Lavender & Ginger Macarons

My apology if I, once more time post macarons today. A few days a go I baked these cookies 3 days in a row. All together I baked 6 batches of macarons. As mentioned before {here} I failed baking these macarons last winter so these time I really enjoyed making them as they came out looking pretty. And I want so badly to give some of these macarons to Dr. Chang (Artery Specialist) and his staff. So here they are.

My husband 'Steven' loves the chocolate and the coffee flavored macarons very much. He begged me to get rid off these macarons as fast because he can't help himself to have these macarons every night knowing that they there. So tomorrow I must bring them over to Dr. Chang's office, before they are gone. I hope they will like them. Also I know a lady who loves these macarons very much so I am going to drop by at her house to give some to her as well.

Do you see  the soft interior with chocolate ganache filling and the crunchy skin?   I admit although they are delicious it is one of those things that you can only eat 2 at a time {may be 3}and you will not want to eat it again for a few days. Good thing is that it is good to freeze in a freezer for up to about 2 weeks. It tastes better as you freeze them but before eating you must leave them out in a room temperature for about 10 to 15 minutes. Hhhmmm.....it tastes heavenly so good. 

Some people a little intimidated on making these macarons. The truth is they are very easy to make. I failed miserably 7 times before I got a perfect macaron first time I tried.

::Recipe::

Lavender Macarons

Recipe (here) except put 2 tsp crushed lavender flowers on the meringue and a drop or two of violet food coloring.

Ginger Macarons

Recipe (here) except put 1-1/4 tsp ginger powder on the meringue.

 

Chocolate Ganache filling.

 ~ 5 oz. bittersweet baking chocolate chips

~ 1/4 cup milk 

~ 1/4 tbsp. butter

 Steam all ingredients together in a heat proof dish  until chocolate melted. Cool slightly.

Sandwich cookies together.

~~~~oo00oo~~~~

Happy Sunday Everyone! 

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Savvy Southern Style

Saturday Afternoon Tea

Yesterday I was looking for a cherry blossoms flowers in my area  but I could not find any. So instead I found these little flowers called 'Wax Flowers' written on the label. These flowers has woodsy aroma with a hint of bouquet perfume.

I love how it looks when gathered them together and just throw them in a big vase. I like the casual arrangement look as if they were picked from your own backyard. The small flowers looks so delicate and pretty. It got it's name  from the fact that the petals has a waxy feel to it. {More about it here}

Today is Saturday and is a beautiful day; the weather is starting to get a little warmer. I just did a spring cleaning in our rooms. Things got out of hand sometimes and need to be discarded. After that I made myself a cup of tea and the thought of taking pictures of the flowers came into mind, so I did that.

Here are the pretty 'Wax Flowers.'

I bought way too many  of these flowers so you may see them in my next posts as right now every corner of my house decorated with these little flowers.

Thank you so much for stopping by, and have a lovely week-end Everyone!

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Savvy Southern Style

Paris Chic Collage/Journal {April 2013}

It is the time to put up a collage once more time. 

This time when arranging bits and pieces to put together a theme; by accident and slowly a Parisian theme emerged. The combination of French settee and baroque frames brings us to a Parisian home. A colorful embroidered silk and lace added a true feminine touch of whats best made in Paris. The colorful cabochon flower necklace bring us to a spring time in Paris. So let our imagine run wild as if we are roaming through the street of Paris.

Have a wonderful week-end Everyone! 

And thank you for looking.

Back in Baking MACARONS {Lemon Macarons}

I can not tell you how happy I was when saw these pretty little things came out from the oven looking like macaron I used to bake.

I baked many macarons before {here, here and here} and always came out pretty. Last winter  I tried baking these pretty cookies and I think I wasted almost 20 eggs and a lot of almond meal; all cookies came out  ugly without feet and flat just like balloon looses air. Yes, after almost 20 eggs I gave up and  told myself that I should stop trying to bake these macarons and just wait until spring time. I think it had something to do with the temperature of our home at the time. I knew that during winter we like to turn up the heat very high, as a result the cookies was never came out perfectly as it should. As we all know macarons made out of egg whites and egg whites can be deflated when the room temperature is not right.

Without changing the method; this time and as you can see below - it came out very nice. We did not turn on the heat as the weather was  sunny and cool yesterday; therefore my macarons looks so pretty.

Today I made ginger and coffee macarons. I have been wanting to give some of my macarons to Dr. Chang and his staff. Dr. Chang is Korean so I think it is best to make a ginger and green tea flavor for him. Dr. Chang and his staff are always very nice and kind to me. I thought one day I will drop by at his office with box of these pretty little cookies for them.

Do you remember the daffodils I brought to New York from Vermont? {last seen here} Now they are perfectly bloomed. I deliberately made lemon flavor macarons because the color is yellow as I wanted to photograph them with the daffodils plus this is the first time I baked macarons since the disaster last winter so I just grabbed what ever flavoring I had and put yellow food coloring and lemon food flavoring. 

I am so over joyed right now and I think you will see many more posts with  macarons in the future.

Do you see the little ceramic flower boy on the right? I picked him up at a local antique store in Vermont. The owner of the store gave me a few things for free because I bought quite a few from him. And this little ceramic flower boy is one of them. His price was USD 2.00 and now he is mine!I think he is adorable!

::Recipe::

Lemon Macarons

Recipe (here) except put 1/2 tsp lemon food flavoring on the meringue and a drop or two of yellow food coloring.

For the filling.

You can pretty much put anything on the filling like chocolate ganache, here I put Fig and Hazelnut Jam and in the future I am going to make Lemon Curd (bought in a store) mixed with cream cheese. It is entirely up to you. I have read on Martha Stewart magazine that the filling does not have to be the same as the flavoring of the shells. It said; it will create an interesting taste when combined two different flavoring together.

