A little story about my dad...and a Happy Fathers Day to you men out there.

Growing up, my dad did more cooking than my mom did. He would go into the kitchen and take a little of this, and a little of that and make something delicious. You wouldn't think you would have all the ingredients for a meal, but he could whip something up! My grandma (his mother) was like that too. I always loved being at her house, because I knew she was always going to make me fried eggs, (sunny side up) toast, and some sort of meat almost every day for breakfast...and she wouldn't just hand us the plate...she would say "you want me to mash your eggs for you"...and of course, we did. It made her feel special to "mash" the eggs for us so we could sop up the yolks with our toast...lol. I don't think I ever "mash" my eggs that I don't think about my grandma. Those two people influenced me and my cooking more than anyone else in my life.

When I was young and first married I wanted my grandmas recipe for meatloaf. I asked my dad for it. I lived here and they still lived in Idaho. My daddy wrote it down for me on a little piece of notebook paper. He wrote all his little personal notes on it to tell me just how I was supposed to mix it and how to make the sauce to go on top...and at the top it says "MOMS MEATLOAF" and mailed it to me. That was over 20 years ago and I still have that little ripped out peice of notebook paper. It has yellowed, has spatters on it...but that is one of my most sentimental things I have. It was written by my daddy, and it was my grandmas recipe. I have it tucked in the back of one of my favorite cookbooks and from time to time I will take it out and think of them both and smile. They are both gone now. My grandma died when I had just had my oldest daughter and my daddy died when he was 52. I was 27.

Both of my parents died at a young age, and I really have had a hard time with Mothers Day and Fathers Day. My mom was 49, she had a heart attack. My dad was 52 and had a cerebral aneurysm. They missed out on my kids growing, neither of them got to meet my twins. So holidays are bittersweet for us. I know if my parents were around, they would both want to be a part of this. My dad especially. This would of been right up his alley. He would of been trying to tell me how to cook it HIS way. lol. With Fathers day coming up, I wanted to share a little about my dad. I miss him every day and wish I had had more time with him.

I think I will have to make some of my grandmas meatloaf soon!

Happy Fathers Day to all you men!

Menu for the week of June 13-17

The Mixing Bowl

511 West Arch

Searcy AR  72143

501-305-4845

Menu for the week of June 13-17

This week is going to be a little different than most…as we won’t be doing a Monday thru Friday Menu…We have so many orders thru this week that that will be hard to stick to and we will be short handed on Thursday and Friday as we have some of our girls going out of town for the weekendJ

So instead, I am making a list of all we are cooking this week.  We are going to cook as much as we can every day and as many different dishes as we can every day so that when you all come in, you will have a selection to choose from.

If you have ordered from us before, you know we always cook more than what is on our menu, and I post it on facebook as we do it.  We are always getting calls for a lunch or dinner here or there, so we make extras and have in our cooler.  J

This week we are making:  Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salads (Fresh Daily) with butter croissants.  $4.75

Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Salads.  This is a delicious cold pasta salad with shredded chicken, crumbled bacon, diced tomatoes, diced cucumbers, shredded cheddar, and our own home made ranch dressing.

Poppy-Seed Chicken:  This is our best selling dish.  We have orders for this almost every day.  So therefore we make it almost every dayJ.

Chicken Spaghetti:  This is a cream based sauce with chunks of chicken breast, sauted onions and bell peppers give this a delicious flavor.

Chicken and Spinach Lasagna Rolls:  We are trying something new.  The chicken and spinach lasagna is becoming very popular…we are making these into rolls.  And topping with our home-made cream sauce. Yum.

Capellini Pasta with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Artichokes. This will be made on Thursday.  I asked on facebook and had several responses.:)  We will make our creamy parmesan and mushroom sauce to go with this.

And I’m sure much much more.  Please Check facebook for daily specials or call usJ 305-4845

Menu for the week of May 31-June 3

The Mixing Bowl

511 West Arch

Searcy AR  72143

501-305-4845

Menu for the week of May 31-June 4

Tuesday:  Chicken-Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad….this is a cold pasta salad made with rotini pasta, chunks of chicken breast, and crumbled bacon, diced tomatoes, diced cucumbers, and a little shredded cheddar, with our home made ranch-sauce.  Tuesday: Classic Lasagna (Lasagna noodles layered with a home made meaty tomato sauce and ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella cheeses.) We will also have Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad with Croissants.

