It's a Wrap St.Louis Style !

Oh MY! When our June month comes around in our family...it's Celebration time! And a month we all go broke! My Mother-in-law's birthday starts it off, then our daughter Dana's birthday, our Anniversary {#27 this year!},my hubby's birthday, then... Father's Day! Whew! And remember we had our College Graduate this year too ! See Best Meal Ever post  It seems like every family has a month out of the year like this!

So this year my hubby & I decided instead of all these lil' gifts we usually get, we'd do a combo deal. Combine it with my Mother's Day gift too, for I have been wanted to see Laura's new place! So all of our share of celebrations = airfare to St.Louis,MO to visit our oldest daughter, Laura ! #1 reason to visit St. Louis ! And as, Burkey's travel, we love to go,go,go and eat,eat,eat! We have experienced re-living our life here in St.Louis, for we lived here almost 27 years ago,amazing how places change through the years...

Our Weather Forecast for the week...Note: says Nothing about HUMIDITY !
 Laura said we didn't need to know...

Proof behind the sign
"Food to soothe your inner beast"

   Our 1st day in St.Louis,MO we had JimmyJohns to go, as you can see the zoo knows The Burkey's! Has a sign right next to our table as we did indeed have "the inner beast!"
 
                     Laura enjoying Jimmy John's "Food to soothe HER inner beast!"

 Hanging out with the animals at The St.Louis Zoo Laura was amused... that her Mom got splashed by the puffins... and was sad that she didn't get a picture!"

  WOW ! St.Louis Zoo's Penguin exhibit you can REALLY GET UP   CLOSE !  You step right up to the clear window of the tank...like Shamu !

One of our favorite places for a treat is Ted Drewes. Ironically, this got me through Laura's pregnancy way back then! Custardly frozen deliciousness all in a cup. Our favorite flavor is Hot Fudge...we've visited two times so far, and of course, my hubby's # 2 reason why he came to visit and wants to go for Father's Day, now he's found out that it's also available in the local St.Louis grocery stores! so he gets his Ted Drewes fix ! And Yes, he even had it for breakfast! He added fruit to his vanilla flavored Ted Drewes frozen custard to be "A healthier version!" Oh MY!

Our favorite daughter {FYI Dana: Laura hacked in here while I took a break at blogging here and put this in !} Our family & Friends know this too well on facebook !Read more on : Remember previous post Today's Father's Day! .

We were introduced to, Magpies in St. Charles. Very nice outside patio atmosphere, wide range menu. Our highlights, besides the obvious...visiting Laura, was the Potato soup, it one of the best we've had and the quiche artichoke with their house salad, again one of the best I've had. But if you go by the saying "Real Men don't eat Quiche",order the Potato soup,like my guy did.

St. Charles makes you feel like you are back in Colonial times, with the cobblestone roads and quaint brick buildings. St. Charles, which traces its history to the late 18th century  . 

 The first American settlers began arriving in the 1790's. Daniel Boone, the famous frontiersman, became one of the first settlers in St. Charles County by building a home in nearby Defiance in 1799. St. Charles has been designated as a Lewis and Clark site on the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.  

They have many places to check out in museums, gift stores, wine tasting, pubs, restaurants ,and to top it off  Laura introduced us to "Grandma's Cookies" !

 If you like your chocolate chip cookie that  taste like it's just come out of the oven, with chocolate just alil' melting, this is a must stop for you!
 Check out my pics on this chocolaty meltness...yummm ! It's like Grandma put another scoop of cookie dough on top of the cookie! Ya...you know this is going on my list to try to make! YUM !

photo courtesy of Frankie Tocco's Pizzaeria website

We had  a St. Louis Pizza Meal one night from Frankie Tocco's Pizzeria, using a special   St.Louis cheese  called "Provel" . We had it  "to go" one night.Very tasty with a creaminess texture, Laura said we had to get their Garlic Cheese Bread with this yummy cheese. We made a salad back at Laura's with their salad dressing to round out our St.Louis Pizza night! Stopped by Schnuck's grocery store to pick up salad ingredients and a beer sampling of Schlafy's beer, a St. Louis beer that started after we lived here.

