Macarons? oui s'il vous plaît!!

So I'm almost 28 weeks pregnant now. Yipee! And this saturday its time to celebrate my little guy. I'm so excited for my shower and I'm so lucky to have friends like Amber to throw me one. She's the best!

I've decided that I wanted to serve Parisian Macarons at my shower but I knew it would be hard to find them here in Italy. I remember seeing them once at a McCafe down town (ha ha yes McDonalds) for €1 each but thats ridiculous! So.. I hit the Pinterest/YouTube trail to see if I could find someone that would teach me how to make them in my own kitchen. Sure enough.. I got lucky. I stumbled across this girl's blog lovely lady cakes tv as I was on YouTube. Combined with other recipe knowledge from Martha Stewart and other bloggers on Pinterest, I was able to blaze my own macaron trail. I've had ups and I've had downs. But I am here to share it with you so you don't have to pay astronomical prices for a little piece of Parisian heaven. (Mindy-- this one is for you). ** TIP ** read through the entire recipe before attempting.

PARISIAN MACARONS

Ingredients

- 3/4 cup Almond Flour/Meal (I used Red Mill brand)

- 1 cup confectioners sugar

- 2 egg whites

- 4 tablespoons granulated sugar

- your choice of food coloring (optional)

YES.. that is ALL you need. Simple eh? It's the filling that will have you at wits end trying to decide what you want. 

Tools

- Electric Mixer with whisk attatchment

- 1 or 2 medium sized spatulas

- 1 gallon sized zip top storage bag

- piping bag tip, large round (optional)

- 1 large drinking glass

- large mixing bowl

- sifter/mesh strainer

- 2 silicone baking mats (or parchment paper)

- 2 half sheet pans

1. Sift the almond flour with the confectioners sugar into a mixing bowl and set aside. For me, I had a problem sifting the almond flour in my mesh strainer. It seemed that the granules were too big. I ended up not sifting the almond flour, only the confectioners sugar. I didn't notice a problem in the final cookie.

2. Separate your eggs if you havent already. Whites go in the bowl of your mixer, yolks.. do what you want with em. If you are that ambitious, make a lemon curd for the filling. (uhmm yum?) Whisk the eggs on medium til frothy.. this should be about a min or 2 depending on your mixer. Once the eggs are frothy, add in the 4tbsp of sugar. Do this one tbsp at a time, sloooooowly. (picture to the right) Once all sugar has been incorporated into the egg whites, turn up the mixer to high. If you're using a Kitchen-aid Stand Mixer, this is speed 8 or 9. Continue to whip the egg whites til they are opaque, glossy and stand up in stiff peaks. It is at this point that you want to add your food coloring. I have used gel based as well as liquid and both have turned out just fine. (This color chart has helped me immensely with liquid dye). Remember that the batter will lighten as it bakes in the oven so don't be afraid to go a little darker.

-look at that gorgeous peak!-

*hint* WRONG                        RIGHT

3. Now you are ready to make the macaronage.. mix in your almond flour + confectioners sugar mix. I found it easier to put half the mix into the egg whites. Don't worry about deflating the egg whites. It's ok. Once most of the flour mix has been mixed in, add the rest. I counted 50 strokes total. The batter will be deflated compared to how fluffed up the egg whites were when you started. DO NOT FREAK OUT.

4. This tip helps me out EVERYTIME.. even with frosting cakes. Don't go spending money on an expensive piping bag.. you've already got one in your kitchen. I use a gallon size zip top bag, a piping bag tip and collar (those are cheap.. I like the wilton brand and I think I paid about $3 total). Just snip a small corner off the bottom of the bag, assemble the tip and collar, then slide the tip end into a drinking glass. Fold the top open and this will hold the bag open and upright as you fill it with your batter (or cake frosting). If you dont have a piping bag tip.. its ok you dont need it. I've made this recipe with and without it.. no difference.

5. Fill up that cheap-skate piping bag with your macaronage! Try to remove any air from the bag, I found a little plastic scraper to help me move all batter to the corner. Line your baking sheets with your silicone baking mat (or parchment paper). This is where it could potentially get tricky. But you will be fine. Pipe your batter STRAIGHT down to form a circle. I made mine just a smidge bigger than an American 50 cent piece. You can choose your size but be aware that it will affect your cooking time. The smaller the better but don't go too small. I was able to get 20 on a sheet with about a half inch spacing between them. Now tap the sheet pan on the counter top to remove any air bubbles.

