Homemade Chicken Soup

I know it's too hot for soup now. Well, at least in LA it is. In my apartment it is. But I made this soup, long ago, in February. The weather was chilly, the classes weren't as demanding, and I had a sick Brian on my hands, who had never ever had homemade chicken soup. Ever. This made me sad. Everyone should experience homemade chicken soup! But of course, I had never made homemade chicken soup. A little blog here, some google there, and a few calls to mom later, I came up with something pretty good.

Nothing to it! A turnip, some parsnips, carrots, celary, onion, and some parsley made up the base of the broth - along with some chicken, of course.

I let this boil for a few hours, and eventually got this...

Once the chicken was cooked, I removed it, along with all of the vegetables. At this point, the veggies are good to go, becuase the flavor is pretty much gone into the broth. So, I shred the chicken, added some egg noodles, and some freshly chopped celery and carrots and let that boil until the noodles were ready.

It was pretty delicious. And, I do think it made Brian feel better!

My only regret is that I wish I made more in a bigger pan, because for all the hours
it took to make, it was gone in minutes.

Easter Macarons

Today, I blog about Macarons, but around this time next year, I hope to be eating them during my honeymoon in Paris! I've been a little quiet on this little blog, but I think Mr. B said it cutest, "Your like a little kitty in a tree... hang in there kitty!" This is referring to the fact that I have 6 weeks left to graduate and all I am stuck doing is writing papers and presentations, non-stop. Oh yea, and we are planning a wedding! Luckily, my sister-in-law has graciously offered her wedding planning services, so she has booked just about everything Brian and I wanted. I feel so relieved. And now it's time to start thinking about the details. One detail I know I'd like to somehow include throughout the wedding festivities are lovely French Macarons.

I really have my heart set on making the all the Macarons myself, but people tell me I must be crazy to make Macarons for a wedding for about 200+ people. You know that just makes me want to do it more, right? So, I decided to start practicing now. And the timing was perfect, I made these for Easter.

After making the batter, I piped the Macarons into petite circles onto parchment, raped the baking sheet, and let the batter set for about 15 minutes, until I noticed a sort of skin form.

Make sure the oven is super hot. It may take some experimentation with your oven, but my oven worked perfectly at 375 degrees. Why is this so important? One word: Feet. Yes, feet.

See the little ruffles at the bottom of that cookie? Those are your Macaron's feet! And they make all the difference! Once the pan cools, gently peel the Macarons off the parchment paper and start to match them up by size. I line the table with foil or parchment for this step.

But, before filling the Macarons, I make the filling. I made 4 types of Macarons and 4 types of fillings. First, I made Milk Chocolate Ganache to go with my Banana Macarons:

Then, I made a White Choclate Ganache and seperated it between three cups. From the left to right, the cups contained honey, Green Tea Matcha powder, and Rose water.

Did I mention I made quite a bit of them?

I think there must have been around 120 Macarons or so. A lot.

So, all in all, the flavors are:
Yellow = Banana with milk chocolate ganache
Green = Green tea with white chocolate green tea ganache
Pink = Rose with white choclate and rose ganache
Lavender = Lavender with white chocolate and honey ganache

It's really hard to pick my favorite - they were all so different and so good. Everyone had a different favorite, but I think majority ruled on Banana-Chocolate.

My recipe was pretty basic...
190 g. almond powder
310 g. confectioners sugar
150 g. aged egg whites
95 g. fine sugar
*flavorings, powder food coloring

Whisk together the confectioners sugar and almond powder and set aside. Beat the egg whites, then slowly add in the sugar, food coloring and flavoring. Beat until you get peaks - slightly less than firm, but almost firm. Basically you want thick lava texture (cause, we all know what lava feels like, right?) Then, fold the dry ingredients in, just until they are blended. Pipe using a pastry bag. Rap the baking sheet. Let rest until a skin is formed. The baking part is really tricky - on my oven, I bake for 375 degrees, then slightly open the oven door after about 5-7 minutes or so later. Then bake until slightly browned. It's tricky. If the oven is too cold, you'll get cracked Macarons and no feet. Not good.

I think I could definitely see myself doing some baking a few days before the wedding... maybe not 4 flavors, but definitely 1 or 2.

Let Them Eat Cake!

I sure do deserve a piece of cake right now! It's not quite my birthday yet.. but it feels a bit like Christmas! Why? Well, I just finished writing my graduate portfolio! What's that you say? It's 143 pages of photograph preserving librarianship all done and ready to go! I can't believe it. In 10 weeks, I will be done with school and back to blogging on a regular basis! Somehow, I have managed to craft during all my school-madness, so I have a lot to catch the blog up on. Since I'm celebrating over here, I thought the first piece of business to get to is this cake! I made it about 2 weeks ago, for Mr. B's mom's birthday.

I made a chocolate cake, loosely based on this recipe. Anyone notice my new toy in this picture? Uh huh... I got a brand new Kitchenaid! I had been holding out for years, because I couldn't decide what color I wanted - but when I saw Martha Stewart blue, I knew it was meant to be. We're so very happy together.

With my batter, I made 2 cake rounds. I then took little Kitchenaid for another spin to make some cream cheese frosting. With a quick, thick layer of frosting in the middle, I sandwiched my two cake layers.

I gave the cake a crumb coat and let it set for about an hour in the refrigerator.

Once set, I slopped on the rest of the frosting, all nice and textured.


I have to say, a cake like this would normally take a lot of out me to bake - but with the help of my new Kitchenaid, it was really quick and simple! And, I do believe everyone thought it was tasty too!

