French Macaron: 1 ChattyCha: 0

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Macaron

Macaron, sorta

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

THE DARING COOKS OCTOBER 2009 CHALLENGE: MACAROONS

Introduction: Unless you’ve been frozen in permafrost for the past five years, you’ve likely noticed that cupcake bakeries have popped up all over like iced mushrooms. Knock one down, and three take its place. Much has been made about not only the cupcake’s popularity, but also its incipient demise as the sweet du jour. Since we seem to be a culture intent on the next sensation, pundits, food enthusiasts and bloggers have all wondered what this sensation might be. More than a few have suggested that French-style macaroons (called macarons in France) might supplant the cupcake. This may or may not come to pass, but the basic premise of the French macaroon is pretty damned tasty.

In the United States, the term “macaroon” generally refers to a cookie made primarily of coconut. But European macaroons are based on either ground almonds or almond paste, combined with sugar and egg whites. The texture can run from chewy, crunchy or a combination of the two. Frequently, two macaroons are sandwiched together with ganache, buttercream or jam, which can cause the cookies to become more chewy. The flavor possibilities and combinations are nigh endless, allowing infinitely customizable permutations.

For more details on the challenge set forth on the Daring Bakers, visit TheDaringKitchen.com

As for my experience … well it’s definitely a building season for me. I am impressed with the luxury that many of my fellow bakers have with testing and re-testing their cookies. Sadly, I had one day. Not so sad, though. The babe and I visited the in-laws and made it a day of playing with baby and baking. My mother-in-law not only had fun with her granddaughter but was an excellent sous chef (does a baker have a sous chef?).

Alas, my macarons did not turn out as they are supposed to. Example:

Exhibit B

Exhibit B

Tasty? Yes. Chewy texture? Sure. Delicious chocolate ganache filling? Absolutely. However, this batch is missing two very distinctive parts of the true French Macaroon cookie: A. The “feet” and B. The smooth, almost shiny texture on the cookie. I have neither. So, in essence this was a failure. A delicious failure, but a failure nonetheless.

I will attempt again, I just can’t find the time before “reveal” date, but I’m fairly sure I know what I did wrong: overfolding the eggs. Also, as time was of the essence, I wonder if I had let the batter sit for a little bit before piping if that might have helped with adding volume.

Ultimately, the cookies were good, and none went to waste. I am truly impressed with the talent that surrounds me at the Daring Bakers. More importantly, I’m impressed with the support that everyone receives from each other. What a great community. Feel the love.

By the way, if you are curious to know what a French Macaroon should actually look like, either visit TDK or see the pic I took last year when I got these in San Jose’s Santana Row while hanging with my buddies Belinda and Sandy.

Macaron, for real

Macaron, for real

Alternative endings

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Wanting to wrap up a thought I had (one of many) after finishing There are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America, by Alex Kotlowitz. This is a book that I am guessing most of my j-school classmates read back when we were in j-school. Kotlowitz is a professor at Northwestern and no doubt this is required reading for some undergrad classes. In his years as a journalist for The Wall Street Journal, writing about urban issues, he came to meet two young kids, Lafayette and Pharoah Rivers, living in the inner-city projects of Chicago. A few articles lead to writing a book about a two-year period in their young lives. You can’t even imagine what they go through, what their little eyes see and what their young minds must process.

The book was written in the early 90s, and it takes place in the late 80s. One of the kids, Lafayette, is the same age as me. It hits you, as Kotlowitz wants it to, because there is an entire other world out there, (when I lived in Chicago it couldn’t have been more than a few miles) that I never saw and never will see. It hits hard again because now that I’m a mother I hope and pray that my child will never, ever see or experience horrors like these children did.

This was written long before the Internet was something we took for granted. In no way, shape or form could the family Kotlowitz writes about have ever imagine a world where, upon finishing the book, any one can say to themselves, ‘I wondering Pharaoh and Lafayette are doing today … Google their names and find out.

I more or less did this when I finished the book (actually I waited a day. I nearly almost Googled — sorry, bing-ed them before finishing the book but restrained myself). Based on my search results, I am not the first, nor will I be the last to do the same thing.

Upon doing this, I wish I hadn’t. At the end of the book you are left with hope. Hope that at least one of them will find a life beyond the projects, and becomes that success story. It is better to just leave it there and stay hopeful. We want the story to continue. We are looking for the alternative ending. Instead we learn what their real last name is (Kotlowitz had used an alias). We learn that Pharoah was featured on “This American Life” ten years ago. We learn that the state of Illinois keeps an online database of convicted felons. And suddenly the alternative ending is not as good as the actual end of the book.

And, you, too, will wish that you hadn’t.

