Macarons: Third time's the charm!

Finally - successful macarons! I was optimistic and made them yellow, hoping that they would be suitable for banana filling, and I was not disappointed! The secret? Umm, I'm not quite sure. But I did throw out the clumpy bits in the almond flour / sugar mixture, and I beat the egg whites a bit extra.

They were a huge hit with my friends and coworkers. I think banana is officially my favorite macaron flavor!

Love my mixer <3

Puffy and shiny with perfect little pieds!

Showing off my mad macaron skills

The finished product, with delicious banana buttercream. Yum!

Macarons: Attempt #2

Looks like I'm not great at keeping up with this blog. Let's try again.

Here are macarons, round 2! Slightly better than the first, but technically not macarons since they lacked pieds (the ruffly little foot around the bottom of each). Tragic!

Ground and sifted almond-sugar mixture.

Mmm, meringue!

Waiting to go in the oven! They have to rest for 15 minutes first, after a good WHACK on the counter.

Cute and puffy! But, sadly, no pieds.

I waited a week to decide whether they deserved filling, and I eventually whipped up nutella buttercream (kind of thick due to no milk in my apartment).

Pretty delicious, and nice in their own way, but not perfect macarons. We'll call it "progress".

Macarons: Attempt #1

These things are tricky! I even got a fancy how-to book, which seems pretty great, but I definitely need practice. I suppose not getting them right the first time gives me something to work on (and an excuse to make macarons every weekend?).

I tried out good old vanilla bean. I'll experiment more once I get this right.

Bad lighting. This is the first batch. A bit large and flat, and speckly due to the almond meal, but at least they have 'pieds' (feet in french, the little ruffle along the bottom).

The last of the (overly runny) batter. I dyed it blue, because who wants a neutral-colored macaron?

I am a pro in the kitchen (ha) and managed to spill a very large amount of batter onto the counter. Naturally I ate it rather than baking it, because I am a ridiculous person.

Some were a bit cracked, and the bottoms stuck to the sheet on others, but overall, I have a good starting batch. And they were still delicious. Mmmm.

Brownies, sans mix

I decided to try my hand at from-scratch brownies several weeks ago, because I've never done that (I grew up on cake and brownies from mixes). They could use a little work, but overall, I'd call them a near-success.

I threw in some raspberry jam to make them extra tasty.

Ready to bake.

Done! I was pretty pleased :)

Optimism

Things that I don't entirely hate about summer:

• I am going to clean off my porch and get a hammock and hang a hummingbird feeder and have a lovely, cozy place to hang out.
• I live in California near the freaking BEACH and need to start going all the time now that it is warm. Bonfire party perhaps?!
• FOOD: blueberries, heirloom tomatoes, fresh herbs... yummmmm. Resolution: Start going to the farmer's market asap.
• I do love seeing the turtles that live in my koi pond.
• I can spend weekends laying out by the pool, reading and listening to music, getting sun and swimming when it gets too warm.
• I can finally get some use out of my zoo pass, as long as it's not too hot out (and it never is in San Francisco... right?)
• Sun dresses, tank tops, and maybe even shorts. Although I do like winter clothes, too.

My "Things I hate about summer" list is way longer, but for the sake of optimism, I'll skip that one for now.

A few things I'd like to do

1. Make my dad's pizza recipe, and well. Also come up with a great whole wheat version of the crust.
2. Master a few solid, delicious (from scratch) cake and cupcake recipes. It's time to let go of the mixes. Experiment with different homemade icings and fillings and find some excellent combinations.
3. Host a party. I haven't had a party since I was about 15, and that hardly counts. Nonstop college work and tiny dorm rooms put a damper on the whole hostess thing. Of course there will be lots of from-scratch food (so far the list includes numbers 2 and 3 from above, as well as fondue).
4. Bake some things I've never attempted before. Chocolate soufflés, macarons (these sound hard), tiramisu, other things which I will think of later or which are suggested to me (hey, that means YOU).

Less exciting, but an important life skill:


Learn to cook rice without it turning into a gummy blog, or having it stick and burn on the bottom of the pan, or (most often) both.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I didn't think that I liked oatmeal cookies (too healthy sounding? or maybe just because I'm not a huge raisin fan). But I made these at the suggestion of a coworker who was celebrating his 3rd year at the company, and they were surprisingly delicious. Find the recipe here.