Successes, Failures, and Beyond

I flew into Salt Lake City Friday night and was picked up by Shirley who drove me down to my sister's apartment in Provo. Once there I finally met her fiance in person.

Saturday morning we all got up to pull together the bridal shower that Shirley, Jenna, and myself were throwing for her. It was a successful event, save for one terrible tragedy. My macarons did not turn out.

It is rare that I experience a cooking or baking failure. Does that make me sound prideful? Sorry, but it's true, I make good stuff. I'm good at it and I like it. This was not one of those times. See, my sister has a roommate with a Kitchenaid, and I plugged that sucker in, so happy and excited that I was going to get to use it.

Unfortunately, The whisk attachment does not reach the bottom of the bowl. I didn't realize this until I had whipped my egg whites to a bubble bath consistency, had added my sugar and whipped until it looked like a glossy shaving cream, and dumped in the almond powdered sugar mixture.

Then I went to fold in the powdered sugar and there at the bottom of the bowl were unwhipped egg whites. It was too late. They weren't whipped and I couldn't get that batter to thicken to the right consistency to save it's life.

Thus, there were no macarons, and I was sad.

We still had a pretty good spread of cake balls, cookies, fruits and veggies with dip, bread with artichoke dip, and pink lemonade to drink. Plus we played a guess the jellybeans game, and after the guessing happened, we ate them.

 Alicia received all manner of gifts, including, but not limited to a muffin tin and muffin mix,

 Jenga,

 gift cards,

 and water guns.

 Alicia was very happy with the deliciousness spread.

 She had a lot of friends that came to eat stuff and give her gifts.

 Shirley found those really cute lanterns for us to decorate with.

 More friendly bonding over food and present times.

 Hubble and "The Red Head" (what Adrian calls Dayna) came to the party!

And Alicia was very excited to receive finger paints.

So the party in and of itself was a success. I also jetted to a friend's wedding immediately after the party, and I suppose you could say that it too was a success. They were married, I ate delicious food (I seriously ate so much food on Saturday it was ridiculous) and got to see old friends and catch up on life with them.

Since that time I've also met some of Adrian's family and have been trying to work off the 11 pounds I must have gained on Saturday alone. Yesterday I walked to the Creamery on 9th and it was sunny and warm outside. It was wonderful. I love warmth, and spring break, and studying for my test on Saturday and researching for my paper due next week, and watching my AZ law class videos.... 

Good times. Without macarons... I want to retry the macarons before I leave, because I hate that they failed.

La Vie en Rose

I baked a good baked good this week.

Wasn't that sentence very Pushing Daisies?

Anyway, in France, they have these little cookies called macarons. They are deliciousness encapsulated in happiness and joy.

I am going to Utah tomorrow and throwing my sister a bridal shower. We decided we wanted to do kind of a pink theme with the food, as her colors are pink and black (which is kind of weird since my sister doesn't like pink... but whatever.)

Searching the web for recipe ideas I came across a tutorial for how to make French macarons from Tartlette. Since the woman that writes that blog is French I decided she could be trusted. So, my reaction to seeing a macaron recipe, a legitimate French macaron recipe was this: " I MUST MAKE THESE!!!"

I didn't want my sister's shower to be the first time, because as she warns, macarons can be a finicky creature. I needed to make sure I could at least make something edible before her party.

On Saturday I separated my egg whites, and on Tuesday I set to work making my first ever batch of macarons.

I was following the recipe for Raspberry macarons I found on her blog here. However, I had to make a few changes. I could not find mascarpone at Wal-Mart, which did not surprise me. So I bought heavy whipping cream for the filling instead. Also, they were out of raspberry preserves, so I bought strawberry. Finally, there was no powdered food coloring, so I had to use the drops, but I think that all of that still worked out okay. Except next time I'd like to have mascarpone. The cream was good, but whipped cream tends to get a little runny when warm.

Watching the cookies bake in the oven and seeing them get the little feet that they have made me so excited. Like the recipe was working, and like I was being transported back to Paris.

 My final result with the filling in the middle. Another thing that would have been nice to have is a food processor, because my crappy little blender could not grind up the almonds as finely as I would  have liked.

They turned out fairly delicious for my first time, I was pretty pleased. Not quite like some of the truly delicious ones I had in France, but at least better than some of the mediocre ones. I took a few to class to share with a girl that also spent last semester over there, and she also declared them good.

So I'm making them on Saturday for the shower. Dearest macarons, je t 'adore.