This very thing happened to me when I finished Annie Lamott’s Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year. I Googled. Then wished I hadn’t. So sad that I was about it that I decided against reading another one of her books and removed it from my library hold queue.

This happened one more time this year, when I re-read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers. This is a little different. You kind of know what Eggers has been doing. And, he kind of lets you know what Toph is up to (if you read the paperback version you get a little update). And, it’s not a sad ending … not even an alternate one.

Based on the search results I found, I know I’m not the only one thinking this and doing this. But, how sad have we become? That many readers out there demand to see into the lives of those who probably would prefer to remain anonymous. Almost think that they deserve it. Is reality TV to blame? The 24-hour news cycle? The always-at-your-fingertips Internet? Inquiring minds want to know.

BTW, all three of these books are such good reads, (well, AHWOSG, in my opinion, was much better the first time I read it, and I think it has something to do with the time in my life when I first picked up, compared to re-reading it ~10 years later). And I strongly urge you all to read these. And then to afterwards resist the temptation to try to find another ending.

The Daring Bakers September Challenge (or, Do you have the onions?)

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Yeah, sure I work full-time and have an 8-month old baby. But why should that stop me from trying something a little … daring?

This month I joined the esteemed Daring Kitchen, and September marked my first challenge. Quick background … bakers and chefs from around the world all cook or bake a secret recipe. On the 27th of the month, the Bakers reveal their challenges to the Interwebs via blogs and the DK Web site.

The September 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

Daring Bakers Challenge: Vol-au-vents

Daring Bakers Challenge: Vols-au-Vent

I was a little nervous trying this new challenge, as I simply don’t have the kind of time I used to, to do fun projects like this. Turns out Vols-au-vent was a perfect “rookie” challenge to start with. There is a lot of chilling and waiting and resting required, as the main ingredients in the homemade puff pastry are butter and flour, and the butter must be kept cold for this to work.

To take from the Daring Baker who challenged us to make homemade puff pastry, “Puff pastry is in the ‘laminated dough’ family, along with Danish dough and croissant dough. A laminated dough consists of a large block of butter (called the “beurrage”) that is enclosed in dough (called the “détrempe”). This dough/butter packet is called a “paton,” and is rolled and folded repeatedly (a process known as “turning”) to create the crisp, flaky, parallel layers you see when baked. Unlike Danish or croissant however, puff pastry dough contains no yeast in the détrempe, and relies solely aeration to achieve its high rise. The turning process creates hundreds of layers of butter and dough, with air trapped between each one. In the hot oven, water in the dough and the melting butter creates steam, which expands in the trapped air pockets, forcing the pastry to rise.”

Impressive, no?

The gist of the challenge … make a dough. Beat the butter. Join the two. Cut out shapes. Stack and bake. Fill with tasty fillings. Voila. Pretty simple.

Yeah, right. I read and re-read the recipe a dozen times. I laid in bed the night before, planning the entire strategy in my head. Then, a few Saturdays ago, I was ready.

I had the babe in the Baby Bjorn with me while I made the flour/water dough. She was also with me when I beat a pound of butter nice and flat with a rolling pin. She loved it. I had her sitting in her exersaucer in the kitchen doorway while I “turned” the dough. I turned it some more while she napped. And again the next morning while she played on her tummy. The final baking occurred on Sunday during yet another nap. With plenty of pre-planning, my weekend of baking was actually quite fun and not stressful.

And my apologies to the husband, for getting flour all over the kitchen. 🙁

The above pastry contains a simple dill egg salad. The ones below some fresh whipped cream and strawberries. I can’t decide if I enjoyed the savory more or the sweet. Probably the sweet. But they were both quite fun and tasted amazing (we do not cook with so much butter, ever. What a treat). While Vols-au-vent are meant to be enjoyed immediately, even the next day the pastry tasted fine as well. Ask the husband. He ate a couple of pastry shells with no filling the next day while I was at work. I might have brought some to work to enjoy during the day as well.

Vols-au-vent with fresh whipped cream and strawberries

Vols-au-vent with fresh whipped cream and strawberries

I am surprised how much I enjoyed this, and, more importantly, how much easier it was than I thought it would be. Becoming a Daring Baker was terrifying to me, for some reason. Almost to the point where I wished I hadn’t signed up to do it. But when they took me in, I couldn’t disappoint. I’m glad I am doing this, if only to get me out of a general rut I’ve been feeling this year. Possibly connected with having a baby. I love my child, but I really need to have something outside the realm of being Mom and Employee. I used to be a rower. I am still a baker. Thanks, Daring Bakers, for giving me a chance to spread the wings. And the butter. Whoop!

