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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

cookie yum yums

Since we didn't get to bake cookies on Christmas[we were out of town and I have this "thing" about cooking in other peoples kitchens] I thought it would be good to bake cookies this past Tuesday at 10 o'clock at night. Random? Not if you are me.

Black & white hot chocolate to wash the sugar cookies down!





*I found this recipe in my Betty Crocker.

SOFT NO-ROLL SUGAR COOKIES

makes 3 1/2 dozen cookies

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup veggie oil
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 large eggs
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour [don't use self-rising flour!]
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar

1. In large bowl, beat 1 cup granulated sugar, powdered sugar, butter, oil, milk, vanilla and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed. Stir in flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours or until firm.

2. Heat oven to 350F.

3. Shape dough into 1 1/2-inch balls. Place 1/2 cup granulated sugar in small bowl. Roll balls in sugar. On ungreased cookie sheet, place balls about 3 inches apart. Press bottom of drinking glass on each ball until about 1/4 inch thick. Sprinkle with a little more sugar.

4. Bake 13-15 minutes or until set and edges just begin to turn brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

ENJOY!

last minute

For all you slackers out there that need an extra stocking stuffer or a little gift, you should check out the body washes from Philosophy. A friend bought be the strawberry ice cream and vanilla birthday cake ones for my birthday and they are amazing! They make my skin super soft and they are great to use for shaving. Plus, they smell super good! They also have Christmas scents too. I bought my Christmas ones a couple weeks ago and I love them.





Oh! I also wanted to share a couple pictures from our ski/snowboarding adventure last Sunday. Good times and good eats. Cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate for dinner...yes please!

Christmas time is here

Did a little decorating over the week! I would like to do a little more, but this all we had a chance to do so far. Have any of you ladies/gents started decorating for the holidays?




Last Saturday we had some friends over to do Christmas activities. We got a little tipsy and made the decision to make ginger bread houses at 2 a.m.. I think they came out great considering the circumstances! This one definitely beats the first one we made last year.






My best friend actually bought me this Christmas edition Alice in Wonderland tea set for my birthday! Isn't it darling?!

apple of my eye p.3

Apples. Apples. Apples. I really liked this recipe. I actually pretty much ate the whole batch that I made this week all by myself. I just wanted to share it with you all since I made this on Sunday. Or maybe I'm just procrastinating to study for my hair structure exam today? Whatever the case my be, here is the recipe! Enjoy this one, because I sure did!




APPLE SQUARES

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped apple
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x9 inch pan. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, mix together melted butter, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup of white sugar with a wooden spoon until smooth. Stir in the egg and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture until just combined, then stir in the apples and walnuts. Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared pan. In a cup or small bowl, stir together the remaining cinnamon and sugar; sprinkle over the top of the bars.

3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in preheated oven; finished bars should spring back when lightly touched. Cool in the pan, and cut into squares.

oh goodie

Can you tell we have been having a sweet tooth? Yesterday, we went to the World Market by our place and stocked up on some goodies! I, of course, cannot forget my Kinder chocolate. Yummmmmm. I love Kinder Country bars and the Happy Hippos are amazing too! Who am I fooling...all Kinder chocolate is amazing. Duhhh.

apple of my eye p. 2

I found a yummy recipe for some of my apples! Two apples gone, 50 more to get rid of. Oh boy.

P.S. I was going to take a picture of the inside, but I totally forgot once I started devouring it.

APPLE DUMPLINGS



1 (8 ounce) package refrigerated crescent rolls
2 medium apples, peeled and quartered
1 cup sugar
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon apple pie spice
a good sprinkle of pecans (optional!)


1.Unroll crescent dough and separate into eight triangles. Roll up one apple wedge in each triangle; pinch edges to seal. Place in a greased 8-in. square baking dish.

2.In a small saucepan, bring sugar, orange juice and butter to a boil. Pour over dumplings (dumplings will float to the top). Sprinkle with apple pie spice. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. If you wish, sprinkle tops of dumplings with pecans. I did (as you can see!) and it was so yummy! Serve warm.

apple of my eye p.1

Saturday, Chris and I went apple picking. I've been wanting to go ever since we moved here! It was a lot of fun and we picked a ton of apples. 20 pounds to be exact. I'm totally going to need some good apple recipes to get rid of all these things! Anyway, here are some pictures of our little adventure and some of the apple aftermath. Enjoy!

P.S. Of course I had to wear my thrifted apple dress to go apple picking. I can be so silly sometimes. lookbook time.


taken by Chris










taken by moi








apple aftermath