Valentines Goodies

I love baking as it is, however, I especially love it more when I get to do fun, cute things with it. Valentines Day baking is my ultimate favorite. I mean, what girl doesn't love the color red, pink, and white together? And heart shape everything just makes me smile =)

I specifically brought back American candies for this occasion. Lucky for me, I was in the States well past the New Year and Target had all their Valentines day stuff out. Packed into my suitcase was a pack of Vday Peanut Butter M&M's, Hershey's Kisses, and heart shaped Nestle Butterfingers.

I decided to make the following for Gerald's coworkers:

Peanut Butter M&M brownies

Hershey's Kisses Peanut Butter Blossoms w/ a little variety

And for Gerald, I made colorful Heart shape sugar cookies =P

As you can see, I love baking. The next thing I love is packaging and giving it to others. It's the little things that count, and who doesn't like home baked treats. By the way, I'm loving the red & white twine I brought back as well. It's come in pretty handy with all the celebrations we've had lately.

In addition to all this baking, I've been cooking up a fab meal for our dinner tonight. You'll get to read all about it soon. Hope your Valentines day was nice and SWEET! Have a LOVELY Day! Wow, this post was full of LOVE!! hehe...

A Weekend of Celebrations!

This past weekend was all about CELEBRATIONS!

I started the weekend with a pampering afternoon at Jo Malone's for Debbie's 30th Birthday, followed by lunch at Bistro Verde, where we presented the birthday girl with her gifts =)

That evening we went out to Liz & Greg's for Liz's Bday drinks and a little dance show from Gerald...to save him some embarrassment, I won't post the video...because "It's Provacative..." haha

The next day, we attended the AWA Mardi Gras Party, which is always a great way to bring the Mardi Gras spirit to the 'Deen, complete with Cajun food and King Cake...















Sunday, was Chinese New Years, the Year of the Snake and I couldn't go without celebrating with some dim sum. That's what my family usually does the morning of Chinese New Year. We tried out a new restaurant called Yangtze River, and to my surprise, it was full of Chinese people on this New Year Day! Score! They even gave me the Chinese menu =) It was fun to share the experience with our Welsh friends, James and Tash, as they don't go out for dim sum much so I got to introduce them to a few of my favorite dishes. Of course, we had to wash it all down with a pot of Jasmine tea. I was a happy camper after this meal. Happy New Year!









It was also my niece, Monica's birthday! She's growing up really fast and next thing you know, she'll be in college and I'll have to give her advice on boys and careers...yikes! Can you please just go back to elementary school? We use to take her out to sporting events all the time, but now she doesn't care for it. She only wants to hang out with her friends at the mall. Here's a pic when Gerald was bigger, and Monica was little =P

Later that evening, we headed over to Jill & Ryan's for a TX style BBQ to say farewell to another fun couple, Emily & Tyler. It's hard to see people go, but I know we'll see them sooner than later, so all the best to Em & Ty!

As you can see, we've had a lot to celebrate and it doesn't end there. Today, I am celebrating with Mardi Gras colored pancakes for Mardi Gras/Shrove/Pancake Tuesday! Cheers!

A Thing of Beauty - Celadons

After 3 months of waiting, I received this today from Baan Celadon...straight from Thailand, via sea.

I didn't want to bother unpacking it since we have no room to put it in the house, but Gerald insisted that I check that everything was there. After 2 hours of ripping up cardboard boxes, pulling out shredded paper, unwrapping bubble wrap, and throwing away bits of styrofoam pieces, I unveiled these beauties =) This picture isn't the greatest but you get the idea...

Too bad, we really have no room to store them. The kitchen will need to have a reorganization day soon. My pretty Celadons are just sitting on the coffee table in the living room being admired at the moment =)

They say when you turn 30, you have to start buying nicer things for yourself; I have 5 months to practice before the real deal...haha!

{Salted Caramel} Macarons

I found ground almond meal the other day at a farm shop and bought a pack since I know I had to get over my fear of making macarons any day now. The first time I attempted these little sweets was with the girl cousins and it was hard work, which only produced a handful of macarons because we overcooked most of it...eeks.

Anyhow, I had a free day with nothing to do and decided I will attempt these delicate things once again. Luckily, I had a great baking partner that day, Jill, or else it wouldn't have been nearly as fun. Only because it takes so long....

I followed a recipe my friend's sister gave me and it worked out perfectly. She made a bunch of them as wedding favors at her brother's wedding and it was a hit. Here's the recipe for the shells:

170grams egg whites
14g brown sugar
90g sugar
310g powdered sugar
180g almond meal

Preheat oven to 300

In the kitchen aid add the whites and brown sugar, whip on 8 for ten minutes.  After the first three minutes add the sugar gradually in three batches.  Stop the mixer after 10 mins.  The meringue should be stiff.