I still shudder a little bit with fear when I think about next month’s challenge. But I know I’m going to do it. I may not rock it, but that’s not my goal right now.

By the way, the pastry shells in the above pics were four or so of the best ones. There were many that did not make the cut. Here’s a shot of “When Vols-au-vent Goes Bad”:

When bad things happen to good Vols-au-vent

When bad things happen to good Vols-au-vent

Centers puffed up. Sides were lopsided. Oh, and those are supposed to be CIRCLES … not ovals. Alas, they still tasted great. I am proud to say I have a stack of homemade puff pastry sitting in my freezer right now. Yum.

New camera

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BTW, we got a new camera. Our five-year old PowerShot died a tragic death when the husband, running down the stairs, dropped it and bam, said the lady. I managed to get the compact flash card out (yes, it was so old that it held a compact flash card) to scrape out the last few pics. Then I did a little research for our new one. I knew what I wanted all along, but played along and did the “due diligence” No DSLRs, because we just couldn’t afford it. The regular point and shoots would have been fine, but couldn’t find one we agered upon. So I suggested to the husband we get one in the “superzoom” or “megazoom” category and he went along. Thank you, one-day shipping from Amazon.com!

Today we are proud owners of the Canon PowerShot Sx120IS. It is pretty sweet, especially fun to see how far along digital cameras have come since we got our old PowerShot, an A75, one of the firsts in the point and shoots. The SX is about the same size (so bigger than those tiny PnS’ nowadays), but far lighter. Uses two AA batteries (as opposed to our old one, using four). Has several functions for which we may never have any use. The usability has improved dramatically! Stuff like self-timer is far more accessible. Plus, the camera automatically comes into macro-mode when it senses you are going in for a close-up pic. Now, perhaps cameras have been doing this for the past five years and I didn’t know. Very possible. But now I’m part of the cool group and can make use of these functions. Hoorah!

However, since we got the camera, the little girl refuses to smile for me. Case in point:

mom, stop playing with the camera ...

mom, stop playing with the camera ...

I like it. One more pic. This one was where I tested the zoom (10xoptical zoom)

zoom zoom zoom

zoom zoom zoom

I was sitting in our living and zoomed through the living/dining area, and the kitchen and into the backdeck to focus in ou the pin holding up the deck umbrella. Not bad.

Mini Pancakes

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When I was younger, my dad made pancakes on occasion. He’d make the “silver dollar” ones though. The “two-bite” size pancakes instead of the kind you would get at Denny’s, the ones bigger than your head. He’d make the smaller ones, but if we begged, maybe with the last bit of batter he’d make one big one. I can’t remember who got to eat the big one, though. By then we’d be full on previous batches of pancakes. Maybe my dad ate the big one.

Now that I’ve got a little tot distracting me all time time, I kind of get it. Make smaller pancakes because they cook faster than normal size ones. Same reason why at some point we started using angel hair pasta instead of spaghetti or linguine. Angel hair cooks a good 4 or so minutes faster than linguine. When you’ve got little brats like me running around, you need all the minutes you can get.

So, I eked out some mini-pancakes this morning, but didn’t manage to get the eggs cooked. The husband made one for me after the fact.

one of these could fit in the palm of your hand

one of these could fit in the palm of your hand

Barely got to eat the pancakes, either. Little girl has been c-r-a-n-k-y on account of a tooth coming in.

Then and Now

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I was swinging by some old posts and I caught this one, where I detailed out how we rearranged the furniture in our living space. And I saw the pic I took of our living room and giggled. Here is the pic:

THEN

THEN

And here is what that space looks like now.

NOW

NOW

Yes, that’s a baby in the middle of all the hubbub. And that is Max creeping up on the lower right hand corner. We’ve overtaken his previous blankie spot. Now he slumps against the door to snooze. He doesn’t understand why SHE has so many blankies all over the house and he’s just got the one upstairs now.

Too much stuff. And it keeps growing every day. Yikes.

A belated birthday post

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Found some pics from a little bit ago that I never posted. The husband’s birthday was a few weeks ago. I’ve mentioned several times the birthday pie tradition. So, it’s no surprise that we had banana cream pie in the fridge for a couple of days. Embarrassingly enough it was gone in record time, but not because of me. I had to quickly sneak a slice or two before the husband finished it off (and rightly so … it was his birthday, after all).

As the husband takes care of the babe during the work week, he’s gently requested that he have dinners off on the weekends. Fair enough. He already had plans for lamb chops on his birthday, though, so I was assigned to fix up some sides. A little random, but I cooked some wild rice, made a caprese salad and then cleaned out the fridge by making orange-glazed baby carrots. Not super-exciting, but a reasonably healthy meal, which was necessary considering the aforementioned BCP.

