A Chocolate Homecoming - One of Lily's Favorite Desserts

Hello LilyOnTheLam.Com Readers:

I originally am from the Twin Cities - Minneapolis and St. Paul - of Minnesota.  While there are many, many, many wonderful aspects of the Twin Cities, the cold winters have kept me away from continuing to live there.  However, I try to go back once or twice a year to catch up with family and friends.

If you a regular reader of LilyOnTheLam.Com, you may realize that I have just a tiny bit of a sweet tooth.  OK, I love sugar!  I wish I didn't love it as much and I try not to indulge it too much (and by too much I mean 24 hours a day as opposed to my more prudent 22 hours a day of sugar consumption).  I don't smoke and even though my Instagram account may protest, I don't drink a lot of alcohol.  But sugar, yes that's the big monkey on my back.  Total addiction.

I joke that my Instagram account should be called "Booze and Desserts" because the majority of my photos are just that!  

Well one of my favorite desserts that hasn't made it to my Instagram account is from Wuollet's Bakery in Minnesota.  They have several locations in the Twin Cities, but I go to the one at their Grand Avenue location.  

They have a "Chocolate Whipped Cream Cake" that is instant sugar shock, but oh what a wonderful way to get zapped!  I only get a slice of this cake once every 2-3 years because it is so rich!  

This picture is actually two years old, from the last time I had a piece of this cake.  I had forgotten about it and recently stumbled upon the picture and knew I had to share on my blog.

You can buy this cake by the slice or in a 9 inch whole cake.  It has a moist chocolate base, the sweetest creamiest whipped cream filling, another slice of chocolate cake and a rich slathering of fudgy chocolate ganache with a whipped cream rosette.  It is heaven - rich, chocolatey, decadent, creamy, smooth, melt in your mouth, beyond compare cake.

It really is over the top on sweetness and richness, so unless you love a really rich dessert I would not recommend this one to those who don't worship ultra decadent desserts.

But for those who love decadence, get yourself over to Wuollet Bakery and have yourself a slice of this chocolate heaven!

A Shopportunity For Everyone and Anyone

Hello LilyOnTheLam.Com Readers!

For my US readers, this is the first day back to work after the Labor Day holiday weekend.  Or as some people refer to it as "Memorial Day weekend."  Those people tend to be ones with short attention spans or calendars frozen on the month of May.  Seriously, I have had like six (OK three?) people tell me "Happy Memorial Day."  Maybe they're just really, really late on their holiday greetings?  To them I say "Happy Easter!"

I will be gradually easing back into the work day after a holiday weekend by only working half a day.  The ever tasky Kiki Von Vellum (who now suddenly has decided he is my personal assistant as well as the Lofty Cardamom Monroe's assistant) has scheduled my appearance at a house inspection for Cardamom Monroe's anticipated new purchase.  Evidently my appearances cutting ribbons at new grocery stores and shopping malls were NOT enough.  My "Boat Show Spokesmodel" skills are also now required at house inspections.  Oh how the fabulous have fallen!  And yes, by "fabulous" I am referring to myself.

This particular house that will be a-inspectin' is a house I fondly have named "Lily East."  Cardamom Monroe thinks I am joking when I say that I am ordering monogrammed towels with "Lily East" emblazoned on them.  Cardamom Monroe is in for a rude awakening.  

Side Note:  I don't really see this as the opportunity to help Cardamom Monroe with his new Floridian home purchase as much as I see it as an opportunity to flirt with more waitstaff in Orlando.  A girl has to have her priorities.  

And if that my mad flirting doesn't turn out, Orlando has different "shop-portunities" than Tampa does (like Cost Plus World Market!) so there's always that.

I was recently in the Twin Cities - that's Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota - to those of you not familiar with the American Midwest.  One of my favorite shopportunistic places there is the deluge of stores along Grand Avenue in St. Paul.  I spent a lovely day with the cool blondie internationally known as "Little Jen" and her newly produced offspring, a young infant boy I have named "Ja'Lily."  

Don't be surprised when "Ja'Lily" becomes the hottest baby boy name of 2015.  You heard it here first!  (Side note:  the baby actually does have a respectable "normal" name, but why be normal?)  

Ja'Lily likes the outdoors and constant movement, so I took on the role of "young mother" (I'm only 987 years old!) and pushed him around in his stroller to keep him from fussing.  People kept smiling at me as I walked around talking to Ja'Lily.  I may need to borrow a baby so strangers will be nice to me.  Just a thought.  

My Fitbit pedometer/activity monitor registered 2.4 miles from my stroller-tastic attempts to create "Ja'Lily Non-Fussy Time," so I was pretty pleased with that since after Ja'Lily fell asleep I ate and drank up a storm while chatting with Little Jen.  Calories galore!

One of the stores, Little Jen, Ja'Lily and I visited is Bibelot - a store I stayed away from as a child because I had the misconceived notion that it was a Christian store.  Bibel, Bible ... yeah maybe I am a dyslexic heathen!  (Not to be confused with Minnesotan singer-songwriter Paul Westerberg's song "Dyslexic Heart.")

After I returned to Tampa, I went to Bibelot's website to check to see if they sold a product I wished I had bought while shopping in the Twin Cities.  (I love to shop ... sigh.)  But they did not (my wallet is happy).  However I did see this product:  a box of matches that says "I think I'll just be happy today."

Now I am all for people being happy.  I think we spend way too little time focusing on our own personal happiness.  (Unless you're me and then you spend a great deal of time and money focusing on your own personal happiness - two vacations booked for 2015, yay!)  

But I am confused what a box of matches paired with a slogan about choosing happiness has in common?  Is this the perfect gift for the sad arsonist in your life?  Today choose happiness AND burning down that vacant barn on the corner?  Is there a gasoline can with the same slogan too?  I mean seriously, what's next?  A prescription vial "cozy" that says "Today, I choose to black out unhappiness"? It just goes to show you that there is a shopportunity for everyone and every occasion!

I hope this Tuesday finds you being the best "You" that you can be ... and I hope that "Best You" is incredibly, over the top happy ... but maybe leave the matches at home!

Happy Tuesday, LilyOnTheLam.com Readers!

A Tale of Four Pot Pies

A Tale of Four Pot Pies- a culinary 4 way duel comparing offerings from the following establishments:

- Chicken Pot Pie - St. Paul Grill, St. Paul, Minnesota
- Turkey Pot Pie - Ike's at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport
- Chicken Pot Pie - Bailey's Restaurant, Davis Islands/Tampa, Florida
- Chicken Pot Pie - The Moon Under Water, St. Petersburg, Florida

I love comfort food.  Blame decades of advertising that equate food with love, but the combination of fats, carbs and childhood memories really does provide a wave of calm over me during the most stressful times.  And at the top of my list of comfort food is a good pot pie.  Flaky buttery crust, rich gravy, large pieces of chicken and a variety of vegetables.  It's like a hug from the inside!

I must be craving hugs because over the course of the past several months, I have been sampling a variety of pot pies and I thought I would share my pot pie findings with my blog readers. 

Pot Pie #1:  One of my favorite restaurants in St. Paul, Minnesota is the St. Paul Grill in the charming St. Paul Hotel.  Their food is rich, comfort-food based but also gourmet.  Their cream of wild rice soup is so good, I literally purr when eating it. 

But this is not "A Tale of Four Cream of Wild Rice Soups" - so let's get to the POT PIE.  Here is a picture of the St. Paul Grill's chicken pot pie:

St. Paul Grill's Chicken Pot Pie has a doughy crust versus a flaky pie crust.  It is chewy and dense.  If you're a dough-style crust lover, you will like this chicken pot pie as the crust to pie filling ratio is pretty much 50-50.  The crust covers a shallow bowl with an incredibly creamy gravy, very fresh tasting chicken and a mix of a few vegetables.  The presentation is lovely, but be warned this dish is incredibly rich.  Even though there's not a ton of chicken, vegetables and gravy - the extremely rich gravy challenges the heartiest of appetites!

If you are feeling regal and want to go overboard on the decadence, then order the St. Paul Grill's signature hash browns as well.  A giant disc of grated potatoes with an incredibly crispy outside, a warm fluffy inside and chock full of onions and bacon.  It is a sinfully delicious dish and goes well with many of the St. Paul Grill's entrees.

Pot Pie #2:  If after sampling the St. Paul Grill's pot pie, you're in the mood for more pot pie.  Head over to the Minneapolis - St. Paul airport, but you better buy a plane ticket as well because Ike's Restaurant at the MSP airport is behind the TSA security lines.  Ike's specializes in gargantuan portions.  The best I have been able to accomplish on their Turkey Pot Pie is eating about half of it and that was when I was ravenously hungry.  The crust is more flaky pie like than the St. Paul Grill, but there's at least 4 times as much meat, vegetables and gravy.  If you're in the mood for turkey pot pie, bring some friends to help you eat it.  Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of Ike's Turkey Pot Pie- so instead I am including a picture of my favorite drink from Ike's: the Weekender Bloody Mary.  If you like a heavily garnished Bloody Mary, check out this one from Ike's.  There are so many garnishes, it feels like you're eating a heavy snack.  And in proper Midwestern tradition, it comes with a beer chaser.  When I ask for a beer chaser in Florida, I get a confused look back.

And yes - that is a cheese cube that is large enough to keep a family of country mice happy for a month!  Beef jerky stick, shrimp, pickled onion, pickle, celery, pepperoncini, 2 types of olives, a lime wedge -- and a horseradish studded spicy Bloody Mary.  It is my ritual that whenever I leave Minneapolis, I go to Ike's and have the Weekender Bloody Mary.  It has never steered me wrong!

Pot Pie #3:  When a new gourmet-style comfort food restaurant opened up in my neighborhood, I was a-feared.  Scared.  Frightened.  Being a comfort food lover, if the new restaurant was good I would have to fight off desires for comfort food nightly!  And even worse the restaurant has curbside take out service.  I'm talking about Bailey's Restaurant on Davis Islands in Tampa, Florida.  The only restaurant on the island that offers curbside service.  Bailey's has a new menu every week, so when I saw that chicken pot pie was on the menu one week I could not resist.

Of the four pot pies I am reviewing in this blog post, Bailey's by far had the best tasting meat and had the largest chunks.  It tasted like large wedges of slow-roasted chicken straight from Grandma's oven.  And Bailey's pot pie went beyond the typical - carrots, onions, celery, potatoes vegetable medley.  There were huge butter beans peeking out from the very buttery crust.  The gravy was thin, which I prefer.  It highlighted the meat and vegetables without overpowering them.  The crust was decent - but almost something I'd find on a cobbler.  I prefer a bit of a lighter crust when it's pie crust-style. 

When I ordered my meal, I was given a free starter of homemade pita and black bean dip.  Who doesn't love a freebie?  The pita was a bit too greasy for my tastes, but the black bean dip was heavenly.  A tip for Bailey's Restaurant: you need to offer a small refrigerator case of dips and sauces next to your host stand.  I'd definitely buy your black bean dip to take home.  My chicken pot pie came with a choice of two sides, which I appreciate since most restaurants do not offer sides with their pot pies.  I ordered the mashed potatoes and the green beans.  The mashed potatoes were incredibly heavy on the cream and butter.  I prefer a bit more texture and body to my mashed potatoes.  The green beans were amazing.  Reminded me of the fresh canned beans by Grandmother would serve us.  In terms of rustic homestyle goodness, Bailey's definitely wins the Pot Pie challenge. 

Pot Pie #4:  You know the saying - save the best for last?  Well in this case, I saved the worst for last.  This chicken pot pie was my biggest disappointment.  The Moon Under Water in St. Petersburg, Florida is one of my favorite British pubs in the Tampa Bay area.  It has a great location - near North Straub Park and the Gulf of Mexico.  It is a great place to watch sports or to people watch.  And it has amazing Indian food.  However the British food definitely leaves something to be desired!  I was so excited when the chicken pot pie arrived.  My server came with a giant pillow of puff pastry, cracked it open tableside and poured a steamy filling of chicken and vegetables in front of me.  I love anything done tableside.  It is that extra bit of flair that seems to be missing from most of our day-to-day dining experiences.

And check out the picture below- doesn't it look lovely?  Who can say "no" to a big pillow of puff pastry?  I want to lay my head on it and take a nap!  But sadly, sadly, sadly - The Moon Under Water pot pie proves that looks can be deceiving.  The puff pastry was tasteless - angry, crunchy stale air, but not as tasteless as the chicken pot pie filling.  The gravy tasted like glue.  No flavor whatsoever.  The chicken tasted canned.  I had to check my taste buds, because there was no flavor at all to this meal.  It tasted like I was eating an old bucket of wallpaper paste.  Do yourself a favor and order the Indian food offerings instead.  You'll be much happier.

Sadly, my favorite pot pie cannot be narrowed down to just one pot pie.  I prefer the crust on Ike's Turkey Pot Pie or the St. Paul Grill's Chicken Pot Pie.  I prefer the portion size of the St. Paul Grill's when it comes to the pot pie filling.  I prefer the great tasting chicken, thin gravy and wide range of vegetables in Bailey's chicken pot pie.  So my search for the perfect pot pie continues.  Do you have any suggestions for me to try?

9/28/2011 UPDATE:  Blog readers, I am all about enriching your experience - so when I recently flew to Minnesota, I went back to Ike's Restaurant at the airport just to get a picture of the ridiculously huge Turkey Pot Pie for your viewing pleasure ... here it is:

Comfort Food: Sunday Dinner

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

I have spent my Labor Day weekend with friends, but also spending some quality time on my own decompressing.  I tried to do a friend a favor and let him move in to my home.  It was a horrific mistake and after a month, I had to give him the boot.  While at the same time I was entertaining British house guests for almost 2 weeks.  I reclaimed my home Thursday night and let me tell you, 2 cans of Febreze and a whole lot of sage smudging and I still feel like bad spirits are still lurking in my guest bedroom.  I may need to hire a Wiccan priestess ... or a witch doctor ... or an exorcist.

Today, I was supposed to go to a barbecue at my lovely friends (JS and TS)'s house.  But 2 weeks of partying with Brits have also led me to seek some much needed detoxification time as well.  I decided to stay in and have some Lily-time.  Unfortunately a divine message circumvented that plan (a blog post for the future) and instead I spent most of the day cleaning and organizing instead of sitting on my couch vegetating. 

So after several loads of laundry, with BRAVO TV's "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" marathon playing in the background (oh RHONJ- how I love you so!); I knew it was time to make a late dinner and pat myself on the back for some much needed domestic productivity.  But what to make?  What to make?  Earlier in the week, I had stocked my freezer with some lovely items from St. Petersburg, Florida's Mazzaro's Italian Market.  I've lived in some amazing cities with a variety of ethnic markets, but I find that in Tampa Bay I have to go a bit further and hunt more to find quality ethnic food staples.  Mazzaro's is worth the drive.

For dinner, I made Mazzaro's handmade asiago stuffed gnocchi (which I pronounce No-key, but have heard a zillion different ways to pronounce it).  I topped the gnocchi with Mazzaro's Vodka Sauce.  I never really got into gnocchi because I had never had it properly made.  It always tasted like leaden balls of dough.  But then one day I had the gnocchi bolognese at Pazzaluna Urban Italian Restaurant and Bar in St. Paul, Minnesota and I realized that proper gnocchi should be light, fluffy and melt in your mouth.  Pazzaluna still has my favorite gnocchi in America.  I've never made gnocchi before - or in this case, even heated up gnocchi before.  But after a very industrious day of cleaning and organizing, I figured I could tackle some gnocchi.  I gently placed the little balls into a pot of boiling, salted water for 7 minutes.  Up popped the little gems.  I scooped them out with a slotted spoon and lightly coated the asiago stuffed gnocchi with the Vodka sauce.  Now a quick word about Mazzaro's sauces - they are absolutely delicious.  They do a wide variety from muffuletta olive salad, smoked fish dip, bolognese, pesto -- and my favorite their vodka sauce.  The asiago stuffed gnocchi was nice - light, not heavy.  It wasn't as fluffy as my favorite Pazzaluna gnocchi, but the melted cheese inside was a decadent touch.  The vodka sauce added more creaminess, more richness and an overall "wow" factor to the taste buds.

My Sunday dinner while watching "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" was the very first time where I was eating something that looked better than what the Italian stars of the show were eating.  A very nice Sunday dinner indeed!        

Restaurant Duels: A Tale of Three Shortcakes

Since I've been away from my blog for several months (did a stint in Malaysia, Thailand and a couple of US trips), I thought I would post 2 entries for today.  My last post was "The 1200 Challenge" - eating less than 1200 calories in one day.  I think it's only appropriate that my second post of the day be on the other end of the caloric spectrum!

I love strawberries.  Even a childhood stint working as child manual labor on my great-aunt's strawberry farm, which left my arms swollen with various bug bites and scratches, could not put a damper on my love of strawberries!

Living in Florida- which has more strawberry growing seasons than most parts of the US - is a great place to be when you're a strawberry lover.  I'm originally from the Midwest where strawberry shortcake was either yellow sponge cake or pound cake.  But now I am in "the South" where more of the strawberry shortcakes tend to be biscuit-based.  I am a lover of all types of strawberry shortcakes, but my preference is a cake-based one (although I'll take angel food cake over pound cake) with a pureed strawberry sauce (none of that red artificial glaze gel goop stuff), large fresh berries and a generous dollop of whipped cream.  I am not crazy about ones that incorporate ice cream - just give me the whipped cream!

