Me Want Taco! Me Want Taco!

We made it through Election Day 2016, some excited, some disappointed. But, we’re still here, and we still belong to each other as citizens of this great country. Come join us at the table, the Muppets will be here putting on a happy show designed just to make us laugh. Here’s what we’ve got cooking for you at week’s end: Brisket tacos with house made salsas and blackened catfish over dirty rice. 

What We’re Cooking for You at Week’s End

We’ve got some great sides, breads, biscuits, and desserts available for your Thanksgiving table. Give us call and let us help you have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving table.

Thursday, November 10

Brisket tacos, charro black beans, cilantro lime slaw, and fresh red and green salsas. Our overnight brisket chopped and served on lightly fried corn tortillas with charro black beans, lime cilantro slaw, and fresh tomato and tomatillo salsas will help you rethink the traditional taco. On this day, way back in 1969, Sesame Street premiered on TV, bring us that wonderful cast of characters like Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Elmo, Big Bird, and Statler and Waldorf, the heckling old men. Hopefully, they won’t be heckling the help or the cook. Well, Cookie Monster joins us today because we’re cooking tacos. Apparently, he loves tacos almost as much as he loves cookies — we’ll have cookies, too! Come join us, the Muppets will at the table with Dr. Teeth and Electric Mayhem providing the background jams!

For some of our favorite skits, see Miss Piggy and Kermit singing “In Spite of Ourselves,” Gonzo rapping “The Humpty Dance,” the ever-silly and uplifting “Mahna Mahnama,” or our new favorite “Jungle Boogie” by Doctor Teeth and Electric Mayhem.

Friday, November 11

Blackened catfish with a beurre blanc crabmeat sauce, dirty rice, and house bread, ($15). Seasoned to perfection using Paul Prudhomme’s season recipe, we blacken the catfish in a white hot cast iron skillet, serve it atop dirty rice, add a little beurre blanc sauce with crab meat, and put a little house bread on the side. Well, we couldn’t forget our favorite TV chef, The Swedish Chef. He’ll be helping in the kitchen, and we’re working on our Swedish right now to make sure we don’t have any kitchen miscommunications or mishaps. Few know what a great musician he is, so have a look at his pop hit, “Pøpcörn,” to make this Friday happy, hoppy, and poppy. Yep.

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Stone House Eats Bread Baked Daily

Lunch Served | 11am-2pm Tuesday — Friday

We’ve got some great sides, breads, biscuits, and desserts available for your Thanksgiving table. Give us call and let us help you have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving table.

You can find our house at 828 Julia Street in Rayville, Louisiana. You can call us at (318) 267-4457.

Thanks for letting us serve you, and may God bless you richly as you sit at the table.

Famous Quotes

Our good friend Kermit offers some sage anuran advice, “I’ve got a dream too, but it’s about singing and dancing and making people happy. That’s the kind of dream that gets better the more people you share it with.” Yep. Singing and dancing with the great green one will make everything better. He also famously observed, “Here’s some simple advice: always be yourself. Never take yourself too seriously. And beware the advice from experts, pigs, and members of Parliament.” There you have it.

Image Credit: “The Muppet Hub.”

The Day Chili Saved the Nation — Election Week Menu 2016

Well, it’s here: Election Day 2016. Hear the story of a dog named Chili on election day — he’ll be here for election coverage during the day. Come join us after you vote, we’d love to see you! Here’s what we’ve got cooking for you this week: Henry’s chili, chicken and dumplings, brisket tacos with house made salsas, and blackened chicken over dirty rice. 

