% more likely to repeat a grade.

If, after reading this, you feel compelled to make a difference you can. Elizabeth Devlin created a grass roots organization called Page Turners which addresses these issues. PageTurners: Girls Who Read to Achieve is a network of school-based afterschool book clubs to empower at-risk adolescent girls, through the discussion of literature, to become leaders in their communities while improving their reading and critical thinking skills. The organization is in its infancy and needs our support. Join Elizabeth in her effort to help support after school literacy clubs in our public school systems . Go to www.pageturnersread.org for additional information.

Small Victories

As I mentioned in the March 2009 post I discontinued offering Coke or
Pepsi many years ago, opting, instead to offer a more healthy alternative.

My decision was embraced and understood by some and rejected and
criticized by others. The restaurant is a wonderful teacher to me. It
is a constant reminder that I will NEVER please everyone, although
for some reason I don't stop trying. Some would define that behavior
as insanity- attempting the same thing over and over again and
expecting different results. Perhaps I just handle the inability to
please everyone more gently and gracefully so I don't fall as hard
as I once did in the restaurants infancy. It is analogous to a game
of wac-a-mole; I just keep popping back up!
Back to the title of this post: Small Victories. I have a regular
customer who happened to be a victim of my insights on the toxicity
of aspartame. He and his wife graciously listened to my monologues as I criticized
his diet beverage of choice, one, that I obviously decided to
eliminate from my offerings. I decided I should bite my tongue and
not bring it up EVERY TIME they visited! So, I vowed to myself that I
would only engage if they brought up the "you know what." So, last
week they came in for lunch and they waved me over to their table and
he said, "Amy, I have given up Diet Coke completely!" I said, "Oh, my
god, I can't believe it, congratulations! "(and I did a little
celebration dance) He replied, "that's not all, I have lost weight,
my blood pressure has dropped significantly and I'm a lot calmer!" I
can't tell you how happy I am for him! So, At the risk of alienating
those of you who actually read my blog I will give you a reprieve from my soapbox, I will challenge you to do the research on the deleterious effects of the known neurotoxin named
aspartame.
I went through a phase not long ago that I felt I needed to do more
to raise awareness around health and nutrition and its impact on our
emotional, physical and spiritual well-being. I realized my delusion
of grandeur (that I could single handedly change the world )was
paralyzing. I changed my mindset and embraced the attitude that small
victories are equally as important and just as sweet as large ones.

Procrastination

In May I planted the first Out of the Fire garden. I planted over 500
plants with plans of documenting the entire process. I was (operative
word WAS) planning on photographing the progress, posting
observations on the blog, etc. So, here we are in October and this is
my first post about the garden. The garden was wildly fruitful and
successful and so was my gift for procrastination. I don't know why I
do this to myself. AND to make matters worse, I use it as an excuse
to beat myself up. I can't think of a more caustic combination:
procrastination and relentless mental floggings! To top it off I
visited a childhood friend who I haven't seen for 25 years who
happens to be doing a fabulous job with her blog: The Dinner Dilemma
by Caroline Fitzgibbons. When she began this blog it infused me with
enthusiasm to post regularly on the Out of the Fire blog. Well, we
all know where that ended! I visited Caroline in September, she
commented on my website and mentioned she accessed my blog and called
me a slacker for not contributing regular posts: GUILTY and feel bad
about it! So, this is another attempt on my behalf to beat away the
flubber of procrastination. Thank you for your inspiration, Caroline!

Slow Food

There is a movement called Slow Food that has been gaining a lot of momentum since its inception in 1989. Those of you who are tired of seeing fast food restaurants pop up like voles on a newly landscaped lawn will appreciate the Slow Food mission and initiative. To follow is a description of their noble pursuit: "Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of traditions and people's dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world. To do that, Slow Food brings together pleasure and responsibility and makes them inseparable. Today we have over 100,000 members in 132 countries."
Out of the Fire is a member of the Slow Food movement and if the integrity of our food chain is important to you then consider joining the Slow Food effort. The international website is www.slowfood.com and the United States website is www.slowfoodusa.org

