First off, I had an awesome Moms' Night Out with my mom's group last week. We went to a local grocery store that offers cooking classes, and got to watch one of St. Louis' top chefs prepare a meal. Chef Gerard is from Tony's, which is the highest-rated restaurant in St. Louis. There were maybe 15 of us in the class, and it was so cool to have such a wonderful chef prepare a private meal. I have already told you I have NO IDEA how to cook besides the basics, so I learned a lot in the class about making a very very nice meal. Too bad I probably won't ever recreate these dishes in my own kitchen! But at least I got some good photos.
The meal was eggplant with red sauce.
Then chicken with fruit sauce and angel hair pasta.
Followed by Tony's famous ice cream pie with caramel sauce. The meringue itself was a masterpiece - not all stiff and blech like other meringues I've had, but fluffy and so sweet. Yum!
My next totally unrelated event was our trip to Grant's Farm. The Anheuser-Busch empire (I know it's now technically Anheuser-Busch InBev or some such silliness, but whatever) owns the old Grant homestead here in St. Louis. Yes, Grant as in Ulysses. They have turned it into a great *free* attraction, kind of like a mini zoo. With beer. FREE beer. Yahoo! Anyway, we visited Grant's Farm with our friends last weekend, and the kids really enjoyed themselves. Jackson loved the buffaloes, and has been talking about them ever since. He will randomly turn to me and say, "Mommy! Here come the buffa-woes!" and then tell me to hide. Riding the tram into the park, we were so close to the buffa-woes that we could have touched them.
Our first stop was the goat pen, where you can buy a bottle of milk for a buck to feed the insatiable goats. Katie and her friend Ryan stayed outside the pen and teased the goats a bit before feeding them.
Dan and Jackson braved the shirt munchers and went inside the pen so they could get attacked. This photo cracks me up. The Goat Whisperer.
We went to the Animal Encounters show and saw some amazing tricks - everything from a parrot baseball pitcher to a rat race.
This owl flew out for a few moments, and his wing span was HUGE.
We browsed some of the other animal exhibits, and came to the eagle pen. Oh, my. I thoroughly enjoyed myself at this stop, taking LOTS of photos of the beautiful eagles. One photo was so crisp and close-up that I could see the blood vessels in the eagle's eye. Eagles are such angry-looking birds, but so majestic too.
Right before lunch (and our *FREE* beer), we stopped to feed the camels. This was the highlight of my day, because their whiskery mouths are so soft.
You could also feed the llamas, which Jackson didn't really enjoy. But our friend Liam had a great time with the llamas, talking and chastising them for being greedy.
Now, to switch gears on you one last time, here are the last two photos I want to share. Katie has really enjoyed her gymnastics class so far. She's trying new things and building her confidence. I'm so proud of her!
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