What We’re Cooking for You This Week

Tuesday, November 8

Henry’s chili with rice and hot water cornbread. Our chili has just about everything, except the kitchen sink — hamburger, sausage, mushrooms (yes, mushrooms), piles of onions, peppers, tomatoes, and lovely spices (even a little beer, but don’t tell anyone). Once there was a reddish Chesapeake Bay retriever named Chili whose owner lived near a voting precinct. Chili watched the voting with great interest, wondering what people were doing in those little booths. One day, during an important election, someone fainted in the booth, seemingly overcome by the enormity of the electoral choice. Chili raced into the booth, pulled the unconscious voter from certain peril, and he licked the person, ever so lovingly, back into consciousness. Well, none of the vote watchers noticed the save because of checking so many others into the voting. But, the second time it happened, a passel of registrars saw the whole thing. They marveled at the amazing dog saving the fainting voters. They wrote stories in the local newspaper about the voter saving dog, posted moving videos of people being saved in the voting booth, and celebrated him for a few days. Then, surprisingly enough, an unlikely candidate was elected, one who supported no-leash laws. The deciding precinct: the one by Chili’s house. That’s right. While Chili was saving fainting voters (nobody ever discovered why they fainted), his compadre, a yellow labrador named Bijou who could actually read, snuck into voting booths to vote for that unlikely candidate. Well, the town couldn’t do anything about two vote stealing dogs (who would believe it — especially a dog who could read), so Chili, Bijou, and all their doggy friends roamed free — at least until the next election. Vote, then come join us for some delicious chili — Chili and Bijou will be here providing election coverage. And, yes it will be in English because both can not only read, they speak very well. Yep.

This story inspired by the story of Swansee, a black lab who saved swimmers. For some great dog stories see this site. For an interesting take on the election this year, have a look at Pedigree’s way of bringing unity.

Wednesday, November 9

Chicken and dumplings. These dumplings come seeded with herbs in a house-made stock and cream sauce, and there’s no more elegant way to head into the weekend than with a sumptuous dish of house-made chicken and dumplings. Benjamin Franklin famously noted, “Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.” Well, we’ll forgive him for that whole Daylight Saving Time idea (it was his!), but we think he should have said: “Chicken and dumplings is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.” Come get some dumplings and feel the love at the table.

If you can’t make it for lunch on Wednesday, just give us a call at 267-4457, we’ll set aside some supper for you including house salad, chicken and dumplings, and house-made bread.

Thursday, November 10

Brisket tacos, charro black beans, cilantro lime slaw, and fresh red and green salsas. Our overnight brisket chopped and served on lightly fried corn tortillas with charro black beans, lime cilantro slaw, and fresh tomato and tomatillo salsas will help you rethink the traditional taco. English dramatist Tom Stoppard suggests, “A healthy attitude is contagious but don’t wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier.” Absolutely. And we can help you be a contagious carrier of a healthy attitude with these brisket tacos. That’s right, they’re “attitude adjustment (in the good way) tacos,” and they’ve got the stuff to help us get to the weekend.

Friday, November 11

Blackened catfish with a beurre blanc crabmeat sauce, dirty rice, and house bread, ($15). Seasoned to perfection using Paul Prudhomme’s season recipe, we blacken the catfish in a white hot cast iron skillet, serve it atop dirty rice, add a little beurre blanc sauce with crab meat, and put a little house bread on the side. Old Maggie Thatcher remembered, “I just owe almost everything to my father and it’s passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election.” Her dad was a humble grocer. Yep. Good groceries and a small town — sounds like a recipe for goodness on Friday. Come join us for some wonderful food at the table.

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Stone House Eats Bread Baked Daily

Lunch Served | 11am-2pm Tuesday — Friday

You can find our house at 828 Julia Street in Rayville, Louisiana. You can call us at (318) 267-4457.

Thanks for letting us serve you, and may God bless you richly as you sit at the table.

Famous Quotes

Our old friend in Monticello, Thomas Jefferson, once observed, “We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” Vote, just vote, then come have some chili with your old friends at the table. It’ll make the day. 

That Cloud Looks Like a Hamburger

Joni Mitchell and Will Rogers join us at the table this Wednesday to talk about life, love, and hamburgers. Come join us, we’d love to see you! Here’s what we’ve got cooking for you on Wednesday: Our house-made hamburgers.

We’ll be open Monday, October 31 through Wednesday November 2 this week. We’ll be closed on Thursday and Friday, November 3-4 because we’ll be out of town. Thanks!

