Happy Fourth Birthday WITK!

I've been MIA a lot recently but I just had to remember to wish WITK a Happy Fourth Birthday! This year has brought a lot of change and writing at WITK (and WITC) really helped me through a tough time. WITK has been with me through lots of changes and I always like to take this time of year to reflect on how much has changed and how far I've come!

Four years ago, I was living in Colorado. I was packing up my Boulder apartment and getting ready to move across the country, again. My boss had accepted a position at Yale and was bringing a few of his students and postdocs with him. Food blogs were new to me and I thought it would be a great way to stay in touch with my friends across the country.

Three years ago, I was in the midst of moving from Connecticut to New Jersey. I was a few days from starting my first real job and busy deciding what to wear. WITK went from three days a week posting to just two and I was trying to figure out how to cook dinner for two instead of one.

Two years ago, WITK was in the midst of its first big food challenge (Why Bother 2012!) I was enjoying my first summer as a real employed person. Easily distracted, I neglected to cook dinner and made lots of sweets. My coworkers happily gobbled up the resulting desserts.

Last year, it was a tough time and I was in the middle of my summer of unemployment. Recently laid off and seeking a new full-time gig, I threw myself into WITK and my new venture - Wilde in the City. With two blogs to distract myself from the lack of interviews, my third blogoversary gave me a great reason to make a seriously involved cake. So delicious.

This year, I find myself at a new job, getting ready to buy a house and juggling everything rather poorly! Over the past four months I have racked up over 70,000 frequent flier miles, traveled to six different countries and finally made it to Hawaii. All this travel has been tough on WITK, I cooked very little over the past four months.

In order to properly celebrate four years online, I made WITK a beautiful cake. I've been meaning to make something from the SprinkleBakes cookbook for a while now. I flipped through the pages until I found this cake - the Neapolitan cake. Three different flavors, baked from a single batter, this cake was a great combination of flavors. My favorites? I preferred the strawberry and vanilla layers. The chocolate layer wasn't flavorful enough for me. If I were to make this again, I'd use some melted chocolate for flavoring the chocolate layer.

Happy Birthday Wilde in the Kitchen! Thanks for being there for me though all the changing times! Also, many many thanks to all of my internet friends out there! Without you on the other end of the internet, it would just be my mom reading these posts! Thanks for coming along for the ride.

One Year Ago: Milky Way Cake
Two Years Ago: Buffalo Sponge Candy Cake
Three Years Ago: Pomegranate Moon Pies
Four Years Ago!!!: Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate or Peanut Butter Frosting

Neapolitan Cake

Adapted from SprinkleBakes

The bake times for these cakes were way off. The cookbook suggested that all three cakes would take about the same amount of time in the oven. This wasn't the case however and it's mostly because you have to add extra water to the flavored layers. It takes much longer to bake out all this excess water. I've listed both the suggested and actual bake times in this recipe. Keep in mind that your oven could be a bit different and you should check the doneness with a toothpick. Poke it in the center, when you pull it out there should be only crumbs clinging to the toothpick.  Happy baking!

Cake batter
3 sticks (24 tablespoons) unsalted butter
3 cups sugar
6 cups cake flour, sifted
2 tablespoons baking powder
12 egg whites, room temperature
2 cups milk (I used skim milk with a dash of heavy cream)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-ounce package strawberry Jell-O
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup hot water

Icing
1 pound cream cheese, removed from the fridge 20 minutes ago
1/2 pound (16 tablespoons) butter, softened
1 pound (about 4 cups) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Grease three 9-inch round pans with butter. Line pans with parchment paper (I used wax paper because it was what I had!), butter the paper.

In a large bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff peaks form. You can also do this with a hand mixer or in your stand mixer. You'll have to transfer the whipped egg whites to another bowl if you use your stand mixer.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy.  Sifter together flour and baking powder. Add vanilla to milk.  Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the creamed butter. Mix on low until incorporated. Add 1/2 the milk, mix until blended. Add flour, milk and then flour, mixing until smooth after each addition.  Add egg whites all at once. Gently fold in the egg whites, try not to beat too vigorously and deflate the egg whites.

