My Excuse: Macarons

I've been meaning to blog regularly since my last update.  I wasn't able to though.  Because of that last update, my sister and I have been busy since the start of December.

Assorted 50 pc box.  Flavors: Lemon, Calamansi, Orange, Chocolate
and Coffee Cream Cheese with Kahlua

Beng and I are grateful for all those who ordered.  :)  We truly hope that you enjoyed our goodies. :)

Lemon Curd Macarons

Baking, either at our place or at my parents' place, is never easy.  Here at our place, because of our tiny kitchen, we don't have enough counter top space for the two of us to bake at the same time.  If we do our bakefest at my parents' place, none of my regular baking pans fit because my Mom has a small oven.

It was driving both of us crazy.  So last week, we bought a new oven.  YEY!!

It's bigger; it can fit four 13 inch pans and has an even heating element.  I was practically jumping up and down all the way to my parents' home.    I was so excited to try it out!  I gathered all my macaron ingredients and went to work.

Unfortunately, because it's a new oven, our first batch was a dismal failure.  I totally forgot how quirky new ovens were.  It took my sister and I several baking attempts to get to know the oven.  Six batches of macarons to be exact.  (Most were still edible, but looked really pitiful though.)

On our seventh batch, after a lot of tweaks with our recipe as well as adjustments with the oven temp and baking time, we finally got it right.  I was squealing with delight when I saw the ruffled feet peek out from beneath the intact shiny meringue domes.  Finally!  A good batch of macarons that we can properly fill with the lemon curd I prepared.

Love the bokeh on this photo. :) 

Inspired by my sister (who loves doing origami), I made little origami boxes for the samplers we gave a few friends.  (Origami paper from Saizen.)

I'm thrilled that we now have orders for Christmas. :D

Babies!

They are part of the reasons why I love our job :)

Peryodiko for Rock Rizal

A couple of months ago, May and Leslie invited Nards and myself to take behind-the-scene photos of Peryodiko while they recorded a track for the Rock Rizal album.  We had a scheduled shoot with a client the same day.  So while Nards and PJ were taking portraits of beautiful women, Beng and I trooped to Sound Creation Studio to take photos of rockstars.

The studio is littered with a lot of cute Japanese toys.  I have a photo of Astroboy perched near the monitor.  But I left it on a different HD.  I might post it later.

I find this beautiful. :)   I love all the scribbled notes and chords on the margins.

My girls. :)

It was great to see Peryodiko, especially Vin and Kakoy whom I haven't seen in quite a while.  But the best part of the day was seeing Hazel.  We were classmates since the first grade, and I haven't seen her since fifth grade!

Vin's secret.  Ssssshhhh.

The album is finally out.  It's an awesome compilation of songs in honor of the 150th anniversary of Jose Rizal.  I love love love the album.  Great artists, amazing songs.  And the best thing about it is that it's free!    Listen and download the whole album here.

Pajama Party

Since Monday last, last week, I've been confined in bed because of a nasty virus.  I got the whole shebang: terrible headaches, congested passageways, deciding which was more important to me: eating or breathing, coughing my lungs out, body ache that was so bad that I whimpered when Nards felt my forehead, chills and fever.

I absolutely hate getting sick, but such is my disposition.  I am sickly, always have been since I was a child, but it has gotten worse after my bout with Dengue a few years ago.   I feel bad for Nards who was managing our businesses (including our maternity line) while doing photo coverage of events on his own. Then when he came home after a whole day of work, he has to take care of me.   He'd feed me in bed, take care of my meds, soothe me when I was sniveling under the blankets and entertain me by watching mindless sitcoms on the laptop.  I thank God everyday for blessing me with such a good husband.

So it was such a great relief to me that I was finally able to get out of bed and transfer to the recliner in the living room after seven days in bed.  It was easier on Nards, since he could work on the desktop, while I napped behind him.  It was a long weekend too, so there were lesser calls to answer, and we were not obliged to check our emails.  But I was worried because we had an engagement shoot after the holidays.  I was also supposed to do the hair and make up of our bride.

Nards didn't want me to join him on the shoot, but I insisted I was okay.  Cabin fever has set in days before, and I just wanted to go out of the house.  Good thing my sister assisted us during the shoot, and it wasn't as bad as I expected.  I was exhausted in an hour and had to sit down and direct the shoot instead of actively taking photos.

The concept for the shoot was a pajama party.  The couple both love staying in, surfing, reading and just hanging out.  And Nards and I both love basing our shoots on the clients' personalities.

I'm happy that they liked the photos.  It feels good to go back to work. :)

HitRECollections from HitRECord

As an amateur artist, I really appreciate what HitRECord is doing for me.  Though I am not as active as Nards, I value this collaborative avenue that Joseph Gordon Levitt has provided ordinary people with vision and creative juice.

I've been itching to get the Tiny Book of Tiny Stories for the longest time but have been hesitant mainly because of shipping charges from the US to Manila. But when HitRECollections came out, my sister just HAD to get it.  So I also ordered the Tiny Book for combined shipping.

My Tiny Book of Tiny Stories with our tiny girls.  Each of our purchase came with a free HitRECord button :)

HitRECollection comes with a book, a CD, a DVD and if you pre-ordered, a vinyl copy with two songs from the collection.  

My happy happy sister. :)

Macaron Workshop

I can now honestly say that I can make parisian macarons.

Last Friday, my sister and I attended a macaron workshop.  Together with about twenty other students, we took turns making almond flour, whipping up egg whites and sugar.  We also divided into small groups and made different kinds of buttercreams for our macaron filling.

My sister made lemon macarons filled with lemon buttercream.   She had a ball piping them on the cookie sheet.

Mine were filled with mocha filling flavored with Kahlua and coffee.   See the feet?  I was so delighted when I peered in the oven and saw them peek out from under the shells.

Our class had enormous fun in the workshop.  We swapped macarons before we went home.  

This weekend, I'm making another batch.  I'm thinking of using Calamansi curd.

Sloppy Macarons from The Cookie Jar

A few minutes ago, I posted this comment on The Cookie Jar's Facebook page:

I bought three vouchers from ensogo. Taste-wise, your macarons were okay. But I felt shortchanged when I got my order. I felt they were dregs and rejects from orders from your other clients. In each dozen, 2 were somewhat collapsed, and 3 were mishandled when they got out of the oven. The sizes and shapes were irregular. They were totally different from the photos posted on the ensogo site, and by what I saw at Moonleaf. Is this because I got them at a discount? I was planning to give it as a gift, but I felt I would be disrespecting my friends by giving them sloppily made macarons. Likewise, I felt disrespected by what I received from you.

Here are all the photos I took of the macarons.

I honestly felt annoyed when I examined the macarons.  I'm a homebaker and I know a slew of homebakers.  We would never, ever disrespect a client by sending them something as sloppy as this.