Dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse - Downtown St. Louis

Last week I was honored to attend a fancy-schmancy dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (downtown St. Louis) with Alive Magazine and some other local bloggers to preview and sample their new Sizzle, Swizzle & Swirl and prix fixe menus.  Never being one to turn down free food and drinks (especially really GOOD free food and drinks), Ryan and I got a babysitter lined up and made a date night out of it!  The dinner was in honor of the restaurant's 5 year anniversary, which was pretty fitting because it was actually the night before our own 5 year anniversary!  Win-win for all involved.  Happy anniversary!

The night started out with us getting to sample a bunch of Ruth's Chris's appetizers and Sizzle, Swizzle & Swirl menu items (all of which are available for $7 - I am not kidding).  Some of our favorite items were the Spruce Point smoked salmon chips, spicy/crispy lobster bites, seared Ahi tuna, crab cake BLT with zucchini fries, filet Oscar style and steak sandwich and prime burger.  I couldn't have any of the tuna (pregnancy related restriction), but everything else was fantastic!  I've actually been craving red meat over the last few months with this pregnancy (iron?), so this was a dream come true.  There was also a lovely drink menu, which had me nearly in tears because I wanted a martini so badly.  Only one more week!

Yeah, I know.  Are you drooling yet?  And that was all BEFORE dinner.  So then, we moved into a beautiful private dining room overlooking the Arch for the main meal.  Our table ended up being so much fun.  I got to sit next to my friend Lindsey, from Itz Linz - a local teacher, fitness blogger and new mom that I've been following (and friends with) for a while. It was so nice to see a familiar face at dinner.  We got to talk about all things baby, while Mim happily kicked away in my belly. Also at our table was the absolutely drop-dead gorgeous Dede (and her husband) of Styled by Dede.  It's so much fun meeting new local bloggers.  

We dined off the special prix fixe menu, where you get a salad, mixed grill entrees, your choice of side and a duo of desserts for $39.95.  

The salad was outstanding.  It was a Bibb lettuce BLT salad with cucumber ranch dressing.  I used to eat at this restaurant in college that had the most amazing cucumber ranch dressing, but haven't found it anywhere since.  I was tickled to see this on the menu and would go back just to eat this salad...it was that good. 

Next up was the Mixed Grill entrees.  This was a trio of a small filet, topped with a crab cake and served with a roasted stuffed chicken breast and a grilled tomato.  This was served on Ruth's Chris's famous 500 degree sizzling plate.  They are not messing around there - those suckers are hot.  The choice of sides were creamed spinach and/or mashed potatoes.  Spoiler alert - you can't go wrong with either choice.  

But surprisingly, they saved the best for last.  The duo of desserts was a cheesecake and some kind of vanilla custard/pudding that was so good that I was tempted to lick the bowl clean.  Incredible!

A huge thank you to Ruth's Chris Downtown St. Louis location and Alive magazine for hosting us and making me one very happy pregnant lady.  Seriously, sometimes being a blogger is SO cool!  

If you'd like to win a family style dining experience for four, serving all the prix fixe items on the dinner menu at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse Downtown, head over to Alive magazine's website to sign up!  You won't regret it! 

* Dinner provided by Ruth's Chris Steakhouse Downtown St. Louis, but all opinions expressed were 100% my own. 

Frozen Vanilla Berry Bark

I hope everyone had a great (and delicious) Fourth of July this year.  We spent our holiday weekend at the Ranch like we've done nearly every year since Ryan and I met over 10 years ago.  It's one of our favorite places in the world, where we always feel like family and leave with full bellies and full hearts.  I loved being able to share this place with Mac this year and he loved the people, the bison, the fishing, the golf carts and the lake.  I have TONS of photos to come, so stay tuned (although it may be months before I get through them all!).

Of course we ate very well while we were there...and by well, I mean a lot.  I think I gained at least six pounds from Friday to Sunday.  So, when we got home and it was time for me to make the recipe I'd been matched with from the Fourth of July Recipe Linkup, I was thrilled that it was so light and healthy and easy! This recipe is from Elise at Cheers Y'all and as soon as I saw it I was overjoyed to get this one.  I knew right away that Mac and I would both love it.  

This recipe couldn't be simpler and I struggled with how to "make it my own" as our linkup instructions required.  I chose to modify Elise's original recipe only slightly, by using fresh fruit (instead of frozen), Greek yogurt (instead of normal) and adding a bit of honey and vanilla, for extra sweetness and flavor.  I love Greek yogurt, but it can be a bit bitter, so the honey was a nice touch to give it a bit of natural sweetness.  I also added an extra couple drops of vanilla bean puree to make it extra vanillay (not a word, I know).  And since it's the middle of the summer and berry season, I used fresh fruit.  I think it turned out FABULOUS!  

Ingredients:

- 32 oz vanilla Greek yogurt

- strawberries

- raspberries

- blueberries

- 2-3 tablespoons honey

- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean puree

Directions:

1. Mix the honey and vanilla into the yogurt in a large bowl.

2. Spread the yogurt out onto a baking sheet using a rubber spatula.

3. Place berries on top.

4. Freeze (at least 1-2 hours).

5. Use a knife to break into pieces.

6. Enjoy right away while it's COLD!

Absolutely delish!  Cold and healthy and easy peasy!  

Thanks so much to Alyssa for organizing the recipe swap and for Elise for your awesome recipe!  I have a feeling we will be making this (and all kinds of variations thereof) a lot this summer!

Recipe Swap Host Bloggers:

Nat @ Nat Your Average Girl

Natasha @ Hello Happiness

Colleen @ Meet the Sullivan's

Erinn @ Strawberry Swing and Other Things

Christina @ This Woman Cooks

Leah @ Everyday Love

Alyssa @ Love and Life Simplified

Ashley @ Words About Waverly 

Check out this post to see all the recipes and matches.

Mac's First Fish

A few weekends ago, Ryan and I decided it was finally time to take Mac fishing.  I know what you're all thinking...how could we (or at least Ryan) have waited TWO FULL YEARS before we took that child fishing?  Poor deprived kid.  Let me rephrase that, he's been fishing (or around Ryan while he's fishing) basically since birth, but he's never been interested (or patient) enough to try it himself.  He's always been too little to care or too busy with other things to pay any attention to the fishing.  Even a couple months ago while we were in Florida and Ryan fished from the beach, Mac showed no interest.  

But that didn't stop us.  Even though he has the patience of a gnat (I bet Ryan that morning that he wouldn't last more than 20 minutes), we figured it was time to give it a shot and if he still showed no interest, we'd try again in a couple months.  Ryan was much more confident than I was that Mac could handle it.  I brought a bag full of snacks and toys...just in case.  The day before we went, Ryan headed out to Bass Pro and bought Mac his first little blue fishing pole and let him "practice" casting around the house.  Talk about a game changer.  From the moment Ryan put the pole in his hands, Mac was a "fisherman."  Apparently this disease is genetic.

Ryan and Mac spent an hour the night before digging worms out of the flower bed in our front yard for bait.  As you know, Mac is a worm digging machine.  This kid is beyond obsessed with worms, so the fact that fishing had to do with worms scored major bonus points in his eye.  Mac was incredibly proud of his worms and talked about them being in a cup in the fridge all evening.  We checked on them no fewer than 18 times that night to make sure they were still there.  Thankfully they were.  I guess I better get used to having a fridge full of live worms.

Saturday morning, we went over to Ryan's aunt's house (about 20 minutes from our house).  She has this great little neighborhood pond in the back yard that's perfect for fishing with kids.  It's small, surrounded by trails and benches and stocked full of fish.  It was hot, but we had shade, water, snacks, chairs and great company.  A perfect fishing hole.

Ryan showed Mac how to bait his hook and cast the rod.  Initially, Mac was more interested in the birds and turtles to really care about the fishing part.  But it only took a few minutes before everything changed. 

FISH ON!  

Mac was fascinated!  I'm not sure if he realized that he was really going to catch a real live fish or not, but he was absolutely blown away!  It was the cutest thing ever to watch Ryan pull the fish out of the pond and Mac react in absolute shock.  Once he realized that he caught a fish and that was a good thing, he got so incredibly excited and proud of himself!  

Although, I think it's a toss up as to who was more excited and proud, the little fisherman or the daddy.

It took him a few minutes to warm up to the idea of touching the fish, but he was pretty fearless about it.  He wanted to pet it and tell it good-bye before throwing it back.  

And that's all it took.  

He was addicted.  

He picked out the next worm to rig up and couldn't wait to get back at it.

A few more minutes, another fish on! 

I think it's safe to say that Mac got more than those killer brown eyes from his daddy.  

Pardon the pun, but he was hooked!

All in all, he caught six fish in about an hour.  

He cast by himself, reeled by himself and picked out his own worms.  

He loved touching the fish!

In between fish he gave hugs to the dog, collected rocks/sticks and patiently waited for daddy to put another worm on the hook.  I can't even tell you how impressed we all were with how well he did.  I lost my bet that he'd only last 20 minutes.  That's one time I was happy to be proven wrong.

Thank you Ed and Laura for hosting us and spending the morning with us.  We had the absolute best time and will definitely be back for more.  Very soon!