So Jake and I have started alternating planning our romantic holidays (Valentine's Day and our anniversary) each year. We got tired of planning them together because there are never any surprises and we always end up doing the things we the things we both like rather than the things each of us like individually. It was getting a little boring. So this year, I took on planning our Valentine's Day and Jake is planning our anniversary. (We decided to celebrate our anniversary at the end of the summer this year since it's so close to my birthday - gotta spread out the celebrating.)
I sneakily asked Jake where he would go if we could go anywhere in the world. His answer was Hawaii, which makes sense considering we were attempting to save money by only rarely running our heater. Our Michigan winter, if I haven't made this clear already, was brutal.
So I planned a "Hawaiian picnic on the beach" for Valentine's Day. I laid a blanket on the "sand" (our carpet) with the "waves" (a blue blanket) nipping at our toes as we overlooked the "Hawaiian sunset" (a pieced together poster of a sunset in Kauai.
I tried to create a little Hawaiian atmosphere. I turned on the heater, set up pictures of Kauai all around the living room, put out a vase of tropical-looking flowers, and played a Hawaiian radio station on Pandora. For our lunch I made marinated shrimp with lime rice and a fruit salad. Jake made date milkshakes to drink. And I made ginger and lime French macarons for dessert (see more about these below).
I think the afternoon was a success! We ate by candlelight and exchanged our traditional home made valentines. I can't wait to find out what Jake is planning for our anniversary!
The Macarons
I recently took up an interest in French macarons. I first had one at Jake's advisor's house on our visit weekend. It was very delicious, and I wanted to make some for myself. French macarons are notoriously difficult to make well, so I knew that it would take a lot of practice to get it right. I think I can handle eating lots of progressively more delicious cookies on the quest for perfection.
My first attempt was in the fall, and although the cookies didn't turn out amazing, I learned a lot, and they were still very tasty.
The cookies didn't have the right texture. They weren't smooth on top, and they didn't develop a foot. However, as I said, they were still delicious to eat. I have witnesses. These were cinnamon cookies with vanilla buttercream.
To fit the Hawaiian theme for Valentine's day, I made both lime cookies and ginger cookies as well as lime curd and ginger buttercream for the fillings. Allie and Steve gave me a macaron cook book for Christmas, so I used those recipes for this batch. This time I also pulsed the almond flour in a food processor before mixing it in to help the cookies be a little more smooth.
Most of the cookies looked like these ones below. They are smoother and rounder, and there is a little foot down there. Definitely an improvement! The ginger cookies were better than the lime. For some reason, the lime cookies tasted like green Fruit Loops even though I flavored them with fresh limes. It's funny because I flavored the ginger cookies with powdered ginger. My buttercream took a step backward in texture, and the lime curd didn't set up enough, but both tasted good.
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| Ginger cookies in front and lime in back |
So a small portion of cookies looked like the ones below. They are very smooth, but also much more flat. The cookies filled with lime curd were kind of a mess because the curd was too runny. I'm pretty sure the top cookies slid right off within seconds after this picture was taken.
We'll see when I get brave enough to try again. Jake and I have been on a baking hiatus during the heat wave, but now that it's cooling down I might be able to run the risk of turning on the oven long enough to bake some cookies. I am excited to make some more progress on my baking adventure!
