Macarons, Macaruined

Last week on one of my days off I made the most of my down time by reading through a few back issues of Martha.

One of which was the issue with macarons on the cover.

My two friends (who conveniently share the name Danielle) have both been making these aesthetically pleasing cookies for a little while and I've always been tempted to try.

The only negative being that the recipe calls for ground almonds which I can't eat.

So, my readiness to get into the kitchen emboldened by the Martha recipe, I gave it a whirl, substituting ground almond for ground coconut as my friend had once suggested I try.

Well.

Where Martha's macarons looked perfect, mine....were another story.

(Recpipe from Martha Stewart)

• Preheat oven to 350.
• In a food processor or a blender, ground 2/3 cup coconut very finely. 
• Add in 1 cup of confectioners/icing sugar and ground again until very fine.
• Pass the mixture through a sieve, put remaining mixture back into processor until no more than 2 tbsp remain left behind in the sieve.
• Whisk by hand 2 large egg whites with 1/4 cup granulated sugar to combine.
• Using an electric mixer, beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, then medium-high for 2 minutes, then on high for 2 minutes. The egg whites should hold stiff glossy peaks.
• Add in colouring or flavouring (I added in a few drops of cherry flavouring) then beat on highest speed for 30 seconds.
• Add dry ingredients all at once, folding from bottom of bowl upward with a spatula until the mixture flows like lava (about 35-40 complete strokes).
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Transfer batter into a piping bag with a 3/8-inch round tip.
• With piping tip 1/2 inch above sheet, pipe batter into a 3/4-inch round, then swirl tip off to one side. Repeat, spacing rounds 1 inch apart. Tap sheets firmly against counter 2 or 3 times to release air bubbles.
• Bake 1 sheet at a time, rotating halfway through, until risen and just set, 13 minutes. Let cool. Pipe or spread filling on flat sides of half of cookies; top with remaining half. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate.

This was the one macaron that almost was. 

Almost.

Mine were macaruined appearance-wise. They still tasted amazing. 

The cherry-coconut flavour was wonderful.

If you want to try making your own, be ready for disappointment. Cause they are a notoriously tricky cookie to master.

My advice is to try one of these tested and approved recipes from either of the Danielles:

One can be found here at the Sweet & Splendid Bakeshop

The other can be found here at This is Ginger Rose.

Adventures In Knitting : The Cable Stitch

My mother in law made us this incredibly beautiful and intricate Aran wool sweater for our pup for Christmas.

Woven into it were cable stitches and I decided that I wanted the cable stitch to be my next knitting adventure.

Turns out it's not as hard as I thought.

For a first try my cable wasn't too bad but I'll work at making it tighter and making it pop more.

I knit it into a baby blanket that I made for my good friends who are pregnant with their first child, due this summer.

They're not as impatient as me so they're planning to wait to find out if they're having a boy or a girl until the baby arrives.

Not that I want to be accused of gender typing, but I decided that grey and white was a good way to go.

It also matches with most colours so should be fine with whatever room they decide to paint the baby's room. 

If you want to learn to cable stitch, I recommend this youtube video, which was the one I watched and seemed pretty straight forward. Although I did practice a few times before I started incorporating it into the blanket.

And if you don't like that one, search around a bit because there are a ton of great video tutorials online.

I made up my own pattern which went somewhat like:

row 1: knit 25, purl 14, knit 25, purl 14, knit 25

row 2: p 25, k 14, p 25, k 25

row 3: k 25, p 2, put 5 on cable, knit 5,  knit 5 off cable, p 2, k 25, p 2, put 5 on cable, knit 5, knit 5 off cable, p 2, knit 25

row 4: p 25, k 14, p 25, k 14, p 25

row 5: k 25, p 14, k 25, p 14, k 25

row 6: p 25, k 14, p 25, k 14, p 25

row 7: k 25, p 14, k 25, p 14, k 25

row 8: p 25, k 14, p 25, k 14, p 25

row 9: k 25, p 2, put 5 on cable, knit 5,  knit 5 off cable, p 2, k 25, p 2, put 5 on cable, knit 5, knit 5 off cable, p 2, knit 25

then repeat rows 2-9 until you reach your desired length.

I don't know what I want to try learning next in my knitting adventures... 

suggestions?

Adventures in Knitting: Knittens (to warm hands on cold days)

During my experimentation with knitting patterns more complicated than blankets and scarves, I moved on to mittens. 

My first attempt ended in a gigantic mitten better suited for an oven mitt. 

So I started again, with a better idea of how to proceed.

The end result was still a bit bigger than I perhaps would have liked but I used it to my advantage and created felt inserts filled with rice that can be microwaved to provide some extra heat. 