photo courtesy of Pappy's website

We tried a new place "Pappy's Smokehouse", it's been on Man vs. Food on Travel Channel. Oh MY! We have a new favorite BBQ place. We had the "Adam Bomb!" Click on link to see video of Man vs.Food. IT'S SO MUCH FOOD! but oh so...good! If your in St.Louis this is a must place to put on your itinerary! Just be prepared for waiting in line, but soooo worth it! 

photo courtesy of Pappy's website

We opted out of the spicy link, instead substitute with Beef Brisket sandwich. One of our sides, the Fried Corn on the cob, so many flavors going on in this! sweetness, salty, tons of butter, with alil' spice but not too spicy. Green beans and applesauce for our healthier side. Then Sweet Potatoes Fries! These are the BEST we've ever HAD!  I think it has a cinnamon sugar instead of the normal salt on it but with hint of saltiness. A MUST when you go to Pappy's Smokehouse ! Click on link for video of what's Pappy's Smokehouse is all about !

We enjoyed a coffeebreak at Kaldis Coffee and we had  their version of a Gooey Butter Cake for dessert after a delicious BBQ burgerfest with friends of Laura's on Saturday night. We experienced Shakespeare Fest STL in Frontier Park of St. Louis, Missouri.

Where they produce a free Shakespeare every summer in Forest Park. Entertaining,enlightening and educating hundreds of thousands of people since 1997. This is a great city that has so many free and reasonable things to do here!  I wonder ,why can't all of our cities in US be like this, truly a great example of what Community is all about!

Our view of the Arch walking to Busch Stadium

                            The New Busch Stadium...another change in St. Louis

Of course we try to always fit a baseball game in on our fun trips ! Go Cardinals! It was WHITEY Herzog shirt night and I enjoyed a foot-long corn dog, sorry forgot to take a pic of it at the beautiful new Busch Stadium    .

                                                              Day View

Night View Arch in Green-way Shows up better

We were awaken on Saturday with a "Good Morning"  to tornado sirens, can't say I miss this part of the mid-west. But thankful God protected us all during the severe thunderstorms. Later we enjoyed Brunch at Cracker Barrel #4 reason why my hubby came to visit, Laura said. Hey! what happened to #3 Laura ? Did I miss something? Hmmm...maybe it was Cardinal game..That's it, we'll go with that!
Then made a stop for Spice shopping at Penzey's Spices! A cook's dream to be inside so many spices! As you can see I did buy a few to take home to try ! I've heard so much about these spices, can't wait to get baking/cooking with them!


Then Laura treated me for my Mother's Day gift!
But not just one but two Gooey Louie's !

We enjoyed the "Original" and "Chocolate Peanut Butter ". 

Grab a fork for this one! 

They take their chocolate crust and top it off with peanut butter goo and Reeses peanut butter cups. 

But due to the overwhelming response from  their appearance on Food Network's "Kid in a Candy Store," they were not be able to fulfill orders in time for Mother's Day. So they are fulfilling orders as quickly as possible. Due to the volume of orders, it might be a few weeks before receiving your cake. I was blessed to visit them personally to receive mine :) So yummy Gooey! Thank You Laura and Gooey Louie!

For Father's Day we went to Church + Sunday nap + national treasure movie 1 & 2 + BBQ & schlaflys beer + Gooey butter cake+Toasted ravioli & brats= happy fathers day to my hubby who's a great dad to both our girls!

For our last day in St.Louis, it was so humid outside that it feels like all jungle outside...must be because it's jungle adventure week at Immanuel Lutheran Church for Vacation Bible School !

Photo courtesy of Llywelyn's Pub website

Had lunch at Llywelyn's Pub, then to fill time till our flight left.We stopped at St.Louis Mills to have a coffee break at Great American Cookies
for Laura's favorite Double Doozie Cookie !

Thankful for a great visit with Laura,she's a great itinerary planner (Book her soon, she's in demand these days!)and it was good revisiting St.Louis!We wrap up eating our way through St.Louis and now have to  get busy unwrapping  the pounds !

  Now...your wondering did we manage to bake something delicious while we were in St. Louis? Yes! Had a fun time...you can look forward to it in my new post coming soon! It's a Sweet Thing that's for sure!:) Hopefully pics will upload on computer...I need it to cooperate with me.So that will be A Sweet Thing that's for sure!

     

 The Beginning of Stepping Back in Time with My Cherished Cookbooks

Sharon McAndrews Burkey