French macarons will be the death of me

I would guess that this recipe would go by easier and quicker if I can actually use almond powder/flour--- problem is, my son is deathly allergic to all nuts and tree nuts. I challenged myself thinking, eh, what's the big deal anyway, there are A MILLION flour substitutes out there. I also would have to bash my head on a wall for even daring to think that to begin with.

Yesterday, after months of dilly-dallying over the idea of French macarons, I jumped for it. I went to the local specialty store, grabbed a bag of coconut flour and coconut flakes. I tried a recipe I found online for nutless macarons and they were ABOMINABLE! I basically just had mounds of the American version--- but worse. They were dry, icky and not beautiful like they should be.

Attempt 2--- they looked like sugar cookies. At least i was on the right track, I was able to put it in a piping bag and i was able to squeeze it out.

Attempt 3-- a lot more successful. It was a bit chunky since the coconut flour tends to do that and I didn't tap the bottom of the pan out, but I got a very delicious result out of it. This was my end result:

See-- chunkier. Delicious though, oh man, I can stuff my mouth about a million of those. Today though, I wanted to solve the "chunk" issue so I ran again to the local specialty store and bought soy and coconut flour again, but a different brand.

OHHHH MYYY GODDDD! I'm pretty sure before I got my "good" result today, I ended up with several choux like macarons. I'm making freaking macarons here, not croquembouche (that is for a different day. It would be the "death of me par deux"). I'm just very grateful I have a wonderful husband that kept telling me that I can do it, I can make delicious and beautiful almond-less macarons. He's such a doll, without him, I would have pulled a Julie Powell type of tantrum and it wouldn't be cool because I complained many times about how horrible she was about the whining. I guess it's something about French cooking though, even worse, French pastry--- it tests you. This macaron recipe is the EASIEST recipe I've ever done, not many ingredients, easy to edit to a specific flavor, but it's technique. I have the technique but experimenting with the ingredients just fail me a lot, and this is the love of a mother talking here. I want my son to experience MACARONS!!

I went back, with my head up high, I can't remember how many eggs I've cracked and I got this:


My vision is so clouded I can't even tell if these are better or worse than the ones from yesterday. One thing is for sure though--- yep, I will try again. I have about 2 cups of coconut flour and 2 cups of powdered sugar left. I found a printable macaron template and I will go for it. I'll have a good cry tonight if I come out of this alive.

Lack of blogging

It's been a very busy, busy month. Just when I thought all of my weekend activities are done, now my weekday activities are filled. Even stay-at-home-moms have their share of activities and being a Mom is a full time job which then leads to lack of blogging but to a myriad of cooking.

Just like everyone else, my family and I are holding back on the expenses because we want to save up, so we cut down on eating out, which means we're probably not going to our favorite Japanese restaurant. I love teriyaki, never have made it at home because I always have Filipino soy sauce at home and it never tastes the same way as the kikkoman style soy sauce. Soy sauce is like hot sauce, it tastes different from every region. A few months ago, I was in my Korean food kick, I looked in my pantry and realized that I do have ALL ingredients required for teriyaki.

The greens are the most fabulous greens EVER. I love Chinese broccoli and broccolini better than I like regular broccoli, and last weekend at the farmer's market they had the most beautiful bunch of them. I had to have it! It's like seeing a purse that I needed to have, but it's broccoli. Is that weird?

Anyway, farmers market season is on so go ahead and go out there, get some produce! They're beautiful, better than looking at stack of Marc Jacobs purses! No? Well, it's good for the health and they are beautiful.