Day 15 saw us take a leisurely drive over to Hammond to lunch at Tope La.  My mom treated me to lunch there during my last trip, and on the drive over all I could talk about was the cheesecake.  The Praline Cheesecake to be exact.   I have been dreaming about it for 6 months now, and I could not wait to have my very own slice.  No sharing this time!

While I’m not at all opposed to having dessert first, I decided to go the more traditional route and save the cheesecake for last.  I had the roast beef poboy soup for starters.  I am in love with this soup.  It is rich and delicious, and every roast beef poboy should taste just like it.

Next, I had the Shrimp and Artichoke Stack.  More shrimp.  Are you surprised?

Like everything at Tope La, this dish was rich.  The artichoke cakes were divine.  While I initially thought they were skimpy with the shrimp, it turns out they were just buried in the stack.  Yum!

The Aussie had the Chicken Fried Steak.  However, instead of steak, Tope La’s version was made with pork tenderloin and was covered in an andouille cream sauce.  I’ve never made chicken fired steak with pork before, but rest assured I will be recreating this one in my kitchen ASAP.

I was pretty full after all this and debated about skipping the much-anticipated cheesecake for a split second.  Then, I came to my senses and ordered my very own piece.   I somehow manged to make it through every last bite and licked the plate clean for good measure.

The classic cheesecake is a cut above the standard, but when that warm praline sauce is drizzled on top, it’s magic.  I’ll be dreaming about this one for many months to come.  Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t live too close.

If you’d like to check out what else I’ve been eating on my trip to Louisiana or see more Cajun Porn, click here.

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I feel like Bubba from Forrest Gump with all the shrimp I ate on Day 14.

“… shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey’s uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich, …”

All these years later, and that quote still makes me smile.

I shared 2 of my favorite shrimp dishes with one of my favorite people today.   My friend Angie and I met for lunch at Mike Willie’s.  I discovered this little gem last time I was in BR, and I was delighted to enjoy their food again.

Angie and I could not decide, so we ordered 2 dishes and shared.  I simply could not go past the shrimp poboy with sweet potato fries.  Yum!

We also had the New Orleans style BBQ Shrimp.  OMG!  This was so, so good.  I wanted to lift up that bowl and drink the sauce.  I would have had to fight Angie off though as she had the same idea.

Ordinarily, this would have seen me finished for the day.  But, another friend, Jodi, presented me with some homemade peanut butter fudge.  Really, could anyone resist this?

Yum!  My girls were only too happy to help me with these.

If you’d like to check out what else I’ve been eating on my trip to Louisiana or see more Cajun Porn, click here.

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Tonight we took the girls out to look at the Christmas lights.  We started with the Messenger’s Christmas Land.  The Messenger’s have been putting on a Griswold style Christmas in Baton Rouge since long before anyone ever heard of Clark and Ellen.

I remember going to see the lights at the Messenger’s house when I was Lizzie’s age.  They’ve moved since then, but a lot of the displays are the same.  For me it was a walk down memory lane while seeing everything new again through the wonder of my daughter’s eyes.

The North Pole was always my favorite as a kid.  Every year the Messenger’s add a new display, and this year “A Gingerbread Christmas” was introduced.

My pictures do not offer any appreciation of how huge this this Christmas display really is, but if you are anywhere in the local area, you really need to see the Messenger’s Christmas Land for yourself.

From there we drove around town looking at the light displays.   Here’s another family proudly put their “Griswold” out there for everyone to see.

My favorite part of this display was Santa riding the alligator.  Rumor has it that the lady of the house actually shot this gator herself before she had him stuffed and added him to the Christmas show.  Only in Louisiana, folks.

The Baton Rouge Zoo also has a fantastic display.  It was a cold walk around the zoo, but we stayed warm by singing Grace’s favorite Christmas Carol “Anise Mobidod”.  You may know it as “Feliz Navidad”.

The train was everyone’s favorite.

Finally, we finished the night at Coffee Call to warm up with beignets and Cafe au Lait.  The lady preparing the beignets put the powdered sugar on top then asked Lizzie if that was enough.  Of course Lizzie said no, and then the really piled it on.  Too much for me, but Lizzie was in heaven.

I was lucky enough to enjoy the beignets at Coffee Call twice today.  Bliss!

If you’d like to check out what else I’ve been eating on my trip to Louisiana or see more Cajun Porn, click here.

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