Category Archives: DESSERTS

World’s Best Carrot Cake

“Sweet” is not an adjective I would apply to Dolores Roux. “Energetic,” “outspoken,” “generous” seem more fitting descriptors. Yet, sweet is a word inseparable from Dolores as she owns and runs the well-loved Dolores’ Sweet Shoppe in Apalachicola, Florida. Located in the heart of downtown, the shop occupies a white frame house that was built […]

SAN ANTONIO, BOILER HOUSE & S’MORES

  San Antonio, the Texas city with south-of-the-border flair, offers gourmets much to love. Good restaurants cluster around town, accessorizing the River Walk like fine jewelry. But the shiniest, most-polished restaurants string around Pearl, the 22-acre food, entertainment and educational development on the site of the former Pearl Brewery. Pearl boasts a treasure trove of […]

HEALTHY, WEALTHY AND WISE

Don’t you just hate it when you can’t get your MRI scan, dental crowns, acupuncture and a facial in the same day, at the same place. Oh, and did I mention botox, a pedicure, fitness counseling and cooking classes? Those who find the inconvenience of multi-stops annoying can now enjoy one-stop health and fitness shopping […]

Gooey Butter Cookies, The Blue Owl and Kimmswick, MO

Kimmswick, Missouri, counts 97 official residents and two main attractions: the Anheuser Museum & Estate—the ancestral home of a relative of the founder of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery, and the Windsor Harbor Road Bridge—a 60- (or thereabouts) foot long pedestrian bridge thought to be one of the oldest wrought iron spans in Missouri. Add a handful […]

CHOCOLATE SEMIFREDDO—GLORY BE

Ask locals to name the things that shaped St. Louis’s historical character as well as contribute to the city’s current charisma and everyone will reply: baseball and beer. Chocolate lovers will add Bissinger’s. Beloved by St. Louisans since first opening in 1927, Bissinger’s Handcrafted Chocolatier continues to make traditional high-quality chocolates and old-fashioned confections (HALLELUJAH), […]

World’s Best Chocolate Torte

Imagine sitting with a lover on the terrace of Merriman’s Kapalua. Your table overlooks a small-boat harbor and the south Maui shoreline where Humpback whales frolic in shimmering waters. Sunshine kisses all. Could life be sweeter?

Well…yes…frankly it could, the moment you lift a fork and bring the velvety darkness of Merriman’s Chocolate Lover’s Torte to the tongue. Forget everything else. Chocolate Lover’s Torte is perfection! It’s as good as it gets—and more.

HOT COCOA CAKE

Guess you have to be there (Ann Arbor) to indulge in the full monty, but you can sample some goodies by mail order. For example, Zingerman’s fabulous Hot Cocoa Cake (a coffee cake that is not too rich, not too sweet but just right) is available in the Ann Arbor deli and bakehouse, by mail order, and, now, even in your own home kitchen as Zingerman’s shared the recipe below. Praise the lard!

ROAST TURKEY AND BUTTERMILK PIE

Stephen Flowers, chef for the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, says that he has two secrets to pulling off a made-from-scratch Thanksgiving feast day after day: the easy way he roasts turkey and his recipe for Southern buttermilk pie.

DIVINE TARTS

Deeply delicious dark chocolate tarts, made with unprocessed and uncooked plant foods, should appeal to gourmets as well as to vegans, vegetarians and raw food dieters.

KEY LIME PIE

“We met in Miami when I was barely into adolescence. I fell in love at first sight. Although I was tender and impressionable at the time, and am now much older and shamefully experienced, my love remains steadfast and unrelenting. Granted the object of my affection is as rich as sin, and rich is a powerful aphrodisiac, but […]