Breakfast in America

Forgive me, this post is coming from a dark place.

Three days ago my internet decided to change it's signal status from good, to low, which is basically the equivalent of being placed in a torture chamber. Since I just use the school's internet in my apartment, there isn't much I can do to rectify the situation, except walk across the street to sit in the library.

This puts me in a bad mood, I should be able to file my taxes and watch the training videos for the state bar application and the MPRE lecture from the comfort of my own home! I don't want to go to the library.

I recognize that this is a first world problem, but it is exacerbated by the fact that I was sick this week (starting around the time the internet decided it hated me) and apparently people can't be bothered to call and tell me they no longer need a ride to Boston, they wait until I have gotten up early and wait for them to arrive at my apartment at 7:30 in the AM, only they aren't there. So I'm tired, and in a bad mood. It is what it is, I'm blogging politics. Now I probably won't sound as nice and coherent, but I've decided its time for me to say what I've got to say.

I don't like the federal government. At all. I don't like democrats, I don't like republicans. I don't like conservatives, and I really don't like liberals. I've never liked Barack Obama. I think he is a terrible president, and I don't want him back in office. I voted for Mitt Romney in the AZ republican primary, but I don't know how I feel about that.

Mitt is certainly better than Newt Gingrich. I'm pretty sure that guy is actually the monster that lives under every child's bed, and in their closet. Yes, he is both monsters. I really liked Jon Hunstman, but then he dropped out. I also like Ron Paul, but when it came to my vote, I knew that Mitt had the better chance of winning. I am completely opposed to voting for "the lesser of two evils." Since I don't mind Mitt I voted for him, but it was really more because if it comes to November and our choices are Newt and Obama, I'm moving to a remote desert island and not coming back.

I mean, come on America! What is your problem? Are you really so unaware of how good you have it that you are willing to let others take away the most important gift you've been given as a human being? I am talking about the power of choice.

Why is it that when there is a problem in this country the solution is, "make the federal government fix it for us." I don't know if you've noticed this, but they suck at fixing things. Michelle Obama just signed something with Mars Bars so they won't make king sized candy bars any more. Okay, so take away all the unhealthy options and you're left with a bunch of fat people who still don't know how to live a healthy life, but now they can't stress eat a giant candy bar so what do they do instead? Engage in aggressive driving? Something even worse? I don't know. Taking away someone's power to choose is never a good solution. I know someone who tried that once, he got thrown out of heaven. Just saying.

Let me try and liken this to something that will make this incoherent rage fest make sense. When we are very young our parents say, "don't touch the oven, it's hot, you'll burn your hand." Some children will choose to listen to their parents and not touch the oven. Some choose not to. They burn their hand. It hurts, they cry, and hopefully they learn to listen to their parent the next time they tell them not to do something that will hurt them.

Unfortunately there will always be children who choose not to listen and touch the oven. Should we take the oven away? Maybe this seems like a good solution because then nobody will ever get burned. It isn't a good solution. Believe me, I lived without an oven in France and it was not pleasant. Besides, if we never have ovens wherein someone can learn, "hot things burn us," then when will we learn it? Should we take away all hot things so nobody ever gets burned?

There are some things in life that really should never exist. Like pornography. If we rid the earth of all pornography then I really do believe that most of the world's problems would no longer exist. If you don't know, if you haven't seen what it does to people, let me tell you, pornography is an insipid, powerfully destructive force that can only ever be used for bad. Anything that falls into that category should be gotten rid of. We should all agree on that. I would like to make it my own life's mission to educate people on the harms of pornography so they will make the choice to never look at it, or make it.

Other things are not inherently bad. Like ovens. Ovens do a lot of good. They cook food. They bring us cookies. They fill our homes with good smells. Certain ovens are used solely for warmth so people don't freeze to death. These are all all positive things. However, ovens do come with drawbacks. If not used correctly, an oven will burn you, or your food, or both. That is a part of life, and the only way you can ever learn not to burn yourself or your food is to learn how to use the oven properly. Getting rid of the oven is not solving any problems. It only leaves a gaping oven-less hole in your life. Believe me. I know. Living without an oven is truly a terrible thing.

I used the oven as an example, having first hand experience of what it is like to live without one. In all seriousness though, I look at our federal government and I think, "they want to take away our ovens." They say it's for our own good, but it isn't. It's for their own good. If you have all the power, and take away everyone else's ability to choose and make educated decisions, then you keep all the power. It's terrifying.

