back to baking--and blogging

After a fairly lengthy unplanned blogging hiatus it is time to get back to posting.   I wish I could say that I have been crazy busy doing fun stuff and taking lots of pictures and the posts will be numerous and highly entertaining but I can't.  I have been pretty busy, some good things and some not so great things have been keeping me busy but alas, no pictures.  So my first post in a while will have to be about food.

I have been interested in French macarons for a long time.  They are cute and tasty and I love a challenge.  They are reputed to be hard to make and I have tried several different recipes and different techniques with mixed success.  My younger daughter hosted a bridal shower for my older daughter and I made macarons for the party.  They were made without food coloring to match the light sage and cream theme of the party.  I did not get pictures of those macarons so I made another batch and colored those pink.  I am pleased with how they turned out and when I got three batches in a row to turn out I am thinking that I am getting the hang of it.

For the shower two macarons were placed in a tiny cardstock box and placed at each place setting.  The boxes were sage and cream and the cream colored macarons were nestled on a paper doily.  The boxes were machine cut but then run individually by hand thru an  embosser and hand assembled.  A fun project.

The post with the recipe for the macarons is here.

Macarons are made with meringue and each batch requires three egg whites.  With multiple batches I had quite a few egg yolks and went looking for a recipe with which to use them.  I tried a recipe for a frozen zabaglione, a custard made with sweet wine.  Here it is served topped with fruit.

The post with the zabaglione recipe is here.

Joining Susan at BNOTP here.