What We’re Cooking for You on Wednesday

Wednesday, November 2

House-made hamburgers on jalapeño buns with all the trimmings. Well, what’s better than home-made hamburgers, jalapeño buns, and lots of trimmings? Joni Mitchell mused, “I used to be monastic, almost. Now I’m like a Tibetan that has discovered hamburgers and television. I’m catching up on Americana.” We remember her song, “Clouds,” with those great lyrics, “I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down, and still somehow, it’s cloud illusions I recall, I really don’t know clouds at all.” First the clouds looked like angel hair and feather canyons, then they blocked the sun, giving rain and snow. Sounds to us like she was holding forth about the ephemeral nature of clouds, and well, life. Some days it’s feather canyons and angel hair, other days it a blocked sun with lots of rain. Well, you don’t need to wonder philosophically about these burgers — they are their own answers to the deep questions of life.

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Stone House Eats Bread Baked Daily

Lunch Served | 11am-2pm Tuesday — Friday

You can find our house at 828 Julia Street in Rayville, Louisiana. You can call us at (318) 267-4457.

We’ll be open Monday, October 31 through Wednesday November 2 this week. We’ll be closed on Thursday and Friday, November 3-4 because we’ll be out of town. Thanks!

Thanks for letting us serve you, and may God bless you richly as you sit at the table.

Famous Quotes

Humorist Will Rogers joked, “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.” He also famously quipped, “The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.” Well….

October 31, 2016 Weekly Menu

We’ve got a short week with some good food planned for you. We’d love to see you at the table! Here’s what we’ve got cooking for you this week: Louisiana red beans and rice, white lasagna, and our house-made hamburgers.

We’ll be open Monday, October 31 through Wednesday November 2 this week. We’ll be closed on Thursday and Friday, November 3-4 because we’ll be out of town. Thanks!

What We’re Cooking for You This Week

Monday, October 31

Special made Louisiana red beans and rice with hot water cornbread and house salad. Our red beans come fully and deeply flavored, cooked in our own house-made smoked ham hock stock that will totally set the week in motion. First, the weather report, then some terrible dance music, and then, the news from Professor Farrell of the Mount Jenning Observatory: an explosion had rocked Mars. Suddenly, the announcer begins describing an alien landing in a farmer’s field in Grovers Mills, New Jersey, ““Good heavens…something’s wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake. Now here’s another and another one and another one. They look like tentacles to me … I can see the thing’s body now. It’s large, large as a bear. It glistens like wet leather. But that face, it… it … ladies and gentlemen, it’s indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it, it’s so awful. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is kind of V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate.” That’s how a young Orson Welles scared the pants off the nation way back in 1938 with his vivid radio retelling of H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. Mr. Welles suddenly found himself at the center of a federal investigation because folks totally panicked, thinking the invasion was real. After he was cleared by the Federal Communications Commission of any criminal wrongdoing, he sat down to one of his favorite comfort foods: read beans and rice with a nice red wine and a single rosebud in a vase on the table. Well, on this All Hallows Eve, we’ve got something that will cure whatever ails or scares you: home-cooked Louisiana red beans and rice.

Tuesday, November 1

White lasagna with an artichoke and spinach béchamel sauce with chicken and a puttanesca red sauce as the bottom layer. The milky smooth béchamel sauce has a few friends named artichoke and spinach over for an afternoon repast on fresh lasagna chaises around the pool, and they are joined by some chicken a scrumptious little puttanesca red sauce. Larry the Cable Guy jokes about his wedding, “Our whole wedding cost 180 bucks. Afterward, we re-heated lasagna for everyone and set off fireworks.” Well, our lasagna is freshly made just for you, and we’d love to see you at the table. You can bring your own fireworks.

If you can’t make it for lunch on Wednesday, just give us a call at 267-4457, we’ll set aside some supper for you including house salad, white lasagna, and house-made bread.

Wednesday, November 2

House-made hamburgers on jalapeño buns with all the trimmings. Well, what’s better than home-made hamburgers, jalapeño buns, and lots of trimmings? Nothing. Martial arts actor Jet Li observes, “In the States, you can buy Chinese food. In Beijing you can buy hamburger. It’s very close. Now I feel the world become a big family, like a really big family. You have many neighbors. Not like before, two countries are far away.” Well, there you have it. Hamburgers make a really big family. Come join the global family with a hamburger.