~~~~oo00oo~~~~

Thank you for looking!

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Savvy Southern Style

Week-end Ski Trip {Vermont}

We were invited to stay at a friend's family home up in the mountain of Vermont yesterday week-end to ski.

I could not ski although I have tried and took lesson before. So while they were skiing I drove around and stopped by at an antique store and as usual I enjoyed looking and finding treasures that people neglected. I love antiquing when going to a small rural town like this one. Wilmington, Vermont is known for a ski mountain resort called Snow Mountain. 

I knew I had a couple of hours by myself. So I took the time to photo shoot the goodies that I bought a long with Daffodils flowers also bought at a grocery store over there.

I love Adam and Estrellita family ski home. The surrounding are beautiful and that day was particularly a little warm, bright and sunny. 

Daffodils are  a sign of  spring time has arrived. Although there were still lots of snow on the ground; it was a beautiful day and I did enjoy my time a lone doing these photo shoots.

 The next day, Sunday, we all went home. Since the Daffodils were not fully bloomed; Estrellita took a bunch home and I took another bunch for myself with me. I will take picture and show you on another post when these pretty Daffodils were fully bloomed.

I hope you had a fantastic Easter celebration with family. 

And thank you so much for stopping by!

Rose Water Cream Sandwich Cookies

These cookies burst with rose petal flavors. 

I love rose flavor; it is feminine, exotic and pretty. I am in love with food associates with flowers like lavender, rose, jasmine, hibiscus, etc. 

I think these cookies are perfect to have during spring time. Having them with a cup of warm tea will put you an instant happiness and calm mood in one spring afternoon.

The recipe says  you must put 'candied rose or violet petals' to decorate the top of the sandwiched cookies . But I do no have them when making these cookies. All I had was these 'dried rose buds' that I have in the pantry. So I put this instead of the candied rose petals. If you want to make the one with candied rose/violet petals; it would be the prettiest little cookie you ever see. Just to warn you; they are quite pricey. You can check them out {here}.

::Recipe::

ROSE WATER CREAM SANDWICH COOKIES

` 1-3/4 cups plus 2 tablepoons all purpose flower

2 tbs conrstarch

1/4 spoon salt

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter softened

1/3 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted plus more for dusting

3 tablespoons rose water

Rose Water Cream Filling

(recipe follows)

1. Whisck to combine flour, cornstarch, and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat butter and confectioners's sugar with an electric mixer on medium high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add rose water, and mix until combined scraping down side of bowl. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough in half, and shape into disks. Wrap each in plastic, and chill 1 hours.

2. Preheat ovn to 350 deg. On parchment, roll 1 disk of dough to 1/8-inch thickness; chill 15 minutes. Cut 1-1/2 inch rounds from dough, and place 1 inch a part on parchment-lined baking sheets. Repeat with remaining disk. using the wide end of a pastry tip, cut a 1/2 -inch hole off-center in half the rounds. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until barely golden, about 14 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely. (Unfilled cookies can be stored in a airtight container up to 3 days.)

3. Dust cut-out cookies lightly with confectioners' sugar. Spread a heaping 1/2 teaspoon filling on whole cookies and top with cut-out cookies. Place a candied rose petal or violet in each hole. Once sandwiched, cookies can be store in a single layer in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 day.

Rose Water Cream Filling

Makes enough for about 1-1/2 dozen sandwiches

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted

1-1/2 teaspoons rose water

1-1/2 teaspoons milk, plus more if needed

1/4 teaspoon lemon juice

Stir together cream cheese and sugar with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add rose water and milk and lemon juice and stir until smooth. filling can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 3 days; bring to room temperature and stir until smooth before using.

~~~oo00oo~~~~

 

Thank you for stopping by!

House Tour {Living Room + Dining Area}

Decorating this home has been so much fun and very easy because it is a small home.  We want this house to be casual and not need much maintenance since we only come here 5 or 6  time each year.

One thing that I love about being here in Delray Beach, Florida is that there are so many thrift stores in the area.  So  I wanted to test my skill of a DIY projects for this home. 'Blue' seems to be the right choice for the interior color since this is Florida; the state always with blue sky and beaches.

I re-painted the end table on the left {here}. I sprayed painted the two brass pears on the end table on the right {here}

I love gold accent in an interior and here I purposely chose gold frames for my gouache art works as an accent of the bluish interior.

The table runner was a rubber stamped DIY {here}

The dining set came with the house.  I am thinking to re-paint the chair white but I am going to leave them as they are for now.

 Remember the 'brass jewelry embellishment wall decor' under the sun burst I posted not long a go? {here}.

Thank you so much for stopping by !

 Have a lovely week end Everyone !