Divide the batter into three equal batches (I used a food scale to ensure I had three equal amounts). Add 1/4 cup hot water to the strawberry Jell-O. Stir until gelatin is mostly dissolved. Add this to one of the batches of batter and stir until there are no streaks remaining. Pour into one of the prepared pans.

Mix remaining 1/4 cup of hot water with cocoa powder, it will form a slurry. Add cocoa mixture to the second batch of batter. Pour into the second prepared pan. Pour remaining vanilla cake into the third pan. Bake cake layers as follows.

Vanilla - Suggested (30-35 minutes), Actual (33 minutes)
Strawberry - Suggested (30-35 minutes), Actual (45 minutes)
Chocolate - Suggested (25-30 minutes), Actual (40 minutes)

Remove cake layers from the oven and let cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Remove from the pans and peel off paper from the bottom. Let cool cakes completely before cutting. Level the tops of the cakes and stack while you prepare the frosting.

Beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add vanilla extract and beat until incorporated. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, until the entire pound of sugar is added. If it's too thick - add 1 teaspoon of milk. If it's too thin, add more powdered sugar, one tablespoon at a time.

Assemble the cake - Chocolate layer on the bottom, spread about 3/4 cup frosting on top of the chocolate layer. Add vanilla layer and top with 3/4 cup frosting. Top with strawberry layer and top with 1 cup frosting. Spread cake with a thin crumb coat (Here's a nice video to learn how to crumb coat!). Pop it in the fridge for about 1 hour to harden.  Remove from the fridge and frost with the rest of the frosting. You can get fancy, but I just went with a smooth outside and a swirly top.

Feed this cake to lots of people, there is a lot of butter in here!

CTB 2014 - Pillsbury Best Cookies Cookbook

Last week a few people at work asked me what I was going to bake for Easter. I replied - "Nothing." I don't really cook for holidays and you all know that a blogger bakes holiday foods way before the actual holiday. I was making Thanksgiving sides by Halloween. Christmas candy in late November. Valentine's day treat for Presidents day. But seriously, I'm not really a holiday blogger.

I may get lucky and make something green around St. Patrick's Day, like a salad, or whip up something patriotic around the Fourth of July. A good bet though, if you are in need of a holiday treat, you may want to hit up another blog! Holidays seem to sneak up on me and it's all of a sudden the week after Easter and I'm buying Cadbury mini eggs on sale at CVS.

This year I think I have an excuse. Of the past four weeks, I've been out of town for three of them. Maybe I'll start celebrating foreign holidays? Heading to London, Berlin & Sydney next month - time to research what English, German and Australian people celebrate in May!

CTB 2014 - The Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook

I have a problem.  A cookie dough problem.

Chocolate Hearts

I wasn't planning on making anything for Valentine's Day, but I decided to try out a variation on my cutout cookie recipe this weekend.  Since we are only a few days away from February 14th, I thought why not use a heart shaped cookie cutter.

Cookies for Monday

Sometimes you need something really simple and delicious.  Comfort food.  When it comes to comfort food dessert, nothing is more classic than chocolate chip cookies.  The boyfriend and I like to whip up a batch for Saturday night and turn on a movie.  

I may or may not have eaten a few spoonfuls of the raw cookie dough before it made its way into the oven.  I'm not feeling guilty about it, this dough is delicious.  Rather than using straight all-purpose flour, I swapped out half for rice flour.  The rice flour gives these cookies a really soft texture.  They are crispy on the edges and soft in the middle, my kind of cookie.

I would totally recommend using this cookie dough as a base for using up any of your excess chocolate chips.  Toss in whatever you have in your pantry.  Milk chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch?  Toss them all in, this dough is the perfect base for anything you want to throw in there!