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Stone House Eats Bread Baked Daily

Lunch Served | 11am-2pm Tuesday — Friday

You can find our house at 828 Julia Street in Rayville, Louisiana. You can call us at (318) 267-4457.

We’ll be open Monday, October 31 through Wednesday November 2 this week. We’ll be closed on Thursday and Friday, November 3-4 because we’ll be out of town. Thanks!

Thanks for letting us serve you, and may God bless you richly as you sit at the table.

Famous Quotes

Columnist P. J. O’Rourke wonders, “The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop.” Yep.

A Violin Playing Goat

We’ve got yodeling, a violin-playing goat, and info on the curse of the goat. You might say we’re having a baaaaaaaad day, but in a very good way. Here’s what we’ve got cooking for you at week’s end: Lemon butter chicken with angel hair pasta and shrimp and grits.

What We’re Cooking for You at Week’s

Next week, we’ll be open Monday, October 31 through Wednesday November 2. We’ll be out of town Thursday and Friday, November 3-4. Come join us for Louisiana red beans and rice, white lasagna with fresh pasta, and our house-made hamburgers.

Thursday, October 27

Lemon butter chicken served on angel hair pasta. Pan-seared with a lightly delicious lemon butter sauce, these chicken breasts come served on some great angel hair pasta. We remember Fraulein Maria singing about the lonely goatherd, “High on a hill was a lonely goatherd, lay odl lay odl lay her hoo. Loud was the voice of the lonely goatherd, lay odl lay old loo. Folks in a town that was quite remote heard, lay odl lay odl lay her hoo….” We loved the dancing goats and the little brass band with puffy cheeks. Well, this pasta will have you yodeling up and down the street like Maria and the von Trapps. Yes, it will — and you’ll have a herd of goats playing the orchestral score.

Friday, October 28

Shrimptastic Friday: Shrimp and grits ($15). Shrimp on baked garlic cheese grits (crispy or creamy), $15. Shrimp lovingly cooked with chopped veggies in a delicious sauce served over baked garlic cheese grits (either crispy or cream) will make you toot your horns up and down the street. Referring to Marc Chagall’s La Mariée, Julia Roberts’ character Anna, says, “It feels like how being in love should be. Floating through a dark blue sky.” Her new friend William, played by Hugh Grant responds, “With a goat playing the violin.” “Yes,” Anna smiles, “happiness isn’t happiness without a violin-playing goat.” Well, that says it for our shrimp and grits. Happiness isn’t happiness without some shrimp and grits on Friday — and a violin-playing goat floating through a dark blue sky. Come join us, we’d love to se you!

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Stone House Eats Bread Baked Daily

Lunch Served | 11am-2pm Tuesday — Friday

You can find our house at 828 Julia Street in Rayville, Louisiana. You can call us at (318) 267-4457.

Next week,we’ll be open Monday, October 31 through Wednesday November 2. We’ll be out of town Thursday and Friday, November 3-4. Come join us for Louisiana red beans and rice, white lasagna with fresh pasta, and our house-made hamburgers.

Thanks for letting us serve you, and may God bless you richly as you sit at the table.

Famous Quotes

“You are going to lose this World Series and you are never going to win another World Series again,” Tavern Owner William “Billy Goat” Sianis yelled when denied entrance to the Cubs World series game in 1945. Of course, he brought his pet goat Murphy with him, and, well, they were both ripe in odor, so the gate sent them home. The Cubs lost, and the Curse of the Goat began. It just doesn’t make sense — Sianis had a ticket for the goat…. Will the Cubs break the curse? Check out the origin of the story here and here.

Image Credit: “Herd of Goats,” CreativeCommons.org.

October 25, 2016 Weekly Menu

“Heeeeere’s chili!” We’ve got some great food for you this week, complete with dancing chickens, Meat Loaf, and Johnny Carson singing about the blues. We look forward to seeing you at the table! Here’s what we’ve got cooking for you this week: White chili with corn muffins, meatloaf with mashed potatoes, lemon butter chicken with angel hair pasta, and shrimp and grits.