Amy

Green as a Moral Imperative

Several years ago I decided that in order for me to feel good about what I was providing at the restaurant I needed to align it with how I was leading my personal life. I made several changes, not because I saw this as an opportunity to market the restaurant as an environmentally responsible business , but because I thought it was the right thing to do ethically, environmentally and socially. A few of the changes I made were not well received, as a matter of fact I lost customers over these changes. For instance, we discontinued offering Coke or Pepsi (this created the strongest negative reactions) and switched to all natural sodas. We will only purchase antibiotic and growth hormone-free poultry and meat, we only purchase fish that is recommended by the Monterrey Bay Seafood Watch, all wines are either biodynamic, sustainable or organic and I try to purchase as much local and organic produce that I possibly can. These are just a few of the many changes that have been implemented.
I recently met with a wine representative who had a representative from Rutherford Wines working with her. They presented some wines that were right up my alley. All wines are sustainable and in the process of organic certification. I decided to place two of them on the wine list, the Lander-Jenkins Spirit Hawk Chardonnay (offered by the glass, please ask for a taste) and Scott Pinot Noir. I felt compelled to recognize their commitment to environmental preservation not only because they are operating with a great amount of integrity, but because I decided to "use" a description of their mission for the title of this blog entry: "green as a moral imperative." I derive a great amount of satisfaction from working and partnering with like-minded businesses. You've got to feel good about what you are doing, otherwise why bother?

Amy

He Who Tastes Knows

"He Who Tastes Knows" is an old Sufi saying. Instead of translating it metaphorically I am going to tackle it literally. This only makes sense when your profession is food. Lets talk beef, literally.
Over the past few decades our food chain has been radically altered. Small family run farms have been eclipsed by large commercial operations. The focus changed from providing a family and community with locally raised animals to large commercial feed operations whose focus is profitability as it pertains to one thing:money
The practice of good animal husbandry is completely void from these large commercial feed operations. What is the definition of good animal husbandry? I will give you my definition. The animals should be able to roam freely, have access to natural sunlight, good clean water and pastures on which to graze. They should not be fed antibiotics prophylactically nor should they eat grain; cows are herbivores. Feeding a cow grain forces their body, metabolically into a diabetic state. They become fat and unhealthy. Who wants to eat meat from an animal that is fat and unhealthy? Well, I'll tell you, Americans do! Our palates have developed a taste for meat that has been raised, shall I say, without good animal husbandry. Unless you buy meat that is labeled grass-fed and antibiotic-free you are most likely purchasing meat from "the other source."
Back to the topic, taste. How does the manner in which an animal is raised effect taste? An animal raised naturally will produce meat that is leaner, lower in saturated fat and higher in omega 3's. It is a cleaner tasting product.
I would encourage everyone to seek out locally raised beef from farms that have an "open door" policy. This means you can visit the farm and see for yourself how happy the animals are. You can find this information at your local Farmers Market or Co-op.
When you taste meat from an animal that is raised well you'll know!

Amy

Another Man's Bounty

We received approximately 24" of snow in Easton, Maryland in less than 24 hours. The adjectives meteorologists used to describe this storm were "paralyzing", "record-breaking", "historical!" Those all sounded to me like nails on a chalkboard! A small business owner, particularly in the service industry, cannot afford to be closed on the weekends, it is "paralyzing" to cash flow. We can't make that up. People aren't going to come in and consume twice as much!

I did realize the selfishness of my bitter musings. Particularly when those who are benefiting from this bounty of snow are those that have been really suffering for two years. Those individuals who work in construction, landscaping, home improvement. These individuals are thrilled to be out there removing that snow so we can navigate around safely. I must say they are doing a stellar job.

My return to compassion came to me when I let myself enjoy the calm after the storm. Breathtaking, clear, pristine blue skies followed. A perfect day to ski (unfortunately the Eastern Shore of Maryland is flat.) So, instead of skiing I trekked out to our pool, cleared two feet of snow from a pool-side chair and sat out in the sun like a lizard for 45 minutes. This, I thought to myself, is a little slice of bliss and an adjunct to my sublingual vitamin D. I was also entertained by my mothers tri-colored Welsh Corgi trying to navigate her way to me in two feet of snow donning her black fleece-lined jacket that could only be perfected by two Batman symbols embroidered on each flank.

I was welling with self-pride when I realized the adage "one man's misery is another man's

bounty" was completely altered by how I chose to perceive my situation. Another man's bounty was also mine. I was able to slow down. My entertainment was simplicity.

