The simple Macaron

The simple Macaron.

I have read for so long how hard these were to make and then a couple of weeks ago my mom made some on her blog:

click here

I had intended on making them and just never got around to it. She made it look so simple. I decided to go for it. Went to buy the almond flour and that's as far as I went! $11.50 for a small bag of almond meal/flour. Oh goodness. Not happening...I'm too frugal. Funny how we'll spend money on some things and not others. I'll drop perfectly good money on my favorite olives, yet almond flour was a no no. Maybe because I cannot grow olives, but I was pretty sure I could grind my own almond flour?

I researched. Almond flour is just ground blanched almonds. You can even use any almond! Well now, I can do that! I went to Whole Foods (lucky me to have one...almost and hour away! It's a rare treat to go) to check out the price of almond flour knowing that would be a more "normal" item there rather than a "luxury" item at the regular grocery store. The price WAS slightly lower than the grocery store, but still more than I planned on spending.

I went over to the bulk food isle and there, there was my answer. Blanched slivered almonds at $5.95 a POUND! WAY cheaper than the flour! When you grind whole things they tend to "fluff" up, so I knew it would make a great deal.

I added small amounts to my blender and pulsed. It made a fine "meal". Don't pulse to long or the natural fat in the almond releases and cakes it up. When I had a bowl of meal I added the correct amount of meal and confectioners sugar to my food processor and pulsed that till I had a very fine flour. I then passed it through a mesh strainer 2x's so I had a super fine flour. It sounds more laborious than it actually was.

The rest was so easy! There are so many tutorial on the web. I found this one to be the best:

pastry pal

Here are my Macarons.

Aren't they cute? Notice the "feet" on them? That means I did it correctly!!!!

Now aren't they cute? All this being said. My hubby loved them, I'm sure the kids will love them, but I think they are too sweet. I'm more a veggie girl and baked goods are not something I go gaga over. I could eat one or two, but a plate full would make me feel ill. My hubby downed about 12! They must be good?

Until next time Dear Reader,

Chatty Cathy

Fairy Garden

I have seen Fairy Gardens all over the web, mine is nothing special except for the fact that my 12 year old daughter Kimmi and I bonded and had a special time making it. In my book....that's enough to make it the most special Fairy Garden!

Being the 4th in a line of girls and seeing that those 4 girls were all born in a 5 1/2 years span of time, life hasn't been easy as the baby. Sure she's cute, gets her way, gets out of work sometimes, but she also gets left behind, gets hand me downs all the time, is told to "be quiet", "Don't follow us", "Don't bug us" and many more helpful things by her sisters! Sometimes the littlest wants to feel loved and as important as the older ones! We have our garden in the side yard in full swing now. Things are growing like mad and we have started to harvest as well. Kimmi helps with the garden, but the 16 year old (2 kids up from Kimmi) has made it her "special project". She didn't mean for it to become "her" garden, she's just thrilled to live in a home where we can have a garden again and is so excited! In  turn Kimmi has felt like she has "nothing that's her own!" Now realize that is a bit of an exaggeration, but her feelings are valid and I respect them. So I came up with a great idea (stolen from the millions on the web). I suggested a Fairy Garden, this intrigued her and she started grilling me about would it be HERS? I said part of a family and the joy of being in a family is to share wonderful things but that she could make it alone with me. This seemed to satisfy her. Now I thought this would be a very cheap project....ha ha ha!

Succulents are about $3 a pop at the garden center so I have to say this project ended up costing about $12 in plants. I guess in the grand scheme of things the same amount of time spent out doing something would have cost more and then there's just the memory, this way we have memories and something to look at daily. I'm glad we did the project.

Here's a top view of the garden. I used an old enamelware baking dish for the garden and filled it with a compost and peat mixture. (black hen) We used Irish moss (which gets little white flowers!), succulents a cactus (Kimmi is fascinated by them) and some gravel sold in little bags near the orchids!

The small bench, fence, arbor and mushrooms were made by yours truly and my wonderful hubby wound wire around the little pickets for me. 

Kimmi thinks the plant to the right looks like a sea anemone. It does!

Here she is surrounded by messy stuff... which she cleaned up as she promised!

She was very happy and really enjoyed the bonding time we had together.

I encourage you to explore the web. Google images of Fairy gardens and see how many ideas are out there and try one yourself. It was so much fun and kids love it!

Until next time Dear Reader,

Chatty Cathy

Paschal Basket Cover

So Orthodox celebrated Pascha Saturday night into Sunday morning and one big part of the celebration for Pascha is the Pascha basket. It is filled with all sorts of goodies that the Orthodox fast from during the Lenten period. 40 days to be exact! Easter and Pascha are not always celebrated at the same time. Western and Orthodox celebrations of Easter (Pascha) vary in certain ways. Usually Orthodox and Western Christians celebrate Easter on two different Sundays. The reason is that Orthodox churches still base their calculation of Easter's day on the Julian calendar (in use at Christ's and early disciples time), whereas Western churches follow the Gregorian calendar (which came about much later). In order to keep the date of Easter on a Sunday, the date changes yearly based on the Paschal full moon. The possible date range for Western Easter day is March 21st-April 25th. 

My dear friend Meg lives in Virginia Beach where I lived up until this past year. We looked forward to going around and shopping for items for the Paschal basket together each year. I am now here in SC and wanted to make something special for my dear friend Meg. She gave me a cross a few years ago that reminds me of her every time I wear it. I wanted to make something special for her so that she would remember me every time she used it. I came up with a Paschal Basket Cover for her basket. I found the design on an old archive page of DMC. I transferred it and then set to work on deciding what colors and stitches to use as I only had a line drawing at this point! I spent 114 hours on the embroidery and this is the final result.

I used DMC flosses and my wonderful husband bought me an Ott light with a magnifying glass attached! I used the 50% off coupon of course but it was still a large purchase for me as I don't spend money readily. It helped so much with the detail work! For the center and wheat sheaves I used a gold thread. The lilies are done in silk. Here's a picture of the center detail. Oh and these close ups were taken before washing the pencil lines out so don't think I sent it off like that! 

After the embroidery was complete I inserted the piece in a purple linen background. I backed it with the same linen. I was quite happy with the results and my friend loved the gift!

I hope each of you enjoyed your Easter and Pascha and wish you a wonderful week!

Until next time Dear Reader,

Chatty Cathy

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