February 4, 2012 – I paint them, might as well MAKE them! “MACAROON BAKING!”
Today I tackled a project that I have never done before. I have been baking since I was 11 but one thing I have NEVER made was french macaroons. Oh they are beautiful, colorful, tantalizing… pretty enough to paint (as those of you who know me and know my art have seen…). I looked through my recipe books and found what I thought was a good one and started prepping. I decided to document my progress in pictures. Here is the result. I hope you enjoy 
. If you want the recipe, please email me. I had so much fun with this, after I photograph these tomorrow for future paintings, (and share them with my eldest son) I plan to make bunches more, different colors, and photograph those, too! (I will give those away to friends, tho… I don’t want to gain 20 pounds!)
Step 1: blend up blanched almonds into a flour.
Almond flour
Step 2: blend powdered sugar with your almond flour
Measure out granulated sugar to add to egg whites while whipping into peaks
Glossy whipped egg whites
Fold whipped egg whites into almond flour mixture gently, add color (love my pink!)
Fill a pastry bag with a round tip with the dough and pipe onto cookie sheet
Perfect!! Cool for 60 minutes on a rack.
I made a dark chocolate ganache with Grand Marnier and filled my cookies. Talk about YUM!
January 4, 2012 – “MAGGIE STEIFVATER. Author. Artist. Baker.”
Gosh I like typing 2012… just feels weird.
Ok, this page, as I have told you before, is dedicated to FOOD STUFF. Well, I want to share with you one of my all time favorite authors and artists, Maggie Steifvater. Maggie writes fantastic YA fiction. I have read every single one. Do an amazon search for her, check out her Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy (Shiver, Linger and Forever). You will not be disappointed. And, mind you, I am not a teenager, just one stuck in a 40 year old body 
. Young and old alike will adore them. Her other books are just as kick butt.
But back to food! Maggie also loves to cook, bake, whatever suits her fancy during her breaks from being a superstar writer. Her blog post “Priorities, Priorities” is one of my favorites. She shares her famous chocolate chip cookie recipe and also some of her paintings of Tea. Yes, she is an artist as well (there probably isn’t much she CAN’T do, I mean, the gal plays the friggin’ bagpipes for chrissake. HARD!)
Really love her recipes, btw… and her paintings are just droolworthy. I have known Maggie since 2005 when we used to belong to a superb group of artists on Ebay. All of us would chat about our art, put it up for auction, motivate eachother. I own 2 of Maggie’s original paintings, one of them is TEA THEMED. They are treasured along with my other originals that I bought from my Ebay friends back then.
So, check out her blog post I linked to. Make her cookies. And if you are an artist, let the sugar rush of cookie dough inspire you to create fantastic art! (oh, and buy her books!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 29th, 2011 7 p.m.
4 cheese Tortellini / ravioli with sauteed onions, shitake mushrooms, fresh broccoli, toasted pumpkin seeds and a homemade pesto. YUM.
Sautee onions in a little coconut oil with fresh minced garlic, then add the shitakes. Sauté..
Add steamed broccoli, toss with onions and mushrooms. I season with salt, fresh pepper, parsley and safflowers.
Add sauteed mixture to the boiled and drained pasta of your choice. I used a mix between tortellini and ravioli. My kids like this stuff!
If you have a good pesto recipe, use it! I tossed everything together with the pesto and then added toasted pumpkin seeds last. You can use any kind of nut you like, actually. Pecans or pine nuts would be great here . Then DIG IN!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 29th, 2011 – 9 a.m.
My other passion in life is food. Cooking. Baking… I studied under 2 very amazing culinary geniuses in Ellicott City, Maryland… a place called Tersiguel’s Country French Restaurant. The owners were spectacular and incredibly patient with me when it came to mentoring me in the kitchen. I had already had a love of the culinary arts and wanted to go to school for it, but the Tersiguel’s persuaded me to WORK in a kitchen first before going to school.. you may not like it after all! Well, after 4 years of working there (I would most likely STILL be there if I hadn’t moved to Alabama some 13 years ago…) I still have the itch to be creative in the kitchen. I most certainly would LOVE to attend culinary school but I have 3 kids and a full time job these days… hard to fit that into the schedule. SO… I cook and try things at home. My kids and boyfriend are my food tasting suckers . From savory to sweet, I dabble in it all. Give me something exotic and spicy! BUT, make it healthy. Important folks. Gotta stay healthy for the family. Me being a type 2 diabetic, I have to make wise food choices. Sometimes, I will make something as a treat, and sometimes my kids help. For example, this morning, my son Maarten (who is 7) helped me make these scrumptious (and not THAT healthy but boy were they OOOH so good!!) muffins! Chocolate chip, brown sugar and poppy seeds galore in these bad boys. Check them out:
SO good they were!! Maarten is very handy in the kitchen and a great helper!! (Recipe to follow). Involving the kids in the cooking experience isn’t only fun for me, but it gets them excited to taste something new.
I will most likely populate this page with my goodies and ‘not the best’ food pictures, sometimes if I am thinking about, I will do a WIP of the cooking steps. If you love food, enjoy this part of my blog… if you want any of the recipes here, email me. I will be glad to share . I will try and post recipes as I do them, though… but being a busy crazy person that I am… I may space that. Stay tuned!