Half of these cookies will be making their way to work today.  One of my new coworkers has made it very clear that he love love loves chocolate chip cookies.  A new coworker always needs to make a good impression!

One Year Ago: Ginger-Curry Crackers & Whole Wheat Crackers
Two Years Ago: Boysenberry Buckle Muffins
Three Years Ago: Fruit Salsa

Wilde Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup rice flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, cold
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Whisk together flours, baking soda & salt in a medium bowl.  In a large bowl, cream together butter and shortening, scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl.  Add sugars and vanilla and cream until fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until combined.  Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl.  Pour in flour mixture and turn mixer on low.  Beat just until the flour is absorbed.  Add chocolate chips and mix by hand until chips are evenly distributed.  Cover bowl in plastic wrap and set in the fridge for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 ºF.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat sheets.  Scoop out 1 tablespoon cookie dough and roll into a ball.  Bake cookies for 11 minutes, or until they are browned around the edges.  Remove from the oven and let cool for 1 minute on the baking sheet.  Remove from the sheet and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.  (Or eat them hot, so good)

Christmas Fudge

We're in the home stretch of the holiday season and it's time to bombard you with a few more festive recipes!  I think we're just about two weeks away from not wanting to see anything peppermint, pumpkin or cranberry related for another year. Until that time comes I'm going to revel in those flavors! Get ready for a holiday countdown of flavor!

Up first is some pretty amazing and easy peppermint and chocolate Christmas fudge.  It's not the holiday season to me until I order my first peppermint hot chocolate from Starbucks.  This fudge is like a condensed, one inch square version of that drink.

I've made a few different varieties of fudge and I think I prefer this method to the classic boiled sugar method. No candy thermometer, no pot and no careful crystallization required. Just microwave, stir and pour. It's incredibly creamy and smooth. I made this batch of fudge for the boyfriends holiday office party and apparently it was gone in no time! I know I had a few pieces for myself.

One Year Ago: Eggnog Mallomars
Two Years Ago: Coconut Brownies

Three Years Ago: Dark Chocolate Hearts

Easy Christmas Fudge

A Wilde Original

1 (14-oz) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 cup vanilla chips
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/4 cup candy canes, crushed

Line an 8-inch pan with wax paper.

Combine 9 tablespoons (7 ounces) sweetened condensed milk with chocolate chips and cocoa powder.  Microwave on high for 1 minute.  Stir until the chocolate chips are melted and the mixture is smooth.  Pour into the prepared pan and smooth out.  Place in the fridge while you prepare the peppermint  layer.

Combine remaining sweetened condensed milk with vanilla chips.  Microwave for 1 minute, stir until mostly melted.  Add powdered sugar and peppermint extract and stir until smooth.  Pour over chocolate layer and smooth out.  Sprinkle with crushed candy canes and gently press in.  Place in the fridge for 2 hours to harden.

Cut slab of fudge into 25 squares.

Cooke Week - Peanut Butter Sandwiches

I can't have a cookie week without including peanut butter and chocolate. It is one of my most favorite flavor combinations ever. When my mom and I made cookies for Christmas, I would inevitably pick at least two or three PB&C recipes for us to make. Then I would promptly eat all of them. I can't make peanut butter blossoms because I will wind up downing the entire batch.

Cookie Week - Red Velvet Brownies

Cookie week continues! Hopefully the boyfriends coworkers don't get too sick of cookies. I've been sending him to work with lots and lots of them. Well, most of them, these red velvet brownies didn't leave the house. Call me a sucker for cream cheese frosting, because you couldn't pry these from my hands.

French Silk Pie

It's apparently Pie Week around the internets. It's this week that everyone in finalizing their thanksgiving menus and dessert is the most important part. At least it's most important in my opinion! It's how you finish off the night and what puts that final nail in the coffin of your food coma.