Amy

The Source of Happiness

I must immediately begin by making it clear that I don't have the answers to the secret of happiness. It is an interesting topic of conversation. When I have posed this question to friends and strangers I receive a spectrum of reactions ranging from surprise, shock ,discomfort and I my particular favorite, the deer in the headlights glare. I am currently reading Eric Weiner's book "The Geography of Bliss." In my opinion bliss is very different than happiness, but I'll reserve that debate for a tête à tête with friends, good food and plenty of time to banter that subject about.
There are people that actually devote their lives to studying and documenting our source of happiness. I love the idea of studying data about what makes us happy as opposed to what makes us miserable or suicidal. Both disciplines are equally important, but at this moment in history it is in my best interest(and those who must spend time with me!) to focus on what makes me be happy.

Ruut Veenhoven is a Professor of Happiness Studies. His interest is healthy minds and happy people. Happiness study is interesting in the fact that there are subtle nuances in each culture that define happiness. It really boils down to: " in winter, spring summer or fall all you've got to do is call, you've got a friend" (thank you James Taylor). Ruut and his peers estimate that about 70% of our happiness stems from our relationships (both quantity and quality) with friends, family, co-workers and neighbors.

I know it makes me happy to leisurely spend (of which I have very little) time with my husband, friends and family. I don't need to be entertained, I just want to talk about things that matter. Each time I conclude a few hours of my day in this manner I leave craving more. This is a sign to me that I need to make more time in my life for those nourishing chats.

It also makes me happy to have a restaurant full of people enjoying good food, wine and interesting conversation. I love the sound of laughter and I derive a large amount of fulfillment being the voyeur of people connecting with real intention.

Jean-Paul Sartre declared "hell is other people!" Ruut Veenhoven's data discredits that statement. If I were to guess, Jean-Paul didn't choose his company carefully! With so little free time on our hands it is important to surround ourselves with people who reflect our ideals and principles.

What defines your personal happiness?

Amy

The Why of Water

Have you ever wondered why you can get a perfectly satisfying cup of tea or coffee at some establishments and be sorely disappointed at others? Of course the obvious culprit is the quality of the tea leaves or coffee beans, however you can expose some incredibly beautiful tea leaves or coffee beans to water, shall I say, that lacks purity. This will quickly ruin your investment and mood. I use bottled or filtered water at home. At Out of the Fire I have a water filtration system that makes a perfect companion to brewing a wonderful cup of tea or coffee. I made a choice 11 years ago (time flies when.........) that the restaurant would need a filtration system-town water would not be a friend to leaves, beans and body for that fact! I must admit that my palate is extremely sensitive, I am a self-proclaimed water snob. However, you don't have to be a water snob to take note of the effect that water has on the quality of your beverage.
I had some customers from the UK share with me that they were extremely disappointed with the quality of coffee and tea that they were being served at the very expensive Inn that they were patronizing. One would think that an establishment of a certain caliber would pay attention to that very important detail, water, especially since it is a relatively simple and direct fix. They asked me why they couldn't get a decent cup of tea or coffee in America. My response was, "you can, but you have to start with good water!" To prove my point (a patriotic move!) I made them a French Press. They left the restaurant fully satisfied and enlightened! I must add that my coffee beans are roasted the day I order them. They are also fair-trade and organic. The blend is called "Out of the Fire" Blend (big surprise to all, I am sure!) which is 80% Guatemalan, 10% Peruvian and 10% Mexican. However, good water can mask the inadequacies of a substandard bean or leaf!
To sum it all up, water is 98% of your coffee or tea so it is better to bask your beans and leaves in good water. Below is what I could have said in a few sentences:

It is necessary to use high-quality, filtered water without chlorine. The hot beverage can be vastly improved by the use of a simple Brita or Pur filter, which eliminates chlorine and diminishes greatly the water's TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) content. A bottled spring water with a pH of 7 and TDS of 30 PPM or below is ideal.

The motto of Out of the Fire is: "Enjoy life, enjoy each other, eat well and don't forget: Life is too short to drink bad wine." However in this case "life is too short to use bad water!"We all know there is nothing better than a great cup of coffee or tea and great conversation!

Enjoy!

Amy