DB: Tuiles...French for distaster

This challenge turned out rather disastrous for me. This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux. I really did try...but as you can see...not so good for me. First off, I'm not sure what this "thick plastic" is people have easily accessible laying around their house to carve stencils out of... I did my best to pipe circular/ovalish shapes. The shapes then spread out while baking to cover the sheet and drip down the front of my oven...as you can see.

I took them out of the oven and tried to cut out circles using a biscuit cutter... also didnt go well. I got 3 or 4 ugly circleish looking things out and molded them on a muffin tin to make a bowl. I also made a mango mousse to go with it. I have to say, the mango mousse was the only thing that went well in this recipe. Tragedy. really. I'll have to add the recipes later, its late. I'm sure my DB buddies have some glorious successes. They are such talented artists! check them all out here!!

Holy Guacamole!

I just got back from 5 days in Cancun, and all I have to say is... I love Mexico. Especially Guacamole. YUM... It's ridiculous how good that stuff was. Every lunch I would pile on the guac, then add extra stuff like fabulous grilled fish, chicken or steak, veggies, and random other sides like tempura cauliflower (WOW SO GOOD!). Each bite of whatever else was on my plate was acompanied by a bite of guacamole and some pico de gallo. I don't understand why my guacamole doesn't turn out like theirs. Sigh. It was soooo good. I'm definitely in withdrawal. If mine came out like that I would eat guacamole every single day! It was the perfect combination of smooth and chunky, perfectly salted, hint of citrus and cilantro, and the taste of onion, but not overpowering.

Many all inclusive places have mediocre food, and I'm not gonna lie, some of the food was mediocre. The good news is that you can find something for everyone. My hotel had thai, sushi, a churrascaria, italian and an "international buffet" and more. My favorite of course was the buffet. So many options! Fruit, yogurt, so many breads, meat grilled as previously stated, but also different meat prepared different ways, some mexican, some curry, some baked etc, veggies so many diferent ways, soups, ah, the list goes on. Each meal was served with a slew of Mexican sauces to put on top of whatever you get. I will soon be searching for those recipes. They were great!

We ate at the Thai restaurant one night, and I had a cod, pan fried with some sauteed veggies. It was pretty good, but a spicy sauce the waiter brought really turned it up a notch. That sauce was excellent!

The BF had a super soup...but I can't remember what kind it was...some sort of cream soup with mushrooms, or ginger or something. It was heavenly. The star of the meal though was the dessert. Rice pudding, in a ball, fried, with vanilla ice cream, and a drizzle of strawberry sauce. It was phenomenal. I will definitely be trying to find that recipe!! Be on the lookout for that!!

We woke up early almost every morning to watch the sunrise, so I included some photos of that, and this last one is a picture of a painting in the hotel... Note the lady in the background with the huge WEDGIE!! HAHAHA this was outside the elevator we had to ride ot get in and out of the building...hilarious.

MKMW: CUBA!

I LOVE Cuban food. YUMMM! I was sooo excited to see Cuban on our My Kitchen My World menu! I attempted to make a Vaca Frita I had at Alma de Cuba in Philadelphia. In the restaurant it comes on white rice with black beans and a tomato escabeche, so I set out to repeat! I ended up finding the recipe by the chef of Alma de Cuba- Douglas Rodriguez! You can find the recipe I used on Epicurious.com for the Vaca Frita and Red Onion Mojo. I read a couple recipes about escabeche so I ended up making my own. I'll have to post the recipe later though, I don't have it with me and I'm pressed for time. I sauteed some black beans and served it with it, but I forgot the beans for the photo shoot! Earlier in the week I also made a black bean soup using a recipe on Epicurious as a guide. I added a can of sliced jalapenos, juice of a lime and chipotles in adobo. It really bumped up the flavor quotient.

Last night I made the coconut cupcakes and seven minute frosting in the Febuary issue of Martha Stewarts magazine for dessert at my sushi party! They are fantastic!!! I don't have the recipe/know if its legal to post the recipe, but I will say that they are some tasty cakes there! I'm leaving tomorrow morning for Cancun (yay!) so I'm sure I'll come back in love with Mexican food and trying all kind of new dishes!! All inclusive resort = potential chubbfest.

Not Quite Macarons...

I decided to try my hand at Nigella's Pistachio Macaroons, "the world's most elegant macaroons." Sigh. Mine tasted good, but tragically came out flat. Ultra flat, and sticking to the pan. The taste was pretty good, although I would recommend only using a small amount of icing on each, because its ULTRA sweet, although flavorful. The best ones are in the pictures... sad huh?? I really like the idea of them and the flavor, so I think I'll try again tomorrow. I'm not sure where I went wrong. I beat the whites up very well, everything looked like I thought it would, but then I took them on a short car ride (potential for evil). They looked like they survived the car ride pretty well....but maybe not. Oh well, at least they don't use a lot of pans or make big batches. Here's Nigella's recipe from How to be a Domestic Goddess.

Macaroons:

1/3 C or 3 oz pistachios

3/4 c confectioner's sugar

2 large egg whites

1 tbsp sugar

Buttercream

1/4 c or 2 oz pistachios

1 2/3 c confectioners sugar

1/2 c unsalted butter, softened

2 baking sheets lined with wax or parchment paper

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grind pistachios in food processor with confectioners sugar until fine as dust. Whisk eg whites until fairly stiff but not dry, sprinkle the sugar over and whisk until very stiff. Fold the whites into the pistiachio-sugar dust, and combine gently. Pipe small rounds onto pined baking sheet using a pain 1/2 inch nozzle. Let them sit for 10 minutes to form a skin. Then put in oven and cook for 10-12 minutes, they should be set, but not dried out.

Remove from the oven and let cool, still on their sheets, while you get on with the filling. Grind the nuts and confectioners' sugar in the processor, then cream the butter and continue creaming as you add the nut dust. Make sure it is well combined, then sandwich the macaroons together.