What We’re Cooking for You This Week

Tuesday, October 25

White chili with corn muffins. We make our own deeply flavorful stock, add some pork and chicken, a wonderful assortment of white beans, and a few veggies for giggles for a delicious alternative chili. A corn-fed country boy born in Iowa on October 23, 1925 and raised in Nebraska found his way to the promised land on a rising new medium called TV late in the 1950’s: John William Carson. Our friend Johnny started with Who Do You Trust? before moving to follow Jack Parr on The Tonight Show which premiered with him as host in 1962. We loved his fluffy, feathered turban he wore as the silly psychic Carnac the Magnificent. Most folks haven’t seen one of our favorites of a young Johnny singing with the Rat Pack in St. Louis way back in 1965. Hey, Carnac the Magnificent will be here, sharing some unique political insights over a bowl of white chili — you don’t want to miss it.

Wednesday, October 26

Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and roasted veggies. Our meatloaf is a wonderful mix of beef, our own Stone House Eats house-made bread crumbs, and chopped-to-bits veggies. Meatloaf is mom’s way of hiding surprisingly good things in a bastion of beef covered in a sweet and sour tomato sauce flavored with Panola Gourmet Sauce. Well, Meat Loaf once observed, “Rock n’ Roll came from the slaves singing gospel in the fields. Their lives were hell and they used music to lift out of it, to take them away. That’s what rock n’ roll should do — take you to a better place.” Our meatloaf will take you to a better place, and Meat Loaf will be singing. Yep. Singing meatloaf. It’s supposed to be a joke.

If you can’t make it for lunch on Wednesday, just give us a call at 267-4457, we’ll set aside some supper for you including house salad, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, roasted veggies, and house-made bread.

Thursday, October 27

Lemon butter chicken served on angel hair pasta. Pan-seared with a lightly delicious lemon butter sauce, these chicken breasts come served on some great angel hair pasta. Southern-born editor Andre Leon Talley remembers, “The happiest moments of my childhood were spent on my grandmother’s front porch in Durham, N.C., or at her sister’s farmhouse in Orange County, where chickens paraded outside the kitchen’s screen door and hams were cured in the smokehouse.” Well, the chickens will parade like some great half-time college bands just for your happy moments at the table.

Friday, October 28

Shrimptastic Friday: Shrimp and grits ($15). Shrimp on baked garlic cheese grits (crispy or creamy), $15. Shrimp lovingly cooked with chopped veggies in a delicious sauce served over baked garlic cheese grits (either crispy or cream) will make you toot your horns up and down the street. Our old friend from Massachusetts Emeril Lagasse shares, “Music is one of those things that is constantly going in my head all the time. It’s sort of like the evolution and creation of doing food, or my philosophy about wine. It’s always beating in my head, so it keeps the spirit moving.” Most folks don’t know he garnered a scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music because of his percussion skills. He chose the kitchen…and bam! we sure are glad. These shrimp will help you with music, rhythm, and, well, life. Come join us, we’d love to see you.

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Stone House Eats Bread Baked Daily

Lunch Served | 11am-2pm Tuesday — Friday

You can find our house at 828 Julia Street in Rayville, Louisiana. You can call us at (318) 267-4457.

Thanks for letting us serve you, and may God bless you richly as you sit at the table.

Famous Quotes

Johnny Carson once quipped, “Democracy is buying a big house you can’t afford with money you don’t have to impress people you wish were dead.” Hmmm.

Save the Last Shrimp for Me

Well, what could be better than a sensory overwhelming experience of bacon backed by The Drifters singing some R&B? We’re not sure, but we know what’s happening as we cruise to the end of the week. Here’s what we’ve got cooking at week’s end: Our bacon chicken ranch salad and shrimp étouffée.