6. Now we wait.. yes.. WAIT. Leave these on the counter to set for at LEAST 30 min. They need to form a "crust". This will allow it to have a smooth and crunchy top with a chewy inside. While these are resting, start your oven to 325. Once you have hit 325, turn it back to 300. You have an oven thermometer, don't you? You can check the "crust" by very lightly running your (clean) finger tip over the top. If no batter sticks to your finger and the cookie is smooth its ready to go in the oven. After 30 min, an hour is preferable, go ahead and place your first tray into the oven. If you're lucky, not like me, you have 2 oven racks. Move these away from the center of the oven. My best batches have come from the bottom rack. If you can do both trays at once, well I'm jealous. Bake 8 min, rotate and back in the oven for another 8 min. Everyone's oven is different so feel free to play with this time. I've had some batches come out at 14 min and some at 16. Your macaron is done when it has formed a hard shell top, a spongey "foot", and leaves NO trace of batter when removed from the pan.

WRONG                 RIGHT

7. Let them cool completely before removing, filling and sandwiching together. This may be the hardest part of the recipe. The list for fillings is endless. Ganache, buttercream, jam, lemon curd, white chocolate.. etc.

See.. that wasn't so hard! I hope you were able to find this recipe helpful!! Once I've sandwiched them together I will post a final picture as well as pictures from the shower on saturday. :D

au revoir et bon appétit

22 WEEKS!

"It's been awhile since i've posted"

Isn't that something I've said before. :/ Ugh.. It's been hectic.

I just got back from a vacation, dealing with some family issues as well as acting as a walking incubator. But things are progressing really well. I don't have maternity pictures just yet but plan on taking some soon.

Week: 22
Baby is as big as a papaya! and about 1lb already.

I feel great! Besides the acid reflux.. The doctor says that the baby is doing really well, as am I. no real news to express right now. Just excited for the upcoming weeks.

ok... ok.. I'm a horrible blogger

I fail SO bad at this.. the holiday season came and went. I wanted to post pictures of my holiday decorations but I got a little lazy with the posts. Not to mention my husband & I decided that we wanted to try to expand our family. I hope this isn't too much information. We had tried for a couple of years with no luck... but this year.. we got lucky.

Thats right :) We're having a baby! At this moment I am currently 10 weeks and due November 12!



It's been overwhelming and exciting all at the same time. Hopefully this week we will get to hear the baby's heartbeat.

Keep us in prayer!

This is Halloween.. getting my creep on!

Being that it was my first Halloween to decorate.. I am gonna share those decorations with you :)

These pennants I made with some felt and twine, the first one hung in my bathroom off of the curtain rod. The pumpkin one was purchased.

I was pretty excited to get things going for the Halloween party. I made little costume contest awards, I call them SKELLYS haha. I just used some of the skeleton garland that I got at our Base Exchange for $3 and some metallic gold spray paint. The garland came with 6 skeletons so I had just the right amount. I went to the hardware store and got mini tera cotta pots. Just hot glued the skeletons feet to the bottom of the pot and sprayed away! Didnt they come out super awesome! I bought enough for next year also!



















Here is just a peek at the decorations I had scattered around the house:

Starting at the front door. This is a simple wreath with autumnal colored leaves on it. It's really a blank canvas and can be left out for the entire Fall season. I think it was a late night WalMart find a long long time ago. I jazzed it up with some fake spiderwebs and a black glitter sign that says Happy Halloween on it, although its hard to see against the dark wood door.

Below is the main hallway. Didn't do too much as I really didn't have a lot and am slowly acquiring spooky pieces as time goes by.

I love the "Trick or Treat" sign with the bats :)

The bunting you see on the wall above the console table is black spiders and purple cats-- what? you've never seen a purple cat before? lol

This hallway leads into my living room.

Gotta love my bats and skulls bunting!! I have one hanging on the dining room doors too!!

See the candy corn candles! I love them on the sconces. Here I just used a frame that was a nasty gold, spray painted it a matte black, leaned it up against the wall next to an old rusty lantern, a fake tombstone, some dripping blood candles, fake pumpkins and a smattering of fake spiderwebs. I think it turned out pretty cool!

Now to decorate the dining room. At this time my buffet had not arrived so I had to make due with a folding table.. i apologize.

At the party, I served Dexter's Bloody Sangria, Broken Glass Cupcakes, there was some chips and a "killer" taco dip (made my Ashley), Blood Orange juice and my awesome friend Haley brought cinnamon roll cookies and mulled hot cider.

"Broken Glass" cupcakes

A few of the costumes:

Haley & Charlie-- Dia De Los Muertos

Myself & Ashley-- True Blood waitresses from Merlottes Bar & Grill

Mike & Stephanie-- Gothic Military (?) I think

Krystal & baby Kellen-- Mermaid & fish!

Until next year... HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

And so we meet again...

October was my last post? Really? Wow! Who is a slacker? This girl!

Sorry guys! Once Halloween hit, it was a whirlwind of holidays and parties and events. OK, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm going to try my hardest to post a series of catch up entries.

First one: Halloween!

Thanks to one of my best friends EVER.. I got the opportunity to carve my first pumpkin-- EVER! It turned out AWESOME and I even chose a heck of a pattern. Sorry the picture is blurry, I took it with the FaceTime camera on my iPhone.

