French Macarons: My scariest baking nightmare

It seems like every other food blog out there has a picture or entry about these colorful pastry delicacies. Sure, French Macarons are a food photographer’s indulgence. Even a polaroid photo of these pretty little things will make your mouth water.

I love cooking but I’m baking-challenged. Cooking is a flexible improvisational exercise. Baking is a precise no-room-for-error business. But life is full of challenges, right? So I attended a “How To Make French Macarons” hands-on class at The Grove’s Sur La Table yesterday.

And the French Macaron marathon started. I’m still exhausted from the almost 3 hours that it took to make 30 chocolate Macarons…and all prep work was done for us…and I had a partner.

My quick take on it is that I don’t feel right about aging egg whites for 3 days in my counter or expending a mini-fortune buying essential items to make these little baking nightmares.

Although the class was fun and it’s always a blast to meet new people especially in the kitchen,  I was relieved to come home and share the experience with my family. The kids enjoyed the colorful treats and enthusiastically asked: “Can you make more for us tomorrow?”

“No”, I said. “But we can certainly buy them.”

Because we love curry

Eggplant Potato Curry with Brown Rice and Turmeric Indian Celery Seeds Marinated Chicken Breast. Last night’s dinner.

For the Curry you’ll need:

1 diced potato, 1 diced eggplant, 1 onion, 1 jar of Seeds of Change Jalfrezi sauce (find $1.00 off coupon at MamboSprouts.com)

Sauté the sliced onion in 1 tbsp of canola oil. Add potato and eggplant. Sauté for 5 minutes and add sauce with 1/2 cup of water. Let it simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

For the Chicken Marinate:

Juice of 1 Lime, 1tbsp Turmeric, 1 tbsp Celery seeds, 1 tsp granulated onion, salt (1 1/2 tsp per chicken breast approximately), 1 hour marinating. Pan fry or grill it.

If you interested to try this simmer sauce, get a $1.00 coupon at MamboSprouts.com or look for the Mambo Sprouts coupon book at Sprouts or Whole Foods. I’ve tried 3 different simmer sauces from Seeds of Change and they’re delicious (and organic).

No, I don’t get paid to blog about any products and even if I did I would never rave about something I don’t like. Poor quality or nutritional value is not included on this blog recipes, pics or links (except for Twinkies which I plan to try for the first time one of these days and definitely blog about!)

Cheers!

Week 14: Still Costcoing

The Mexican Shepherd’s (Mex Shepx) pie was a sucess. Made with organic beef and veggies, topped with crumbled tortilla chips. This one dish meal will definitely make more appearances in our dinner table.

Star of the week: Green Beans with Turkey Bacon

Although our Costco trip was productive and our fridge is still full, I’ll be heading to the market later today. I’m planning to buy only extra ingredients for our week menu. Tonight we’ll make lasagna together. The kids really like assembling it and eating it!

As for the rest of the week, here is a rough menu:

Monday: Vegetable gnocchi soup and quesadillas or grilled cheese (Meatless Monday)

Tuesday: Lundberg Italian risotto with chicken and salad

Wednesday: ?

Thursday: Teriyaki Chicken Bowl with veggies

Friday: Gourmet

What’s in your table this week?

Week 13: Costco extravaganza

Week 13 menu starts tomorrow, Monday. The $210,87 worth of Costco food and food only, must cover this week and part of next weeks meals. Feature items in my fridge and freezer: Pears, papayas, organic ground beef, organic chicken breasts, organic spinach, organic spring mix salad, organic carrots, Roma tomatoes from Euro Farms (No pesticides), HUGE mushrooms, bread, more bread, Havarti cheese, Avocados, organic milk, organic peanut butter and strawberry jelly…If I could only have a Costco size fridge!

Monday: (Meatless Monday) Organic Salad and dirty quinoa

Tuesday: Mexican Shepherd’s pie and veggies

Wednesday: Pasta Primavera with creamed tofu sauce

Thursday: Left overs

Friday: Gourmet

Saturday: Bowling Alley birthday party

Sunday: Soup and Oven Bauru sandwiches (traditional Brazilian sandwich)

Week 11: Coupon clipping nonsense

Clipping and using coupons can be a complicated and very impractical routine. I hate it. I try to be organized and even use coupon folders, envelopes and other dumb tools. I tend to leave a trail of coupons whenever I go shopping – some in the car, some on the kitchen counter, my yellow bag, my black purse, my pockets. Who has time to clip coupons from lots of different sources, categorize and organize them? Seriously. It’s time for the Unicard, where you can electronically clip all coupons you can find and put it in one single card or even app. How hard can that be?

On a not-so-bitchy note, I did serious damage to my grocery budget this week but I also saved $58.00 with coupons and Vons Club Card. I spent $160.00 at Von’s for our week meals and other pantry items and $46.00 at Sprouts for gourmet Friday.