What We’re Cooking for You at Week’s End

 Thursday, October 20

Grilled chicken bacon ranch salad. We’ll highlight a flavorful twist on our popular grilled chicken salad: have it with our house-made ranch and bacon or our spicy chipotle ranch and bacon. Chef Alexandra Guaranschelli suggests, “I think we love bacon because it has all the qualities of an amazing sensory experience. When we cook it, the sizzling sound is so appetizing, the aroma is maddening, the crunch of the texture is so gratifying and the taste delivers every time.” Well, that’s over-talking it, but okay — she’s right, bacon overwhelms the senses. Come get overwhelmed with us, we’d love to see you.

Friday, October 21

Shrimptastic Friday: Shrimp étouffée with rice ($15). Shrimp lovingly cooked with the tasty trinity veggies, a light roux, and delectable Cajun spices in a delicious sauce served over Louisiana rice will make you boogie up and down the street. Once destined for the B side of a record (if folks still remember what that means), our old fried Dick Clark realized the B side for the better song: “Save the Last Dance for Me.” Well, in October 1960, The Drifters, led by frontman Ben E. King, topped the charts with that lovely tune reminding that special someone of one of those eternal truths we know well: “Dance with the one who brought you.” Yep. What folks don’t know is that Ben E. King loved shrimp, and every once in a while, he’d sneak a lyric: “But don’t forget who’s takin’ you home, and in whose arms you’re gonna be. So darlin’ save the last shrimp for me.” There it is, R&B history and the love of shrimp. Come join us this Friday, The Drifters will be singing….

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Stone House Eats Bread Baked Daily

Lunch Served | 11am-2pm Tuesday — Friday

You can find our house at 828 Julia Street in Rayville, Louisiana. You can call us at (318) 267-4457.

Thanks for letting us serve you, and may God bless you richly as you sit at the table.

Famous Quotes

Paula Deen laughs, “Onions and bacon cooking up just makes your kitchen smell so good. In fact, one day I’m going to come up with a room deodorizer that smells like bacon and onions. It’s a fabulous smell.” We don’t want a room deodorizer, we want a woodwick candle that smells of lovely bacon and onions and has the sizzle of the pan. Yep.

October 18, 2016 Weekly Menu

Chuck Yeager joins us in breaking the gumbo barrier, and Barry Manilow gives the soundtrack. Oh yes, fancy doings at the table this week. Here’s what we’ve got cooking for you this week: Navy beans with ham and hot water cornbread, chicken and sausage gumbo, bacon chicken ranch salad, and shrimp étouffée.

What We’re Cooking for You This Week

Tuesday, October 18

Navy beans and ham with hot water cornbread. We make our own deeply flavorful ham stock, add some scrumptious navy beans with some wonderfully smoked ham, and serve it over rice (with some hot water cornbread). Yep. It’ll totally get your week started in a fantastic way, and it just might help the cool weather some. Changes in the jet stream and all.

Wednesday, October 19

Chicken and sausage gumbo. We make our gumbo with a dark roux, chicken, sausage, and the trinity of bell pepper, onion, and celery. Oh, Grandpa Justin would add sauterne wine, a cup or two or three, and so do we. Way back in October 1947, the “Glamorous Glennis” — a bullet-shaped plane with short wings called the X-1 — broke the sound barrier with Captain Chuck Yeager at the stick. For reasons of secrecy, the government held the announcement until early 1948. Of course, Yeager flew another prototype, the X1-A, to 1,650mph in 1953. Not bad for a boy raised on beans and cornbread from Myra, West Virginia, a small hamlet on the Mud River. Well, our gumbo may not help you break the sound barrier with Chuck, but it will move you faster to the weekend.

Have a look at Grandpa Justin cooking his dark roux gumbo here.

If you can’t make it for lunch on Wednesday, just give us a call at 267-4457, we’ll set aside some supper for you including house salad, gumbo, and house-made bread.

Thursday, October 20

Grilled chicken bacon ranch salad. We’ll highlight a flavorful twist on our popular grilled chicken salad: have it with our house-made ranch and bacon or our spicy chipotle ranch and bacon. Oldie but goodie Barry Manilow says, “Every few years, I go back into all the songs and I update them so that it never sounds like an oldies show. If you come to the shows, they’re full of muscle. ‘Copacabana’ sounds like it could have been released yesterday.” Well, her name was Lola, and she loved grilled chicken bacon ranch salads — okay, it was a boy named Tony, and they worked from 8 till 4. “Who could ask for more?” Barry sings. Try this variation on our grilled chicken salad, it might just get you dancing with Barry, Lola, and Tony.

