Guilty Pleasures

Pie for Lunch and More Guilty Pleasures

Holing up in a hotel

It's raining tonight, and I couldn't be happier. I'm settled into my room at Chicago's Hotel Monaco after a long business day, and now it's me time. I have friends who'd like to see me for dinner, and I have e-mail I could check, but frankly, I'm busy right now with a nine-piece box of Vosges exotic chocolates and a bottle of red wine from room service.

My room has a river view and window seat. I turn on some music and, propped up by pillows, watch the city while savoring my wine and chocolates (I should have splurged on the 12-piece box!). Next, I drop an ice-cream-scoop of bath fizz (bought in the lobby for $7.61) in my bath and just soak. I put on a terry robe and prepare for bed—luxurious sheets, a down-filled duvet and lots of pillows. But I'm in no rush to go to sleep. Room service is still open!

- Travel Manager Jodie Burlog Schafer Remains Very Willing to go on Business Trips

Having someone clean your house

There are dishes in the sink, shoes in a jumble by the front door and wet towels that have dried into stiff little sculptures on the kids' bathroom floor. And that's just the mess I see out of the corner of my eye as I make for the driveway, where an equally messy car will take me to the airport. If I admitted it to myself, I'd realize that I'm rushing not to make a plane, but to avoid the cleaning crew that will arrive at any moment. I don't want to explain what I did last night instead of picking up the shoes. And what kind of person leaves dishes in the sink? Who lives like this? I don't want answers. I just want the dirt and the clutter to magically disappear—along with the check I leave on the kitchen counter.

- Senior Travel Editor Barbara Morrow Now Would Like Something Done with her Car, Too.

Eating dessert -- for lunch!

My secret culinary dreams have names like Banana Cream. Triple Berry. Apple Crunch. Strawberry-Rhubarb. Chocolate Pecan. French Silk. Sour-Cream Raisin. So I had to work hard to control my glee when I learned that part of my Taste of the Midwest summer road trip in 2005 would require sampling pies in 12 Midwest states.

I dutifully went from town to town, eating gooey, sugary slices of one of my worst vices for lunch: Chocolate Peanut Butter. Lemon Meringue. Pumpkin Supreme. It was a childhood fantasy fulfilled! I'd gladly return to the scenes of my crimes any day for another orgy of guilty, pie-eating pleasures. Betty's Pies in Two Harbors, Minnesota, on Lake Superior's North Shore, with crusts made with lard and fillings that are—well—filling. Or the Norske Nook, a legendary pie palace located in tiny Osseo in west-central Wisconsin—Sin City to many a defeated dieter!

- Editor-in-Chief Dan Kaercher Gained 10 1/2 Pounds While Living This Culinary Dream