special meal, special shopping

It’s been a busy week of party prep … a small gathering with grandparents for the second-grader’s birthday … a little bit of planning for dinner on his aCtUaL birthday (six years out of seven they get to plan two meals :) … and working ahead for the big celebration next weekend, also for the second-grader. We’re billing it “The Week of Boo” (although he almost never lets me call him Boo anymore, but I never use kids’ names or pictures here :)

So with special occasions comes special shopping. Initially I was planning a trip to everyone’s favorite St. Louis neighborhood to pick up that yummy blend of Italian cheeses, sausages and pizza shells for tomorrow’s birthday festivities. (He took orders last month and will be preparing dinner for all of us. :) But Grandma and Grandpa were making the 46-mile trek anyway, and so took my order and picked things up for me. THANKS!

I found a lot of interesting little shops a few years ago doing a story for Sauce Magazine. It was a fun story. I dragged my pre-schoolers to about 30 ethnic specialty shops all over the St. Louis area. These little groceries, bakeries and butcher shops are loads of fun, especially with little kids … free samples are a general rule, as well as language lessons, depending on the establishment. Capt. Kindergarten always asks the woman at DeGreggorio’s: “How do you say __?___ in Italian?” She happily helps his pronunciation as she rings up my order and hands him candy ... talk about multi-tasking!

The French Gourmet Bakery was easily one of our favorite finds on this journey. Since then, they’ve become a bit of a family tradition … a lovely wine themed anniversary cake for Hubby’s parents' 40^th … my daughter’s First Communion cake last year … my oldest son’s First Communion cake this year ... and I’m sure we’ll be back well before the youngest makes his First Communion in two years!

We always order the same cake, different decorations: white cake, raspberry filling, French butter cream icing. “You have to give the people what they want,” I said as I finished my ordering … tacking a tray of mini chocolate eclaires, mini chocolate covered cream puffs and mini chocolate mousse cups on to the cake, as well as a few things we ate yesterday. :)

The husband-and-wife team also makes other fabulous breads and pastries. All the karate classes in the world might not work off a full-scale sampling of the place! LOL. He bakes. She decorates. And the results are some of the most delicious art I’ve ever tasted. The cake is so good my mom has already mentioned her Monday-morning breakfast plans of leftover First Communion cake … and she’s not a big sweets person! We like to balance our no-chocolate cake with chocolatey pastries, all of which were gone in about 30 minutes last year. Here are some shots of the chocolate mousse cake (the hole is where she took two to box for me and Hubby … the kids got fresh cookies … chocolate chewies that are so moist they barely hold their shape when you pick them up.) And then these are the larger sized chocolate mousse cups … how lovely are those tulipy shells?

“Oh, no peach bombs today,” I lamented to Capt. Kindergarten as I took these pictures.

“What’s a peach bomb?” he asked loud enough to be heard over the industrial baking equipment behind the counter. (I’m pretty sure they aren’t actually called peach bombs … but they should be! They are sooooooooooooo good!)

“Well, they are big and orange and shaped like a peach and when you pull the yummy crust apart there is a whole peach inside.”

He thought about this awhile then hollered: “There they are!” Behind the counter, prettily perched on their tray, an uninterrupted procession of peach bombs awaited their final touches before going into the case.

He loves the sneak-peeks into how these little shops work, happily munching his Italian candy or a little fresh cheese or maybe some of the broken cookies that can’t be sold. And so special occasions start well before the big day … not just the cleaning and the prep-work, but the special memories … that saucer-eyed look of wonder a kid gets when discovering something new.

May your weekend be filled with those …