I am opposed to losing my power to choose. Why aren't we investing in education? Why don't we want to teach people what their options are in life, and why don't we want to give them the tools to choose what to do? Unfortunately, I know very few people in government right now that want to fight for our right to choose good in our own lives. Read Brave New World people. That is the train we are headed on.

Now I sound like a crazy conspiracy theorist, but maybe I am becoming one. Never give up your right to educate yourself and make your own choices in life.

That is why I don't like our federal government. I miss George Washington. Maybe I'll vote for Henry Clay in November. I've always liked him.

Primer

I will soon be blogging politics. I'ts kind of a big deal because I don't like to do it.  You knew this day was coming. I didn't want to just jump right into it, because my last few posts haven't been very picture-y. So here are a few photos. Consider this your primer. I'm preparing you to either read things that may or may not make you get a knee jerk emotional reaction, or letting you know that my next few blog posts will be of little to no interest to you, so you can avoid them entirely.

Man, 29 pictures of France and London. Maybe I should have titled this post, "Places I Wish I Hadn't Left."

Maybe listen to this song while looking at them.

The Dollar Store

It never fails, whenever I go to Dollar Tree, I always end up seeing something I spent considerably more money on somewhere else, and I end up thinking, "I should have come here first!"

I thought that today because I went grocery shopping, hungry.

I know, I know, you're not supposed to do that, and I usually make sure I don't. I sort of forgot that I was hungry when I got in my car today, but somewhere on the 89 I remembered, but I couldn't turn around and head back to South Royalton. I was committed to get to West Lebanon, and so, onward I went, my stomach growling.

I think that whilst in Price Chopper I exhibited some iron will. I somehow managed to end up in the baking aisle, the aisle I typically just avoid altogether. I looked at brownie and cake mixes, and thought about buying a bag of chocolate chips, and toyed with the idea of buying a dark chocolate bar.

"NO!" I yelled to myself, in my head so nobody in the store would be frightened. "This is the hunger talking, I do not want these things." However, at this point I thought I might starve to death, so I decided I'd at least buy a box of granola bars to take off the edge. Granola! If I'm careful I could ensure I get a good healthy kind, that isn't loaded with unnecessary sugar!

I stood in the next aisle and found myself glaring at the granola bars. I ask you, when did granola bars get so dang expensive?? Even the off store brands were two boxes for six dollars. Boxes that contained a mere six granola bars. I was not only hungry, I was getting irritable. Who is the final arbiter of granola prices? Who was making these things anyway? Where were they getting their ingredients from? I thought I'd get some crackers instead, but, although cheaper, they had a higher fat content.

Well, not only am I on a very strict I'm-about-to-graduate-from-law-school-with-more-debt-than-I-ever-want-to-think-about budget, but my sister is getting married in April, which means wedding pictures. Thus, the twelve extra pounds I gained in France showed up at an inopportune moment, and I am on a time crunch to make sure I lose it all by then.

The light bulb over my head finally clicked on and I thought, "I'll go to Dollar Tree!! I can get a box of six granola bars for a DOLLAR!"

So, pleased with my stroke of genius I purchased my other items, loaded them in my car, and then walked into Dollar Tree. Where I found the aisle full of cough drops and cold medicine and I thought, "I am an idiot."

You see, about two and a half weeks ago I contracted the "super cold." Yes, a cold that is only just now starting to clear up. Two and a half weeks of coughing, sneezing, stuffy-nosed, head pounding, sinus pressuring exhaustion. Needless to say, I bought a lot of cough drops, orange juice, and cold medicine, and went to bed with a bottle of Mentholatum every night (until it melted and got on my sheets. That was somewhat unpleasant.) [P.S. I have discovered the wonder of Cold-EEZ, the minute I started taking it I started to feel better.]

There at the Dollar Tree was an aisle of cough drops and cold medicine. Not just cheap-o unknown cough drops and cold medicine, but Halls, Advil, Tylenol! How could I have forgotten about the Dollar Tree?? I would have spent much less money! Why do I have to be reminded of this over and over again?

I did find granola bars. Six bars a box, one dollar. I bought two boxes, take that Price Chopper and every stupid brand of granola bars on your shelves. Plus these are only 100 calories per box, something relatively few of the granola bars at Price Chopper managed to achieve, and with a lower fat and sugar content.

Remember, always always always check the Dollar Tree first. I said it three times, it's superlative. Do it.