Happy Friday, cookie monsters! It's the final day of my bake-a-thon, and I am beat (ha).
This last little cookie is a real show-stopper that I found online at bhg.com. They're called White-Chocolate Cherry Shortbreads, but they also have a slight amaretto quality to them due to a shot of almond extract. They're super-rich and taste a bit like cherry cheesecake. In short, my, my, they're outstanding. I was looking for something really different in flavor and appearance from the other items going in my gift boxes, which are mostly shades of brown. This hot little pink number really fit the bill, and they taste professional-bakery-fancy.
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Tagged with:
pink, cookies, butter, white, chocolate, sugar, holiday, cherry, christmas, gift, baked, shortbread, almond, flour
Remember when I drifted off into a sugar trance a few weeks ago, all gaga over macarons? I've been thinking about them ever since--looking up YouTube videos on how to make them (it's a little more complicated than I was wanting it to be), scouring the Web for recipes (like David Lebovitz's chocolate macarons or this extremely intriguing flavor from Tartelette), and just spending all my regularly allotted daydream minutes on them. So when I just happened to find myself on Magazine Street last Monday, driving through a light summer shower with Paul, I couldn't think of a better place to stretch our legs and spend some money than at Sucre. continue reading...
I was talking to my friend Chana the other day about dining in New Orleans, and we have the same philosophy:
- If you charge $5 for something, it doesn't have to be fantastic. Kudos to you if it is fantastic.
- If you charge $40 or $50 for something, it better be awesome. It better not be something that I can taste and say, "You know, I think I could make this better."
We're just trying to get the best dollar-to-awesomeness ratio that we can, and in a city where the prices can be as high as diners' expectations of the food, that's important.
We went to August the other day for a celebratory family lunch (see #2, above). I've only been to one other John Besh restaurant, Luke, but I've been there a few times and enjoyed it. The food at Luke is not fine dining, but it's quality. August is in a different league of dining experiences, along with places like Stella!, Herbsaint, and Bayona, where you arrive expecting a fantastically prepared meal and usually leave shaking your head in disbelief of how good it truly was (see #2, above, again).
Tagged with:
crab, restaurants, august, chocolate, Bass, luke, crepes, trout, oysters, crawfish, toffee, gnocchi, blackberries, macaroons, Yummers, john besh
I don't make desserts nearly as often as I used to, but when I do, I like to go for what works best. And to honor the romantic side of the melting pot that is New Orleans, I decided to spruce up my old standby of brownie + vanilla ice cream with a little tender loving specialness: instead of just purchasing brownies and ice cream, I would make my own! From scratch! I would use the forlorn ice cream making machine and celebrate the day I acquired it in the best possible way...with vanilla!
I like the way my selection of bowls creates a striking visual irony.
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