 It has been an interesting journey adding @carondeletgarden to our retirement hobbies. As the garden grew, so did our options for fresh fruit and vegetables I could consider adding to the dishes I was creating @carondeletkitchen.
I was always under the impression that our garden would only be active in the warmer months. Big Guy and I had a learning curve as we studied about the cycles of the garden. We quickly learned to plant our garlic in the Fall and that lettuce could be grown not only in the Fall but in early spring. We have already planted our buttercrunch, red Butterworth, and spinach. Spring storms and bunnies are always a threat, but I am already dreaming up salad ideas along with ways to use spinach in pizzas and pasta. I now look forward to this time of year to add fresh produce to my meals while planning my summer plantings.
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 Big Guy and I walked into @spiritwineandcraft to purchase a bottle of scotch. My next sentence will sound like a bad joke as I told it to @abrandt1026. I have brought you this pesto pasta dish by way of our trip to the liquor store. What? I hope the obvious answer is @spiritwineandcraft has a specialty food section. I added pesto chicken pasta to the menu for our Tuesday Supper Club when I noticed a beautiful jar of pesto. I grabbed a bag of pasta from the pantry from another favorite stop…@parkerstable. After baking the chicken breasts, I diced them and added them to the sauce with roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, green beans, and additional parmesan cheese. I served the pasta with a focaccia from @keycakesandco to create the perfect meal.  Do you have a favorite place to eat breakfast, but you fear it may become too popular? The genie is already out of the bottle for mine which is Have a Cow Cattle Company. Steve and Lisa St. Pierre have created the perfect space, supported by their outstanding team, to come together with family and friends to enjoy a wonderful meal. We were early adopters to their “café and urban farm store” and started eating, and shopping, there since their opening in January of 2021. Who knew there was such a thing as “hot seed” to deter squirrels away from the bird feeders! We have watched as they slowly began this part of their journey cheering them on as they continued to bring excellence to their “peaceful little place” where everyone is welcome. I highly recommend you add this slice of heaven to your list of places to visit. If there is time, you can even hear Steve tell stories about the cows and his learning curve of having a cattle farm.  The world is insane right now which has led a friend to say how she would love to live in Mayberry…of the Andy Griffith Show. It seems a simpler time when the worries were Ernest T. Bass throwing rocks through windows or Barney Fife making situations worse with his unique way of thinking about how to perform his deputy duties. Sigh!
Imagine my surprise at finding a copy of Aunt Bee’s Mayberry Cookbook @getyourpickson66. It was a lark, but I knew I had to buy it to add to my growing collection. The book is perfect for any fan of the show, highlighting recipes from the cast and crew along with show scripts and antidotes. The creative recipes even reflect the community of Mayberry such as Opie’s Lemonade, Goober’s Beanie Salad, and Andy’s Red-Hot Applesauce. Just beware of Aunt Bee’s Kerosene Cucumbers as Barney, Andy, and Opie would tell you they are deadly!  Big Guy was scrolling around when he found a copy of Webster College’s 1982 publication of an Around the College Cookbook. I was in my first year, and Big Guy was a senior that year. We had to buy it to add to my cookbook collection.
It arrived quickly in the mail, and we were off on a trip down memory lane. Big Guy and I were rewarded with interesting recipes as we leafed through the book, but we were also able to see the names of employees at the college at the time. Who knew the Registrar knew how to cook? There was even a recipe from one of Big Guy’s classmates who unfortunately left this world too soon. We are still looking to add the later cookbook published after Webster moved from being a college to a university published in the early 1990’s. If anyone knows where I can buy a copy, I will certainly welcome a DM.  I was eating a Nutty Buddy when I started to reminisce about my relationship with @thereallittledebbie. I noted my love of the “sweetheart of American snackage” to which Big Guy just laughed and said he cannot remember a time when I was not stocking our shelves with the snack cakes.
I did point out that I did not buy them every day, but usually as a special treat. In fact, vacation days were not complete, or perfect, unless I bought my Swiss Rolls, Zebra Cakes, and Nutty Buddy bars. Now that I am retired, I have dubbed every day special. It means there is usually one or two boxes of special treats in my cottage. My mom would smile because I tend to eat them as my breakfast. As she used to tell me, if you are going to indulge in a sweet, eat it in the morning so you have all day to work off the calories. Another pearl of wisdom from my diet conscious mom!  It is another year of wearing the green whether you are Irish or not. While you will not see me line up for a grand helping of corned beef and cabbage, you will certainly see me at the bar enjoying a good Irish whiskey.
My FIL worked hard throughout his life to provide for his family, but I laugh every time I see the picture of him hamming for the camera with his Irish hat and beard. My SIL took this picture later in his life when we were able to see him more relaxed in his retirement years. Big Guy and I speak often about the Sundays we would play a round of golf with him, then come back to the house for a late lunch. It was after lunch that we would light the fire in the backyard, pour out a @jamesonwhiskey, and talk about life. It is a magical time I will always remember as we strengthened our connection to each other sharing stories even when it was not a holiday.  I grew up in Detroit so the notion of going to a Fish Fry was a new thing for me when I moved to St. Louis. I admit I was apprehensive for my first fish fry since I have a love/hate relationship with fish. I will just say that I ate bad fish as a kid, and it set the tone for my adulthood.
I remember eating only spaghetti when I was younger, but now I have evolved to enjoy the shrimp, mac and cheese bits, green beans, and ubiquitous spaghetti. In other words, lent would be missing a special tradition if I did not visit my local fish fry. You have hundreds to choose from and you can google fish fries in St. Louis to find one close to you. Thank the volunteers for their time and effort to give you a solid meal. If you are lucky, you may even get to pick up Girl Scout cookies on your way out the door!  I find it interesting that there is this sense that eating a steak and potato meal is only experienced at a restaurant for a special occasion. Do not get me wrong, I have enjoyed my fair share of meals out, but there is familiar satisfaction making this meal at home.
I am of the age where my parents, and Big Guy’s as well, would buy “half a cow” which they stored in the freezer for later use throughout the year. We started out that way even inheriting my MIL’s deep freezer. It did not take us long to realize our meals were more enjoyable when we bought fresh meat from the butcher. Which brings me to my point for today. Do not wait for a special occasion to enjoy a great meal at home. In our case, it was “anything can happen Sunday,” so we played with the puppy, enjoyed a fire in the backyard, and ended our day with a lovely steak and potato dinner. Perfect!  Do you ever have a meal that you wish to recreate again? It happened to us when we bought and enjoyed a specialty sausage from @legrandsmarket made with chicken, sun dried tomatoes, and provolone cheese. It was flavorful and the perfect addition to our pasta. We decided to honor this sausage by deconstructing the ingredients along with additional ingredients to make it @carondeletkitchen worthy. We roasted chicken breasts prior to dicing and combining them with the other ingredients consisting of sun-dried tomatoes, capers, roasted red peppers, garlic, oil, and vinegar. We combined these ingredients with the cooked pasta into a baking pan and covered it with mozzarella cheese and baked it until it was bubbly and delicious. We served it with focaccia from @keycakesandco with dipping sauce from @salt_sisters for the perfect meal.
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AuthorJust a super cool old couple who love to cook and eat and drink in their Carondelet Kitchen in South Saint Louis, Missouri! Archives
April 2025
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