Decided on a Jack Skellington pumpkin. No Halloween is complete with out a little Nightmare Before Christmas. I love that movie, I love Tim Burton and his crazy mind. I almost wish I had another pumpkin so that I could've done Zero too. :/



Carving a pumpkin is easy but its definitely time consuming. I think it took us about 2 hours from start to finish. We wrapped my kitchen island in garbage bags and taped an empty one to the side. We called it our "Kill Room" haha, you will get that if you're a Dexter fan. Surprisingly those little pumpkin carving tool kits that you get at the grocery store are pretty good. We cut a hole in the top and used the scooper to get out the guts. Then scraped the edges down, placed the pattern on with some tape and then traced the pattern right into the rind.





Here is a trick we found, via some trial and error..

We used a plain ole fork to poke holes in the rind through the paper, making it like a connect the dots. That made it easy to use the serrated cutter to carve out the design.






After we finished Jack, I decided to cut out a bat silhouette from the back so that when a candle or light was inserted into the cavity of the pumpkin, a bat would shine on to the wall.... almost like the bat signal! LOL









I'm pretty proud of him! He even lasted right up to the day after Halloween! Next year--- I'm waiting til the day before to carve!

Craft Room: Part Deux

I've been gone... :/ sorry! Well the 15th is around the corner. I've been working on the craft room and I just wanted to update where I'm at in spending:


TOTAL BUDGET €150

PURCHASED ITEMS

-Table €39,99
-Shelf €14,00
-Pencil/pen storage €12,99
TOTAL SPENT  €66,98

I still have €83 remaining!

Will post pictures as soon as the room is done. Just wanted to keep you posted! Still need to get a chair. :/

It's a Design Star kinda night

SO ... It's late and I'm up watching Season 6 of Design Star. The creative wheels are spinning.

Recently I've decided to bite the bullet and turn my guest room into a multi-purpose craft/guest room. With the holidays nipping on our heels, I can't have fabric and thread strewn about my dining room during thanksgiving dinner! I put on Design Star and decided to give myself a little budget challenge. (Husband approved)

The Challenge: A multipurpose craft/guest room for €150 ($200) or less
The Contender: Me, a jobless American living in Sicily with a limited access to affordable furniture.
The Start date: Oct 15 (payday)

I've started to clean out the guest room. I already have a somewhat furnished guest room, extremely meager, but furnished. I have a twin bed & a woven rug--- I said meager! Pathetic. I went through some of the tote boxes of clothes and there might be a garage sale in the near future.

Time to poke around the internet for some ideas.

LOVE the pennant window treatment! I've been a little too into pennants lately. Also, check out the embroidery hoops as wall art! Super cute.



I see that they also used a table for a desk.. I will be adopting that idea. A friend of mine uses a simple table from the VIKA line at Ikea. I was concerned with the sturdiness of the table. I attempted to put my sewing machine on a folding table, that, my friends was a mistake! The table hopped up and down when the machine was working. My friend loves hers. SOLD. And at €30 it comes in within my budget.

I'm not a huge fan of the legs... simple. Make a curtain. Plus the curtain will hide any unsightly storage boxes I might have, as well as cords from laptops, hot glue gun, and my sewing machine. I do believe that the legs screw right into the bottom of the table top so there is no ledge to attach a rod for a curtain--- velcro might come in handy. Now I just have to find the right fabric. I'm leaning towards canvas, its neutral and won't clash with my Pottery Barn bedding (on sale, thank you!).

This is a great idea for storing pens, scissors, brushes & all of those items you need in arms length. Ikea to the rescue yet again.







I can get the rail & 3 little tin baskets for €14 euro. (This brings our current total to €44). For even more storage for rulers and measuring tapes I can repurpose a RIBBA picture ledge (€5)-- i could even put a magnetic strip (€7), you know for holding knives, underneath it and get some baby food jars to hold things like pins, safety pins, needles, etc. Attach a small magnet to the top of the baby food jars and then it will just "hang" from under the ledge.

Everything will be visible. Awe.. they are kinda cute huh? It might be time to try that carrot cake recipe that uses carrot baby food.

Time to look at shelves... Don't judge my drawing lol. It's pretty sad.. my no-thumb cat is even unimpressed. I found these bracket mounted wall shelves for €3,50 and the brackets for €3. (2 sets = €19, bringing our current total to €75)


That sorry looking frame is another project entirely. I'm creating a burlap memo board. So far, I've only painted the frame. Here is your sneak peak.

I have a couple more things to tackle:

Window treatment
Storage units to go on the shelves
Step stool cause I'm short
Chair
Curtain for under the table
Utility cart
Relocate the bed so that it is a usable "daybed"

I've got my work cut out for me! But for now... BED!