Follow the pattern from Martha Stewart that I posted in an earlier post (also found here) or do what I did and use thicker wool and thicker needles and just cast on half the number of stitches they call for and continue with halving the numbers (except for number of rows, then just go by how wide the mitten looks).

I've taken to calling this knit mittens 'knittens'.

Once your knitten has been cast off, use a darning needles to stitch the mitten together around the edges.

I used a white wool to show what I did, but I removed it after and re-stitched it with the same colour wool to make it look cleaner.

For the microwavable insert, I traced the finished knitten onto a red felt stocking I bought from the dollar store. I ended up having to cut it a little smaller to fit into the mitten. I sewed around the edges, leaving a small opening into which I poured uncooked rice. Add just enough to fill the mitten without leaving it bulging. 

Ideally, use thread the same colour as the felt. Unfortunately in my case my dog took off with the red thread in her mouth and it was too slobbery to use on something I hoped would turn out nice.

I thought about sewing the inserts into the knittens but ultimately figured leaving them as inserts was the better option because they did make the knittens quite bulky.

I gave these knittens to my father-in-law, who works outside and I'm sure with all the crazy weather lately could use something to keep his hands warm. 

They make a cute gift AND I was able to knit both mittens in less than 5 hours so this is a project that won't take a long time to finish.

Here's to a 2014 filled with many more handmade crafts!

(Hopes & Dreams item #9!)

Wreath Making

On Wednesday night we had some friends over for eggnog, wine & cheese, to watch Christmas Vacation, and to make Christmas wreaths. 

John got our supplies in the forest so they were fresh and (more importantly) free.

We took beautiful red dogwood branches and gently bent them into circles, tying areas together with twine to keep them together. Then we covered them with cedar boughs and pine cones. 

Dogwood branches are flexible and the small twigs can be wrapped around the bigger areas to make the wreath look cleaner. Having some of the twigs poking out makes the wreath look more rustic so we didn't bother worrying about tucking all of the twigs in.

To keep the branches together and to help the wreath hold it's shape, we tied pieces of twine around the wood at certain points. 

After securing our base together we stuck cedar branches in between the twigs.

They stayed put, there was no need to secure them in with twine.

Then to spice it up a bit we added pine cones to our wreaths. 

We tied fishing line around the bottom of the pine cones then tied the pine cones to the wreath. 

We hung ours on our door immediately.

You could add berries, ornaments, anything you wanted for a splash of colour. We may add more to our wreath but for now it smells and looks wonderful. 

Pinata Cookies

I came across this today on pintrest and I'm obsessed. I wish I had seen this before cinquo de mayo cause I may have made them and had a little Mexican bash for myself.

I do plan on making these for some event in the near future though. What an incredibly cute idea!

Here's the video tutorial from sheknows.com on how to make them, cause it's probably a lot easier than me explaining it considering I've yet to attempt this.

 

Also since the closing of picnik I've been using picmonkey to edit my photos. I just came across iPiccy and I think it's my new favourite.

It's definitely worth checking out.

photo credit: sheknows.com

Apple Picking

Here's a quick photo recap of the Pumpkin Fudge that you should all make at some point this fall.

In the past I've found fudge to be tricky - probably because I tend to be impatient and also because for many years I lacked that all important tool, the candy thermometer.

I never seemed to get the hard ball stage quite right.

This time though it all worked out.

Mmmmm fudge.

And the pumpkin flavour in it is kind of subtle. When you know that it's pumpkin fudge you can taste it but I gave John a blind taste test and he couldn't quite put his finger on what the extra flavour was.

Mysterious.

If you've got a candy thermometer USE IT!

Not stirring the bubbling fudge and waiting for the temperature to get up to where you need it to be is definitely a lesson in patience but it's fun to watch the mercury rise

Side note: I hope it's not mercury in my thermometer. Don't they have safer stuff they use nowadays?

Here I am patiently waiting for the candy to hit 235 degrees.

Why am I holding the thermometer like a baster, you ask?

Well, my thermometer is broken. The end of it broke, I'm not quite sure how.

This might be the perfect time to mention that I'm in the market for a new candy thermometer seeing as Christmas is approaching and gift ideas for the cousin gift exchange are useful. Plus you can get a candy thermometer at Kitchen Stuff Plus for under $10.

If you don't have a candy thermometer, you obey the hard ball rule. Dip a spoon into the bubbley-goo that will eventually be fudge and add a drop or two to a glass of cold water. Once the fudge retains it's drop-shape in the water (therefore attaining the much sought after 'hard ball' stage) you are ready to turn off the heat and beat the gloss out of that fudge.