 Personally I love making pies at thanksgiving because it reminds me of my gram. When I was little, we always went over to grams house for thanksgiving dinner.  We would walk in the door and the entire house would smell amazing. She had a turkey baking in the kitchen and lamb baking in the basement. Yes, she had a second oven in the basement. I'm not sure exactly how safe the whole situation was, but everyone got something they wanted for dinner.

As gram got older, we moved thanksgiving dinner to my aunts house. The aunts and uncles took over the majority of cooking but my gram still made all the desserts. Cherry pie, pumpkin pie and apple pie all made appearances after dinner. Gram was the dessert queen and made a fierce pie crust. Years later I discovered grams secret. Canned pie filling! My dad was so disillusioned. Gram was a definite housewife of the 1950's, she didn't meet a canned good she didn't like. But seriously, her pies were still awesome.

I did not inherit her pie dough making gene. I'm a huge fan of the cookie crust. Or the those rolled up pie crusts from the grocery store. Don't judge, they're yummy. For our early thanksgiving dinner this week, I prepared a chocolate chocolate chocolate French silk pie. It's rich. It's creamy. It's got to get out of my house before I eat the entire thing!

If you're looking for a little something different at your dessert table this year, whip up this pie. It's sure easy.

Two Years Ago: Sausage & Gorgonzola Mac'n'Cheese
Three Years Ago: Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

French Silk Pie

A Wilde Original

Chocolate Crust

From Momofuku Milk

For the Crumb

2/3 all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 300 ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment or a silpat. Combine solid ingredients with a whisk. Add butter and stir until everything is moistened and you form small crumbs.

Spread mixture on baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, stir around. Bake for another 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool completely before making cookie crust.

For the crust

3/4 crumb recipe (260 g, 1 3/4 cup)
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Pulse chocolate crumbs in the food processor until finely ground, sandy. Transfer to a bowl and add remaining ingredients. Knead with your hands until everything can be put together into a ball.

Press dough into a pie pan, using your fingers and palms to flatten the pie crust and push up onto the sides of the pan.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to harden.

French Silk Pie

Adapted from The Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook

1 cup whipping cream
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 beaten egg yolks
3 tablespoons whipping cream

Combine whipping cream, chocolate chips, butter and sugar in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat until chocolate is melted. In a small bowl, beat egg yolks lightly. Slowly pour half of the chocolate mixture into the egg yolks, beating the entire time.  Pour egg mixture back into the saucepan and stir. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture begins to bubble and thickens slightly.

Add remaining 3 tablespoons whipping cream and stir to combine. Place saucepan in a bowl of ice water. Let cool for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so. Transfer chocolate mixture to a large bowl and whip on high speed for for 4-5 minutes, or until lightened in color and slightly fluffy.  Pour into prepared chocolate crust and place in the fridge to chill.

Stabilized Whipped Cream

from several sources

1/2 teaspoon powdered gelatin
1 tablespoon water
1 cup cold whipping cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Pour water over gelatin and allow to bloom for 2 minutes.  Microwave, 5 seconds at a time, until gelatin is liquefied.

Beat whipping cream on high speed until frothy. Add granulated sugar and continue beating on high for another minute. Add gelatin and whip on high until you achieve stiff peaks.  Transfer to a piping bag with a large star tip, pipe big loopy designs on your pie.

Cocomel Candy Bars

I have been going through a ton of sugar these past few weeks.  I've decided now is a good time of year to get back into candy making since it is the biggest candy eating season of the year! I need to head to the grocery store and stock up on sugar when it goes on sale.

Today we have a combination of two of my favorite candies - caramel and coconut!  These were not a good candy for my braces.  Shh, don't tell my orthodontist!  The coconut is crunchy and fluffy, while the caramel is smooth and sweet.  Just look at those little vanilla seeds dotting the caramel!  So adorable.

PS - these were delicious and totally worth the extra brushing.

