Macarons

You will be the death of me. In a desperate baking frenzy, I had it somewhere in my mind to give macarons a try. What are macarons, you ask? They're delectable little cookies with a lovely filling to them.

And so began the mission to look up recipes... After watching some TV with mom, and lo and behold, Anna Olson was on tv making macarons! I figured, what the heck, her recipes are usually pretty fool proof... Until this one... And then all hell broke loose. Almost everything that could go wrong with them, DID go wrong, save for the flavour.

What went wrong you ask? Well, my list of suspicion goes something like this, first and foremost, and this one I know for a fact: the egg whites where definitely whipped beyond soft peaks and were definitely on the stiffer side. Secondly, a macaron recipe measured, rather than weighed?? Shame on me for even looking at this one... Thirdly, I scoff at this, but mom *may* be onto something, the almonds that I used.

What about the almonds, you ask? Well, it really has to do with the fact that I tossed them in the freezer. Why is this a problem? My belief is that having slightly moist almonds could have been a contributing reason as to why these macarons decided to grow a mind of their own.

And so began the research. After much humming and hawing, a lovely lady sent me this link for some troubleshooting help. So far, I am LOVING the in depth explanations as to how and why things work, and once I get over the trauma of this macaron failure, I will be giving this recipe a try and seeing how that works out!

More pumpkin?

Yeap, that's right, I went there. I don't know whats gotten into me as of late, but pumpkin has definitely started to consume my life. More and more time has been spent wondering what I can incorporate pumpkin into. Last night, it was cookies and boy oh boy were they absolutely divine. These are the types of cookies everyone can only dream of. This recipe was what I decided to try out this time, and I have to say, the results were fantastic. There really isn't much to say about this except that I wish this was a tad spicier, but I think with how spicy I want the cookies, I may as well start adding hot peppers to everything...

Unfortunately, in my zealous cookie baking, I forgot to take a lot of pictures, so ya'll just have to deal with the ones I took from my iPod.

Pieeee pie pie pie pie

Yeap, it's that time of year. The leaves are turning brown, the days are shorter, they're a little bit colder, there's frost on the car first thing in the morning... and this means PIE! I figured, since it's fall, I have more time on my hands, and more time to try something new and I thought to myself, "Self, I have not had pumpkin pie before. I think it's time." So with that, I took to the internet, and found myself this wonderful recipe. It was quick, it was easy, and most of all, it was DELICIOUS. My only complaint about this recipe would be that the filling was a tad runny, so next time around I would use two eggs instead of three. Sadly, due to the awesome nature of this pie, I did not have a chance to take pictures. So with that, I will leave you to imagine the fantasticness of this little adventure.

Pie!!

Ahhh, its been too long! Silly life for getting in the way. I apologize to my list of viewers to whom I've gone silent. Due to recent injuries, I HAVE been able to bake more, and have produced PIE! To be very specific, this pie with that crust has been the one created. My apologies for the mediocre iPod pictures. In my haste to grab a pic before the pie got devoured, this was the closest camera I could grab.
And yes, I was excited enough to eat the pie with a spoon. My opinion on this pie? Fantastic fresh out of the oven, mind blowing the next day. The only change I would make to this recipe is to adjust the amount of sugar according to how sweet the blueberries are when you use them.

Macaroni and cheese...

...I love you. I really, really do. I mean, cheddar, mozzarella...what more can you ask for?

Thank you Ree Drummond for this wonderful recipe .

Bakers weekends

They are always so fun, even if you're not actually "baking" anything in an oven...Stovetops count, right? I must say, nothing beats having homemade pancakes for breakfast...lunch...and dinner. Since I am so avidly into baking sourdough related items, it always bring me great joy when I make the King Arthur Sourdough Pancakes/Waffles. With that being said...bon apetite!

Oh Ciabatta.

Jason's Quick Ciabatta. I decided to make this today, and I have to say, DELICIOUS. I did very little modifications to the recipe except to cold retard the dough after an hour do to life getting in the way. This is absolutely delicious. The crumb is nice and soft and sweet, the crust is perfect. Yum.