FEATHERS AND LEATHER

My current obsession: French Macarons

Yes, it is true. I am addicted to making French Macarons.
This comes in waves.
I get an obsession and I can't get over it.
OCD? NAWWWW.
Here are a couple of new ones I have made.

Pistachio Macarons with White Chocolate Ganache and Homemade Cranberry Jam

Homemade Cranberry Jam

Chocolate-Hazelnut Macarons (Nutella!) with cinnamon cream cheese filling or Espresso filling







Meyer Lemon Macarons with homemade lemon curd and lemoncello white chocolate ganache!
YUMMMMMM

THE DREAM, FLUFFERNUTTER MACARON!

I had a dream.
Make a fluffernutter macaron.
Use half peanut flour and half almond flour.
Top with freshly honey roasted peanuts.
Fill with:
homemade marshmallow fluff.
AND peanut butter ganache
AND AND AND a little nanner slice.
It came true.
FREAKIN AWESOME.


For those who don't know what a real fluffernutter is let me explain...
It's a peanut butter sandwich with marshmallow fluff and often dressed with banana slices.


For the Macarons, I began with making homemade marshmallow fluff.
Easier than going to the grocery store.
Unless I guess you don't have the ingredients to make it... hahahaha
Marshmallow Fluff

For the macarons I used the "I Love Macarons" recipe again but this time I used half almond flour and half ground peanuts.
This made me a little nervous because when I attempted a nut other than an almond last time it was a major failure.

The deadly addictive ingredients.. DUN DUN DUNNNN

First the peanut butter ganache. Here's the recipe.

THEN the marshmallow fluff filling. recipe here.

little nanner slices.

Squish them together. AND BOOM BABY!
FLUFFERNUTTER MACARONS.
Can you say YUMM?!

I can.
YUMMMMMMMMM!


I hope my teeth don't fall out...

IT'S ABOUT EFFING TIME: SUCCESS OF THE MACARON

After 5 failed attempts at the perfect french macaron, I had a success.
I made a Cinnamon Macaron and filled it with a heavenly cream cheese frosting.
On a few I decided to do a duo of the cream cheese frosting and left over espresso chocolate ganache and painted the tops with espresso. YUM!

little macarons waiting to bake. At this point you really have no idea if they are going to bake up to have the little feet on the bottom.

They did!

A little dollop of cream cheese filling!

A sprinkle of cinnamon.

A forest of cinnamon macs.

The duo espresso mac.

The freshly brewed espresso that I used to paint.

Oh, Martha. Your boxes are far too cute... Especially when housing a macaron.

I used the base recipe from the ADORABLE book, "I Love Macarons"

Then I added 1 tsp cinnamon.

For the AMAZING cream cheese filling I used the brilliant, 17 and baking recipe.

Warning! YOU WILL BE ADDICTED TO MAKING THESE!!!

Homemade Chicken Stock!

I made a homemade chicken stock.
People are not kidding, there is ABSOLUTELY no comparison to what you buy in the store.
Sorry Swanson, you loose.
SO SIMPLE!

Ingredients:
Chicken Thighs (a variation of different chicken parts is totally fine! Just make sure you have some bones!)
1/2 Onion, cut into large chunks
2 large Carrots, cut into large chunks
4 Celery Stalks (use leaves as well!)
Rosemary
Fennel seed
splash of white wine (optional!)


In a large pot heat a couple tablespoons of Olive oil. Cook chicken and onions together until browned. Once browned, splash a bit of white wine in the bottom of the pan to get all the yummy brown bits off the bottom (if not using, scrape with a but of water). Pour 6 1/2 cups of water in pot and bring to a boil. Throw in veggies and herbs. Cover and lower heat, leave an opening for some steam to escape. Simmer for 3 hours.

After three hours strain through a colander and cool the stock in a bowl in the fridge for an hour. Once cooled, scrape the layer of fat off the top on the stock. Keep in airtight container for three days in the fridge or 6 months in the freezer!

