There's nothing better than a big salad for lunch with a friend; but what's even better is when she agrees to share a piece of warm cherry pie with you for dessert. I figure a half of a piece of pie is half the calories but each bite tastes so fulfilling that I don't seem to miss the other half. For over 20 years I've been enjoying countless meals at Wildfire Chicago, so when I moved to the north shore suburbs I was a bit worried that I'd miss my Mother's Day Feasts, New Year's Eve Dinners and Birthday Celebrations that my family has come to expect throughout the year. Lucky for me, Lettuce Entertain You has created a fabulous chain of this restaurant all over the country and we happen to have a Wildfire location in our area. I'll do a separate post soon about my KILLER kale salad, but for today, I'm talking PIE. Growing up, my mom LOVED pie, and I too learned to enjoyed pie in the likes of blueberry pie (from Poppin' Fresh Pies, remember them?), warm apple pie, strawberry cream pie, banana cream pie and even custard pie. I even went to the extent of learning how to make these various pies. When I met my husband, all of that changed. He turned me to the dark side....chocolate. Since we often shared dessert after our romantic dinners, while dating, we always seemed to order what he liked. I never minded, but I DID miss my old favorites. As life went on, three sons later, I realized we were a family of chocolate eaters. No problem, but I wouldn't mind a few fruit pies thrown in along the way. Fast forward to today. My dad now lives closer by so I often join him for lunch; and much like my mom, he loves pie, too. I was able to convince him to join me for a piece of this heavenly cherry pie a few weeks ago, but didn't get a picture of it, so when my friend, Kristie, agreed to meet me for lunch today, I KNEW where we'd be going--with camera in hand: Wildfire Glenview. The service is always top notched and consistent--which keeps me coming back, not to mention the delicious food. My latest obsession, the Tuscan Kale Salad, has me dreaming of it's pumpkin seeds on a regular basis, but as I said earlier, I'm here today to talk about PIE. So on with it. The Wildfire Cherry Pie has a hearty, yet flaky crust with the perfect amount of "base" so that us pie eaters can sweep the plate with a big pinkish hunk of pie crust and capture the slowly melting vanilla ice cream (notice I didn't say chocolate ice cream? Sorry Hubby) and pop the forkful into our mouth. I especially enjoy the large specks of sugar affixed to the top of the crust which marry a perfect crunch to the pink slurry hidden beneath the walls of crust. The cherries inside aren't too tart or too sweet, rounding out this pie eating experience to perfection. The piece is perfect for 2 people or one salad-eating Real Mom, take your pick. I happily give the Wildfire Cherry Pie 4 out of 4 FORKS! Happily licking my fork clean, Beth Comments are closed.
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