Friday, October 21

Shrimptastic Friday: Shrimp étouffée with rice ($15). Shrimp lovingly cooked with the tasty trinity veggies, a light roux, and delectable Cajun spices in a delicious sauce served over Louisiana rice will make you boogie up and down the street. Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa, admits, “The dirty little secret is that I grew up in a household where there were no carbohydrates allowed, ever. No cookies, no bread, no potatoes, no rice. My mother was very extreme in terms of what she served. Since I left home more than 40 years ago, I’ve been making it right for myself.” Well, join us with Ina, making things right with shrimp étouffée and rice. It’ll make the world right — and we need some of that, don’t we?

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Stone House Eats Bread Baked Daily

Lunch Served | 11am-2pm Tuesday — Friday

You can find our house at 828 Julia Street in Rayville, Louisiana. You can call us at (318) 267-4457.

Thanks for letting us serve you, and may God bless you richly as you sit at the table.

Famous Quotes

Well, our old buddy Bob Hope laughed, “I love to go to Washington — if only to be near my money.” He also said, “Kids are wonderful, but I like mine barbecued.” Bob, anytime you want to go on the road to Morocco, we’re game — call Bing. We’ll bring our golf clubs so we can work.

One Million Gallons of Beer on the Wall

Find out where Oktoberfest originated — the birth of the beer. You may just be surprised. Well, you can depend on our sharing some great food at the table to finish the week in fine fashion. Here’s what we’ve got cooking for you at week’s end: Grits and grillades and broiled catfish tacos with fresh salsas.

What We’re Cooking for You at Week’s End

Thursday, October 13

Grist and grillades. Our lovingly cooked pork loin medallions rest atop baked garlic cheese grits covered with a sumptuous tomato gravy. Folks may not know how our German friends started celebrating Oktoberfest. On October 12, 1810 (that long ago), Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig (who later became the King Ludwig I of Bavaria) married Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen (try saying that three times quickly) in Munich, and they celebrated on the fields in front of the city gates (naming them Theresienwiese — ”Therese’s fields” — in honor of the crown princess) with festivities of food, beer, and horse races. Folks, deciding to keep enjoying the festivities, shortened the name to “Wies’n.” No kidding. To us, it sounds like George and Weezy, moving on up (we finally got a piece of the pie, or beer, as Oktoberfest goes). But, what we get is a party with all kinds of festivities, most notable drinking beer. Estimates say folks in Germany, celebrating Oktoberfest, will consume about one (1) million gallons of beer. Well, that’s a long way from a wedding celebration 200 years ago. And, to continue the parenthetical assault Ludwig had an interesting godfather (yep, it was Louis XVI, the one who lost his head with his German wife Marie Antoinette). Who knows, maybe Ludwig said something like, “Let them drink beer” (but it didn’t cost him his head — instead, he got a party that’s still rocking his anniversary). “One million grits and grillades on the wall, one million grits and grillades on the wall….”

If you can’t make it for lunch on Thursday, just give us a call at 267-4457, we’ll set aside some supper for you including grits, grillades, house salad, and fresh bread.

Friday, October 14

Broiled catfish tacos, fresh salsas, and lime cilantro slaw. Take some specially seasoned and broiled catfish, add them to a lightly fried corn tortilla with some lime cilantro slaw, fresh salsas, and charro beans, and you’ve got a rocket launcher for the weekend. Our old movie friend Roger Ebert once noted, “There is a part of me that will forever want to be walking under autumn leaves, carrying a briefcase containing the works of Shakespeare and Yeats and a portable chess set. I will pass an old tree under which once on a summer night I lay on the grass with a fragrant young woman and we quoted e.e. cummings back and forth.” Who knew Roger had game at romance? Well, bring your briefcases full of Shakespeare, Yeats, or cummings, and we’ll pass some catfish tacos back and forth underneath an old tree among the autumn leaves. Yep. It’s Friday. Game on.