Then you can pour it into a greased pan and wait for it to set so that you can cut yourself a piece and sample your hard work.


In other news, I'm going apple picking today at Chudleighs Apple Farm!
I'm going to need to find a Longos supermarket soon though because while browsing through the flyer that came with my free LCBO Food & Drink magazine, I found this advertisement:


Hidden Rose Apples, sold exclusively at Longos.
They are freakin' red on the inside and 'taste remarkably like strawberry lemonade'.
I want.

I don't think I will find these babies at Chudleighs today but you know what I will find?
Free lunch, straigh outta the trees.
It's frowned upon, yes, but nuts to that. You gotta know you're picking a delicious type of apple right?

I'm off to make some tea as I seem to have lost my voice from singing at the top of my lungs for several hours at the bar last night.
And then to read another 100 pages of Jane Eyre to catch up for my Women's writing class.
Eep!

P.S. My friends just bought a house!!! Now I have extra motivation to finish the blanket I'm knitting before Nov. 22 so I can give it to them as a house-warming gift.

So exciting! We're already planning a swanky black-tie affair New Years Party there also.

Pulled Pork Done 2 Ways

Feeling like I hadn't seen my friends in awhile, and having not been allowed to go into placement this week, I invited my neighbours over for dinner on Wednesday night.

And I was craving pulled pork.

John picked up a pork tenderloin. Then on Wednesday I went for a walk to run a few errands and stopped into the grocery store. Thinking it wouldn't hurt to grab another tenderloin to make sure we had enough and maybe some extra for lunches, I wandered into the meat section. Lo and behold, I found the elusive shoulder/picnic cut of pork that is recommended for making pulled pork! And it was only $7!

So I snatched it up quickly and headed home with my treasured find.

I've made pulled pork before with tenderloin but I'd never done it with pork shoulder.

Martha, as always, led me down the right path. The right and very delicious path. I did add more ingredients than her recipe called for (taking my cues from Mike & Andrea who made it 2 summers ago at the Cottage Cook-0ff).

So whether you're using a leaner (therefore healthier) tenderloin or a slightly more fatty shoulder, I've got you covered. Here's what you'll need to do to make delicious pulled pork!

Pulled Pork: Tenderloin

[click here if you want to compare Martha's recipe to my version]

(Appologies because I didn't have time to take a nice picture that would do it justice - the guests had arrived and I didn't want to taunt them by artfully arranging the serving bowl and taking multiple photos of it while their stomachs were rumbling)

1. In a large pot, add 1 container of halved cherry tomatoes (probably about 30 of them), 1 diced red onion, 3 cloves of garlic (finely diced or if you're like me just thinly slice it so you can still see the peices of garlic), 2 tbsp spicy mustard, 1/4 cup barbeque sauce, 1/4 cup ketchup, 3 tbsp worcestshire sauce, 3 tbsp brown sugar, and 1/4 cup molasses. Add tenderloin. Bring to boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium and let simmer for about 20 minutes until the pork is cooked.

2. Once pork is cooked, remove from the pot and allow to cool for several minutes. Using 2 forks, shred the tenderloin (see photo below)

3. Return the shredded pork to the pot and mix back into the sauce. Heat and serve!

Pulled Pork: Shoulder

(Recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart)

*This method requires significantly more time than the tenderloin but if you've got the time it's SO worth it.

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Make cuts in the fat (on the top) of the shoulder, scoring to make diamonds. Season the meat with salt and black pepper. Put the shoulder into a roasting pan with 1/2 cup water. Place in the oven and cook for 45 minutes until browned.
2. Remove pan from oven and turn heat down to 350 degrees. Tightly cover the roasting pan with tin foil and return to the oven. Allow the shoulder to cook at 350 degrees for 4 hours.
3. Remove pan from oven, remove tin foil, and allow meat to cool slightly. Using two forks, shred the meat. The meat should literally fall off the bone - you almost don't even need to shred it yourself.

4. Add the shredded pork to a pot filled with the ingredients for the sauce described in the first recipe and mix to coat all of the pork.




The combination of the tenderloin and the shoulder made for pulled pork that was a bit healthier but with forkfuls of melt-in-your-mouth tender meat. I served it with ciabatta bread that I baked about 10 minutes before the guests arrived and with green and yellow zucchini that I roasted with about 2 tbsp of butter. We made open-faced sandwiches and ohhhhh man they were good.

If you've got a lazy weekend coming up and want to try something new for dinner, go find a pork shoulder and cook that bad boy for 5 hours. If you've got a busier weekend planned, grab a tenderloin and enjoy healthier pulled pork!

P.S. I made the pumpkin fudge - to rave reviews - so I will post some pictures tomorrow.