christmas on main street

One of the reasons I absolutely love where I live is Historic Main Street in St. Charles.  Roughly a mile of cute little shops and some of the best restaurants in town, not to mention right along the Missouri River and celebrates the state’s first Capitol and the voyage of Lewis + Clark.  It’s so cute + quaint, probably one of my favorite places on the planet.

At Christmas time, Main Street lights up with the sights and sounds of Christmas.  Christmas lights on the trees, shops open late, Christmas characters all around, chestnuts roasting on an open fire… no, really!  It is a must see, and we always make it a point to visit every year.

We started our night at Trail Head, which is slowly becoming one of my favorite restaurants.  Our visit this summer was less that stellar, and after speaking to the manager about it, we ended up with 2 free dinners (minus alcohol + gratuity).  When we arrived, it was an hour + 45 minute wait, but we lucked out with some open seating at a table in the bar area.  I started off with a Raspberry Ale, and the Hubs, an Amber Ale.

Dinner involved a pretty amazing vegetarian pizza, with carrots, onion, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, and a napolitano sauce.  Although it wasn’t nearly as good as Dewey’s, it was pretty gosh darn delish!

The Hubs order the sausage platter, with bratwurst, Knockwurst, and Weisswurst.  I thought it looked gross, but he said it was pretty gosh darn good too.

We also decided to order their Brown Ale, since it had hints of coffee + chocolate, which is also quickly becoming a replacement for all the pumpkin ale I will soon be missing.

We made our way slowly down Main Street, stopping at a few shops on the way, including one for a short beer tasting (with all Missouri brewed beers) and of course, Grandma’s cookies!  (Cookies were unphotographed, as they were consumed in bed after we got home.)

Oh why oh why must Christmas on Main Street only come one month a year?!  Probably one of my favorite “Matt + Kristen” traditions!  But, we will have to go back to get some of the chestnuts since they weren’t there tonight!  Just an excuse I suppose…

the best of pumpkin

I’m pretty sure it’s no secret by now that I absolutely LOVE pumpkin.  I don’t even like pumpkin pie all that much, but there’s just something about pumpkin puree that makes me swoon.  So, we decided to devote our day to the best of pumpkin.

But first, we had a race to catch!  The Lewis and Clark Marathon/Half Marathon was this morning.  This was my original plan before signing up for Chicago, but I absolutely hate this race course.  You start out in industrial Earth City, cross the Discovery Bridge on 370, head into Frenchtown, and then make your way down to Frontier Park in St. Charles, as the marathoners continue on down the Katy Trail.  It’s just not very spectator friendly… and crappy for the runners whose cars were parked at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater and had to wait in an ungodly long line for the shuttle back.  I’m just sayin’… it’s not my favorite course.  But, this was the last of the Lewis and Clark – next year it will become Rock ‘n’ Roll St. Louis and move to downtown.  I’m currently debating on doing the half, but other “plans” might get in the way…

We were actually there to see a few people.  Lauren, who has been my running buddy this entire summer, was planning to run the full, but switched down to the half.  Matt’s mom was also doing this for I think probably the 5th time, but I still enjoy watching her finish.  And, Bob, who we coach with was there… I only have a picture of cute little Ava though.

 

After the race, we headed to Trailhead Brewing Company for some of their Spiced Pumpkin Ale!  It was packed with runners, so much so that it was a 40 minute wait inside to sit… so, we took advantage of the beautiful day and sat outside.  It was nice seeing all the runners enjoy a beer, as I plan to do next week after my race!

I have never had this beer before (I am a recent beer convert), but we knew they sell out of it quickly, so we wanted to get it as soon as it came out so we wouldn’t miss out on it.

This beer SMELLS amazing!  Like pumpkin pie in a glass.  And the flavor definitely doesn’t disappoint either!  Smooth and pumpkin-y… not too spicy.  I LOVED it!

Along with some pretzels, in memory of my grandpa.  (He loved beer + pretzels.) 