If you do not like fennel, use any herb you have! Thyme would be delicious. Throw in a bay leaf (I would have but didn't have one on hand), So many options, make your own original!

I made a Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup. You couldn't get more simple. I used the chicken from the stock, cut up some more celery and carrot and threw in elbow macaroni (only pasta I had on hand!)



Other soup ideas:

• Hot and sour soup (I'm making this this week) http://www.wholeliving.com/recipe/ideal-hot-and-sour-soup
  
• Traditional Greek Lemon Chicken soup http://www.oprah.com/food/Avgolemono-Soup
  
• Chicken Tortilla soup http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/chicken-tortilla-soup

Apollo

Here are some shots from Balanchine's "Apollo"
I was one of the hand maidens with my "twin", Natalie Varnum.
After Apollo was birthed by the lovely mother who was on top of a platform extremely high in the air (Ms. Samantha Lynch pictured below) it was our job as maidens to rock Apollo as a baby, unwrap the swallowed up Apollo from his white clothes, do some cutesy poses (without looking cute!) deliver his guitar, as well as teach him to play, all while looking lovely in our Royal Blue ice skater outfits complete with a pony tail. :)

YUM YUM QUICK BREADS

I made some quick breads the other morning before a double show day of La Bayadere. It amazes me how completely exhausted I can be and still have the worst time in the world falling asleep. I came home after waking up at 6:30 for a student matinee show followed by a night show on Friday night and climbed in bed and absolutely could not get comfortable. Then of course woke up in the morning at 6:50 wide awake with no chance of going back to sleep... "GREAT. I guess i'll bake." That's always the answer.

I made 3 mini loaves (pumpkin chocolate chip-walnut, blueberry walnut, and pumpkin walnut) and two large loaves (plain pumpkin, and a large blueberry walnut)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Walnut Bread

Pumpkin Walnut Bread

Blueberry Walnut Cornmeal Quick Bread:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour (if you don’t have whole wheat flour, just use all-purpose flour)

1 cup medium or fine ground cornmeal

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup honey (or pure maple syrup if you have it on hand)

1 1/4 cup buttermilk

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup chopped walnuts (reserving a few whole walnut halves for decorating the top)

1 heaping cup to 1 1/2 cups blueberries

Arrange a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour one 9×5x3-inch loaf pan, or two slightly smaller loaf pans. I think mine are 8×4x3-inches and I made two smaller loaves. Set aside the greased and floured loaf pans.

In a large bowl, whisk together both flours, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder.

In a smaller bowl whisk together honey, eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract.

Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until blended.

Fold in the blueberries and walnuts.

Divide batter between two smaller loaf pans or into one large loaf pan. Spread evenly. Add the whole walnut halves and place in preheated oven. For smaller loaves bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the loaf comes of clean. For the larger loaf, bake for 60-70 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool loaves in pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Invert onto a plate or board. Serve warm with butter or wrap and freeze for future you.

Vegan Pumpkin Bread:

Everyone is so turned off by the phrase "VEGAN". But in reality for baking quick breads I would say 99% of the time it comes out tasting so much better! And it MUCH MUCH more moist.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour ( or whole wheat flour… or just use only all-purpose flour)

2 cups light brown sugar, packed

1/3 cups granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree, or just under two cups

1 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup water

1 cup chopped walnuts, or chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place a rack in the center of the oven. Grease and flour two loaf pans (mine are 8×4x2) and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flours, sugars, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices.

In a medium bowl, carefully whisk together pumpkin puree, oil, maple syrup and water.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and use a spatula to fold all of the ingredients together. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl well, finding any stray flour bits to mix in. Fold in most of the chopped walnuts, reserving some to sprinkle on top of the batter once in the pan.

Divide the dough between the two greased pans and sprinkle with a few walnut pieces. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven. Let rest in the pans for 20 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack.

Serve warm.

Make your own variations: add chocolate chunks, forget the walnuts, add raisins??? :)