St. Louis Food Blog

​Need a reason to put pants on come Sunday morning?

If you can get clothed and get yourself to Pi in the Central West End by 11 a.m., you can have cold pizza for breakfast.

Beginning this weekend the restaurant will offer a selection of its thin-crust and deep-dish pies -- with meat or without -- cold and by the slice every Sunday morning.

"It's a day that people are coming in with a little bit of a hangover and want something substantial, so cold pizza hits the spot," says owner Chris Sommers.

In addition, Pi will serve cold or heated slices of deep-dish egg pizzas. Also new in the CWE: waffles with house-made syrups.

Coffee cake, scones and organic Goshen Coffee also will be among the offerings beginning at 6 a.m. And because you're already dressed: Beer sales start at 6, too!

Alissa Nelson

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What else did we do this week?

A list of the five worst things people found in their food.

Sussed out St. Louis wine list bargains.

Chef's Choice visited Leanna Russo of BitterSweet Bakery. Found in two parts: here and here.

Restaurants that dish out free food worth paying for.

Ian continued his countdown of favorite St. Louis dishes.

That's it for this week. Have a great weekend. Eat something good. 

A Veggie Venture: Alanna made a kicky chayote soup.

STL Hops: Mike announced the STL Hops 2010 St. Louis Beer Challenge.

Cupcake Project: Stef tackled Beef Wellington.

Church fish frys don't have marketing budgets. But at St. Mary Magdalen in Brentwood, they've at least got someone with a sense of humor and an eye for cute graphics. Why else would they have yard signs dotted with colorful fish, proclaiming, "God's Cod!" with their fish fry times?

Robin Wheeler

Now that's what we call God's Cod!

​It doesn't stop at the signs. Inside, volunteers sport the God's Cod! logo on pale blue T-shirts and aprons. They meet us at the door, selling cans of Bud and plastic cups of boxed wine. In case the line's too long, later a man walks by, selling beer from a gallon tub filled with ice. On top of the cans, little plastic containers filled with something colorful.

We joked about Jell-O shots at Epiphany last week. Surely it's not ...

Later, a woman in one of the T-shirts walks by with a half hotel pan. We ask what's inside.

Oh yes.

St. Mary Magdalen has Jell-O shots. God's Cod with a side of Satan's Gelatin!

She always was my favorite saint.

Monday, March 15, marked the first Yoga for Foodies event at Southtown Yoga and Local Harvest Cafe.

image credit

​"The class was focused on sensory experiences," reports Southtown Yoga owner and instructor Brigette Niedringhaus. "We did a nice flow with lots of twists to help aid digestion, and hip-openers to make sitting on the floor for dinner more comfortable. It was amazing to be building up to the peak of the practice with the delicious smells from the kitchen stirring."

Local beer lover Wade Abernathy attended the February 25 Michelob Wheatup preview of Anheuser-Busch's new Ginger Wheat beer.

​Says he: "The Ginger Wheat is an interesting twist on wheat beers. The ginger is refreshing and really makes for a nice drinking beer. I look forward to being able to pick some up at the store!"

Wade's wait is over. The new brew's now available in the company's spring sampler pack of unfiltered wheat beers, along with Shock Top, Hop Hound and Dunkel Weisse.

"For Michelob Ginger Wheat, we took a Belgian-style wheat ale and looked to Asian cuisine for inspiration," says brewmaster Craig Heisner. "The beer has unmistakable ginger aromas on the nose and crisp and spicy flavors on the tongue, without overpowering the other citrus notes. The first sip implores your taste buds to pair the beer with a selection of sushi and the finish cleanses your palate, getting you ready for the next bite."

This is part three of Robin Wheeler's Chef's Choice interview with Leanna Russo of BitterSweet Bakery; to read part one, click here. To read part two, click here.

Robin Wheeler

​Despite Leanna Russo's preference for savory over sweet, she has a soft spot for the hand pies she grew up eating during her childhood in Ohio and northern Wisconsin. "The one I grew up on was always made with apple. The apples are cooked down to a purée, and the filling is thick, tart and sweet. The pie dough is the best and is measured by the handfuls instead of cups."

Russo's BitterSweet Bakery sells a cherry version of the hand pie, and during our visit she made one with a thick blackberry compote. Thick and hefty, the pie's lined with pleated layers of flaky crust, thanks to Russo's insistence that they be baked, as she puts it, ten minutes longer than you think it should be baked. The end result yields a crispness to the outer layer of the pie, followed by delicate flakes.

As long as the filling's not too runny, the pies can be made with any pie filling, compote or jam. Because Russo's method involves handfuls instead of measurements, use your preferred pie crust and filling recipes.

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The Ten Best Names of Traditional Irish Dishes - http://tinyurl.com/ykslrxz

Beginning Sunday, 3.14, Niche Serving Any 3 Courses for $35 - http://is.gd/anNnR (with comment from Gerard Craft)

Justin and Danielle Leszcz, as the headline of this week's Café column reads, "chucked the 9-to-5" in favor of turning their property in suburban Affton into a working farm.

Photo: Jennifer Silverberg

A portrait of Danielle and Justin Lexzcz for our story this week. Photos from their Twitter account account below. See the full slideshow here.

​While farmers of generations past kept journals of their day-to-day agricultural and livestock work -- charting crop growth and yields, livestock head counts and the like -- in 2010, Justin Leszcz uses a more contemporary medium: his Twitter account. While @YellowTreeFarm has just shy of 200 followers as of this writing, it has no shortage of photos documenting the progress of the farm in this St. Louis suburb.

To accompany this week's story, here's a photo slideshow highlighting the various activities, crops and livestock raised on this St. Louis County farm.