Macarons, Macarons, Macarons!

I did it, I conquered both nut-free and almond version of macarons. It's addicting and easy to make once i got the hang of it. Ok, let me rephrase that--- I should have started on making the almond version first because this took me one try. One lousy stinking try that could have saved me tears and personal humiliation (not to mention, a whole lot less eggs cracked and separated). The nut-free ones I made for the previous post left me questioning myself on whether I should just stick to cupcakes and cakes. I had a pretty good record of success with those things and maybe macarons just couldn't be added to the mix.

One night though, I decided to just make the almond version at night while my allergic-to-tree-nuts son was in bed. My ever supportive husband got me a bag of slivered almonds, he's awesome like that. He knows that buying me ingredients is the way to win me over. I looked at several videos and recipes online and adapted a version for myself and my temperamental oven and one try, and almost half an hour later I got these babies.

Banana macarons with raspberry white chocolate mousse. I didn't pipe them all evenly but they have feet. I said the exact same thing while jumping up and down in my kitchen "they have feet, they have feet!" My husband looked at me like I was insane... again. It also didn't help I accompanied the squealing with dancing and probably way too much booty shaking.

The next day, while my son was pretend napping and I was supposed to be cleaning, I went for it again. I had a lot of raspberry mousse left, they had to be used. So I made coffee-mocha macarons. It just made sense, plus I was twitching to make a batch like a meth head looking for the next hit.

Did I really just compare my addiction to make macarons to a meth head's addiction to meth? My, someone has issues. Definitely has issues because the next day, I bought black sesame seeds, coconut flakes in bulk and then I made these nut-free versions.


Just what I wanted, flat on the top, little macaron feet. The ones on the right are just vanilla, which I believe baked a little too long so I then adjusted the temperature for the left ones which are pandan flavored macarons. They taste different than the almond ones, but in a way that they seem nuttier, definitely a good substitute. I wish I didn't fill them up with ganache though and instead made butter cream or put jam in them. My son was pretend napping again that day so I was rushing. All in all though, I was pretty happy about these. I can't wait till I have an excuse to make them again. That excuse just might come this weekend.

The horrible, yet delicious, habbit of deep-frying

I'm not too big into deep-frying for the obvious reasons. It's a heart attack ready to be served to you--- a warm and scrumptious delight of a heart attack. A few years ago, I received a deep-fryer as a gift for Christmas, it never found use because I was being smart with my cooking and several moves later up and down California, it's lost but now I slightly miss it. It's probably for the good that I don't have it, but nothing some vegetable oil and a hot pan can't fix, right? These are those times I wish i didn't know how to cook well, it's ok though, I have been running my ass off. Literally, since Sunday, the day I decided to deep fry a twinkie, mochi ice cream, snickers, marshmallows and an organic late july cream sandwich cookie, I've been clocking at least 20 minutes on the treadmill. I somehow have this facet that it will counter all the monstrous calories I'm consuming. Of course, it doesn't affect my husband one bit-- then again, when I looked at his treadmill, he was clocking in at 9.5 mph run and it all of a sudden made me feel like crap that I was only doing 5.0 mph. SO in revenge, I fed him this:

Deep fried, English style battered shrimp. I spared no expense on this baby. I battered and slathered and dipped this thing in hot splattering oil. I even got hit in the eye, no joke. As a result, this warm, buttery (and there wasn't even butter, gasp!) shrimp. I put in a little kick in there with some cayenne and paprika. I suggest with anything deep fried and battered, just put in 1/4 teaspoon each of cayenne and paprika. And parsley, because it's pretty and putting parsley in things is just like walking to me. Lately though, it's been cilantro, and I used to hate cilantro-- that's another story.

I was a bit sad I only had 15 pieces of shrimp left in freezer. What was I thinking not replenishing that? We happily divided this whole thing within our family of three (there was steak on the side, surf and turf night--- I need to do that more often). This whole working out mantra though is making me eat less because I would never dare just eat a salad for dinner. I'll probably end up putting pancetta and parmesan shavings on it.

This deep fried sea food feast is for sure healthier than this atrociousness though.

Why did I ever deep fry a twinkie and a marshmallow?