French Macarons

{who doesn't fancy a little challenge}

"Oh no" you'll say "another baking post, what is wrong with that woman". I am looking for sewing inspiration, I promise, but at the moment I find my therapy in trying out various yummy, undeniably fatty but never the less relaxing to make little sweet treats. 

French macarons have been on my To Bake list for ages. I have seen countless you tube videos and even had a dream of making them, so I knew I had to try. So when I came across a fabulous food blog called Love and Olive Oil  - check it out it has some amazing recipes and food photos, I decided to join the monthly challenge which was...you guessed it...macarons.

Two macarons attempts later I finally ended up with the most delicious Nutela filled macarons. As a complete baking geek I sat in front of the oven looking as the little meringue circles created little domes, and kept peeking through the glass door as I couldn't see any feet. No feet, no macarons. Halleluiah, 20 min later and they were ready...the sweetest, but no too sweet and chewiest, but not to chewy and absolutely delicious macarons. They were maybe a bit too big but never the less I was ecstatic. Pastry chefs all over the world go to baking classes to learn to make those famous macarons and there was me, in my tiny kitchen in Frankfurt enjoying self made macrons. OK, I did eat one or five two but they undeniably tasted better the next day.

 

So the verdict :

-  macarons are not hard to make. Notice, I didn't say they were easy, I just don't think they are hard to make.

- know your stuff - read a few tutorials, watch a few videos and although I personally didn't age my egg whites I do believe that there are certain little tricks to help you succeed.

- learn to make a good filling - the flavor of macarons comes from the filling. There are some great ideas on the internet and I quite liked one which used the egg yolks to make vanilla cream.

- don't be scared, you only need three ingredients so it can't be that tricky, right. And although they are famously known as macarons their other name is cookies. See it doesn't sound so scary any more, anyone can make cookies. So face your fears and if you don't succeed the first time than try again.

If you think you would like to try making your own French macarons than check out these great blog posts which will help you in your "perfect macaron quest". They certainly make for a good reading and provided me with the knowledge I needed to make those delicious little treats.

Love and Olive Oil has some great links at the bottom of the post - link here.

I used a simple recipe from Bake at 350 - link here. There you'll also find links to some great posts by the Brave Tart well worth the read if you want to know all about macarons.

Hope you are having a great week and enjoying the late arrival of Spring. Enjoy the sunshine.

Love,

Irina

P.S. I almost forgot...here is my first attempt. They were pink, yay... but too fragile.

Oven Baked Sea Salt Courgette Crisps

{who would have thought}

After making the chocolate chip cookies three times I really needed something healthier and definitely not sweet, so when I saw these courgettes crisps on Pinterest I had to try them. They are really easy to make and here is my variation - it uses sea salt and raps oil.
The secret is to choose a nice, fresh, more on the larger side courgette.

So here is what you'll need:
Courgette
Sea salt
Raps Oil

Cut the courgette into a 1mm thin slices. Place the slices on kitchen paper towel. This will remove some of the moisture from the courgette. Line a tray with baking paper and place your slices. You don't need to leave space between them as they'll shrink a bit anyway. Sprinkle over a pinch of sea salt. You can add more salt after they crisps are ready. Use a pastry brush and brush some raps oil over the courgettes. Bake at 160C for about 30-40 min.

I couldn't resist posting a couple of photos on my baby boy who is 10 months old today...where did the time go...look at these sweet cheeks...

And I also must share this photo of Easter in my girl's dolls house. Did you think the dolls don't celebrate Easter, of course they do! And can you spot the little wooden sewing machine in the background...yes the dolls have a sewing machine too!

Hope you are having a lovely week!

Love,

Irina

Happy Easter!

{ it is almost Easter}

I love Easter! It is my second favorite holiday of the whole year and this year as usual I was looking forward to Easter - to decorate the house again, to dye Easter eggs with my girl, to tell her the story of Jesus and to actually wave goodbye to that long horrible winter. Well, the horrible winter doesn't seem to have any intention of going away, it was in fact snowing today here in Frankfurt. I mean, come on, its almost Easter...

And than I realized that I haven't blogged for the whole of March. Noooo! I have been doing so many things...mostly baking and crafting. I just didn't seem to have the camera handy or the time to put any photos on my blog.

So this year as every year, on the Thursday before Good Friday we colored some eggs. We didn't do any of my "famous" cotton pads eggs but we tried leaf printing and the old method with the lace tights. The colors turned out really rich and vibrant (despite the last yellow egg which didn't color very well, but for some reason it has found its way right on top of the basket . Better attention to detail next time).

And here is our Easter tree... It actually stays on the ledge of the big window.

It's in the middle of the room just for the photo.

And as Kindergarten was closed today and I had too keep little fingers away from mischief Lovely Little Big Daughter and I baked some chocolate chip cookies. And boy, were they absolutely chewy and delicious.

Here is the recipe if you'd like to make some. The cookie dough takes 5 min to make and it was enough for 16 cookies. I guess you can double up the recipe if you have lots of visitors over the Easter break.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies ( from Cooks.com)

1/2 cup butter (about 100 gr)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

1cup flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup of chocolate chips

1/2 tsp.salt

Mix all ingredients well and use an ice-cream spoon to scoop out balls from the dough. Line a tray with baking paper and put about seven or eight little balls. Bake at 160C for about 8 min. ( Time could vary but it will be between 6 and 10 min).

If you are not sure how to get that lovely rounded edge on your cookies than check out this post by Design Mom on the ultimate chocolate chip cookie. As you can see mine have the yummy edge but I guess it's only begginers luck.

Wishing you all a lovely Easter!