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Stone House Eats Bread Baked Daily

Lunch Served | 11am-2pm Tuesday — Friday

You can find our house at 828 Julia Street in Rayville, Louisiana. You can call us at (318) 267-4457.

Thanks for letting us serve you, and may God bless you richly as you sit at the table.

Famous Quotes

Sir Winston has a wry observation about democracy, “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” 

October 11, 2016 Weekly Menu

Earth, Wind & Fire reprise their great hit “Boogie Wonderland” as they sing about chicken enchiladas. No kidding. Here’s what we’ve got cooking for you this wonderful week: Fried pork chops and mama’s rice, chicken enchiladas with fresh salsas, grits and grillades, and broiled catfish tacos.

What We’re Cooking for You This Week

Tuesday, October 11

Fried pork chops, mama’s rice, and roasted broccoli. Blissfully slumbering overnight in a special saucy boudoir of buttermilk and seasonings, these pork chops will ceremoniously swim with their special flour bathing suits in a big pot of hot and lovely grease, and they come served with mama’s rice sided by some lovely roasted broccoli. Orson Welles, taking a note from John F. Kennedy, humorously observed, “Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.” Well, in today’s political climate, that’s probably the safer question. We’ve got some good, old-fashioned home cooking that will answer Mr. Welles well.

Wednesday, October 12

Chicken enchiladas, fresh salsas, and rice with black beans. We take flavorful roasted chicken, rolled in lightly fried corn tortillas, and add our very own deeply delicious house-made enchilada sauce to make a great dish. Forty years ago an academically trained, multi-instrumentalist stunned the disco scene with a wonderfully redone rendition of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Yep. The seventies folks already know we’re highlighting Walter Murphy’s “A Fifth Of Beethoven” released in 1976, and it rocketed to the top of the charts much to everyone’s surprise. It even made the soundtrack of that iconic seventies disco show Saturday Night Fever. Well, our chicken enchiladas will have you dancing the disco slide with the hustle, the bump, and the bus stop (although we wonder why a dance move would be named “bus stop”). Hey, Walter will be here with Tony, Stephanie, Bobby C., Double J, and Annette. Earth, Wind & Fire will reprise their great hit, “Let’s dance, chicken enchilada….let’s dance, chicken enchilada.” Yep. Wednesdays. Off the disco chain.

Here’s Walter Murphy with a bunch of folks playing “A Fifth of Beethoven” on, you guessed it, “The Midnight Special.”

If you can’t make it for lunch on Wednesday, just give us a call at 267-4457, we’ll set aside some supper for you including chicken enchiladas, fresh salsas, and rice with black beans.

Thursday, October 13

Grist and grillades. Our lovingly cooked pork loin medallions rest atop baked garlic cheese grits covered with a sumptuous tomato gravy. Organic farmer and essayist Joel Salatin notes, “The pig is not just pork chops and bacon and ham to us. The pig is a co-laborer in this great land-healing ministry.” Right on, brother. Let our grits and grillades co-labor with you to finish the week in spectacular fashion, and pork with lovingly cooked grits might just heal us.

Friday, October 14

Broiled catfish tacos, fresh salsas, and lime cilantro slaw. Take some specially seasoned and broiled catfish, add them to a lightly fried corn tortilla with some lime cilantro slaw, fresh salsas, and charro beans, and you’ve got a rocket launcher for the weekend. Our old friend and composer Ludwig van Beethoven once noted, “Only the pure in heart can make a good tacos.” Well, that’s not really what he said. He said, “Only the pure in heart can make a good soup.” Tacos fit fairly well in that, though, especially ones with fresh salsas. Of course, he also said, “Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.” Okay, that’s probably too deep for Friday.

Stone House Eats Bread Baked Daily

Lunch Served | 11am-2pm Tuesday — Friday

You can find our house at 828 Julia Street in Rayville, Louisiana. You can call us at (318) 267-4457.

Thanks for letting us serve you, and may God bless you richly as you sit at the table.

Famous Quotes

Our funny fried Grouch Marx rightly observed, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” Hmmm.