My Birthday

I had a really fantastic birthday last Thursday. Celebrating my big 3-0 was marked mostly by eating a lot. I grabbed an early coffee and bagel after a very nice morning walk and then I headed to the grocery store to get ingredients for a cake. Later I had a lobster roll for lunch. Baking my own birthday cake is a newer habit of mine that I've been doing the past couple of years. This year I wanted to make a chocolate frosted cake with lemon curd filling between two layers of yellow cake. It mostly turned out okay, but I forgot to add a cup and a half of milk in between batches of flour, which made the cake dense. It was still very good and I was very proud of it. The homemade lemon curd was fun to make and it got me to use a lot of arm muscles that I usually don't.

For this past weekend John and I headed up to Wisconsin to spend time with family, celebrate our second wedding anniversary, and visit one of Wisconsin's most bizarre attractions, called the House on the Rock. The House is definitely worth several future blog entries. Along the way, we saw a farm stand that had a very large jack-o-lantern, and since I love Halloween, I could not resist getting my photo taken with it. 

Later on, John had a good idea to grab an old family bicycle for me and bring it back to Oak Park so that we can ride around the village together. John has a great bike he got this past spring. We spent Sunday morning putting some WD40 on some gears, air into tires, and then we took a tour around Kewaskum. Spending an hour riding around the village and smelling the fresh summer grass was a very relaxing way to enjoy the weekend. John's mom made us a great pot roast lunch and then we packed up and headed home. We had a wonderful time.

 

Macarons at Su La Table

March Madness for me is not about basketball, but about celebrating my personal obsession for French macarons.  March 20 is the proclaimed day of the macaron, but for me it's just another reason to love (and eat) the popular small round confection.  A local bakery called Nuvrei, offers a basement counter specifically for macarons below it's main cafe.  This past weekend I thought it would be fun to take a baking course to learn how to actually make macarons.  

Sur La Table in Portland (and other select locations in the country) offers a variety of classes in a wonderful classroom/showroom for people interested in cooking.  I've always admired the plethora of products in the store, but it was extra special to learn new skills and have all the ingredients premeasured.  It was also a lot of fun meeting new people who were eager to learn about making macarons.

The course offered some really great insights specifically in making macarons that I'd like to share here, but just in case anyone wants to take this class I won't give too much away.  
 
Highlight tips for making French macarons:
-Measure using a scale instead of using traditional measuring cups; most standard recipes, for example, use 'one large egg', but not all eggs are created equally in volume, so it's better to be consistent by measuring by weight.
-In addition to having clean bowls and utensils, wiping down said bowls and utensils with distilled white vinegar is an extra step of insurance to be sure that there's no residual grease or fat from other recipes.
-Use heavy baking sheets, not standard thin cookie sheets.  If you  cvheets just double up the sheets.
-When piping out the batter it's good to pull the bag directly up quickly and pipe out an entire row, instead of tilting the bag back each time for each cookie.
-Let the piped unbaked cookies rest on parchment paper for 15 to 30 minutes in a cool spot until they are not sticky to the touch.
-Use an off-set spatula to lift the baked cookies off the parchment paper after cooling.

One of the most surprising parts of the class was being able to use the Lekue DecoMax Pen (we used the 12 oz. -- not to be confused with small decorating pen size).  Piping the macaron batter, which needed to be a drippy consistency, was much easier using the DecoMax Pen than a traditional piping bag.  I definitely recommend getting one, which can be used for other batters and piping frosting.  

Thanks for reading--below are some photos from Nuvrei and the workshop:

Chef Sam Urman prepping for the class

Wiping the mixer down with distilled white vinegar

Wiping egg whites and granulated sugar

Powdered sugar and almond flour (sifted three times), added to the whipped egg whites

Lekue DecoMax Pen - a great tool for macarons

Kathleen has a fancy idea to add gold powdered on to the freshly baked cookies

Maki and Kathleen - my partners in the kitchen