One Year Ago: Visiting Montreal
Two Years Ago: Honey Roasted Peanut Butter Cookies
Three Years Ago: New England Cranberry Chutney

Cocomels

Adapted from Chocolate & Confections

For the Coconut layer

1 ounce (2 tablespoons) water
3 ounces (1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) sugar
6 ounces (1/2 cup) corn syrup
8 ounces (2 cups) sweetened shredded coconut
1 ounce (1/4 cup) marshmallow creme

For the Caramel layer

1 ounce (2 tablespoons) water
4 ounces (1/2 cup) sugar
1/4 vanilla bean, split and scraped
3.5 ounces (1/3 cup) sweetened condensed milk
3 ounces (1/4 cup) corn syrup
1/5 ounces (3 tablespoons) butter, room temperature

1 pound chocolate

Coat an 8x8-inch pan with cooking spray and line with plastic wrap.

In a small 2-quart saucepan, combine water, sugar and corn syrup and clip on a candy thermometer.  Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the temperature reaches 246 ºF.  Remove from the heat and add coconut, stir until completely coated.  Add marshmallow creme and stir with a rubber spatula.  Pour candy mixture into the prepared pan and smooth out with an offset spatula.

Set a bowl of icey water next to the stove along with some spoons. In a 2-quart pot, combine water, sugar, vanilla bean, sweetened condensed milk, corn syrup and butter.  Stir while cooking over medium heat.  Clip on a candy thermometer and cook until temperature reaches 240 ºF.  Dip a spoon in the caramel mixture and plunge into the icey water for 5 seconds.  Test the caramel for hardness.  If it's still very liquidy, continue to cook until temperature reaches 245 ºF. Pour caramel over the coconut layer.  Let set for at least 2 hours.

Temper chocolate in a double boiler.  Once slab of candy is set, remove from the pan by pulling up on the plastic wrap.  Set on the counter, caramel side up.  Pour some of the tempered chocolate on top of the caramel and smooth out with an offset spatula.  Allow chocolate to set.

Flip candy slab over and peel off plastic wrap. Trim the edges so the slab is square.  Cut slab into 12 bars.  Place candy bars on a wire rack.  Pour tempered chocolate over the bars.  Garnish with extra shredded coconut if desired.  Once coated, move to a piece of parchment paper to set.

Nutella Sandwich Cookies

First, don't forget to enter to win my Fall picnic giveaway!  I'm raffling off a handmade picnic blanket made by my very talented mom!

I can't believe how long I've been holding onto this recipe.  Especially since it has basically six ingredients and they are things that I always have in my pantry.  ALWAYS.

Peanut butter and Chocolate Fudge

I'm going to need to up my workout routine.

Faux Fudge Rounds

This past weekend I was discussing the good old days of back to school with boyfriend and his parents (aka - the in laws).  We all came to the conclusion that I'm a big huge nerd and nobody likes me.  Why?  Because I loved, LOVED, going back to school in September.

Cookie Dough Layer Cake

Happy Birthday Boyfriend!

Blueberry Chocolate Truffles

I haven't made you candy in such a long time!  In order to make up for it, I made you the most decadent chocolate treat around - the truffle.

Made from chocolate, heavy cream and butter, these truffles are not diet friendly.  In reality though, you won't want to eat more than one.  They satisfy a chocolate craving in just two bites.

These aren't just chocolate truffles though, they are infused with blueberry flavor!  You don't have to wait for blueberries to be in season to make these, you just have to find a box of blueberry tea at the store.

After making these truffles I realized that I've been missing the fun of candy making.  Get set to see some more candies this fall!  The holidays are going to be sweet around here.

Nutella Thumbprints

I'm starving!  Seriously.  I'm only a few hours from my wisdom tooth extraction and I'm not allowed to have anything to eat within six hours of the surgery.  Since my appointment is at 1:00, that means I either had to wake up at 5:00am and have breakfast, or I hold out until after I regain sanity tonight.  I opted to sleep in until 7:00, so I'm going to be no fun to be around today.

