Home Grown Veggies and Pasta

Aside from the deer eating the leaves off our bean plants, our garden is really producing! I can't take much credit. Tim does all the work. I just take pictures of it and play with the kids on the neighbor's swing set while he works in the garden. Here are some pictures of his latest harvest:

 (From left) Cucumber, zucchini, beets, tomatoes, edamame

Cucumber, yellow squash, zucchini, string beans and edamame

We used all of the produce except the cucumbers and beets and made Pasta Primavera for dinner. While the noodles were cooking, we diced up all the veggies and sauted them with olive oil over medium heat. Then we added the pasta sauce to the veggies.

Once the noodles finished cooking we added them to the veggies.  We used whole wheat Rotini noodles.

And dinner is served!  Thanks Tim!

STL 250 Cake Quest - Central West End

Tim and I celebrated our 10th anniversary this summer.  It was our first big milestone anniversary, but with 3 kids ages 6 and under it can be hard to celebrate properly.  Thanks to my wonderful parents, it did not go unnoticed!  

My parents offered to watch our kids for us for FOUR DAYS!!!  Four days without kids is enough time for me to do everything while doing nothing at all.  Does that make sense?  Just like last year, we booked a room at the Chase Park Plaza.  We loved our time at the Chase so much last year and it definitely lived up to our expectations this year.  

BONUS: While we stayed at the Chase, we also got to see the STL 250 cakes in the Central West End! Here are some of the cake highlights from the weekend:

Chase Park Plaza

The Chase Park Plaza has great restaurants, an amazing Sunday brunch, a fun pool with music on the weekends, a movie theater, a salon and spa and a morning coffee bar.  What more could a girl ask for!

World Chess Hall of Fame

 The cake design didn't seem very chess-like so we took another picture with the giant King piece in the background.

The giant King piece is 14 feet 7 inches tall and 6 feet in diameter.

In 2009 and 2011, the US Chess Federation named St. Louis "Chess City of the Year".  What happened in 2010 St. Louis? Let's get the title back!

Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis

Also called the "New Cathedral", it was built as a replacement for Old Cathedral downtown.

Tim claims that this is his favorite cake (and he's not even Catholic!).  

It is beautifully designed. 

We joined a free tour inside (highly recommend!) and learned that there are over 41 million mosaic pieces covering 83,000 square feet throughout the Basilica.  The installation of the mosaics started in 1912 and wasn't completed until 1988!

The reason the Basilica appears to "twinkle" is because the gold mosaic pieces (which contain actual gold), were individually hammered using a special tool that would slightly offset the mosaic square, allowing it to catch the light and twinkle.

The Cathedral is also known for this outdoor sculpture, The Angel of Harmony, that was donated by the Schlafly family to promote racial harmony.

Left Bank Books

This locally-owned independent book store celebrated its 45th birthday this weekend.

 Bench outside the book store.  Nice quote.  

I finished 3 books during our 4 days at the Chase while logging some serious time by the pool!

Gaslight Square

 Gaslight Square was once a thriving entertainment district in the 1950s and 60s that was known for its gas lit street lamps.

The cake also honors Laclede Gas, a local utility company founded as a provider of gas light.

This small memorial at the intersection of Olive and Boyle features decorative columns like those that used to be on the street.

Gaslight Theater

The Gaslight Theater is home to the St. Louis Actors' Studio.  Visit the St. Louis Actors' Studio website for show and ticket information.

This 97-seat theater still remains in the 100 year old building next to the West End Pub and Grill.

There are some other cakes in the CWE nearby area that we didn't make it to.  Here is a map with a key:

If you want to download a printable PDF file of the map, click here.

Thank you Central West End for another awesome anniversary weekend!  See you next year!

PS - Click here if you want to see some of our other STL 250 Cake Quests.

STL 250 Cake Quest - Forest Park (Part 1)

The girls and I have been to the Missouri History Museum a few times this summer.  Clara couldn't be bothered to stay on the cake (or to pick up her toy that she left in front of the cake!). 

The new History Clubhouse is the BEST! If you haven't been, it's basically three huge connected play rooms. And to think this is only the temporary exhibit - they are still taking suggestions for the permanent exhibit that will be revealed next year.

 Even though there is so much to choose from, the girls still like storytime and arts and crafts.

 The grocery store area is one of their favorites! 

They also spend a lot of time playing in the tents.

One day, Clara insisted on wearing these goggles from the dress up area the entire time she played.

Some other perks of the History Clubhouse: it's free, there is a huge family restroom inside the play rooms, they clean the toys and have areas where you can leave toys that need to be cleaned and they have Wet Wipes throughout the play rooms. Can you tell I'm a bit of a germ-phobe. The scars from "The Pink Eye Epidemic of the Summer of 2014" are still here.

On our last visit to the History Museum I managed to leave my stroller and diaper bag in the parking lot.  Yep.  Just drove off without loading it into my car. Thankfully, we had met a friend there and she noticed my abandoned stroller. When I drove back to the History Museum I noticed the Fair St. Louis cake at the Grand Basin. After collecting my stuff from my friend, we headed back to Grand Basin to take pictures with the cake. So at least something positive came from my absentmindedness! 

After the History Museum, we usually head to Ted Drewes.  
I am still trying to stay away from processed sugar, but I have to cheat every once in a while!

The Summer Family Fun Series at the MO History Museum ends August 1st.  

Don't miss out! 

And be sure to check back to see Part 2 of the Forest Park Cake Quest!

Click here for a printable PDF version of the map.

PS - Click here if you want to see some of our other STL 250 Cake Quests.

STL 250 Cake Quest - St. Joseph's Academy

I'm so proud that my high school got an STL 250 cake!  Looking back over all my years of schooling, my best memories are from my 4 years at St. Joseph's Academy.  I had to stop by and see it for myself. But even if you didn't go to SJA, you may want to check out this cake if you went to high school in St. Louis.

The cake is appropriately titled "Where'd you go to high school?" and there are numerous high school pennants painted on the cake.  Click here for more photos to see if you can find your high school pennant.

PS - Click here if you want to see some of our other STL 250 Cake Quests.

STL 250 Cake Quest - MO Botanical Garden and The Hill

My favorite Cake Quest so far is this one!  It took all day; Clara had to take one for the team and skip her nap (which she happily did!).  By the end of the day we found 6 cakes and toured all over the Botanical Garden and The Hill.

Click here for a printable PDF version of the map.

We started out by finding the Brightside St. Louis cake.  It was right on the crazy intersection of Kingshighway and Southwest, but parking was very easy to find.

Brightside St. Louis was founded in 1982 to make St. Louis cleaner, greener and better.

Next we found the cake at the original Imo's Pizza location.

 The building is now empty.

 I love the pizza boxes on the bottom.

This is the only evidence that Imo's was once here.

After Imo's we headed over to Tower Grove Park.

After driving around forever, we finally found a park employee who could direct us to the cake.  It's right outside the Piper Palm House.

Then we headed to the MO Botanical Garden to find their cake.  It was right outside the Visitor's Center.

 We also went inside to see the Lego exhibit.

We also spent some time in the Children's Garden.

After the garden we drove over to The Hill.  There are 2 cakes on The Hill.  

The best cake I've seen yet is at Rigazzi's.

 The Hill cake is located outside Amighetti's.  Missing from the picture: Sidney. Clara pushed her off the cake moments before the photo was taken and she skinned up her knees.  It may be time to head home.  But not before stopping at Gelato di Riso across the street!

 Poor Sidney!  What a sad way to end the day!

PS - Click here if you want to see some of our other STL 250 Cake Quests.