From Vons: Fresh caught Pacific Red Snapper $4.84, Broccoli c77 lb, Organic Delicata and Sweet Dumpling squash $1.49 lb, Organic red grapes $1.99 lb, Ground Veal 97% lean manager’s special $3.00 for 1lb.

Menu week 11

Baked Snapper: On a large piece of foil place 2 whole green onion, aprox. 1lb of fish, salt, pepper, 1tsp of butter, dry celery seeds, 1tbsp of capers, 2 sprigs of fresh thyme.Wrap it and baked for 15 minutes at 380F.

 

 

Wednesday: Baked Red Snapper, roasted asparagus and mushrooms

and brown rice. Baked breaded Snapper for the kids made with Ian’s whole wheat panko.

Thursday: Big Boy’s fundraiser dinner.

Friday: See Gourmet Friday for a simple and elegantSweet Dumpling Squash Thai soup.

Saturday: Dim Sum (eat out).

Sunday: Steak dinner

Monday: Couscous stuffed Delicata squash with roasted beets.

Tuesday: Veal meatballs cooked on TJs turkey gravy,mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli.

Aloha Sunday dinner

Starters…Furikake rice balls with smoked salmon topped with wasabi aioli and Poke, my first time ever making this simple and delicious “Hawaiian pupu”.

 

Hawaiian dinner menu

Kalua pig “unda pressure” (let the pressure cook be the Imu)

Mac Salad

Asian style salad with honey roasted macadamia nuts and shiitake ginger soy dressing

Hawaiian rolls

Rice

Fresh pineapple

Poke/puka cake

Happy Sunday!

Green is Good

Green Tea Noodles with baked tofu and watercress on Miso Ginger dressing. Light and easy!

Miso Ginger Dressing

1/4 cup peanut oil or neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn

1/4 cup rice vinegar

3 tablespoons mild or sweet miso, like yellow or white

1 tablespoon sesame oil

2 medium carrots, roughly chopped

1 inchlong piece fresh ginger, cut into coins

Salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Put all ingredients except salt and pepper into a food processor or blender. Then let machine run for a minute or so, until mixture is chunky-smooth. (If you want it smoother, use a blender.) Taste and add salt and pepper to taste. Add cayenne pepper if you like it HOT!

 

 

Week 10

It’s week 10. I’m genuinely happy about being committed to this blog and it’s purpose.  Having a planned menu based on the weekly deals has saved me time and money.  Our family has been eating even healthier after I started planning our meals and the kids are more adventurous about trying new foods and combinations.

The goal this week is to seek inspiration. Quite frankly, I’m a little tired of my own cooking. I think I need some food porn. Some inspiration coming from a source other than Food Network. Maybe is time to research some local cooking classes. I took classes at Christine’s Restaurant 4 years ago and suddenly my kitchen was a better place to be. I was more than inspired…I was possessed. I need that feeling again.

I’ve spent $51.00 at Sprouts and I’m anticipating at least $30.00 more until next Wednesday.

The list:

From Sprouts: Fresh wild caught Pacific salmon at $4.99 lb. Roma Tomatoes 77c lb. Kiwi 4 for $1.00. Green onions and cilantro 15c each. Cantaloupe 15c lb. Asparagus $1.99 lb. Candy corn.

From Ralphs: I’m skeptical about the $7.99 lb filet mignon, but it’s definitely a deal.

The Menu:

Wednesday: Baked salmon asparagus pasta with garlic Dijon mustard sauce

(Applegate Organic hotdogs and “Peas of Mind” broccoli oven fries for the kids)

Thursday:  Green Tea cold noodles with miso dressing and Teriyaki baked tofu

Friday: Gourmet pizza (possibly homemade)

Saturday: eat out/take out

Sunday: Friends over for dinner. Hawaiian food? BBQ?Cajun?

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Rice & beans Brazilian style with collard greens

 

 

Yesterday’s dessert, Today’s dinner, Tomorrow’s lunch

The kids loved this cute treat for dessert last night

Julia Child’s Spice mix it’s AWESOME! A really great rub for chicken breast. The kitchen still smells like Julia. The Lundberg butternut squash risotto (I added some dry cranberries to it) was the perfect pairing with the spiced grilled chicken.

I bought way too many heirloom tomatoes (seriously, organic for $1.99 lb???? That’s a deal) and decided to try this almost gluten free tart.  I started mixing almond meal, 1 egg, olive oil, salt, dry herbs and whole wheat flour. Pressed it on a tart pan. Baked until brown. Sliced tomatoes on top, minced garlic, mozzarella and parmesan cheese and dry basil. Baked for another 12 minutes and here is a surprisingly filling and healthy lunch for tomorrow.