These cookies are sitting on the counter in my kitchen, taunting me with their delicious combination of crumbly cookie and crunchy nut coating.  Why didn't I eat more of these yesterday?

See you all on Thursday, when I will be four teeth shorter!

Happy Birthday WITK!

That's right, it's my birthday!

Actually, to be precise, it's Wilde in the Kitchen's birthday!  Or it was last week.  I'm so terrible with dates.

It's been three whole years since I first put my fingers to the keyboard and typed up my very first post.  It's amazing how many things have changed since June 2010.

In three years I have...

- had four different home addresses
- completed two natural product syntheses
- started and ended my first job in industry
- finally moved in with my long term love
- visited 14 different countries

My cooking and baking skills have improved dramatically since I first decided to join the ranks of the food blogger.  Some things I thought I would never make, but have, include...

- sponge candy
- coconut milk
- Greek yogurt, from scratch
- potato gnocchi
- my own ketchup & mustard

There were so many side effects of starting WITK that I never expected.  Of course I planned on trying my recipes and stretching my culinary skills.  I had hoped my photography skills would improve (something I'm still working on!).  I never thought I would come to know so many great people, make new friends and become part of a larger community.

Thanks so much to everyone out there in the world that has made WITK as fun as it is, for supporting me in my crazy kitchen endeavors and giving me a reason to keep on going.

Have a slice of cake to celebrate WITK turning 3.  I wonder what the next few years will bring?

Wilde day in Brooklyn

This weekend I spent my Saturday in Brooklyn with a whole bunch of NYC area food bloggers!  It was the NYC bake sale for No Kid Hungry and the delicious treats were out in full effect.  For some reason I only took one photo, I must have been distracted by all the sweets.  

The crowds were great, thanks to the beautiful sunshine, and once people learned it was all for charity, they really opened up their pocketbooks.  With a plethora of sweet options from over twenty local bloggers and bakeries, along with some fun raffles and tote bags to promote big purchases!  I picked up a few treats for myself too!

Image via Tasty Pursuits
Meet @sweetsillianah, @Takethetoyz, me, @TheRescueBaker, and @ChipChipHooray

Last week I told you about the birthday cake mallomars that I brought to the bake sale.  I also made some raspberry macarons and these Gluten-Free Cookies & Cream Mallomars!  Lillian had suggested I give a gluten-free mallomar a try and I had to agree that was a great idea!

I took one of my classic dark chocolate cut out cookies and swapped out the traditional all-purpose wheat flour with Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour and some xantham gum.  Along with these cookies being gluten-free, they were made with the support of Divine Chocolate!

Divine Chocolates was one of the sponsors of the NYC bake sale and donated several baking kits to the bloggers to help make some seriously chocolatey treats.  These mallomars wound up super chocolatey because they contained the Divine 70% dark chocolate bars and dark cocoa powder.  The rich chocolate offset the sweet vanilla marshmallow perfectly.

In addition to being able to bake with the Divine Chocolate, the actual farmers (and owners) of Divine were in town this weekend.  I got to meet with and share my mallomars with two of the Ghana farmers.  I'm fairly certain they thought they were a bit too sweet, which means they were perfect for the American palate!  Give them a try!

Disclaimer - I received a package of Divine chocolate for use in this post.  All opinions are my own.

Cute, Colorful and French

I know, I know.  Macarons are so 2012.

I should move on to whatever this years big dessert treat is!  (actually, I have no idea what is supposed to be "IN" in 2013.  The internet says it's fancy popcorn, figs and push-pops.)  But you know what?  I love macs.  I think that they are cute and colorful and French, so I will go on making macarons until I run out of flavors to make!  Especially now that I've found my method for macs that works consistently without all the fuss.

