Harvest Restaurant...

...last summer, we watched Kristal's puppy Butch while she enjoyed a family vacation to Florida. To thank us, she, sorry-Butch, gave us a gift card to Harvest, a restaurant here in St. Louis that uses local and seasonal ingredients. We waited for a good reason to use it...camp is over for 2010-woohoo!!! That is call for major celebration!!!

The last day of camp is always bittersweet. I love having the kids and counselors around, it makes the day's go by fast, it gives me reason to get out of the office and I am given many different and not-typical job tasks i.e. tie dying staff shirts last week or making a kid's pizza Lunchable or even singing "Jingle Bells" at the top of my lungs so a camper doesn't get upset. However, it's a lot of stress which is not always welcome. I always look at it this way though, camp may be done this summer but it'll come again, so it's just a so-long and not a good-bye. Anyways, Matt and I started a tradition last year by going to a nicer restaurant to celebrate the last day of camp.

Here is Matt outside Harvest. As soon as we were seated, he looked at me and said, "This is probably the nicest restaurant we've ever been to!" I would have to agree and it was definitely delicious.
We were given bread with basil butter and a black bean puree. The black bean puree just tasted like mashed up beans, which is essentially what a puree is, right? The basil butter was so yummy and I loved watching it just melt on the warm bread. For an appetizer, we split the stacked crispy eggplant and basil pesto. Matt thought it was delicious and I just thought it was alright. It was the only course I was able to snag a picture of because Matt wouldn't let me take pics of our main course because the place was starting to get busy.For my main meal, I had the grilled certified Black Angus Hanger Steak with tillamook cheddar spoonbread, mashed garlic potatoes, steak sauce and it had a few onion rings (but think more like onion straws) on top. O...M...G! This meal was to die for!!! The first thing I tasted was the mashed potatoes and my mouth was in heaven. I wasn't too sure of the steak sauce at first but by the end of the meal, it was pretty much gone so I think it's safe to say that I enjoyed it. The spoonbread tasted like cheesy cornbread, it was alright but not too much flavor. Matt enjoyed that part of my plate for me. I had ordered my steak medium and I commented to Matt that is was very red for medium but I liked it. He laughed and told me that it was what real medium was supposed to be and most places we go to cook medium a little more done. I absolutely LOVED the onion rings on top adding a nice crispy taste and a pleasant surprise. My meal...definitely TWO THUMBS UP!

Matt ordered the Pan Roasted Duck Breast with duck confit and cherry potato cake, braised mustard greens and cherry-port reduction. I don't have as much commentary on his because I didn't taste it but I'll leave you with this, 1. Matt had a happy plate (meaning it was all gone and empty) and 2. Matt said TWICE that it was the best duck he'd ever had. For Matt to repeat himself means it was REALLY GOOD.

After dinner, we decided since we were in the neighborhood (but we really weren't) that we'd get Ted Drewes.
For those of you not in the STL area, Ted Drewes is like THE custard place in St. Louis. I always think it's a great idea to go but then every time I go (please forgive me St. Louisians and don't kick me out of the city, town or state!), I don't really think it's that big of a deal. I mean I almost got ran over in the parking lot-I'm not joking either. This van was pulling out of the lot and we walked behind it then it randomly decided to reverse. Luckily, it was going like 5 mph but it didn't stop until my hand was ON his rear window! Then it's such a huge crowd but the menu with pictures and descriptions is just a laminated piece of paper where you ordered so you either have to wait until you're at the front of the line to review it and order or squeeze up front, review it then go get in the back of the line. Seriously though for as busy as that place it, they always get people through the line fast and get them their concretes so that's a bonus for them.

Anyways, I kept telling Matt that we'd be right by Angie's house as we were driving to Ted Drewes. Well, a few wrong turns and we were right in front of her house!!! See I'm SLOWLY learning my way around that area of town. Okay, have a fabulous Monday everyone!