Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. :-) This was the first weekend since August in which I had nothing on the calendar, no homework to complete, and no papers to grade. *whew* It felt like such a luxury to finally have three days of downtime after a whirlwind October (the heaviest part of the semester + birthday excitement + Halloween excitement). I ran a few errands, made a much-needed visit to my chiropractor, spent some time with friends, baked, and read for pleasure. I also finally sorted through the many photos from the Andersonville Dessert Crawl (all while catching up on the last two episodes of Top Chef and American Horror Story: Coven).
As I mentioned last year, the Dessert Crawl is one of my favorite foodie events of the year. It always seems to fall on one of those perfect autumn days (slightly chilly and sunny) and is filled with miles of deliciousness. Really, what's there not to love about strolling through one of the coolest neighborhoods in the city with friends and eating yourself into a sugar coma? ;-) After much evaluation and the weighing of options, Diana and I decided to go with the Caramel Apple route this year, as we were both enamored with the idea of banana pot de crème. Ultimately, I think we made a fantastic choice - there were so many delicious desserts on our route that we actually couldn't even finish the crawl!
Kicking off the eight annual dessert crawl! We were joined this year by one of Diana's friends from the 'burbs (and yes, we broke her food crawl cherry). :-)
Stop #1: Marshmallow-filled chocolate cupcakes at The Wooden Spoon. This first stop really set the bar high! I have to admit that I am not a big fan of chocolate cupcakes (I don't care for plain chocolate cake or ice cream), but I *loved* this cupcake. Being at TWS also reminded me of how much I miss taking Sunday morning cooking classes (message to Diana: um, we need to get on that!).
Stop #2: Swedish rice pudding topped with lingonberry sauce from Svea Restaurant at Simon's Tavern. Swedish rice pudding isn't your typical mushy pudding; it's dense and slightly chewy (similar to a baked cheesecake). The tart lingonberry sauce was the perfect complement to the sweet pudding.
Stop #3: Dessert assembly line (Big Shoulders Coffee, Éclair Bakery, Defloured, and Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream) at Urban Orchard
Double chocolate and pumpkin pastries from Éclair Bakery. They were both delicious, but the chocolate actually won out over the pumpkin for me (there's a first for everything!).
Root beer floats from Jeni's. I was first introduced to Jeni's at the Luxury Ice Cream Festival a few years ago and haven't looked back since. Jeni's = pure ice cream awesomeness!
Gluten-free carrot cake and What Dreams May Come Bar (oat caramel chocolate bar) from Defloured. I usually find gluten-free desserts to be too dry and/or they have a weird texture; however, the deserts from Defloured were so good (especially the bar!), I wouldn't have guessed they were gluten-free.
Stop #4: Baklava from Taste of Lebanon at The Landmark. Flaky crust + crunchy pistachios + just a drizzle of honey = the perfect baklava.
A quick break from the indulging to visit one of my favorite parts of the neighborhood: the always adorable Puppet Bike!
Stop #5: Cheesecake bar at Ranalli's. I chose the brownie cheesecake and topped it with raspberry sauce, whipped cream, and chopped nuts.
Stop #6: Banana pot de crème with butterscotch shortbread at Vincent. This was the dessert I was looking forward to the most and the one that ultimately was my favorite of the entire crawl. The pot de crème was the perfect consistency and the butterscotch shortbread... oh, there are no words to describe this amazing little piece of heaven. Seriously. Best shortbread EVER!
Hanging out with Vincent's special guest chef du jour. ;-)
Stop #7: Fried Twinkies and blueberry cobbler at Hamburger Mary's. The Twinkie was substantially less greasy that the last few times I've tried fried desserts (especially compared to the deep-fried cookie dough), so I actually kind of enjoyed it this time (plus, it helped that it was such a small piece!).
Stop #8: Apple cranberry streusel pie bites from First Slice Pie Cafe. This was a perfect place for us to end the crawl - we parked ourselves at an outdoor table, nibbled on the delicious pie, and tried not to think about how many calories we just consumed. :-P
YUMO!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThose chocolate cupcakes looks AMAZING!
ReplyDeleteOMG! i think i just died and went to heavennnnnn.
ReplyDeleteEverything is making my mouth water and I really want to eat that baklava now ;)
OMG! i think i just died and went to heavennnnnn.
ReplyDeleteEverything is making my mouth water and I really want to eat that baklava now ;)