For the remainder of June, I'll be spending a few more days away from THIS blog's topic (cookbooks, in case it's become less apparent lately).  We'll be generating some cross-interest for my new blog, before Bartlett actually launches it (see the two previous postings - he's an adorable stuffed moose who LOVES to travel).  The new blog is still unnamed - please help by voting, if you haven't already - there is currently an even amount for EACH of the four choices, so if you have other suggestions, please add them as a comment after this posting.

Today the girls and I headed out to explore an ice cream joint that sounded promising, with flavors like:  maple bacon with French toast, wasabi ginger with black sesame seeds, avocado with blackberry jam, pineapple with pink peppercorn caramel, or Mexican hot chocolate with cinnamon, orange, cayenne and marshmallows.  Immediately, Bartlett decided he needed to tag along on this road trip!

Being the responsible mother that I am, I insisted on lunch prior to dessert, so we decided upon another small restaurant right next door that we hadn't even heard of before, let alone tried.  Both places are in South Euclid in a shopping center.

At Piada, they offer a selection of salads, pasta bowls, and (what else?) piadas, which are Italian thin-crust dough baked on a stone grill then hand rolled with a grill item, such as chicken, plus house-made sauces and pestos, cheese and fresh vegetables.  Sophia chose the chicken basil pesto street bowl of pasta - something like broken strands of angel hair pasta.

 I picked their special, the farmers' market salad.  With the exception of a few harder pieces of romaine, the salad was tasty enough that I'd go back for it (and I never used to eat salad, 'cuz in our house as a kid, iceberg was the only kind we had, and somehow I've never been able to stomach it, whether to eat it, or even to smell it).  This salad is made-to-order with field greens, locally fresh, ripe, in season strawberries (OMG, SO good!), roasted chicken, feta cheese, avocado, grilled sweet corn, and candied spiced pecans, tossed in a lemon-basil dressing.

Bartlett gave it a good sniff, but by the time he'd decided to try it, I'd already drizzled the dressing over it, and he found the lemon to be off-putting.  Not something he'd find in the northern regions, in Alaska.  

Bartlett checks out the Farmers' Market Salad

Once the salad was finished, we strolled next door to A Cookie and A Cupcake, which also serves varieties from their other business, Churned Ice Cream Shop.  I have to admit, I never embraced the cupcake trend - when something gets so "in and hot" that you hear ad nauseum about it (like kale chips, bacon, pork belly, or burgers served between two donuts), I tend to want to run away, and hope the trend dies quickly.  

Side note:  even tho bacon is "hot", and has been for a few years, it's the one "trend" that I'll wholeheartedly embrace, wrapping my hands completely around whatever it's in - I especially enjoyed the chocolate-covered bacon that was so in near us a couple of years ago.  Smoked, thick-cut, center-cut slabs of salty goodness - here comes my Homer Simpson moment - "bacon, good, yum"!

  Sadly, of the above-mentioned flavors, they only had the maple bacon or avocado, and not the flavors I'd truly gotten my mouth watering to try.  So I settled for an espresso cupcake (chocolate cake with a ton of buttercream very lightly flavored with espresso), accompanied by a small scoop of black forest ice cream (chocolate with cherries and exceedingly-thinly-slivered almonds, to the point where I had NO idea what I was eating, and wondered initially if perhaps someone had left a cardboard wrapper of some sort in the ice cream).  

Bartlett wasn't impressed any more than I was...

So it was decided that, when passing thru that location, we'd drop in at Piada again, but then return to the car to locate another dessert shop.  I don't wish to sound negative, but life's too short to eat dry cupcakes loaded with fatty icing, when at home we already had the delicious brownies we'd baked last night - double fudge with chopped dried cherries, extra chocolate chips, and crunchy, slightly-bitter cocoa nibs, topped with mini marshmallows.

Double Fudge Brownies, with chopped dried cherries, chocolate chips, and cocoa nibs, topped with miniature marshmallows

As served, with fresh whipped cream (sorry, a little overexposed)

If anyone wants the recipe, I'll gladly post it later.  It's a very forgiving and high-adaptable recipe.  I often toss in different extracts, or even better, Kahlua, Grand Marnier, or other liqueurs.  Sometimes I make a cream cheese filling to swirl throughout the batter.  And on occasion, I heat it up with some cayenne to give it a Mexican chocolate note.

Ciao til later!