Wondering what's for dinner? Kris Parmelee's Avec Moi offers customers fresh, local and organic ingredients in a variety of dishes for any occasion every day.

"Avec Moi means 'with me' in French and was a family effort. My kids and I came up with the idea while driving in the car. The whole idea was creating a concept with everybody being at the table," she explained.

"I decided to open the store because I worked a lot. I have three kids and needed options for dinner and there are never any options to go. It's sort of out of a necessity. I did my old job for 11 years and always wanted to do this. We opened on June 15, 2012. Before that, I worked out of Indy's Kitchen at 24th and Central Avenue from August of 2010 until June of 2011. It's a commercial kitchen that is rented by the hour," Ms. Parmelee said. Indy's Kitchen is owned by Linda Gilkerson, Tom Abeel, William Powell and Paul Pickett, which opened in April of 2010.

The store's location at 701 East 62nd Street was an ideal ingredient in the recipe. "When I worked at Indy's Kitchen, I paid attention to where my customers lived. I knew I had to be south of 75th street and north of 16th street to be where my customer base was from. Broad Ripple is a great place for a small business because the environment is really supportive and business friendly and the Broad Ripple Village Association has an active business group. It seems like the right place. It's a partnership with my dad, Keith Trump, who was involved in restaurants and also a builder for 30+ years," she mentioned.

Learning to cook at an early age, she reminisced, "My grandmother made oatmeal raisin cookies and lasagna when I was growing up. I've been cooking since I was a child. The things I cook were really influenced by my grandmother."

"We try to use a lot of local and organic ingredients whenever we can. The kind of cooking that I like - kind of rustic, home cooking with vegetables, salads and soups. We try different things that aren't heavily sauced or seasoned. You can really taste the flavors. We cook with a lot of hearty ingredients, like putting kale in a soup. The darker the greens, the healthier they are. We use a lot of kale, squash, turnips and healthy alternatives. It's very clean eating," she emphasized. A large spear of kale appeared in an adjoining display store case, eager to become one of Ms. Parmelee's culinary creations.

"We always have a vegetarian dish available. All of our baked goods are made with organic bleached flour and unbleached sugar. We're very careful about the ingredients that we use, like free-range eggs from a local Amish farmer. We get our meat from Fisher Farms, which is located in Jasper and vegetables from Seldom Seen Farms in Danville," she said. This statewide network of food producers acts as a partnership with Avec Moi.

Ave Moi's menu varies with the seasons: "We try to use so many fresh items in the summer. When it was hot, almost anything we made required no heating. Pastas and soups made in the winter and more seasonal vegetables. Butternut squash lasagna is one of our biggest sellers along with Dijon mustard with cognac and beef stew. Chicken Chili with red sauce instead of white sauce sells out all the time," Ms. Parmelee mentioned. Stuffed acorn squash with wild rice and cranberries are also a favorite.

Avec Moi's menu items vary. "The menu changes every day. We cook in small batches, like 15 servings because we want items to turn over quickly. We cook everyday. The contents of the display case constantly changes. We sell items quickly, which adds to the fun. We're always putting something new in there," she noted.

Kathy Rutledge is Avec Moi's manager. "I do a lot of the cooking and decide when we need additional food in the display case," she said. Ms. Parmelee is also involved in the cooking and preparation of dishes, which include gluten-free items.

An Indianapolis native, she graduated from Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School and earned a bachelor's degree in Public Administration from the IU-Indianapolis campus. "I was a fundraising consultant for many years and still do part-time grant proposal development for small businesses, like innovative technology, FDA trial-type ventures," she stated.

Avec Moi also caters for birthday, dinner and engagement parties, baby and wedding showers in additional to special office events.

Their demographics are diverse: "We have three primary groups of customers - busy families, young professionals and baby boomers. We have a lot of seniors who are widowed and live alone and young professionals who don't want to cook for themselves. We have a wide variety of food in the display case everyday. You can meet the needs of everybody in your family in one stop with the items we have. The baby boomer group, empty nesters and single seniors have a nice alternative. We have about a dozen people who come in once a week. The price point is about the same as going out to eat. We price things a la carte and per serving so people can mix and match. We keep the prices competitive," Ms. Parmelee said.

Avec Moi will have carry out catering for the Big Game. Items include a Chili or Pulled Pork dinner, Dips (Spinach Artichoke, Roasted Red or Buttermilk Herb), Chicken Tostadas and Sausage Cheddar Bites, Mini Meatball Sandwiches, Mushrooms stuffed with Goat Cheese and more. To order these items or for more information, call 426-3853, visit: www.happygofoodie.com or e-mail: kris@happygofoodie.com.

For Valentine's Day, Avec Moi will sell cookies by the dozen in addition to treat bags filled with one of the following items: Homemade Marshmallows, Chocolate/Caramel-Covered Pretzels, Heart-shaped Fudgy Brownies.

They also offer carryout dinners featuring: Salads (Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese, Beets and Pecans with Homemade Dijon Vinaigrette), Entrees (Pan-Roasted Salmon with Tomato Vinaigrette or Local Beef Loin with Cherry Port Sauce) two sides (Mushroom & Asparagus Risotto and Carrots with Thyme & Butter) and a choice of Dessert (iced heart sugar cookies, mini double chocolate cake or mini carrot cake).

Avec Moi can be followed on Twitter: (twitter.com/happygofoodie) @HappyGoFoodie and friended on Facebook (www.facebook.com/happygofoodie). Interested and existing customers can read the foodie blog, search for recipes and order online.

Kris Parmelee brings her culinary creations from her kitchen to your table from Avec Moi, located just one block south from Broad Ripple Avenue and College Avenue open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Bon Appetit!