While the eggs are whipping, sift the powder sugar.  Mix together the almond meal and sugar.  Once the meringue is finished dump the dry into the meringue.  Fold the dry in.  Don't over mix, it will be liquidy, the macarons will just spread and have no shape.  But also don't under mix, the macarons will be really puffy.  You want a consistency of runny pudding.

Pipe onto parchment paper.  Bake for 8 mins, rotate the tray and another 8 mins or so.  Every one's oven is different.  Just check the edges, if you can lift one off the parchment then you're good.

And thanks to Lakeland, I found this awesome silicon mat with perfect circles so that the batter doesn't run everywhere and end up with various size shells. Genius, I tell you!

For the filling, I went back to a salted caramel recipe I used on a few other cupcakes and since I know it's good, we stuck with that.  Here's the recipe: 

Salted Caramel

• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 1/2 teaspoons flaked sea salt, preferably Fleur de Sel

Heat sugar with the water and corn syrup in a heavy saucepan over medium-high, stirring occasionally, until syrup is clear; clip a candy thermometer to side of pan and stop stirring.

Cook until syrup comes to a boil, washing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush as needed. Boil, gently swirling pan occasionally, until mixture is caramelized and just reaches 360°F. Remove from heat and slowly pour in cream; stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Stir in sea salt.

Let cool for about 15 minutes; if caramel begins to harden reheat gently until pourable. Spoon 1 to 2 teaspoons warm caramel into each hollowed-out cupcake. The caramel will slightly sink into the cupcake – just add a bit more. Sprinkle a pinch of sea salt over filling.

After about 3 hours of preparing the shells and filling, we put the macarons together and each had a piece. HEAVEN!

A couple of our friends birthday's were coming up over the weekend, so we packaged them nice and pretty to give away. 

Although, it is a very time consuming baking process, the reward was fantastic and not to mention at a 1/4 of the cost of what you would pay for a regular macaron. We made about 38 for the price of about £10, for all the ingredients. They usually sell them for about £1.50 each here! Overall, I had a fun baking day with Jill and am very happy with my project for the day. I guess they're not as intimidating as they seem anymore.

Totally 80's Birthday Bash

Like I said, our social calendar has been really full this month. Probably because we have four good girlfriend's birthdays to celebrate, all of which have turned 30 or will soon be. Instead of going out for each of their birthdays, they all decided to have one big 80's birthday bash. Here are the lovely birthday girls!

Dressing up for an 80's party is really not that hard when you live in Aberdeen. Most of the stores had everything 80's readily available for purchase. Walking into town on a normal day or night out, you'd think everyone was going to an 80's party, but NOT! that's just normal wear...haha. Gerald scored this awesome blue jean vest at one of the shops here, and I think it actually looks really good on him. He should definitely wear this more often...haha.



Anyhow, we started the night off at the Buisson's place for a pre-drink/dance party and then headed to one of the more posh clubs of Aberdeen, NOX.







We were quite the bunch at the club... "scream, and shout, and let it all out!" Mixed in with a crowd of something out of "Made in Chelsea," I say we held our ground and actually stood out more than anyone else..SCORE! Twas a fun night =)

























Happy 30th Birthday my lovely ladies! Gerald and I had an AWESOME time!

CVX Burns Night 2013

Our social calendar has been quite full lately but this has got to be one of the best social events of the year in Scotland, so we couldn't say no. We actually look forward to this event every year because 1) it's not like any other celebration we've ever been to 2) Gerald gets to wear a kilt 3) we get to Ceilidh dance, which is loads of fun!

This year, we got to celebrate Robert Burns with lots of our friends, so it was extra special. I will really miss this event when we're no longer here. We started the night with bagpipers piping in the haggis, then my old manager's dad addresses the haggis (which I never really understand as it's all in Scottish), we then toast the haggis, have our meals, listen to a few readings and then dance the night away! The dancing is the most fun part of the night and also the most tiring. A guy told me that back in the days, these Ceilidhs were put on so women can find their man. There's a lot of switching partners and such in these dances, almost like a speed dating/dancing night out. You get a minute or so with each guy, and if you know what you're doing, you can focus on him instead of your dance steps, and maybe find the man of your dreams. Sounds like a perfect business idea to me, who's in?...haha! Well, another great Burns Night in the books. I'll leave you with pictures to enjoy!