AAHHHH, Baking disaster!!!

So I am trying to make French macaroons for a cookie exchange at work.  The French macaroons are the "burger" style cookies not the ones covered in coconut.  However, I substitued almond paste with poppyseed paste to make it more "Beth Friendly".  I wanted to make something that would be edible for my friend who is deathly allergic to any and all nuts.

But ahhhhh! apparently almond paste is NOT the same as poppyseed paste.  Yikes, my macaroons ended up being flattened crispy cookie-like things that were also chewy somehow, ugh!  I am going to try again tomorrow night with almond paste and we'll see if it was the ingredient change or if it was due to baker error....if disaster strikes again, we may have to change the menu to something a little less French  :-)

Here's to round two....

Cranberry Bliss Bars!

Cranberry Bliss Bars a la Starbucks

We had a bake-off at work where we compared Starbucks seasonal delight, Cranberry Bliss Bars, to our homemade versions.  I gotta tell ya, I think I prefer the homemade versions becuase they were less sweet than the Starbucks version.

Also, I made mine in a dish smaller than suggested so I got more of a cake-like density versus Starbucks' bar-like texture.  Now, that I've made my own, I can have them any time of year instead of having to wait until Christmas!

Now I want to play with the recipie more and add a little more ginger and try a cranberry drizzle instead of a frosting drizzle ontop of the cream cheese frosting.  Yum Yum.

 

T-9 hrs....

Okay, so we went to the Expo today to pick up our race packets with bib-numbers and timing chips.  YIKES!!! Maybe had I actually prepared for the half marathon tomorrow I'd feel a little more confident.  I hardly think running MAYBE 1 time a week counts as preparation.  All I know is, I ate my spaghettii dinner and I have a yummy breakfast planned for tomorrow am plus some GU right before go time.  My goal is to #1-Finish, #2-Finish in under 3 hours (I have accepted that I might ralph at the finish line, but I'm cool with that).  Figure that's a pretty generous time limit for my first half-marathon.  If I actually enjoy myself, I'll have to take my training stage to the next level and actually train.  :)

So, Mike and I are due at the starting line at 7:30 am.  I'll let you know what the damage is when we finish.  Damn Andrew for talking us into this!!

Pistachio Cupcakes!

 My latest cupcake attempt included two things I have never used before in a cupcake: 1) Pistachios; 2) Pistachio butter.  First of all, not a super fan of pistachios--but my dear ol' husband picked the flavor of the day.  So after searching high and low for pistachios that were unsalted and didn't cost a fortune, I found myself at Trader Joe's (I should have known!).  Okay, key ingredient--check.

Now for the pistachio butter.  Pretty much all you gotta do is put the nuts in the food processor and blend away.  Ends up with the same coloring as peanut butter, weird since the pistachio is bright green.  Hmm.

This recipe was pistachio on top of pistachio.  The batter is your basic white cake batter (cream cheese adds some tangy flavoring) with the butter added in and then another handful of roughly chopped pistachio's gets folded in at the end.

On top sits a powdered sugar glaze with more pistachio slivers as garnish.  I think next time I make this recipe I will try a cream cheese frosting.  The overall taste is a cupcake that is not too sweet since the nutty flavoring is more predominant than the powdered sugar.

PS.  This 36 cupcake carrier is awesome! 3 trays stack nicely inside that keep the little cakes from toppling over.  Also, serves as a huge Tupperware to keep them fresh rather than stacking them on a tiny cake stand.  Thanks to my little sister for a super birthday gift!



THE best hot chocolate in all the land!

So while in France we hear from several sources that the best hot chocolate you have ever tasted is in Paris. Lucky us! As a chocolate fiend I had to seek out this elusive treat. So a few of us find our way to Angelina. Angelina is a cute cafe that serves fancy teas and treats. The walls are either decorated with huge mirrors, murals, or drapes.

There are Parisians with thier little doggies on thier laps while ordering meals and everyone is chatting away. Its an akward setting to walk into-I almost feel like we are interrupting a private party or something.

Nonetheless, we are greeted nicely by the hostess and she brings us to our tables where we peruse the menu for the dessert that will accompany our hot chocolate.

Inside we find delicious treats lined up in pretty cases. Everything looks sooooo delicious its hard to choose. My decision, we are having hot chocolate, so I need something to counter the sweetness--a yummy strawberry/pineapple shortcake.

So when we finally get our hot chocolate it turns out the consistency is more like melted pudding...its thick and not overly sweet ( I think it was like 70% coco or something).  It coated the inside of our cups and tasted so delicious! A full cup of fresh whip cream made it all the better.

I was in absolute heaven until about 7:00 pm when I suddenly felt really really REALLY tired...I think I may have just experienced a 6 hour sugar high (we got to the restaurant at 1:00 pm).

Wine Country

Location: France

We've made it to Beaune, France.  The little town of Beaune lives on wine.  There are caves, or wineries all over the place (think Starbucks).  There are such strict regulations on wine here that if you use an irrigation system-you no longer get a gold star next to your name because your grapes are supposed to "struggle" so you make better wine.  There is a wine quality control board here that you have to apply to be a member of.  If you don't follow thier rules, you get booted out of the club.

We got to do a wine tasting and were handed a wine tasting cup.  This special tool have concave circles on one half of the cup and concave slanted lines on the other half.  What are they for?  The circles are for checking the color of the red wines while the slants are for checking the color of white wines.  The lady holds her cup up to candle light and instructs us that reds should be the color of rubies, and whites should be the color of gold (not yellow).  Very serious.

She leads us through the wine cellar tasting various wines.  She goes on to insist you can taste licorice and honey...hmmm, guess my palate is not that sophisticated.

Beautiful Lasagna

Location: Rome, Italy

Rome feels like its from a story book. There are ruins and sights to see literally everywhere. It is so random to get off the metro and walk out of the station to see the Colleseum just across the street. It stands there, as if it were a bank or something. Like its just some other building on the block. The feeling is probably contributed to by the fact that this is how Rome is throughout the city. You will have a building that is 1000's of years old right next to something that was built a couple hundred years ago, and next to that will be something that was built within the last decade. Fascinating how it all seems to fit together like a well thought out puzzle. Our historical tour guide described Rome like a lasagna. There are layers upon layers of the city. 80% of Rome is underground in fact. That is why there are no subways other than the two lines, and there is no underground parking or basements. Everything time they start digging, they find another ruin. Bananas. And that’s the way Rome built and grew. When mud slides came in or if there was a battle and a part of the city was in ruins, they started from scratch on top of it rather than rebuilding in the same spot.

Now, this being a phenomenal city with amazing sites to see, I will have to post the cliff notes version of how we spent our two days in Rome. Of course we did not get to see it all, but we knew going into this trip that we would "see it all" in any of the countries we were going to. That's just not realistic. But what we are getting, is our appetites wet for what we want to come back for seconds on. We are getting inspired for future expeditions. SO bear with me as I just put a few of the photos and blurbs about this amazing place here on this entry--