Menu and More: Concert Picnics

If you live in St. Louis and you don't know where you can drop in for a free concert then you aren't looking. Just about every ward, museum and park hosts a concert series. Though we missed a lot of the concerts this summer simply because we didn't have our act together, we decided last Tuesday afternoon to gather up a quick picnic dinner and head over to see a Journey Tribute band performing at Twilight Tuesdays at Missouri History Museum.

Just as important as getting to the event is packing a good picnic. Here is our impromptu concert picnic menu. Shopping for and making the menu was only 1 hour (not including driving around).


homemade pesto with tomatoes and mozzarella: Get cherry or grape tomatoes (extra points if you grew them), ciliegine mozzarella (those are just the small 'cherry sized' balls of mozzarella) and pop them into a container. Make some homemade pesto and place in a separate dish for easy dunkin'.

apple and fontina sandwiches: This is inspired by a sandwich I had from Mendocino Farms once. Our take was slices of apple and fontina cheese with a light smear of peach jelly (sounds slightly insane, but it was pretty good.) Cut into quarters for quality picnicking.

cucumber tea sandwiches: I love tea sandwiches. They are just so cute and easy to devour. I pulled a recipe off oprah.com - I thought she wouldn't let me down when it came to food - and they were okay. I wouldn't mind find a better cucumber tea sandwich recipe (hit me up if you have one!) Despite your recipe, you must always, I repeat - always - cut into quarters. Otherwise it isn't dainty.

poor girl's chocolate crepe: Get a good tortilla and heat it in a skillet. Take a good bit of Nutella and spread it in a line on your warming tortilla. Once the Nutella is a bit melted, fold in all the sides of your tortilla and you got yourself a poor girls chocolate crepe.  These folded dandies will save until you are done with the savory picnic and are ready for your dessert. Note on the tortilla: don't go low fat on your tortillas (you are making a faux chocolate crepe, for goodness sake) - those low fat tortillas will just split apart on you and your chocolate spread will be all over the place.

Okay, so summer is almost over, but here are some concert series that happen annually around St. Louis:

Missouri History Museum . Twilight Tuesdays

Missouri Botanical Garden . Whitaker Music Festival

St. Louis Zoo . Jungle Boogie

University City . Starlight Concert Series in Heman Park

Washington University . Jazz at Holmes

...and someone researched this a lot more than me and came up with this listing. Happy listening!