One More Family Gathering and a Family Happening

…concluding our visit to the St. Louis area and Laurie’s family.  Yes, another meal to report on! 

This time, Laurie’s sisters and their husbands gathered for dinner at P.F. Chang’s China Bistro in Chesterfield Missouri.  Laurie and I decided that it has been at least 25 years since we’ve dined at a P.F. Chang location.  It’s a little strange as there is one in Knoxville, about 40 minutes from where we live…and we’ve certainly driven further than that for a nice dinner.

Here is a photo of our group…taken by our server Cassidy so I couldn’t avoid being in the picture.  Starting with the ladies…Bonnie is right of center, Karole is just to her left, Laurie is next to her and Glenda is at the back left.  Next to Glenda is Ken, her husband, then yours truly, Karole’s husband Bob and then Bonnie’s husband Bill.

Then of course, to mark this relatively infrequent occasion I had to take a photo of the four sisters…Bonnie, Karole, Laurie and Glenda.  Bonnie is the youngest and Glenda is the oldest of the sisters.

On to the food…

We ordered a plethora of appetizers for the table, including 2 orders of Hand-Folded Crab Wontons with a creamy crab filling, bell pepper and green onion served with a spicy plum sauce. ($10.00 each)

The next appetizer that we ordered was the Pork Egg Rolls. ($7.00) Simple indeed, these egg rolls contain pork and julienned vegetables and they are accompanied by sweet and sour mustard sauce.  These were more up my alley as I’m not into bell pepper or green onion…

An order of Hand-made pan-fried Pork Dumplings also graced our table…put I didn’t take a picture. ($10.00)

The entrees included both Sweet and Sour Chicken Bowl and Honey Chicken Bowl, both from the lunch menu. ($11.00 each) The Sweet and Sour bowl has breaded chicken with rice…the chicken is glazed in sweet and sour sauce and includes pineapple, onion, bell pepper and ginger.  The Honey Chicken is similar with breaded chicken glazed with a tangy honey sauce.

Several options for P.F. Chang’s Signature Lo Mein were on the menu and 2 orders were chosen as entrees by our group.  This was the Lo Mein Shrimp with wok-tossed noodles, mushrooms, Asian vegetables in a savory soy sauce. ($13.50)

This creation was the Signature Lo Mein Combo. ($14.50) In this instance it included vegetables, chicken, beef, pork and shrimp.

No photo once again for this offering… It was the Fire Braised Short Ribs. ($27.00) The beef short ribs are slow braised and served with a savory glaze and accompanied with pineapple fried rice.  I tried the pineapple fried rice and I liked it a lot…

Laurie and I both remember enjoying this entrée/appetizer from those many years ago.  The table shared a total of 3 orders of Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps. ($11.50 each) This ‘secret family recipe’ is P.F. Chang’s signature dish…and we still really like it after all these years!

We ended this gathering with a group photo in front of P.F. Chang’s.  I avoided this photo by being the photographer!  From the left…seated: Ken, Glenda and Karole.  Standing: Bill, Laurie, Bonnie and Bob.  We had a great time and the sisters exchanged a lot of fond memories…

The P.F. Chang’s China Bistro in Chesterfield Missouri is located at 1295 Chesterfield Parkway in East Chesterfield.  Phone: 636-532-0215.  Website: https://www.pfchangs.com/locations/us/mo/chesterfield/1295-chesterfield-pkwy-east/9920-chesterfield.html.

On to a big…really big…family event!

After living in their home in the St. Louis Missouri suburb of Melville for more than 55 years, Karole and Bob put their home up for sale.  Huge change for them!  They will be moving into a home that had belonged to Bob’s parents and they are in the process of updating that property.

One marketing issue was the fact that Bob and Karole’s current home is on a private street in the city with no city maintenance.  Recent flooding rains in the St. Louis area had turned their street into a pitted, rutted byway.  So enough gravel was ordered to fill the ruts and spiff up the road.  Bob and Karole’s son Marc and Marc’s daughter Abby stepped up and between the two of them, they spread all that gravel and enhanced the property.  A lot of work and a nice job indeed!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave