a night with dee

just got home from hanging out with my friend desiree. we originally planned to go see 'mama mia' at lititz springs park, but since it rained all afternoon and we didn't have chairs to sit on, we decided not to go. instead we met at cafe chocolate in lititz (www.chocolatelititz.com). it took us a while to decide what to order. even though we had both already eaten dinner, the food on the menu was way too appealing to pass up, so we each ordered a savory item to start. because as you know, if one of us was going to order food, the other had to do the same. that's the way girls are. :) so she ordered the flatbread pizza which had a sundried tomato spread and provolone, and i ordered the west african peanut chowder...which wasn't a chowder at all. it was a creamy butternut squash & sweet potato base soup with crushed peanuts. it was a bit spicy and very delicious! we also had special beverages...dee had an iced mocha frappucino and i had a strawberry cooler which was basically strawberry puree topped with pelegrino. yum! of course we were full after eating our food (remember, we had both already eaten dinner), but after perusing the dessert selections, settled on 2 to share. we ordered the heart cake, which was a banana cake with pecans, topped with melted chocolate drizzle and coconut. it was really tasty and we both enjoyed every bite! our 2nd choice was a chocolate velvet pot de creme which was basically a chocolate mousse topped with raspberry puree, whipped cream and berries. also delicious!

after we ate, we were extremely full, and decided to walk over to lititz springs park and check out the movie set up. there were lots of people there and free drinks & popcorn were available. we watched a couple minutes of the movie before deciding to head to penn cinemas and see if there were any movies that struck our fancy. we would have seen 'the time traveler's wife', but it didn't start until 10pm and it was only 9pm at this point. :( so after a few minutes of thinking, we settled on barnes & noble for a little magazine browsing. once in barnes & noble, i was immediately taken with all of the new fiction bestsellers and told desiree all about the books i've read recently and who she should be reading. desiree admitted that she's not much of a reader, but after a few minutes of my very excited book-raving, she decided she'd try to read a book or two soon. (and she better do it!)

we then headed back to the cookbook section, which is desiree's comfort zone. she is an absolutely amazing cook/baker girl. she is very talented! (check out her blog: www.honeydearest.blogspot.com) she was really taken with all of the julia child cookbooks, having just seen 'julie & julia.' i have to say i was impressed...julia child seems to be a bit out of my league...but desiree could definitely cook with the best!

we settled in with a few magazines and ended our evening chatting about the food network chefs we love, like, and not so much. it was another delightful evening with dee! can't wait to do it again. :)