Super Trooper, Books Are Going To Bind Me

Did everyone enjoy that last post? I sure did! The boy had me completely surprised, which is hard to do! I think I'll be having Mr. Brian post a little more often, especially since I've been so extremely busy these days. And also since he's kind of adorable, right? I'm in my last few months of school now and things are getting intense. As this quarter comes to an end, I still have many papers and presentations to write, in addition to finishing up everything I can for my internship.

The negatives shown here are ones I cleaned up for my internship. Before, these little guys were moldy, fused together, sticky blocks of plastic from the 1930s, but now, they're individual negatives and they are super cool!

Notice these short-short wearing biker boys. Not too shabby! I only have another 80 packets of negatives or so left to conserve... did I mention I was really busy these days? In about 12 weeks, I will be done with school and off to my next big project... planning a wedding! I'm already a bit distracted by the whole thing, but trying to keep my focus on school for now. Hang tight for some fun wedding-inspired crafts ahead, and of course, the usual food, drink, quilt, and craft.

Full Bellies, Happy Hearts

Hi There! My name is Brian, and this is my first go at writing on Daily-Craft. Last Friday (the 13th), I asked Miss Annette to marry me and she said YES!!!!

That night, I told Annette that we were going out to one of our favorite restaurants, Cafe Beaujolai in Eagle Rock, but decided to cook dinner myself for the special occasion.

Our meal started with tomato basil bisque with grated parmesan and rosemary bread.

After a recent conversation about how much we
love pork chops and apple sauce, I decided to go on AllRecipes.com to see if anything looked good. One of the first things I came across was "Caramel Apple Pork Chops". I followed the recipe to the letter, but decided to marinate the chops overnight in mixture of apple juice and soy sauce. After frying the chops on each side for about 5 minutes, I baked them with the sauce for an additional 25 minutes at 325 degrees.


We were definitely pleased... they came out so delicious and moist! I wanted to make this
recipe for cranberry apple sauce, but couldn't seem to track down any cranberries, so I resorted to a
mixture of half Mott's and half pureed fresh apples and cinnamon, which actually tasted really good! I added french green beans with almonds to complete the main course.

Unlike Annette, I'm not much of a baker. So for dessert, I found a yummy Ghirardelli Double Chocolate brownie mix. I topped the warm brownie with Breyer's Chocolate Stripe ice cream, fresh strawberries and a little chocolate sauce.

This simple dessert was ridiculously tasty and provided the perfect ending to our lovely
candlelit dinner.

Pancakes For One

Pancakes are the best.

They make everyone smile! Have you ever been sad to see pancakes? I didn't think so. I like mine super thick and fluffy, which makes me really want to purchase this someday. I was recently talking to a friend about Chocolate Chip pancakes. I'm not sure I've ever had one before, but for some reason, it doesn't sound as good as wheat and/or fruit pancake. Can anyone convince me I'm wrong? Should I experiment? Has anyone ever tried putting cheese in their pancake? I'm thinking of experimenting with a savory rosemary and cheese pancake. I once ran of of flour while I was making pizza and made a pizza pancake. It was interesting. Fluffy, sweet, and savory. So much a person can do with a simple pancake!

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

A very happy and belated new years to everyone! Things have been non-stop since I got back from my west coast trip.  I'm in my last 5 months of graduate school, so things might be hectic in the Daily-Craft household, but rest assured, I will continue to post with every free moment!  The abundance of homework and heavy work schedule have got me feeling a bit stressed.  I find myself daydreaming a lot about the vacation I just got home from.  It was so absolutely wonderful.  Included below are a few of the culinary highlights of the trip...

We didn't spend enough time in Seattle! We really only had a day there, so I had 2 very special requests. I had to see the library and go to Trophy Cupcakes. Ohhh, Trophy Cupcakes, how I love thee! That coconut cupcake was heavenly. If I could, I'd have one every day! I've had quite a few cupcakes in my day, but the coconut cupcake from Trophy was by far my favorite. Also photographed, Sweet Potato and Hummingbird Cupcakes - also tasty, but the coconut really left an impression. How tasty?

Two people and 3 cupcakes later, I think you could say we did pretty good. The sweets didn't stop at cupcakes, we also got a few crazy doughnuts over at Voodoo Doughnut in Portland.




This place was amazing! I think I will go back every time I visit Portland. Believe it or not, we did also eat some substantial food too. We had a lovely Swedish breakfast at Broder I ordered the very cupcake-doughnut like, Aebelskiver! These little puffs of heaven are Danish pancakes.

They came with maple syrup, ingonberry jam, and my favorite, lemon curd. Also of interest on the breakfast table was the baked scramble with potato pancake.

I was lucky enough to steal a few bites, and I must say, that potato pancake was almost as good as my Danish pancake. I must try to recreate both of these someday! One of the last stops on the road trip was to San Francisco. We really only had time to have dinner there, so we thought we'd do it right. We took a walk over to House of Nanking. There seems to be so much controversy over this place and I was curious. Unlike what the reviews say, we didn't feel rushed at all. We did have to wait in a long line, but were rushed to the front within minutes, due to a table opening up with the perfect amount of seats for us. We were all full after devouring the first dish of Sesame Chicken, but I was also there to fulfill another mission. Noodles. Last year, my most favorite restaurant for noodles closed down, Veggie Bistro. Since then, I've been searching for an equivalent noodle to make the closure of Veggie Bistro a little more easy to handle. Did House of Nanking match up?

It was good, but it was no Veggie Bistro. Very few are. One thing I will say about House of Nanking, they served me the most wonderful hot tea that I have ever had. It was a mixture of many different types of tea, but they came together so harmoniously. It was a good night in San Francisco. As much as I wish I was still on vacation, it's good to be back home in LA. I've got lots of craft projects piling up, so as soon as I finish my homework, I will get to it!