Wordless Wednesday
Eckert’s
Brothers
Pumpkin Picking 2015
We headed out to Eckert’s this (chilly) morning, to look for our Great Pumpkin:
Because buying between 80 and 100 pounds of pumpkins every year was getting a little ridiculous, we tried something new. The children all looked for the perfect pumpkin, and then we chose the best one of those to be our family pumpkin. (They each got to choose a mini pumpkin when we were done, too.)
I think this was a great way to handle pumpkin picking, although I will say, it’s hard to get five children to agree on a single pumpkin!
2014-15 School Year–Week Thirty-Two
Another school year is complete!
I’ll be honest…I kind of phoned it in this week. We had three field trips (St. Louis Zoo, Missouri Botanical Garden, and Eckert’s), only one of which was directly related to our lessons this year. They were all fun, though, and that’s all that matters at the end of the year, right?
Other than that, we did some religion, some math, some spelling, some writing, and some grammar. I think that’s about it. We finished the year strong, with everyone scoring 100% on their spelling tests today, which was nice. Today really was a great end to the school year in general, with a trip to Eckert’s to pick strawberries and visit the farm animals, and the assembly of our latest addition to our Lego Architecture collection–the Trevi Fountain.
Overall, I think this was a great school year…sure, there were some bumps along the way, but we all learned a lot (even me!), and had fun doing it. We’re taking a break for a few week before we begin our Illinois state history summer school unit, and then we’ll be back in August, with two seventh graders (when did I get old enough to have students in Junior High?!?), and a third grader!
Thirty-Eight Months
Today we went strawberry picking at Eckert’s, and Dolly came along. She certainly fared better than Chickadee, who was quite stained by the time we were done! While we were there, we also walked around, and saw some animals…plus the Stl250 cake, which we were glad to see out and in good condition!
Maybe next month, Dolly will get to go blackberry picking with Chickadee!
The Top Five–St. Louis Area Restaurants
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Ian Froeb has recently come up with the STL100 list of the 25 best restaurants in the area (ranked), along with another 75 great restaurants to round out the top 100 places to grab a bite to eat. This inspired me to come up with my own list…my five favorite non-chain (unless it’s a local place that has added locations over time), restaurants in the area (in no particular order), plus five honorable mentions, because I can.
- Seamus McDaniel’s, Dogtown neighborhood of St. Louis–Best burger I’ve ever had, in a really great neighborhood. Seamus will always be number one on my restaurant list!
- Beast Craft BBQ, Belleville, IL–This is a new location on the St. Louis area restaurant scene, and it’s the place that really got me interested in BBQ. The burnt ends (an item hard to find in Belleville) are fantastic, and their “Big Sammich” series always leaves me wanting to try whatever they think up next!
- Amighetti’s Bakery and Cafe, The Hill neighborhood of St. Louis–The Amighetti Special, made with turkey pastrami and Amighetti’s secret dressing, is the best deli sandwich I’ve ever had. They also make fantastic cannoli!
- Olympia Kebob House and Taverna, St. Louis–Best saganaki in town!
- Eckert’s Country Restaurant, Belleville, IL–If you’re looking for country-style food, this is the place to be. The fried chicken and chicken fried steak are both excellent, and the side dishes (available to pass family style) are just what you’d expect. If you’re still hungry after dinner (doubtful), you can walk next door and get a frozen custard for dessert (in season).
Honorable mention:
- El Maguey, multiple St. Louis area locations–Great Mexican food on the Missouri side of the Mississippi.
- Ted Drewes, St. Louis–Sometimes, you just want dessert, or to celebrate a Cardinals win. If so, Ted Drewes is the place to be!
- Llywelyn’s Pub, multiple St. Louis area locations–Bonus points go to the St. Charles location, where you can actually eat in an old bank vault!
- Schlafly Tap Room, St Louis–If the great beer selection isn’t enough of a draw, the food is also excellent. I’m partial to the schnitzel. And while you’re there, make sure to try the sticky toffee pudding for dessert!
- Gordo’s Margaritas, Millstadt, IL (of blessed memory)–There are other restaurants named Margaritas around town, but my favorite was Gordo’s in Millstadt. The food was excellent (especially the chimichanga!), and the people who work there were great. I’m really sorry to see it closed…we’re going to miss eating there a lot!
Where are your favorite places to eat in St. Louis?
Throwback Thursday
One year ago today, our big Stl250 “Cakeway to the West” cake hunt began. We still hadn’t realized that we would attempt (and eventually succeed!), to find all of the cakes (that decision was made on March 15th of last year, if you were wondering, when Ryan posed it as a challenge that I could not back down from), but this cake at Eckert’s was the first one we went looking for, and one of the closest cakes to our home.
It’s the third month of 2015, and I do still miss our cake-hunting trips…it was a great way to celebrate St. Louis’ birthday, and get to know the history of the city even better!
Another Year with Eckert’s
2014 has been another good year for our family at Eckert’s. It all started in March, when we stopped by to see their STL250 cake. We went on to visit it many more times, and enjoyed seeing how it changed with the seasons, but there was something special about seeing it that first time with the snow around it.
In May, we went strawberry picking for the second time…but it was the first time for Chickadee! She loved it because the strawberries were right at her level.
June found us picking blueberries for the first time ever. I loved the way the nets covered the bushes to protect them from birds…it looked like a fog over the blueberry patch!
We picked blackberries more times than I count from the end of June through July. Most of them were eaten plain, but I did make a few special desserts with some of them, including the conclusion to our Fourth of July feast!
Sadly, due to weather-related reasons, there were no “pick your own” peaches this year. Eckert’s made up for that with “pick your own” vegetables, though, and we had a great time doing that in July. Picking corn was everybody’s favorite, although it was also fun to find ripe tomatoes, summer squash, and cucumbers!
In September, we finally visited Eckert’s restaurant. It was the first time for the children, and the first time in over a decade for Ryan and me. The biscuits and apple butter were just as good as we remembered, and all of the food was delicious!
Of course we had to go apple picking in September…another first for Chickadee!
And October found us in the pumpkin patch, where we picked a family record of 70+ pounds of pumpkins!
In November, we celebrated a family birthday at the restaurant for the first time…Moose has decided it’s one of his two favorite restaurants.
And the end of November meant time for the Holiday Open House, where we got to try lots of samples, see all the pretty Christmas decorations, and do some crafts.
Eckert’s has become such an important part of our family’s year that I can’t remember a time when we weren’t constantly visiting and doing something fun there. I still haven’t taken an Eckert’s class yet, but that’s about the only thing left on my list of things I haven’t done at Eckert’s yet, and I look forward to finding a fun learning opportunity to take part in sometime in 2015!
The First “Golden Birthday”
Today we celebrated Moose’s ninth birthday, which makes today his “golden birthday,” the first one of those we’ve celebrated in our family. Now, I’m not really sure how you’re supposed to make a golden birthday special, especially for a nine-year-old boy, so it looked pretty much like any other birthday in our house, although we did have a tea party yesterday at Moose’s request, and celebrated St. Louis’ birthday along with his. It was a fun day…he got lots of Lego movie sets to build:
We went out to eat at one of his favorite restaurants (Eckert’s):
And he had a green bus cake with his favorite colored-flame candles:
I think Moose had a really good birthday, and I’m very thankful to be celebrating another year of our younger son’s life!
Wordless Wednesday