Wednesday: Poppy-Seed Chicken (Needs no explanation! J)

We will also be making Smothered Beef Enchiladas.  Ground beef seasoned with green chilies and Mexican seasonings, then rolled into flour tortillas, nestled on a cream sauce and then topped with more sauce and shredded cheddar.

Thursday:  Mexican Chicken:  Ours is made with Doritos and a zesty cheesy sauce with chunks of juicy chicken and a blend of seasonings.  Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas:  Tender chicken, blended with a sour cream cheese sauce with a little kick.  Not spicy…just flavorful.  Rolled in your choice of flour or corn tortillas.  If you want corn tortillas, please call us and tell us and we will make some for you.

Friday:  Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo. We start with a home-made Alfredo sauce made with real cream, butter and Parmesan, then add in diced chicken and toss with fettuccini noodles.  Pasta Carbonara:  Pasta tossed with home-made alfredo, bacon and peas…this combines to make a mouthwatering combination of flavors!

Casserole Prices are as follows:  Small:  feeds 2-3 8.99

                                                  Medium:  feeds 4-6  16.99

                                                  Large:  feeds 8-10  24.99

Solicitors...funny story

Alright...let me start this off by saying I am usually patient with solicitors.  I feel for them.  Until they won't take no for an answer, or they keep calling back even when you tell them you are not interested and to please "Put you on the DO NOT CALL LIST"...so here's where this story comes in...

For the past couple months The Mixing Bowl has been getting calls from a certain company trying to sell us something we are not interested in.  I have asked them over and over again to please remove our name from their list....they keep calling.  As some of you may know I have a lady who helps me out at the store who is from the Philippines.  One day the solicitor called and we were laughing and said the next time they called since they won't give up, that we would just let our little Cathy talk to them in her language and confuse them and they would maybe give up calling on us.  I know, sounds mean...but she was up for it...and hey, they won't quit calling.

So today the phone rings...I see the 855 number that has been calling and I hand the phone to Cathy...all of us are grinning thinking we are going to show them....lol.  Cathy starts speaking...and she pauses....and looks confused...and she starts speaking again (in her Philippine language) and the rest of us are looking at each other thinking NO WAY...the person on the other end is speaking back to Cathy in Philippino and they are carrying on a conversation...back and forth....We were all dying laughing and couldn't believe it.  We still couldn't get away from the solicitor!  haha.  It was just too coincidental and what were the odds of that?  We laughed about that all day today!

Menu for the week of May 23-May 27

The Mixing Bowl
501-305-4845

Menu for the Week of May 23-27th.

Monday:  Chicken Spaghetti....Poppy Seed Chicken...Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad/

Tuesday:  Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas....Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

Wednesday:  Poppy Seed Chicken...Chicken Tortilla Soup

Thursday:  Shepherds Pie...Stuffed Bell Pepper Casserole

Friday:  Mexican Quiche...this will come in one size.  The price for this will be 14.99 and will serve approximately 6-8 slices.  This will be a great dish for the weekend!

Casserole Prices are as follows.  Small (feeds 2-3) 8.99  Medium (feeds 4-6) 16.99  and Large (feeds 8-10) 24.99

We almost ALWAYS have more than what is on the menu.  We get calls for lunches and we always cook extras!  Just call us or check on facebook, we are pretty good about updating what we have in our coolers on there.

The Mixing Bowl is Celebrating its First Year This Week!

We will be cooking lots of your favorites and having daily specials…Check us out on Facebook to see what we are doing for the day…or call us and ask. 

Dishes this week will be Chicken Spaghetti, Poppy Seed Chicken, Chicken and Wild Rice, Texas Tortilla Bake, Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad, Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad, Chicken and Dumplin’s, Shredded Beef Enchiladas, Smothered Beef Enchiladas, and much more…please call us to find out what we have, but as we grow we are finding it hard to stick to one dish on our menu for the day….We usually have 4 or 5 dishes to choose from in our coolers at any one time!

Today (Monday) we are giving away a free Banana Pudding (the 5.00 size) with every medium or large entrée purchase.  Every day will be something different that we will offer special this week.  Check online or call us!  Thanks for making our first year a success and we hope to be here for many years to come!

The Mixing Bowl

501-305-4845

What a difference a year makes!

Today I was talking to a friend about all the changes we have been through in a year here.  There really have been so many changes!

When I found this little house last year there was still snow on the ground. This was such a nice "quaint" little place that had lots of character (I felt)  I called Tammy Ghent (she and her husband Steve are the owners) I lease it from them.  One of the first questions I asked her was if it had a big kitchen....she said YES...we met, looked at it, and immediately I could envision what it could be.  Out of all the places I looked at, this one had everything I needed at a price I felt was reasonable.  It had a large kitchen, (to fit commercial appliances we would move in) it had room to grow...(which I plan to do, Lord willing)...it had a room my kids could use to "hang out" in...and it felt like "home" which is what I wanted to create for our customers.

I told Tammy and Steve I wanted it and they got busy right away fixing it up and getting it ready...I got busy right away trying to find equipment to put in my kitchen.  Doing this on a budget with no loans was no easy task!  Every month we would buy one or two  pieces of equipment, after spending thousands of dollars trying to get my kitchen ready, the kitchen store we were buying equipment from told us someone else in Searcy was buying equipment from them to do the same thing I was doing.  MY HEART SANK!  This was an idea that had been in me for about 6 years, and to finally be doing it, thinking no one else in our town had ever done it...and then find out at the exact time I was...someone else was doing it too.  If I hadn't already invested so much and signed a year lease...I probably would of changed my mind and given up.  Thankfully I didn't!

The first day I started cooking there I truly had no clue how to cook for LARGE crowds...I didn't even turn on the open sign for over a week...I decided if people walked in and it wasn't just perfect till we got the hang of it...if the open sign wasn't on...maybe they would be forgiving.  I hoped they would understand we were doing a "practice run"...and they did.  I did pretty much everything by myself except for a little help from friends and my children.  It was nothing for a customer to walk in and I would be back in the kitchen cooking, and I would turn the stove off and go run the cash register...then go back to the stove.  I did that for 2 months.  Sometimes packing the kids up at night with pillows and blankets because I had so many orders that I knew had to be filled and I was the only one to cook...and I would literally cook almost all night...get a little nap, get up, change clothes and customers would come in and never know it!  It was the hardest couple months work of my life!

People would say I needed to hire someone to help, and I did...but I knew I had to have enough customers to pay to hire someone. I had no business loans to start this...no huge savings...I was a single mom...so I did all I could do to make what customers I was getting happy...and hope I kept them....and I have kept so many of them! I finally got to hire someone, and she was a wonderful worker and helped me more than she knows.  I finally felt like I could breathe a little...I swear 2 months went by that I don't know if I shaved my legs or not....lol  I have had a couple people help me on and off..and each of them have taught me something and there will always be a little part of them in the dishes we prepare here.  There is Kelly's cream cheese corn (which she called everyones favorite corn) there is Crystals Butterfinge'r pies (yep, she is the one who brought this one to The Mixing Bowl!)  There is Nicki's Texas Sheet cake and her delicious sausage balls!  And I am lucky enough to be having one of my best friends from high school help me some and she is a cooking diva! Misty brought the Heavenly Chocolate Mousse to us, as well as lot's of other great ideas.  These girls have helped me more than they know...not everyone of them is still around...but I will remember and appreciate all they have done to help me get started.

We TRY our hardest...we cook for you all like we cook for our families....and we really do cook with lot's of love....we know food allergies, we know who likes what (if you become a regular) we really have grown attached to quite a lot of our customers...and if for some reason we don't see you for a while...we are kind of like old mother hens wondering about you!

I have never had a job that I loved like I love this.  I have always heard if you do what you love you will never work a day in your life...I am not saying I don't feel like I am working, because sometimes after a really hard day my back hurts so bad I don't think I can stand up straight...lol  but if I have to work...(since money is not just falling off trees:) this is the best job that I could ever ask for!  I love it!  I love the girls who help me! I love our customers!

I hope The Mixing Bowl continues to grow and be blessed the way we have this year...I hope this is the job I retire from.  Thank you all for helping us to make it our first year!  I promise that I will always try to provide you all with the best service and food possible and a fair price.  You all have truly enriched my life and I am so very thankful for you.

Cindy