We're thinking about food and menus in these days.  How to make eating at Shiloh more exciting and inviting.  It's paying off big time.  We're getting rave reviews from our guests.  They call us a 5 star restaurant now!  Can't say we've earned all five of those stars, but maybe at least three.  It really does not add much to the cost.  Just a few tricks here and there.  First off, we make sure we have four courses.  That in itself makes it fancy.  Then we go all out on the place setting.  We use pretty place mats on top of a table cloth.  It defines the space for each person.  Cloth napkins are a must.  Napkin rings, too.  And our fanciest dishes.  If the same guest is eating multiple meals, change the dishes around.  We have numerous sets.  And use crystal and good silverware, too.  Then we start with a soup course.  We have this terrific chicken soup recipe that we developed several years ago.  It's easy, economical, and we make up a big batch and freeze it.  We make it two or three times a year, depending on how many meals we are serving.  Garnish is important.  We use chopped home grown chives on top of grated cheese.  And we serve it with homemade sour dough french bread and butter.  Filling but not terribly expensive.  We also serve homemade tomato juice which is a bi-product of our homemade tomato sauce.  We add salt, lemon, and fresh ground pepper corns.  Just a dash of cayenne pepper spices it up a bit.  We serve a small glass.  Just enough to give a lift to the soup and bread course.  Then it's salad.  We do a great tossed salad complete with our own thousand island dressing.  We invented the recipe years ago because it was not available in town at any price.  We've actually become well known for it.  Then the entry.  Something good and filling.  Maybe it's lasagna, or spaghetti, or chicken pot pie or enchiladas or a whole list of other possibilities.  We top the meal off with the dessert course which is most often fruit.  We are blessed with a good variety of tropical fruit.  Or if we are short on any one kind of fruit we resort to a yummy fruit salad which is always a hit.

And there you have it.  But we are thinking of adding in homemade bread bowl soup. One recipe of bread (normally two loaves) makes eight bread bowls.  We could serve a wide variety of cream soups.  We are thinking of serving that tomorrow night if we can find the time to make the bread.  Phone ahead to make reservations for a meal.  Our table tends to fill up pretty fast at certain times.  But we would love to wow you.  It's fun.