Laduree Recipe Book + Surgery Cancellation

So the surgery has postponed for two weeks. My 3 times blood test shows that I am pregnant. How strange when I know that I am not pregnant, it must have been an error during the test, somewhere ! 

We went home and I felt so tired from getting up very early morning at 5:00 am that morning so I went to bed immediately. I felt the rush of relief from thinking by now I should have been in the ICU with big surgery scar on my stomach feeling groggy with strong sedation in me. I know exactly how it feels since I was there 8 years a go. But nothing has happened to me right now, well at least not until 2 weeks time.

I was floating in my own mind between a sleep and waking up trying to relax when Steven walked in through the door. He finally came into the bedroom and handed out this pretty little soft greenish book and put in front of my face and on the  bed. I knew it was the Laduree recipe book that he ordered for me. I flipped the pages looking at the pretty pictures and said 'thank you' to him for buying it for me.

I love the small gesture from Steven, and the pretty little book that I own now making me happy and made my life more beautiful in the middle of this health situation. Steven knows I love Laduree and their macarons so he wants me to treasure the pretty book.

I love how I feel about my life now even though I have this time bomb monster in my body that needs to be fixed. Perhaps the surgery and what has happened with my health for the past  8 years has something to do with what I feel. Life is so precious now and small things became dramatically beautiful and meaningful.

I won't lie that I have my up and down moments but I feel the big change about my out look toward life. I am more happy toward simple things and cherish our peaceful life together. I feel like I am the luckiest person a live given the condition of my health, been divorced and far away from my own country, family and my only son. I can see the big picture of my life that I am destined and grateful to be here and as they say "everything happened for a reason." It sounds a bit cliche but I like the phrase. With a strong believe and determination I like to believe that something good will happen to me in the future.

Laduree, Sucre  available at Amazon.com

I am in awe to have received emails, card, phone calls of 'prayers' and 'wishing me well' from relatives and friends. These wishes and prayers can only make me even stronger facing the up coming surgery. And I will take those prayers and wishes to the surgical room with me.

From the bottom of my heart, "Thank you so much, and you have moved me in a way that you can not imagine and made me even stronger, thank you!"

Now I have 2 weeks in front of me to blog, be happy and enjoy a normal life with Steven and perhaps my son and my parents will be coming to visit us.

********

Thank you for reading !

Lavender Cookies and Lavender Lemon Soda to Uplifting my Mood

This will be my last post before the surgery in 33 hours from now. 

I am finally accepting my faith. I accepted the surgery procedure on me with it's surgery scar and all the consequences. I have no choice. And I want to live for a very long time. There are so many things to do  in the future and I want to do those things when I finally recover from this ordeal. 

I have been wanting to blog this delicious Lavender cookies and very soothing Lavender Lemon Soda. I knew this will be a perfect treat during a hot summer day. I love the aroma of Lavender because of  the soothing and the calmness aroma that comes out from it and yet it is so soft and gentle at the same time. I love it in cookies and I love it in drinks.

Today after taking the pictures; I finally get to taste the Lavender Lemon Soda and oh how wonderful the taste of lemon mixed with lavender and soda! The taste is unbelievable gentle with a herbal bouquet aroma. Aggghhhh.......!!! Definitely my favorite drink during a hot summer day. And I will have lot of it in the future. The cookies are just as good; it is buttery and  melt in your mouth. This simple cookies are such a treat to have with  herbal tea while sitting in a beautiful garden on a lovely afternoon.

 

I just spoke with my son on the phone. I am very happy now. He finally had an idea about the surgery procedure. And he told me; now that he finally knows more about it, he is not so worry anymore. We said goodbye and there is nothing more that makes me happier then to hear him saying "I love you" .

{I forgot to put this lovely picture that I want to include originally so I added later on}

Do you see the tiny bubbles in the bottle ?

Recipes

Lavender Lemon Soda

~ 2 teaspoon Lavender buds

~ 1/2 cup truvia or sugar

~ 1/2 cup water

Mix and boil.

~ 1/4 cup Lavender syrop {above}

~ 1/4 cup lemon juice

~ 1-1/4 cup Seltzer water

~ Ice cubes

Pour into a glass. Or doubled, tripled to store them in a jug.

Lavender Cookies

~ 8 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature

~ 1/4 cup superfine sugar

~ 1 1/4 cup flour

1 tablespoon organically grown fresh or dried edible lavender flowers.

In a medium size bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill dough for at least 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a 1/4 inch thickness. Using a cookie cuter cut out cookies and place on a baking sheet. Stamp cookies if desired. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes until edges of cookies are just starting to turn brown. Cool for a few minutes on the pan, then using a spatula transfer to a cooking rack.

******

Note: I am using scrap booking stamps  & available at Michaels.

Then I will walk through the beautiful lavender field. I will be bathed by the soothing aroma of lavender; I will smell the calmness of thousands of lavenders flowers around me. I will be very happy. And when I finally reached  the other side of the lavender field; I will see my son's, my husband's and my parent's face smiling at me. I just know my life will start all over again; I am happy ...............