I find that most of the places I go to, do not have a strawberry shortcake on their regular menu.  But since it's summer, it seems like I am seeing strawberry shortcake everywhere!  One of the many reasons I took "The 1200 Challenge" today is because I have been indulging way too much with treats like strawberry shortcakes! 

I'm starting a "Restaurant Duels" section in my blog to compare the same dish from various different restaurants.  Here is "A Tale of Three Shortcakes" - three different strawberry shortcakes - one from an inexpensive chain restaurant, another from my local "comfort food but with a gourmet flair" restaurant and one from one of my favorite high end restaurants.  From the pictures, can you figure out which shortcake is from which restaurant? 

Strawberry Shortcake #1:

Strawberry Shortcake #2:

Strawberry Shortcake #3: (strawberry sauce in a sauce boat not pictured)

Have you figured out which shortcake belonged to which price range restaurant?  I'll tell you at the end of this blog, but first a little more about the shortcakes ...

Shortcake #1 is a biscuit-based strawberry shortcake with fresh strawberry ice cream and whipped cream.  The biscuit was decent and I liked the presentation.  The sauce was basically a pink strawberry flavored sugar sauce.  It seriously tasted like simple syrup.  Blend a few strawberries in there, please!  I believe the strawberry ice cream was homemade at the restaurant and it was good, however the strawberry chunks were too big so there were these huge frozen ice chunks of strawberry that were off-putting in the very creamy ice cream.  I would have rather thrown out the ice cream, plopped more whipped cream on it and made a better strawberry sauce.

Shortcake #2 is also a biscuit-based strawberry shortcake, but you'll have to trust me on that since this bowl was overflowing with strawberries that the biscuit was completely hidden.  The berries were very fresh and the biscuit was still slightly warm as if it had been freshly pulled from the oven.  Although I suspect it may have just been slightly microwaved!  The biscuit was moist, dense enough to hold up against the rich strawberry sauce but still fluffy.  It came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream.  Again, with my purist shortcake views - I could have done without the ice cream.  But this mighty bowl of strawberries was delicious!

Shortcake #3:  Holy tower of CAKE, CAKE, CAKE!  This is a pound cake-based strawberry shortcake.  A tower of layers of cake, whipped cream and berries with a pureed strawberry sauce on the side.  First, I have to say that I love having the strawberry sauce on the side.  I don't like my food drowning in sauce.  I like to be in control!  I wanted to love this incredible tower of shortcake.  The presentation is great and I am a girl who loves a generous portion of whipped cream.  But sadly, this shortcake was not great.  The pound cake was dense as a rock, completely dry and tasteless.  Had I been the pastry chef and realized the pound cake was dry, I would have cut the pieces much thinner and grilled them.  It would have added more flavor.  The whipped cream, berries and strawberry sauce were terrific.

I like to think my palate prefers expensive restaurants to inexpensive chain restaurants, but when it comes to Restaurant Duel: A Tale of Three Shortcakes - I found the inexpensive chain restaurant to have the best overall strawberry shortcake.

Favorite Overall:      Strawberry Shortcake #2  I am shocked that my overall favorite in A Tale of Three Shortcakes came from the inexpensive chain restaurant.  Strawberry Shortcake #2 came from Bob Evans Restaurant in Lady Lake, Florida.  Sometimes the inexpensive, simple desserts are the best!

Second Runner-up:  Strawberry Shortcake #1  This biscuit-based shortcake came from Bailey's Restaurant on Davis Islands in Tampa, Florida.  Bailey's has a new menu each week.  In my opinion, their cuisine is "comfort food with a gourmet flair."  While their shortcake was not my overall favorite, I have several favorites from their comfort food menu.

Sorry no prize:         Strawberry Shortcake #3   This one came from one of my favorite restaurants in the world, The St. Paul Grill  in the St. Paul Hotel in St. Paul, Minnesota.  Even though I found your dry, tasteless tower of shortcake lacking - I'll be back for your other much tastier dishes!

I think the pound cake vs. sponge cake vs. biscuit debate for a proper strawberry shortcake will go on to the end of time.  But give me a slice of fat free angel food cake, fresh berries, some pureed berries and some fresh whipped cream with almond extract and that's my idea of heaven ... That would bump Bob Evans' version right off the map!

Do you have a favorite version of strawberry shortcake?  Leave me a comment!