My sister Leslie bought Peas and Thank You, which is a cookbook of vegetarian meals by a "famous" blogger, Mama Pea.  She brought it with her to St. Louis since she was planning to make a dish from it for my wedding shower. 

Thursday night we were a little bored and decided the best thing to do would be to bake something.  I tend to have a pretty well stocked baking cabinet, but I didn’t have what we really needed to properly do some VEGAN baking, since my youngest sister Carrie is a vegan (she eats no animal products of any kind.)  We bandied about a couple different ideas, but ultimately settled on making the "famous" Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Balls.  I say famous because this recipe has been absolutely RAVED about in the blogosphere.  (The blogosphere that I pretend doesn’t exist and I don’t care about, remember.)  I had never made it, primarily because I am not that concerned about vegan or vegetarian baking, and secondarily because I try not to keep junk in the house.  And yes, cookies, though delicious and perhaps even all natural, are still junk food in my mind.  Don’t jump down my throat.  A healthy lifestyle can contain cookies and other sweets in moderation, but that doesn’t make them not junk.  *steps slowly off soapbox*

That said.  We did a quick trip to Schnuck’s to get the missing ingredients (primarily Earth Balance which is vegan butter and peanut butter chips).  My sisters were delighted by the grocery store’s name (yes, yes, it’s funny.)  And then it was baking time!  I decided to attempt to document this for the blog.

The fatness is REALLY happy.

Reviewing the recipe.

Hard at work measuring sugar!  Plus, look at that amazing jar of peanut butter…

I’m pretty sure that chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and peanut butter are junk food.  Just saying.

Flexing my {remaining} muscles, getting ready to use the world’s greatest kitchen appliance. 

Then we had to wait (yes, I realize I didn’t take some preparation pictures, this isn’t a food blog people.  The odd-looking dough had to chill and then we formed it into balls and baked it.)

Trying to force the cat to look at the camera.  She didn’t care for this.

And then they were done.  They are a little raw looking, but that is the point. 

Verdict?  Well…the first night I was not in love.  I thought they tasted a bit salty, though Leslie admitted her salt-measuring may have been heavy handed.  I thought perhaps an egg or two would have held the whole thing together.

BUT the next day…they tasted better.

And on the third and last day, they tasted really good.  So verdict:  make them, and then play the waiting game for two days.  Then they’ll taste like really good cookies!  When the bloggers were mailing them out all over, that’s why they were so good, several days had passed!

Or maybe that’s why I ignore the blogosphere, generally.  I don’t love oatmeal with extreme passion.  I have never made OOIAJ.  And I have grown up eating delicious, ridiculously delicious full fat and flavored baked goods.  That I can’t eat every day or I’ll be ridiculously fat.  But I would rather eat ONE cookie from one of my grandmother’s recipes every two or three months than a couple imitation cookies every day.  That’s my personal decision though.  I can occasionally manage delayed gratification.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine recipe.  And Carrie loves finding more vegan recipes—and if one is vegan and won’t eat things with butter and eggs and cream and ALL that good stuff, well, then…this is probably a really great recipe for you!  I just don’t feel the need. 

*no cats were actually harmed in the filming of this blog entry*

I love Mondays this year. 

The symphony always has Monday off.  It’s their weekend (or at least part of it, occasionally Tuesday or Sunday as well.)

Last year I made the schedule error of working all day on Monday.  This meant I could never stay long at Sunday night symphony gatherings, which made me bitter and cranky.  It also meant that I wasn’t around on Chris’s day off and we were never able to do anything together on those days.

This year I only teach at home Monday, so I can sleep in if needed, go out to lunch, or whatnot.  It’s glorious!

In any case, the weather last night was absolutely glorious, so we decided to grill.  We invited our friends Jon and Laura over for an impromptu barbecue.  (Not barbeque.  Remember, that’s one of my spelling bee words, like separate.)

No gathering is complete without cheese and crackers.  It’s my biggest weakness, yet the easiest way to make your guests feel fancy.

While waiting for our guests, we did a little photo shoot.  We tried to remember what we had learned the day before.

I use a more gentle, ladylike hold on the cat.  I tried to get her to kiss me back but she wasn’t having it.  (Wait, did this turn into a Caturday post?  It’s TUESDAY, not Caturday!)  And please ignore that first picture of me that looks like I have a weird skin disease.  I don’t, I swear, it’s the flash!  That circle on my arm doesn’t exist in real life…

Okay, ANYWAY. 

I naturally took no more pictures during the course of the meal.  We had burgers, cole slaw, and a garbanzo bean salad Laura brought over. 

And then for dessert they brought over a few brownies, which paired perfectly with what I got at the grocery store.

When I brought it home from the store, Chris gave me a LOOK.  (We don’t generally purchase ice cream, or junk food, because then we eat it.)  I told him we had two choices, we could serve it to our friends, and since one container serves four (according to the nutrition information) that would be perfect, or we could leave it in the freezer and I would eat it all alone one night, while crying in the dark. 

You can guess what we chose.

Jon worked really hard to evenly distribute the ice cream.  And by that I mean he TOTALLY gave himself the most and pretended it all looked even.  Which was fine, I didn’t need much anyway, just a taste really.

I wonder, were we the first people to ever put a pint of Ben and Jerry’s into four bowls for four people to split?  Does that happen often?  It’s gotta be pretty rare.  That’s healthy living, people.  Splitting a pint of Ben and Jerry’s amongst four of you.  You heard it here first.

I had heard about the Tavern of Fine Arts for awhile now from my friends at Chamber Project St Louis, along with a few news articles.  (Sauce, RFT, and Feast).   My friends were excited because they knew the owners were great chefs and great musicians and music lovers.  If you read the articles you’ll know already, but they plan to have classical music concerts at the restaurant.  In fact, we may even be rehearsing there for some of our concerts, as weird as that might sound.  I think people may enjoy listening!  (I know my mother would, and I’m sure other mothers across the world would.)

(Note to readers, I have no financial stake in the place, but a free place to rehearse and perform is priceless!)

Last night Laura, Melissa, and I decided to check the Tavern out for dinner.

It’s a cute little place, and there are two big rooms.  The menu is limited but had both meat and vegetarian options.  The wine list had a nice variety of types of wine and price range, with a good variety by the glass.

All of the artwork on the walls is for sale.  I loved the colors of the artwork in the front room.

We decided to split the hummus as an appetizer.  It was more lemony flavored than some, but very tasty. 

We also split a bottle of wine.

I ordered the gazpacho and a roast beef sandwich.  Our friend Dana had told us the gazpacho was fantastic, so we all tried it.  It was really good!  I was surprised by its creaminess.

The roast beef had cole slaw on it.  It was also very tasty.  I forgot to ask them to hold the tomato though.

Melissa had the fig flatbread and Laura the vegetarian sandwich and they said those were good as well.  Finally, we decided to split the cheesecake.  As you know…I’ve been craving cheesecake for WEEKS and I still hadn’t had any.  FINALLY. 

Also, remember,we split.  So the calories don’t even count.  Plus…fruit.

We popped into the other room to check it out before we left. 

By the time we left there were about 8 to 10 other people there, not too bad for a Monday night, though I am sure they hope to have more people.  The service was really nice if a bit slow, but we were in no hurry so we didn’t mind at all.  Overall it was a tasty dinner and a nice place to hang out. 

They said tonight was their first "concert" which was going to be a percussion duo.  I look forward to playing there myself and seeing other local people play.  I’d recommend you check it out if you want a light dinner/snack, some music and a bottle of wine. 

Chris and I wanted to go out for a nice dinner last night.  We were trying to decide between Eleven Eleven and Franco (two of our favorites) and since I had just seen Tom (owner of Franco) at the gym that morning, I figured that was a sign.  (He works out with another trainer, and we seem to have similar hours.)

I wanted to wear that dress, since I bought it a few weeks ago but it had just been too hot.  Since it was actually UNDER 80 degrees last night, it seemed like the perfect night to wear it. 

I didn’t take too many pictures though—I should have asked Chris to take a full body shot of my dress to show you, but oh well, next time.  We enjoyed some Beef Tartare, and I had the Caesar Salad and Grilled Trout.  I always feel a bit lower class ordering the Caesar Salad (I order it a lot) but I just love it.  At Franco you can get it with anchovies, which is really good!  Though, when the waitress asked if I would like it with anchovies, she didn’t tell me it would cost extra.  Oh well, they were really very good.  Chris had the NY Strip Steak, though he requested something other than fries as a side (I believe he got a saffron risotto which was phenomenal.) 

(Trout.  I should have retaken this as the lighting is terrible)

After our dinner we went to the International Tap House in Soulard to meet some friends.  I was a little overdressed, but I think everybody appreciated it.  Since I had already been drinking wine, I was hesitant to start drinking beer, but I decided a peach lambic was the ideal compromise.

So here’s where it gets really ODD.  In the background of the second picture (Kyle—I believe he’s been on the blog before.) you can see a BUNNY.  And that’s Will in the red shirt.  I like to tease him for being a redneck since he is from NC.  I find it ironic because I am from SC (and a smaller town to boot, I’m SURE) but he is never terribly amused.  Sorry, Will!

Evidently the bunny’s owner was deaf, and this was a companion bunny.  Seriously weird.  People would stop by to pet the animal or write on a paper to converse with the woman, and then she would sign at the bunny, or just generally.  It was…a bit odd. 

I didn’t even realize I had a picture of the bunny until this morning.  So pleased.  And disturbed.  St Louis people, have you seen this woman before?