Sunday, October 26, 2014

PW Pizza Bell's Beer Dinner

My regular photographer was not available for October's PW Pizza dinner, but luckily a friend who really enjoys Ales was available to help me enjoy the Bell's beer dinner.

Menu
I had only tasted a few of their beers before so it was a good chance to taste a variety of flavors as well as one special release.

My favorite beer was the first one, the Brown Ale, as usual, because it was the lightest and least hoppiest.

Grilled Pork Crostini with Wild Mushroom, Scallions, Peppercorn Aioli
The first pizza of the night included shrimp but the spicy sauce on top was a bit overwhelming for the Amber Ale.

Smoked Paprika Shrimp Pizza with Feta Cheese, Green Pepper,
Red Onion, Corn, Cilantro and a Cajun Remoulade
The butternut squash pizza was definitely my favorite since it was covered with caramelized onion on my favorite honey wheat crust.

Butternut Squash Pizza with Herb Ricotta, Caramelized Onion,
Garden Greens and a Portabella Cream Sauce
The dessert course was really intense with whipped gargonzola on top of a raspberry sauce. You could taste chunks of cheese in each bite. An intense pairing overall!

Sweet Whipped Gorgonzola with Raspberry Mint Coulis, Toasted Walnuts
Resources:

PW Pizza = http://pwpizza.com/

Bell's Brewery = http://bellsbeer.com/

Rooster

Now that my friend Chris has come back home from Europe, we finally got to resume our brunching schedule at the second and newest Rooster, located on South Grand. My friends were able to walk there and recommended it to us. Our trip over was a little more difficult since we had to take back streets to avoid a marathon.

Mimosa
I hadn’t done my usual homework for Rooster, but I quickly caught on to the crepe theme when I first looked at the menu. Actually, before I could even get to the brunch menu, I got stuck on the drink menu. There were seven different types of Mimosas and around ten Bloody Mary choices – each with a slightly different mixture! Now there is a very reason to go back multiple times!

I am usually in the mood for eggs in the morning so it helped that I could focus on the “breakfast crepes”, which there were eight different crepe combinations with eggs. You could get your egg with cheddar or goat cheese, or even black beans! Since I couldn’t get one with ALL THE CHEESES, I was pretty adventurous and chose the Egg #4 – egg crepe with cheddar potatoes, and house-made salsa.

Egg crepe with cheddar potatoes and house-made salsa
One of the reasons I really want to go back is the large section of the menu with savory crepes. Sometimes I’m not always quite up for a heavy meal early in the morning but these sounded amazing. There are a couple of crepes with sausage, a couple brie, several bacon, smoked sirloin, and the one I really want to try is the Smoked Salmon! Lox on a crepe! Brilliant! And there is even a three cheese that would be high on my list.

If you didn’t want a crepe, there was still yet another “breakfast” section were you could get seven different types of eggs scrambled with a good variety ingredients mixed in: ham, chicken, goat cheese, spinach, corned beef, black beans, and on and on. Oh yeah…there is even a slinger, biscuits and gravy, French Toast, and Finnish pancakes. Even house-made granola!

Biscuits and gravy
I’m not sure how Patience was able to decide, but she got a “b.e.l.t” – bacon, egg, romaine (I guess the lettuce?), and tomato on focaccia bread, which made for a huge oozing sandwich!

b.e.l.t
And of course we finished the brunch off with a “sweet crepe”. I could not refuse the classic Nutella crepe (which you can get with bananas, strawberries, or both)! My friends ordered the roasted apple crepe and it tasted just like hot apple pie.

Everything was amazing and even though they were slammed, we still got great service. There is a large patio area with picnic tables that helped since it was warm still warm out. Just a beautiful modern building all the way around.

Resources:

Rooster = http://roosterstl.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Article: Top 10 Wine And Cheese Pairings To Try Now

You know I have to share everything "wine and cheese pairing" so as luck would have it, here is another article from St. Louis Magazine!

Also written by one of my favorite winos: STLwinegirl

Top 10 Wine And Cheese Pairings You Should Try Now