First, I got these handy egg tools from OXO (through their blogger outreach program).  OXO suggested I make myself a nice omelet, but quite frankly, I don't really go for omelets.  I'm much more of a cinnamon bun for breakfast kind of girl.  If I'm going to eat eggs, they are going to be scrambled and it is going to be after six pm.  Worry not OXO, these egg tools fit perfectly for my other egg related plan - macarons!

I received an egg separator - perfect for separating those whites from yolks.  I also got a person powered hand mixer - just what my tired arms need for whisking sugar into egg whites over a simmering pot of water.  Finally I got a fancy spatula.  The tag said it was an omelet turner.  I put mine to use in the oh so important macaronage step of macaron making.  These tools should be remarketed to the macaron maker.  They worked perfectly!

The other reason I decided to make macs?  I found these freeze-dried raspberries at a gourmet grocery store in South Orange, NJ.  I knew they would make an amazing ingredient to a macaron, since the best way to flavor the cookie itself is with dry ingredients.  If you find freeze-dried mangos, let me know.  I totally want a mango-flavored mac.  How the French would sneer at a mango macaron!

With the tools and the cookies taken care of, there was just one thing left to deal with.  The filling.  Searching my cabinets I happened upon a block of Callebaut white chocolate.  Raspberry macarons filled with white chocolate buttercream?  That sounds just delicious enough to work.  (Would I rather have filled them with white chocolate ganache?  Yes, but I was out of heavy cream and I wanted to eat the cookies ASAP.)

So now we have raspberry and white chocolate macarons, OXO has a new marketing campaign for their egg tools and my pantry is cleared of two of the more eccentric items.  All in all, a good day!

See, so cute.  So colorful.  Bonjour macarons.

A Wilde Half Marathon

This weekend, all of my weeks of training culminated in my first half marathon!  It was six weeks ago that I decided to sign up for and seriously train for 13.1 miles through Central Park.  I have always wanted to complete a half marathon.  I realized that I would never train for it, unless I made the commitment and signed up for a race.  It was paying that entry fee that made me stick to the training schedule. 

Boyfriend and I woke up at 6:00 am, Sunday morning, and got dressed in our finest running gear.  Boyfriend was not officially signed up for the race, as it was a ladies only half marathon, but he planned to run along with me as long as he could.  I loaded up my running belt with Clif bloks and lip balm and tossed extra clothes and water in my tagged baggage.  We headed off into the sunrise toward New York City.

You want to head into the city?  There really isn't any traffic at 6:30 on a Sunday morning.  You might be a bit early for brunch though.  We parked our car around 72nd st (right near the finish line of the race) and walked into the park with hundreds of other ladies, already wearing their running bibs.  By 8:00am BF was waiting at mile 1 for me and I was waiting at the starting line, nervous energy coursing through my body.

When my seed corral was finally at the start line, all 1,000 women were packed tightly together.  After I crossed the starting line I was ready to go.  The first mile I spent on the outer edge of the course, passing everyone in my corral.  Apparently I underestimated my running pace at 9:40/mile, after my six weeks of training I was running closer to 8:20/mile.  I spent the majority of the race passing everyone in front of me, it felt good.

BF met up with me at mile 1 and kept up until his shoes came untied around mile 4.  I was on my own, with 10,000 women, running the Central Park loop.  The loop is 6 miles around, which meant I would be making two full loops and one mile of a third.  I knew that once I passed the 6-mile marker, I would be much happier the next time around.

And I certainly was.  I was so thrilled that I reached up and tapped the mile marker, only 1.1 miles left to run.  Gradually I increased my pace until I was at a full out sprint to cross the finish line at 1 hour 55 minutes, five minutes shy of my two hour goal.  Do I think I could do better?  Yes.  Do I plan to run more half marathons?  You bet.

Finally, my heart goes out to those that have been affected by the tragic events at the Boston marathon yesterday.  It's unbelievable what occurred and so surreal that something like this could happen.  I have several friends that were running in the marathon this year and thankfully have heard from all of them.  Here's hoping for a swift recovery for those injured yesterday as well as the city of Boston.