Adventures in Baking..MACARONS! With the Great Ethan Allen

So this weekend Cheryl and I attempted to make some Macarons.   Not to be confused with macaroons,   (Even the BOOK spelled it wrong!) 

Macarons are a delicate French concoction that costs a fortune in the store,  provided you have a store in your STATE that sells them.  ( Iowa lacks these little gems, BTW)

So,  the recipe is quite simple, calling for crushed almonds and meringue with sugar.   Then add the flavor of your choice.   The first few did not turn out as well as we had liked.  The paper curled up and messed up the tops.  Also,  It took me two attempts to get the meringue to turn out correctly.   There is additionally this little trick to allow the domes to form by leaving them out for almost an hour before baking them.  

In the end,  they looked bad, but tasted great!   Our second attempt was much more successful, but we forgot to take pictures of those. 

Anyway,  we also made some BLT's with fish bread.   Similar to a pita bread,  the goldfish bread was quite yummy!  Even the cats thought so!

 

 I'm not sure what our plans are for this weekend,  as sales have begun to trickle in, but Cheryl wants to bring Macaron happiness to the people at ACT on the last day of the MCAT.  I'm sure we will be perfecting out baking skills on Sunday...and perhaps we will post better pics of them then.   We shall see.

Mochi Success! Well, Sort of..

So I have been working on mochi  for the past several weeks now and finally achieved success worth showing off!  It only took three times to get it right...sort of.  

 That means that it has the same taste and co9nsistencey as the professional ones,  but I still have to work on the presentation.   I already have ideas how to fix that with my next batch.    These guys were filled with peanut butter because I like that better than the traditional red bean paste.   ( besides,  I JUST figured out how to make the mochi,   I didn't feel like tackling red bean paste!)  So it is Tuesday, and Cheryl and I made a special Trip to Iowa City to do some errands and make some major purchases. 

  We decided that the stockings need an upgrade in their picture quality and we have been taking pictures with the best camera we could afford.   It's not bad,  but it is quite limiting in its quality and focus.  Hopefully,  you will see a better quality in my blog postings as well.   ( perhaps I'll be able to capture that Butterfly egg next time!  )  Other than that,  

 Cheryl and I have been working on Stockings and hopefully will get some posted online this week or at least begin to chip away at the pictures.  Oh!  And before I forget,   We have a couple of new Animes!    Black Butler 2 and Antique Bakery!   

We finished Antique last night and will begin with black butler tonight.   Antique is not bad,  but the MAnga is MUCH better....so to truly appreciate the anime,  read the manga first.....the character development is better, more fun, and there are several story arcs that are left out in the 12 episode anime.... but it is still a fun time.   Check it out!   

Making Mochi...My latest Culinary Challenge!

 So what is next?   After conquering the Gyoza mystery,  I'm now up for another Adventure in the kitchen!  This time  MOCHI!   Also known as a japanese Rice Cake,  Mochi is made from Pounded Rice flour and steamed, baked, grilled, and aparently, even microwaved!  

 I don't know if I will find the guys it takes to pound it,  but I think I can find the processed glutinous rice flour that is required.....Or maybe enlist Cheryl and make my own.   We shall see..    Having little to post lately,   this is all I got...and so I shall post my results when I have some of the gooey cakes to show off.....Get ready for FUN!

More stockings, Cats and How to MAKE Gyoza....

So I finally did it!   I decided to find out just how to make Gyoza.   It is so simple that I cant believe it!   Anyway, It is very fun stuffing those little wraps with the stuff.   The recipe I followed is fairly simple and easy to add things to or take away.   I 've already added fish instead of turkey/pork.  

Anyway,  it calls for ( and the proportions can be switched up to your liking)  1 cup cabbage, 1/2 cup of onions, 1 cup pork/ or chicken/ or turkey/or fish,  1 tbsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp vegetable oil,   any spices to your taste.....I like garlic and hot mustard.    I have substituted chives for the onions,  olive oil for the vegetable oil, horse radish for the other spices...and the list goes on.   

  Take the mixture and blend it up to a almost pate'    and fill the dumplings.   Dip your finger in water to make sure the one side will stick to the other and fold them like this....easy!  You can fry them or steam them .   

I have become addicted!    

Other than that,   we continue working at ACT on the MCAT and GMAT while doing stockings on the weekend.   Today we worked on some raccoon stockings.   We were planning on having this week off, but the GMAT asked for volunteers and we signed up.   It was one of those things where we need to do the stockings, but need the money now, more.   So,  my posts have been getting more and more infrequent.   

 But with only weekends, and the help of one of the shop cats,   we should have things to post...a little at least.   Hope everyone is having a great week/or month....depending on how often I post stuff.   We shall see. 

Gioza, Cats, and Continuing Stocking Production...

It may be just me, but I feel the desire to remind myself when I reread this a year from now to remind myself that we were, in fact, working on stockings.   We are on a bit of a leave from ACT at the moment, and that is great!  Because it allows us to catch up ( or at least work on) the stockings  as we work at the job. 

 By the way,  I hate having a job!   This is not saying ACT is bad....actually it is possibly one of the best jobs ever!  But it still requires me to get up in the morning and work an 8 hour day.   ACK!   I have forgotten just how much I hate it.  ( not that CIVCO was not an equal reminder) Anyway,  More felt is coming and that is good because we will be running out of our supply by the beginning of next week.  And since we have an entire week off of ACT,  It will be best to have felt to work with instead of sitting around with nothing to do. 

Ok,  Enough of that,   in other news,    the cats look cute as they sleep away the day while we work.   And   to add a little fun to the weekend....Gioza!  Also known as potstickers to those westerners....or dumplings.    I want to find a recipe to show me how to make our own....perhaps then we will have another "adventure in the kitchen" post.   Until then....hope everyone has a great week! 

The Great Ethan Allen In the Kitchen....with An Origami Whale.

Ok, So Cheryl wanted to take another stab at baking some cakes and I thought I would lend a hand. Actually, she forced me to participate. So We worked on some making some Petite layer cakes with frosting and then Ganash. I must admit the ganash was fun to play with. It's much like pudding only it hardens to that cool chocolate shell that you see on the food network. We decided to put a raspberry filling in the middle. The good news is that it worked out for an early attempt. The bad news is that we have to eat them and we are still struggling to lose the holiday weight. Other than that....I have been in love with the Origami Humpback whale. It turned out so cool I folded it several other times. It is based off of the origami Koi model only with a little modifications. I was thinking about making a mobile out of them, but we will have to see how they all look together. I still wanted to work on some birds and some better paper.

Why we Keep Cheryl out of the Kitchen!

It was a simple task: Bake the yummy pumpkin bread that the store sells. It even came in a prepackaged assembly so all you had to do was add the eggs and mix it up. How could anyone mess that up? Well, Cheryl found a way. At first I thought I smelled something burning, but there was supposedly all this time left on the oven. Well, Upon opening the oven, black smoke bellowed out and instead of fragrant fresh baked pumpkin bread, there was the billowing black clouds of burnt carbon throughout the apartment. Cheryl had filled the bread tins too full with the batter and they bubbled over onto the heating element. Naturally I had to come to the rescue and I got blamed for it for not seeing the "flaw" in her baking technique before the disaster. Ah well! After a good chuckle, we cleaned it up and finished the last batch without incident. Despite the drama, the bread still managed to taste pretty good. So it all worked out in the end...like the season finale of exosquad. ( Sgt Frog Reference) The lesson learned is make sure Cheryl has supervision in the kitchen. ( Like me doing laundry) Anyway, some new Origami. A Whale and a lobster. Enjoy!