in bloom

A picture with the pretty flowers, pictures of the pretty flowers, and let's throw some yummy ripe strawberries in for good measure.

the air smells sweet

I know. I was kinda skeptical about the Hello Kitty perfume at first too. Well, let me tell ya...you shouldn't be!!! I'm pretty sure this is my new favorite scent that's out right now. I also think it's perfect for the Spring and Summer months. With notes like cassis sorbet, Italian mandarin, apple, magnolia blossom, freesia, orange flower, tonka bean, vanilla, and musk you get a little bit of floral, fruity, and smooth vanilla all in one. It's the best of all worlds if you ask me. Plus, the bottle is adorable! On another sweet note - I'm getting my hair did tomorrow. Hello ombre hair...I will get to meet you atlast.

in the flesh pt. II

aaand another!

in the flesh

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! I made crepes with our new de Buyer Crepe kit [which is awesome btw!] and some super yummy braised garlic chicken. Nom nom! Then Chris made me take a picture. The end.

we all scream for ice cream

I bet these 3 little films are going to be cute. Rachel, I'm all for indulging too!!!



P.S. Rachel you will always be Summer to me!

spring flowers

I'm so ready for the nice Spring weather! Today it was in the 80's and it wasn't humid at all[thanks goodness!!!]. It seems like around this time of year my plant collection starts to grow. Last week I bought two white orchids and a Lady Jane. I'm trying my best not to accidentally murder the orchids!!! I've also been eyeballing some air plants recently so hopefully I'll add some of those to my ever growing collection too. Oh, and I would like to get an aloe plant. Everyone needs an aloe plant!

vanilla orange blossom

So in the passed week I've made about 3 batches of macarons. The first two were vanilla and the third was a vanilla orange mix. I'm slowly dipping my toes in the crazy taste combinations.




ORANGE BLOSSOM MACARONS WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE VANILLA CREAM

Let's start with making the cream since you have to refrigerate it for quite some time.

125 grams heavy cream
60 grams white chocolate
1 vanilla bean, split and seeded or 1 teaspoon of a good vanilla extract

1. Chop the white chocolate into a bowl. In a saucepan, boil the cream and the vanilla bean/extract and pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for a minute and stir until the chocolate is completely melted.

2. Let it sit in the refrigerator overnight and whip the next day until a thick cream is formed.

* After the macaron shells are made and have finished cooling you can pipe the cream onto the shells.

Ok and now for the macarons...

1 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup almond flour
2 large egg whites, room temperature
Pinch of cream of tartar
1/4 cup superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon orange blossom extract

1. Pulse confectioners' sugar and almond flour in a food processor until combined. Sift mixture two times.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk whites with a mixer on medium speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar and extract, then whisk until soft peaks form. Reduce speed to low, then add superfine sugar. Increase speed to high, and whisk until stiff peaks form, about 8 minutes. Sift flour mixture over whites, and fold until mixture is smooth and shiny.

3. Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain round tip, and pipe 3/4-inch rounds 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets, dragging pastry tip to the side of rounds rather than forming peaks. Tap bottom of each sheet on work surface to release trapped air. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake 1 sheet at a time for about 10 minutes. After each batch, increase oven temperature to 375 degrees, heat for 5 minutes, then reduce to 325 degrees.

4. Let macarons cool on sheets for 2 to 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. (If macarons stick, spray water underneath parchment on hot sheet. The steam will help release macarons.)

5. Sandwich 2 same-size macarons with the white chocolate vanilla cream. Serve immediately, or stack between layers of parchment, wrap in plastic, and freeze for up to 3 months

6. As you can see...I added a little bit of orange zest on top of my macaron shell for decoration and taste. I didn't have any food coloring on hand so I thought this would be a good idea. Both ideas are optional though!

That's about it everyone. These recipes seem to work really well for me! Does anyone else have any over flavored recipes they want to share???

nilla bean

Ahh! I keep getting caught up in the crazy whirlwind of life. Please forgive me once again for my flaky posting. Lemme catch you up on some things with a little picture show.


out and about in D.C


Chris' mother sent us some macarons when she went to NYC. Before Chris devoured them all I snuck myself 3.




Spring flowers




I actually went to NYC myself for the IBS hair show. I'm not sure why I only took pictures of the city and not any of cool hairstyles. Silly me.






Watching Iron Chef has got me more into cooking lately. It's resulted in me spending a chunk of my tax return on new tools [like my new Staub dutch oven!!!] for my little kitchen. One of my new toys is a digital kitchen scale. I bought this specifically for making macarons of course! We [thanks Chris for all that sifting you did!] made these vanilla ones on Friday. They turned out pretty good especially for us first timers. We are going to make more tonight!


After slaving away in the kitchen Chris thought it would be a good idea to make me take a picture.


aaaand that's about it.

meet panda-chan!

Say "Hello!" to my newest addiction to Land of Cuteseas *drumroll please*...Panda-Chan! Panda-Chan was ordered for a friend of mine for Valentines Day so I hope she loves it! Speaking of Valentines Day...does anyone have any special plans? Tonight we are doing our special Valentines Day dinner and the one and only L'Auberge Chez Francois. I can't wait to stuff my face with authentic delicious French cuisine. Yum!





Oh, I also wanted to share some tunes for your listening pleasure. Bon appetit!

Air Waves - Knockout from MAGIC CHILL on Vimeo.

panda chan

My new work in progress!

to sum it all up

My weekend consisted of:


picking out new fabric for a new plush



snuggling and taking naps with my boops





going to class



making cookies and eating yummy food





traveling to enchanted snowy parks to take pictures with the boyfriend






and etc. etc.

outside

Here are 2 new pics from the boyfriend. We tried to take pictures out at this bridge, but I just couldn't do it in 20 degrees freezing ice cold weather wearing ONLY a dress, tights and shoes. So in the car it was!







Oh! Last night we had a snow storm come and visit us and this is what I woke up too! Beautiful right?! I love it! I even had fun digging out our cars from all the snow. I'm also deciding that it's too dangerous for me to drive to school! It's not playing hookie if it's not safe to drive right???

maco-nut

Lately I've been feeling like I need to bake something every week. This week it was white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.






1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 ounces white chocolate, chopped
1 (6.5 ounce) jar macadamia nuts, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Stir in the egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, stir in the white chocolate and nuts. Drop cookies by heaping teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart.

3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly browned. Cool on wire racks. When cool, store in an airtight container.

Enjoy these babies. They are delishhh.

all around and away we go

I can't get enough of this song/band.

say hello

to Ellie the elephant. You like?

Nadal for Armani

I need more. Pleaseeeeee. *swoon*

blue valentine

Saw this trailer today and it gave me goose bumpies. Can't wait for it to come out.

ellie

I've been busy with school, work, taking care of the pets & slaving away for the boyfriend. Oh, I've also been busy making this little fella too. What do you think?

holiday yum yums

One of the best things about the holidays is the goodies that you get. Here are some of the goodies I got in my stocking this year. Ritter chocolate with cornflakes...should be tasty! I'm going to try my best not to eat all of them today.







Look at this little beggar....tisk tisk.

par-tay

How was everyone's night? Mine was pretty awesome. Happy New Year everyone!