I like to think myself as a perfectionist

perfecting popovers & macarons

How was every one's weekend?  Mine was very busy.  Let me tell you about my weekend.  I met up with my girlfriends on Friday night for a birthday dinner.  We went to Via Carducci La Sorella in Bucktown.  We had a great time.  It's a cute little place.  Nice and quiet.  Perfect for a bunch of loud & crass ladies.  We ordered grilled calamari, sausage & peppers and bruscetta for appetizers.  I had the chicken vesuvio for dinner and ate only half and took the rest home.  Everything was delicious.  Every time I get together with these ladies, time flies and next thing you know the place has emptied out.  You know you are with a good group of friends when you don't even know how 4 hours have passed while you are catching up on each other's lives. I actually just met some of these ladies recently, not even 6 months ago, but I feel like we've become such good friends in a short period of time.



I've known the beautiful lady sitting next to me since high school. 
She is expecting and is due next month.
The birthday girl is sitting across from me and next to her is my diet consultant and motivator! 



On Saturday I helped my parents move out of their current apartment and into their new apartment.  My brother came in from Purdue to help too.  I got up at the crack of dawn and helped them load and unload the truck.  I was in the kitchen with my mom when I noticed a box.  I have been wanting one of these for quite sometime now.  I asked my mom if she used it and she said I could take it.  My dad was an ear shot away and interjected saying, " what am I suppose to make noodles with if you take my noodle machine?"  To which my mother answered, "how often do we make noodles?"  I just scored myself a pasta roller! Yahoo!  My mother also gave me the juicer too! See what happens when you are a good daughter? They reward you with kitchen appliances.  I can't wait to get my hands on these and make some proper home made noodles and pasta!



my new juicer

 

my new pasta roller/maker

 
After the move, my brother came over to my house and spent some time with me and Levi.  We went out for Thai food. I've been wanting Thai food for such a long time.  I enjoyed every second of savoring my Pad Kee Mao. When we got home I put Levi to bed  and my brother and I did shots of Whiskey and just talked about life while watching Tin Tin.  We had a great time.

Sunday morning I got up and wanted to bake.  I had made macarons for the girls on Friday night but I wasnt' quite happy with the results.  They tasted great but they didn't look pretty.  The first issue was that the macarons were too big and the second problem was that the macarons had cracked.  I like to think myself as a perfectionist and I had to perfect it.  I was obsessing over perfecting the macarons that I made 3 batches in total this weekend.  The last batch turned out better than the first but not all of them in the last batch turned out perfect.  I think I may have found the solution to my dilemma.  I was cooking the macarons at the wrong temperature and I wasn't whipping the egg whites long enough.  According to the brave tart, you are suppose to cook them at 300 degrees and whip the egg whites for ten minutes.  Check out the blog mentioned above.  If you are in the market for perfecting Macaron making, this is the place to go.

I also made popovers.  I am planning on making Chocolate & Peanut Butter Smore popovers for Administrative Assistant day on Wednesday for the office.  I wanted to get a practice popover in this weekend.  I had the most amazing popovers at David Burke's in Chicago and I've been on a mission to make a successful batch of popovers since. I have failed yet again.  I followed Alton Brown's recipe but found that there are a few thing I need to tweak.  I may try to bake them for 30 minutes instead of the recommended 40 minutes.  If you look at my popovers they are not golden brown but almost burnt. Hmmmf!  Also, I was suppose to use 1.5 teaspoons of salt but I misread the recipe and put in 1.5 tablespoons of salt.  The popovers turned out too salty and over done.  They are currently sitting in our trash.

popovers going into the oven



my overdone and over salted popovers

See the cracking on top? I was not happy.



I made this batch using a shot glass as a template. 
The batch on the left side of the oven cracked and the batch on the right side of the oven didn't. 
I'm thinking that my oven is hotter on the left side then the right.

The last batch of macarons I made with the perfect "feet" and no cracking!