Since we were already out, it was still early in the day, and we were loving the pumpkin beer, we decided to head closer to Downtown St. Louis to Schlafly Bottleworks.  I had also never had Schlafly’s pumpkin ale (even though you can pretty much get it anywhere right now), so it was definitely a must.  Plus, straight from the freshly brewed tap… it can’t get any better than that.

And it definitely did not disappoint!  I have been bragging about how awesome O’Fallon’s Pumpkin Ale is, but Schlafly is hands down the best I have had so far.  [OK, so my list isn’t very long right now, but it is going to be tough to trump it!]  Much more spicy than Trailhead’s, which I enjoyed more.  It didn’t have as good of an aroma as Trailhead’s, but the tastes was AH-mazing!  I will be returning soon… and buying a 6-pack until I can get back! 

And, since we were already out + closer to downtown, we figured pumpkin custard had to be had!  And what better way to end an early afternoon than with some Ted Drewes’!  [And Matt owed me because he cheated on me and went to Andy’s in Springfield without me.]

Ted Drewes’ pumpkin concrete is similar to Doozle’s in that they take a whole pie piece and blend it into the vanilla custard.  Mmmm… it was heavenly!  So smooth and incredible pumpkin flavor!  I could’ve done without the whipped cream, but that of course didn’t stop me from eating all of it!  Of the 2 we’ve had, Ted’s is at the top of my pumpkin custard list!  [Of course, Matt said that Andy’s was better, but until I taste it, Ted’s will remain at the top.]

Matt went for the Caramel Apple Sundae:  a whole apple pie piece + vanilla custard + caramel + almonds.  Although I am not a big pie fan, apple is my absolute favorite pie!  But, I kind of thought the caramel and custard overpowered the apple pie taste.  Don’t get me wrong though, it was still delicious!

    

[Matt made me take a picture of this since it was only 2 PM and the trash can was already full of cups!]

Thus ends our Best of Pumpkin Tour of the day!  Next stop, CHICAGO!   

festival custard

After my long run on Saturday, I spent the afternoon sitting on the couch, planning my lessons for the week. I wanted to relax a little bit because I knew we would be out + about later at the Festival of the Little Hills!

I have to admit, this is only the 2nd time I have gone to the festival, but it is probably the biggest out of the several that take place down on Main Street St. Charles. It is full of crafts, entertainment, and of course, my personal favorite, FOOD! Well, there's not much for a vegetarian like myself to choose from when it comes to festival food [I mean, they had chocolate covered bacon, for gosh sakes], so we ended up at Trailhead Brewing Company for some of their beer and Cardinals baseball. [I promise I will get better at taking pictures of my food, but I'm still not in 'food blogger' mode yet.]

Unfortunately, our main courses left something to be desired... Matt's tuna sandwich was dry and I actually found a piece of meat with my portobella stack. But, I did have these amazing roasted sweet potatoes with maple glaze that I will be trying to recreate! The beer was pretty good too... I had their Raspberry Ale and Matt got the Honey Wheat Ale. I would definitely recommend going there for beer. I plan on going back as soon as their Pumpkin Ale comes out this fall! I hear it is amazing but sells out quickly!

We walked around the festival for a little while [I am not much of a crafts person, but it was something to do], and low + behold, we came across Ted Drewes'!

Because of the fame of Ted Drewes', they also sell their 'minis' and quarts for fundraising [as this was] and also at some of the local grocery stores. We've had the vanilla in the quart before, and honestly, I think it tasted like cardboard. So, we decided on their chocolate since neither of us have tried it before.

[Sorry for some crappy photography... my camera obviously doesn't like to shoot at night.]

Since it was frozen solid when we got it, it lost most of the creaminess it could've had. But, overall, I definitely liked it a lot! Tasted a bit like a Wendy's frosty, just a bit more frozen, and not so grainy of a texture.

Oh, and we stopped by Grandma's Cookies. I am telling you, these are the absolute BEST cookies I have ever had in my entire life! [Sorry, mom-in-law, yours are a close second, but Matt thinks yours are better still!] And they are only $0.60 a piece! Bargain and it's best! You must try them now... go, go, GO!

Yes, we only bought food, but we had a wonderful time together! Always nice to have something to do on a lazy Saturday night.