I missed some!!

Reese's peanut butter cups were once again attracting my attention, I even bought some!!! 

Sent a few samples down to a family gathering in New Zealand for a fun tasting but they got held up in the Christmas rush and didn't arrive in time.  Hopefully they will last well in the summer heat until the next gathering.

Those caramel clusters look pretty good.....It really is amazing how many different ways a simple combination of chocolate and peanut butter can be put together. I bet we could dream up some more though....what about a sprinkle of sea salt on the chocolate! oh....what about a chocolate macaron with peanut butter filling! using Reese's peanut butter of course.

This post is dedicated to Roger.... Happy Birthday!!

Replicas of the Past

Last Sunday was really chilly, windy too! was a good day for staying home - but we didn't.

Frank got an early call telling him that his photo was in the newspaper - something to do with being presented the key to a small local city....(small poor/crime ridden town north of Mobile) ...anyway his mission was to get a copy of that photograph....long story short we had to drive all over and buy three papers before we managed to get hold of the photo...you see each little area/town has a special section in the main Mobile newspaper, that section is related to happenings in their area, and is only available in their local version of paper.

So.... while on our little tiki tour we stopped at the Dog River to see a visiting attraction -the Nina and the Pinta.  replicas of the ships used be Christopher Columbus on his first voyage across the Atlantic.

Nylon rope and a plastic life ring, were among the few visible modern items.

I had forgotten my gloves, my fingers were freezing, holding still in the wind to take pictures was a challenge, but I enjoyed my little explore around the boats and it brought back fond memories of another cold, windy but wet day back in the late 1980's when I also toured the lovely lady Nina - she was docked in Virginia and I toured it with another lovely lady, my mum.

This link covers the replica story: http://www.thenina.com/

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

A few little Christmas colours and scenes from Daphne.....

and visit this link for a little Christmas music... http://blog.al.com/live/2010/12/flash_mob_daphne_walmart.html 
.....I missed it....darn it!

French Macarons

A beautiful book had recently arrived in the mail - the latest Australian Women's Weekly recipe book - "Macarons and Biscuits" - I was so excited and at the first opportunity I was ready to give a recipe a try.

(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Macaroons-Biscuits-22Australian-Weekly-22-Australian/dp/1863969373)

The day started early, my friend Leslie arrived and we got right to work: We started with the raspberry macarons.

the egg whites were beaten

and folded into sifted almond meal, icing sugar and colouring

piped onto the tray

 after a 30 minute rest they were placed in the oven.....a lot of watching ...a lot of finger crossing....

 so far so good...they were looking good - they have feet!

add a pretty pink, white chocolate raspberry ganache...

 and now presenting our first macaron success!

not a very pretty pink like the picture in the book....so next time we use more colour...

they did taste delicious!

not quite as fat and rounded as this (professional!!) one from "J'aime Les Macarons" in NZ

or as uniform as these perfect little disks from "Sucre" in New Orleans?

 Next we made coffee shells with a salted caramel filling.

not too bad!

We then got totally carried away and finished up some truffles that Leslie had made the night before.

                                        the fun was in the making, the tasting and the sharing!