Food (always good)
Spent most of yesterday and today pottering about at home, looking out at the rain and cooking. The weather has been unusually bad for early June, with pretty solid rain since Sunday morning. I managed to get several minor house things sorted out, including finally planting out the rest of my summer stuff (strawberries and tomatoes now upstairs enjoying all the rain), and a lot of experimental cooking. The g-s was round for supper yesterday, so I cooked a very nice seasonal watercress and goat cheese tart with tabbouleh, followed by strawberries and ice cream; I also made a large batch of za'atar, and packed up half for him.
The experimental cooking was part of an attempt to surprise the g-d when she returns from Paris in July with home-made chouquettes and macarons. Obviously in Paris no-one in their right mind would make their own, as there are plenty of proper pastry-chefs to make them professionally. The chouquettes turned out pretty well, especially since I hadn't made choux pastry before and didn't have the right pearl sugar. They looked and tasted fine, but lost their crispness almost immediatly, even when placed into an airtight box the moment they had cooled. I uspect this is due to the high humidity and not having the oven at exactly the right temperature, so I should be able to sort it out. The macarons turned out well, if a bit lumpy looking; I didn't make any filling, as I know perfectly well how to make a buttercream, and would end up eating it all by myself. The plan is to make chocolate macarons with a chocolate or salt caramel buttercream, or coffee macarons with a halva buttercream.
This afternoon's work was cut a bit short my bashing my (non-artificial) knee into the corner of a chair while trying to answer the phone, and having to sit with a bag of frozen peas on it. It's swollen up in a very interesting way...
The experimental cooking was part of an attempt to surprise the g-d when she returns from Paris in July with home-made chouquettes and macarons. Obviously in Paris no-one in their right mind would make their own, as there are plenty of proper pastry-chefs to make them professionally. The chouquettes turned out pretty well, especially since I hadn't made choux pastry before and didn't have the right pearl sugar. They looked and tasted fine, but lost their crispness almost immediatly, even when placed into an airtight box the moment they had cooled. I uspect this is due to the high humidity and not having the oven at exactly the right temperature, so I should be able to sort it out. The macarons turned out well, if a bit lumpy looking; I didn't make any filling, as I know perfectly well how to make a buttercream, and would end up eating it all by myself. The plan is to make chocolate macarons with a chocolate or salt caramel buttercream, or coffee macarons with a halva buttercream.
This afternoon's work was cut a bit short my bashing my (non-artificial) knee into the corner of a chair while trying to answer the phone, and having to sit with a bag of frozen peas on it. It's swollen up in a very interesting way...