******

Macaron for Baby Shower

I finally managed to finish all the necessities to create the macarons for Dawn's baby shower on Saturday despite receiving the devastating news that I will have a serious surgery this coming Tuesday just a few days a go.

Looking at these pictures; I was very braved to ask to make these stands and represent them on Dawn's baby shower since I knew not many people knows what 'macaron' is.  I was not sure to go ahead and present them since I do not have any energy to do anything after hearing about the surgery need to be done in a few days . I gathered some courage and try to smile in the party  so with my sweet husband; Steven's help there they were  my little blue macarons on a vintage plates with vintage cups and white flowers. 

I was not sure what people are thinking about it. I am sure it was an unusual presentation but I enjoyed doing it. Yes, macaron does for certain people and not everybody likes it. I completely understand that !

"Christine & Carmella, thank you so much for letting my macaron be a part of Dawn's baby shower celebration and displaying them!"

Thank you for reading !

Macaron A to Z {Part 4}

Macaron's feet {PIED}

Macaron is not a 'macaron' without it's pretty 'feet' or 'pied' in French.
{Foot is the curly bottom part of the macaron shell.}

 

I have been baking these pretty little treats for the past 2 months and each time they came out different. Since I have quite a few of them in the freezer from baking them at different time and at different oven temperature; so I am curious on how their feet looks like. So let's take a look at their feet !

But first I am curious on how the famous Macaron bakery 'Laduree' and 'Pierre Herme'  looks like. For comparison I put them here as well.

www.laduree.com

www.pierreherme.com

 www.notsohumblepie.blogspot.com

And MINE !

See how they look different one another ? I must say the no. 1, 3, 4 and 6 has the best looking 'feet'. No. 2 and no. 5 are over baked; therefore the feet came out larger and thicker  than the rest of them. Plus an over baked macaron creates a interior gap between the chewy filling and the crispy skin. {last post here} So now I learned !

Now how about the dome (the very top part) ?

Clearly the one that has good looking feet also has a 'good dome'. Not so flat but also not very domey. These macarons are the closest looking to Laduree's, Piere Herme's and NotSoHumblePie's macarons shape. So lesson learned !

Another picture of my MACs

Have a lovely Memorial Day week end Everyone !!

One Afternoon with Tulips & Macaron

Steven, my husband just came back from work and brought me fresh tulips. How pretty ! I can not resist on putting them in a white antique porcelain water jug that I bought a few years ago from Ebay. Then the thought of taking pictures of the tulips with the macarons came into my mind. Yes, more pictures of macaron;  why not ! I love taking pictures, setting up the props, setting up the lighting, moving the objects around to get a good composition and see how the pictures will come out.

Here they are !

 

Enjoy them !

Macaron A to Z {Part 3}

'Storing' and learning the 'interior' of a macaron.

Macaron can be stored in a freezer for about a month. I had my macaron in the freezer for 2 months  and they were still delicious. But I won't go for more than that ! I still can't decide if I should put the filling and store them in the freezer or I just leave the shells in the freezer and put in the filling when ready to eat. I can't decide yet ! It seems and from reading a professional macaron bloggers; they put the filling right away and store them in the freezer. I guess it all depends on 'when you are going to eat the macarons.'

Now about the interior. If you are an ambitious macaron baker like myself, the interior is as important as the exterior; a part from the delicious taste.  So I decided to take a bite of 3 macarons that has been stored in freezer at a different time. Oh, before I forget; each time you take them out from the freezer let them rest in a room temperature for about 40 minutes to an hour. You do not want to chew on a cold hard macaron right from the freezer.

The Lemon Macaron on the left has been in the freezer for about 1-1/2 month. The one in the middle the Coffee Macaron has been in the freezer for about 1 month and the one on the right the Blueberry Macaron has been in the freezer for about 1 week.  I took the macarons out of the freezer put the filling {I have only blueberry cream cheese filling} and put them back in the freezer. After an hour I took them out and took a bite on each of these cookies to see what the interior looks like.

To my surprise the Lemon one is still delicious and has the nicest interior. The Coffee one is also delicious but the interior has a slight hollow shell while the Blueberry  has an apparent gap between the interior and the crispy shell {on the very right side of the bluebery macaron} You can see there is much of a gap in between.

You can learn the trouble shooting making the macaron here.

I also learn that macaron is best when eat after 24 to 48 hours. This is called 'maturity'  

Hermé points out an interesting aspect of his macaroons that seems to challenge the basics of most pastry teaching - freshness. "As soon as they're made they're not ready to eat, but they're really at their best after 24 or even 48 hours," he says. "An osmosis takes place between the garnish and the biscuit. When freshly baked this is hard and crisp, but it absorbs some humidity from the filling and its inside becomes more tender while the crust on the surface stays intact." {link}

*******

Thank you ...!

MACARONS IN BLUES

 

 

******