Love,

Irina xx

Cotton pads colored Easter eggs

{ a little twist from last year}

Tomorrow is the first of March which means that Easter is a mere four weeks away. Wasn't it Christmas just yesterday? Well, we do love Easter in our home, it just some how feels a bit sooner this year.
So today I took out my Easter supplies and little Easter bits and bobs which I bought last year after the holiday was over and hope I'll come up with some creative ideas to share with you.

But first things first - Easter eggs. There is no Easter without Easter eggs and in our home Easter egg decorating is taken very seriously. I usually boil up to thirty eggs which after decorating are displayed in a basket and left to grace the dining table for up to a week. Yes, in that week there are lots of egg sandwiches, eggs and brioche, eggs in salads, eggs taken to kindergarten...you get the idea!

Last year a showed you how to color eggs using make up cotton pads. You will find the old post and tutorial here.

  

I love how the eggs turn out each time... so colorful and really really happy.

So this year I decided to use the same technique but only apply one color at the time. I chose blue and green and I think the result is quite stylish.

Lovely Little Big Daughter was still off sick from kindergarten, and feeling much better she declared that summer was much more fun than winter..."because you are not sick and you can go the beach and eat ice cream". I had to agree...

Happy Easter crafting!

Love,

Irina xx

What to do at home with sick kids

{bake cupcakes}

It is the season of the viruses and I can tell you we had our fair share this winter. So there was no surprise when I was woken up in the middle of the night by a tearful little girl with very high temperature. We managed the night somehow, and after a trip to the doctor I knew I had to occupy my little one or let her watch endless hours of TV. And so I said " Lets bake something" and she said " Yes, pizza!" ...and I said " Uh, I meant something else, like cupcakes"..."Oh" she said "cupcakes are better than pizza"....So cupcakes it was.

After a quick Google search we chose what seemed  an easy Vanila Buttermilk Cupcake recipe from Baking Bites. It took no time at all and there they were, twelve soft, moist, delicious looking cupcakes ready to be iced. 

Another Google search and this time a video on You Tube by a Nigella Lawson lookalike taught us how to use the piping bag and how to ice the cupcakes. A bit of purple food color ( remember I had to buy a selection of rainbow colors recently) and we were ready to rock...well, to ice the cupcakes to be more precise.

 

They were yummy!

Hope you are having a nice, virus free week!

Love,

Irina xx

Re-fashioned tights

{ from tights to leggings = t-eggings}

Happy Monday everyone! If you have a little girl than I am sure you know all about tights - you buy them in the correct size only to find out that two washes later and they don't fit properly any more. They seem to have shrunk or who knows what but they just do not offer comfort anymore and so your precious little darling is starting the day complaining that the tights that match that dress are not comfortable anymore.

In my opinion there are two things that can be done - go back to the shop and buy and new pair or simply re-fashion the smaller pair and make t-eggings. Of course it can't be done in that very second so alternative clothing arrangements needs to be made but you'll be in safe hands next time.

I guess you also know all about the importance of leggings - they protects the knees when falling, they keep legs and bottom warm (ish) after spending hours digging in the sand on the playground and ultimately they compliment an outfit, as my five year old says. So yes, we love leggings in our home! And now we love t-eggings!

This idea was ultimately inspired by the post from U Create and now I have a great way to use all those small tight and all those little pieces of ribbon.

So go and dig out those small tights and your ribbon scraps make some t-eggings. Its easy!

The photo tutorial below will give you an idea of how it is done.

Cut the tights as you like - you can make them longer or shorter.

Find a coordinating ribbon and attach it to the back part of the leg with a pin. Make sure that one part of your ribbon will be more or less aligned with the end of the tights where you'll saw the ziz zag stitch.

Set your machine to the normal zig zag stitch.

If you'd like to create a wavy effect on the ribbon than you'll need to pull gently the tights while sewing. By doing that the ribbon will become sort of frilly.

When you are finished, attached the two ribbons together with a zig zag stitch and cut of the excess ribbon. If you feel you have to, than use a lighter to carefully seal the ends.

For alternative versions you can add a second layer of ribbon or embellish the sides or the back with some bows.

Yes, I saw the pictures and I can't believe I am wearing matching nail polish.

Have a great Monday and a wonderful week!

Stay warm! 

Love,

Irina xx 

P.S. Please see my Linky Party Fun page for some of the parties I link up to.

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Floppy Bow Headband

{a simple craft project}

I’ve made a few headbands for my daughter as they are quite quick and easy to make and always much nicer or lets say different than those you can get in the shops. And if you ask my girl she’ll tell you than one can never have too many headbands.

 

So today I decided to make her a floppy bow headband and it just happened that I had a golden plastic headband that I had just purchased on the sale from Accessories and some golden fabric which I got in preparation for future princess dress sewing.

The project is very easy and it took less than 30 minutes, including waiting for my glue gun to warm up. So if you are a new to sewing or crafting this is an ideal way to start – make something quick and easy that you or your child can wear.

Below is a photo tutorial which is more or less self explanatory but here is a little summary:

You will need:

A headband

Matching Fabric

Glue Gun

Cut two pieces from your fabric. You can decide how big (or small) you want you bow to be. In this case big is good!

Turn your bow piece back to front and fold it in half and stitch each side leaving a 2cm gap in the middle. Use the chop stick (or something similar) to turn the bow to the front.

Sew your small piece together. It will be used to make the middle part of your bow.

Next set your sewing machine stitch length to 5 and sew a line through the bow piece so you can gather it.

Use your hot glue gun to attach the bow to the head band. Use the smaller piece to finish of your bow by also gluing it to the headband.

Very easy!

 

My little girl said that this was now here favourite headband…but she says that every time.

 Have a crafty weekend!

Love,

Irina xx