George Washington would have loved this

Our first President was a fan of cherries and cherry pies.  He did not chop down a cherry tree despite popular folklore. He would have enjoyed this one.  This is pie season so we have seen a few of them.

Not a bad price!

Meant to entice!

The lattice is nice!

How about a slice?

Don't have to ask twice!

The one we had today was a very good size.  As a matter of fact we got two good days of cake hour from it.  It had the typical pie crust with a lattice work top that was sprinkled with granulated sugar.  Inside there were plenty of large sour cherries in the filling.  This means it was not sickeningly sweet and therefore more enjoyable. It was probably one of the better cherry pies that we have had and to think it came from Stop and Shop.  We'll have to check out some of their other baked goods!

Some may take the cake but we took the cookies!

We are sometime very clever when it comes to securing things for cake hour. Today was the day for interviews. The interviewers get a box lunch in between the morning and afternoon sessions. Included it said box lunch from Au Bon Pain is usually a cookie or something sweet.  Sensing and opportunity to fill a vacant cake hour slot we removed the cookies from the various boxes and this did we have some treats. 

We raided the box lunches and found these!

White chocolate macadamia nut and M&M cookies...

...with oatmeal raisin and there you have it!

The cookies from ABP are not bad.  Because of their size and consistency - ABP opts for the soft kind - they are a bit like a piece of cookie cake.  We had their standard collection - chocolate chunk, oatmeal raisin, M&M cookie and white chocolate macadamia nut and were satisfied with that. (One of these days I'll go off on white chocolate but that's another time!)  All in all not bad for petty larceny. You gotta do what you gotta do.

When in need hit the local very busy Starbuck's!

We needed to get something for cake hour but it came down to the wire. Fortunately there is a Starbuck's nearby where you can get a sweet treat if you need one.  I decided to see if they would have something that would be appropriate and indeed they did. There was quite a good selection of coffee cake type things as well as sweeter stuff - brownies and the like. We went with the good old plain cinnamon coffee cake.

Practically a whole cake!

Nice cinnamon crumb topping!

It is sold in squares that are pretty large.  Fortunately the pieces are large enough that by buying four you have the equivalent of a small cake.  By cutting the pieces in half we could spread the wealth. This cake was good - not too sweet and not to heavy. Of course not to heavy means not to moist and therefore a little on the dry side. It didn't matter. It went great with coffee and we would be happy to have it again.

If it look a little dry - it was!

As in the case of this coffee cake, have you noticed how the sweet treats in Starbuck's tend to be on the large side.  From the caloric standpoint one of their scones could feed you for the whole day.  In Boston recently, the food at a Starbuck's on Beacon Hill was smaller in size and more moderately priced.  If this is a trend I would welcome it!  Perhaps it is their response to obesity. The Starbuck's we went to is interesting. It appears to be run by or partnered with Johnson and Wales University. All the barristas and service people had name tags that also identified them ad JWU students. In between classes the place is mobbed and they take orders via walkie talkie and send you up to pay.  It seemed very efficient and probably necessary given the number of people we saw there!

La retour de la française

The person who signed up for today was one of our prodigal alumna who was hanging out in PVD visiting her cheri. We were expecting some cultural treats for something like a foie gras cake hour but to our surprise she arrived with a home baked pie. Ostensibly she baked it herself!!   HA, HA, HA!!  That was hilarious. Always good for a laugh is our French friend!  Actually the pie was baked by our favorite pastry chef who has brought us many treats over the PhD years of her husband.  Darn that he has moved on to medical school and is not around as much.

She's back and but did not bake!

I admit..I did it! And we're glad you did!

It looks professional because she bakes like a pro!

The pie was delicious, as if we expected anything else.  Nice flaky crust with a bit of saltiness and well cooked apples, not too hard not too soft, with just the right amount of sugar. No one likes a sickeningly sweet pie after all! What a nice treat to welcome our friend back from France for her connubial visit and a reunion of the steadfast cake hour crowd!

Great crust..just the right shade of golden brown!

Well cooked and seasoned apples for a first rate taste!

Tate's and Quads with a visit from the beyond!

When there is no one signed up for cake hour we have several backups. One of them has come to be known as Tate's and Quads.  This consists of two things that are readily available in the nearby Gourmet Heaven store.  Tate's are the cookies made somewhere on Long Island. We like them a lot because they are crunchy not soft, not too floury but very tasty.  It is difficult not to pig out on these cookies. Today's selection was butter pecan which we had not tried before.  They met expectations though there could probably be a few more pecans in these babies.

Tate's and Quads to the rescue!

Almond flavored quads..

A new entry into the Tate's selection or so we think!

The other treats, Quadrattini's are from Italy/Austria or more accurately the Austrian German part of Italy.  They are bite size wafer cookies that come in many flavors.  Today we had the almond flavor which is a favorite.  These are also very easy to eat because they hit the flavor spot big time. Tate's and Quads come through again!

A perfectly respectable backup plan!

We had a visit from the beyond today. They beyond being the main campus of the hospital where our erstwhile researchers end up back in the black hole of clinical service. Our buddy hadn't stopped by in awhile and as you can see he's still gotta have that phone in his hands!

Stop bugging me about the phone!