The Parting Gift

When Craig and I lived in New York we had the opportunity to go to several four-star restaurants.  One detail– aside from champagne while you waited for the rest of your party to arrive, a purse bench,  having your tea leaves snipped right off the plant table side before it was brewed, and a confections cart at the end of the meal– was the small parting gift that was given on your way out of the restaurant. 

This past weekend, Craig created a five-course tasting menu for some friends, and I was inspired to make a parting gift that they could take home with them after the meal.  At first I planned to make canelé, but it was Sunday and you can't buy liquor on Sundays in NC. Unfortunately, we didn't have the rum we needed for the recipe. I opted to make chocolate macaron with a chocolate ganache filling instead. A number of years ago, when we still lived in NYC, I made rose-water macarons with my friend Samantha. That was the one and only time I successfully made macarons– this time I was determined to make it work.

On Sunday afternoon, I went to Craig's catering kitchen and made them all by myself with a little over-the-shoulder supervision and pointers from Craig– and only one tiff about the definition of "test batch".   I'm embarrassed to say that it took me four hours to make a recipe that says it should take 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 hours. In my defense, though, I was taking special care to make sure I was doing every step perfectly. Also, it took some time to make sure the oven was staying at the correct temperature. In the end, the macarons came out pretty well. Although the foot of the macarons did not look completely perfect the overall color and shape turned out great! Most importantly, though, was that they tasted great!

I think the only down side was that for all my hard work the recipe only yielded about 20 macarons. I would have known that had I not skimmed that part of the recipe before jumping into the bulk of the recipe.  I also skipped over the part that indicated that the difficulty level for the recipe was all the way over on the, "hard," side of the scale. Oops!   

Now, I am inspired to try making other flavors.  I think the next flavor I will try is a berry flavor with a cream-cheese butter-cream filling. 

Photo Journal: Flat Stanley

Last week my sister-in-law included me in a request to help her friends child complete a school project. The children had read a book called Flat Stanley. In the book the character Stanley gets flattened when a bulletin board falls on him. He realizes that there are many things that he can do if he is flat including being mailed to friends. Part of the assignment was to mail Flat Stanley to friends and family and have them take pictures of his adventures while visiting them. Above is my photo of Flat Stanley attending a Carolina Hurricane's pre-season game. This photo was taken during the pre-skate.  Unfortunately the Hurricane's lost this game. . .

Back in the Swing of Things

Just when I was about to post an entry about having my 1 year anniversary of doing Pilates I took a 10 week break! However, yesterday I went back to class and feel great about it!

Besides going back to Pilates class I have gotten back on the bandwagon with my diet and exercise routine. I've been walking about a mile and a half during my lunch break nearly every day and I actually stepped back into the gym without self combusting!

My next step is to get to the gym before work at least 3 days a week.  I'd actually like to build that up to 5 days a week but I figure I should start slow and build myself up so that I have less chance of failing.

Wish me luck!

I'll let you know how it goes. . .