Macarons and macaroons

Mmmm...I love coconut macaroons.  And French macarons.

My first attempt at making macarons!  Dulce de leche, straight from Argentina, sealed the deal, yum yum!

But, I had always heard that French macarons were finicky and difficult to make.  Judging by this looooong blog post, it is.  Enter Ann Reardon and her helpful video.  I'm a visual person, so it was great to see all the photos and video of her maracarons, both good and bad.

This is the recipe we used.  A lot of people recommend using the weight measurements, but we used the volume ones (cups), and they turned out fine.  The ground almonds we used were quite coarse, which is why we ended up with the grains in our macarons.  I liked the added texture, and then sandwiching the dulce de leche made them delectable!

We also made coconut (American) macaroons.  I had no idea how easy they are to make!!  We used this recipe, because we wanted a gluten-free recipe, and it doesn't have flour, which is an ingredient in a lot of other ones.

We did a lot of tasting during the baking...and now I have a sugar headache.

What did Kiyomi do in the meanwhile?  She tried out her new (used) jumparoo!

Delicious and nutritious!

Confession:  I did not even attempt to make any New Years' resolutions this year.

Is it learned helplessness?  I don't think I've ever managed to keep a resolution the whole year.

I digress.  In lieu of a New Years' resolution, I seem to have decided to make a January 2nd resolution.  I feel like there's less pressure in making this resolution, than in committing to a New Years' one.  As if one day makes a difference?

This year, I want to cook more, and be a more organized mom/wife/person.  Maybe I'll even meal plan.

Ha, wait, let's not get crazy.  I'll start with cooking slightly more than last year, and we'll see where that goes.

So, I had a cauliflower head sitting in my fridge and decided to make this oh-my-goodness-looks-so-good soup from the Pioneer Woman.  I didn't follow her recipe exactly, mainly because my fridge if more of a place where vegetables go to die, as opposed to a plethora of culinary ingredients.

Can I say...IT WAS DELICIOUS!  And my husband, the vegetable hater, agreed that it was deeelish!  I think the secret is in making the separate white sauce and adding it into the soup.  I used 2% milk and didn't add any cream or sour cream, and it was still velvety smooth and thick.  I didn't have celery, so I settled for the carrot-onion combo.  I probably used proportionally more butter than she did.  In my defense, it is winter, and we need to up our body insulation, right?  Oh, and just to be clear, there were no soup tureens involved in my straight-from-the-pot version.

But, we got our veggies, which is a challenge in this meat-loving household.

And then...it gets better!  Tonight, I cooked again!  Two nights in a row!  Tonight was a little fancier, as I had some sushi-grade tuna sitting in my freezer.  We had tuna tataki (seared, raw tuna), sushi rice, and an asian veggie stir-fry.

Before you think I'm all Chef Morimoto, let me tell you that I called my dad twice for his help and used a recipe off of the back of the frozen veggie bag.  But, in the end, it was a success, and I'm hoping this will continue.  Let's see how long January 2nd resolutions last!