Lamb chop with wild rice and orange-glazed carrots

Lamb chop with wild rice and orange-glazed carrots

Caprese salad

Caprese Salad. You just can't beat fresh, handmade mozzarella. The basil is from the U District Farmer's Market.

Sorry, no pic of the pie available. You can always review last year’s.

Banana, Green Lake and one cute kid

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Banana - All gone

Banana - All gone

I’m not updating like I used to, and I apologize. The two things I enjoyed writing about most, food and fitness, have both taken a trip to the backburners as baby L has taken priority. So, I could write about her food and fitness. Food: Loves pears, banana with rice cereal, avocado, sweet potato and yam. Couldn’t care less about peas and carrots. She’s now enjoying two solid meals a day, in between her liquid lunches and dinner. She definitely has a sweet tooth. Gets that from her mom.

We are slowly introducing new flavors, too. I’ve tried a little yogurt, and a little tofu. The yogurt I think will be okay. The tofu on the other hand … not so much. I’m excited to try a litle spice as well. So far it’s been steam and puree, steam and puree. More than once, while baking then pureeing the sweet potato I’ve been tempted to drizzle a little olive oil and then season with salt and pepper. I mean, that’s how I enjoy a sweet potato. Alas, I remember it’s for her. Maybe some seasoning like that a little bit later on. Right now I just want her to take it.

And she does. Little girl loves to eat!

As for her fitness, she takes daily walks with her dad. They are nice, long five- or six-mile walks. Which is great … for Dad. I take her on run/walks around Green Lake. Also good, except that a couple of weeks ago I tripped and found myself splayed out on the walking path. Major road rash on both knees and my left hand, still now scabbing up. The girl, safely strapped into the megatron that is our jogging stroller, came out unscathed. But the ordeal has slowed my step a bit. Today’s walk around the lake was just a walk, no run. Which is disappointing, because for the first time in a real long time, I was actually enjoying the run. Not only was I getting great benefit out of it, but with Lily in the jogging stroller it was something fitnessy that I could do with the babe. The days of hanging out at the gym a few times a week, on top of morning practice three times a week are a fading memory. The husband takes care of the babe most of the week while I’m at work and the last thing I want to do is a) tell him to watch over her for a little bit longer because I’m heading to the gym and b) spend that much more time away from the babe that I haven’t seen more than a few hours a day. This depresses me a little bit.

So how pleased was I when I picked up running (slowly, with walking in between, but still I was running) again and it felt … good. While I feel no problems about running by myself, the thought of running with the girl in a stroller kind of freaks me out. My twisted ankle is still a little tender, so I suppose I have a little more time to get over that fear. However, it’s harder to do when I hear people say, after the debacle, “Well, I guess we won’t be doing that again, now will we.” Why not? If I didn’t get back on my bike after falling the first time, wouldn’t that have been ridiculous? Yes.

Moving on. Fitness for the girl includes bobbing up and down in a sitting position, some air drum, and general running in place when we hold her in the air. She also does her own form of yoga. Cobra! Downward-facing dog. She loves all that. Gets exhausted by giggling tons, too.

getting a workout in the exersaucer

her michael jordan look as she gets a workout in the exersaucer

Sigh. So cute. I’ve become that person who does nothing but talk about the kid. Get over it.

First foods

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Hey it’s been a long while since I posted. I’m back here to talk about food. But not my food. Lily’s food. She turned 6 months this week and we celebrated by giving her her first taste of banana. Yum. It was an incredibly proud moment for us parents. I mashed up some banana and mixed it with breast milk, until it was the consistency of half-and-half or cream. Maybe a little thicker. First I dunked my finger and and let her suck on it. She wasn’t really into it so instead I tried one of those little baby spoons. Boy, she was all over that! She had been watching us eat for weeks now, and every now and then I would give her that same spoon to sort of play with. I’d pretend I was giving her something to eat so that she would put the spoon in her mouth. So yesterday, when the time was right, she knew just what to do.

Atta girl!

Atta girl!

So so proud. We decided to try banana as a first food rather than the standard rice cereal that every doctor mentions. We went to a First Foods class that recommended this. In fact, we learned in class that if Mom (that’s me) eats the same food every day for 14 days, that the food will be come a familiar taste to the baby. Well, it just so happens that I eat a banana nearly every day. So, why not go for it? Bananas are chock full of nutrients and are filling. And they are tasty, to boot.

What foods are up next? How about avocado? Sweet potato? Or something in season, maybe peaches, nectarines … What do you suggest?

Here are some resources, if you’d like to learn more about first foods: