Don’t forget to enter my giveaway for tickets to a Chamber Project St Louis concert at the Schlafly Tap Room!  Ends Monday, free to enter of course, and I hope more of you will enter.  Don’t delay!

My friend Melissa is always finding out about new restaurants.  I tend to think of myself as a fairly “in-the-know” person, but especially for someone who doesn’t live here full time OR tweet (and for a bassoonist, honestly), she leaves me in the dust!  Anyway, she told me about a new BBQ place that opened in Soulard at the Mad Art Gallery, and we made lunch plans.

The joint is called “Capitalist Pig” and is a small, unassuming place.  It says “take out only” but there were a couple picnic tables set up so we managed to “eat in.”

This was me trying to take an artistic photo.  That’s the counter where you order.  I ordered the ribs with sides of potato salad and baked beans.  Melissa had the pulled pork platter with coleslaw and mac & cheese.  We both had corn muffins and Fitz’s Diet Root Beer.

They had a nice assortment of sauces to choose from.  My ribs didn’t need any, but I tasted the House and Sweet & Smokey and they were tasty.  Melissa loved the Blackberry sauce.

My ribs did need a stronger than plastic knife, but I managed by using my hands and teeth. (Arguably I could have asked the cashier for something, but I was feeling shy and also felt like this was a moral failure on my part.  Plus the poor lady had already accidentally undercharged me and I didn’t want to make things worse.)

That’s a half slab of ribs.  These were TASTY and MESSY.  It’s weird—usually I don’t order ribs, but for some reason I did.  I’m glad I did, they were delicious.  I was so proud of not spilling on myself too! 

The corn muffins were delicious.  The potato salad was really unique and had capers in it, and I LOVED it.  The baked beans were good, though I think I like Bogart’s better, and Melissa said the cole slaw was delicious and the mac & cheese was pretty tasty too.  They had extra corn muffins so they gave us a big bag of them. 

Oh, and remember how I just said I didn’t spill?  Later in the day I realized I had indeed spilled sauce on myself, somehow.

Seriously, not sure how that even happens.  Then I realized I had a matching spot on the back of my other pant leg,. 

All that being said, I recommend you check out Capitalist Pig.  I think it’s possible that St. Louis BBQ is starting to grow on me. 

As we were leaving Charles De Gaulle airport for home after our Paris Trip, I saw a bunch of pate in the duty free shop.  Chris hates pate—I think he’s crazy, but hey, more for me.  I bought a six pack of cans.  So yesterday I decided to have one of the cans with my lunch.

It looks pretty gross, honestly (I think this is why Chris won’t eat it) but it was DELICIOUS.  I googled to figure out exactly what it is that I ate, and I couldn’t figure it out.  Can any readers help?  This was the story of our visit to France though—eating a bunch of delicious but unknown food.

Other things I’ve been up to this week:

Lots of practicing for upcoming events.  The most fun thing coming up is a concert with Chamber Project St Louis on Wednesday, November 14 at 7 pm, at the Schlafly Tap Room.  Mark your calendars, and there may be a ticket giveaway coming up for local readers who would like to attend…watch this space.

Mozart Duo for Violin and Viola.  Do other musicians make more marks in their part?  I find the less I write the more I notice what I do write.

I’m also now considering going to Phoenix in January to run the PF Chang’s Half Marathon again with Leslie.  It would fit perfectly into our training plans for the Go! St Louis Marathon in April, and January is a great time to visit Phoenix.  Yes, I’ve already been out there a couple times (ha!) this year, but I do have a free place to stay when I visit, so it doesn’t end up being too ridiculously expensive.  Plus that’s just an awesome race.  I ran it two years ago and even though I usually hate crowds, it was AWESOME running with so many people.  Originally I had planned to do a different half in February in Phoenix, but my schedule has changed and I’m no longer available for that one.  So I think this will end up being on my schedule after all.  I’ll decide for sure in a week or two.  Any readers planning to run it?

Oh, and we haven’t gotten a new coffee maker yet.  Here’s the thing (and I’m sure you all know this already): French Press coffee is Delicious.  Though it takes at least an additional five to ten minutes to make and ours only holds 4 cups.  But it’s SO good!!

Chris and I are big coffee drinkers.  We’ve had (or I’ve had, can’t even recall when I got it) a lovely red coffeemaker for years, definitely since Cleveland.  In fact, I ordered a red Kitchenaid Mixer because of my red coffeemaker, even though they ended up being slightly different shades.  And then I got a red blender and a red food processor. 

As a small child, I loved coffee ice cream.  I remember the day I learned about mocha chip ice cream.  What, coffee ice cream WITH chocolate chips?  Sign me up!

Anyway, we didn’t register for a coffeemaker for our wedding because we already had a perfectly good one.  UNTIL.

Yesterday afternoon I wanted a cup of coffee before I started teaching.  I put together the water and coffee, turned on the machine, and left the room.  I returned a bit later and attempted to fill up my cup…and I realized that the coffeemaker, though technically ON had MADE NO COFFEE.  It hadn’t heated up. 

So I tried again.  Unplugged and plugged.  Turned off and on.  Waited longer.  Nothing.

TRAGEDY.

Luckily we have a variety of other ways to make coffee.  Stovetop espresso maker.  Instant "Via" blends.  And what we remembered this morning was:  a french press! French press coffee is quite good.  (Honestly it’s better than drip coffee, but it’s those extra steps that bug me—I want the best coffee I can make easier and conveniently.  I don’t really relish the idea of heating water separately every morning.)

Obviously we are in the market for a new coffeemaker.  I think red might be nice.  Any recommendations?  We have some Crate and Barrel gift cards to use, but of course we also love Target and shopping online, so anything would be good.  What do you use for a coffee maker?  Are you as addicted to coffee as I am? 

I just spent about 15 minutes looking for a picture that evidently I don’t have.  It’s of Horatio from CSI: Miami on the TV screen with my friend Sarah’s blue hat sitting on top of the TV.  It’s the sort of thing that isn’t really funny but gets funnier each time a character’s head lines up with the hat.  Funnier and funnier.

At least I think it’s funny.  Maybe you had to be there? 

You may be saying, Hannah, surely you have something better to blog about.  I’m going to be honest.  I don’t. But seriously,  I really thought you’d get a kick out of these photos.

We got a new (well, only) dining room table recently.  The cat seems to like the new chairs.

(What I really need is a picture of the cat wearing a party hat—I think a certain friend could do that pretty easily using MS Paint?)

Yeah, I’ll tell you more about Leslie’s wedding later.  I’ve been too tired all week to write anything other than this random drivel.

Tomorrow is the Memorial Service for our friend Jim who passed away the other week and I’m playing a few quartet pieces, including Barber’s Adagio.  I’m a little stressed about it.  I always get emotional during services like this (I guess most people do) and I’m a little concerned about my ability to continue playing, at least well.  I’ve been dreading this all week.  I guess if I were looking forward to it that would be a problem, right?  I know I’ll be fine, I’m a professional (Trust me, I’m a professional!) and I’ve done far more challenging things.  Besides, the memorial service isn’t about me, or how I play.  (Must remind self of that.)

Who is watching the World Series?  We are.  I am halfheartedly rooting against the Giants, but it’s tough to want Detroit to win.