Hazelnut Macarons with Hazelnut Chocolate Ganache

by

Hazelnut Macarons with Hazelnut Chocolate Ganache by The Novice Housewife #macarons

When I was in Canada, I took a macaron making class from the Bonnie Gordon College, the same place where I was doing my cake decorating course, and thought I will share my learnings from that class today. I have seen videos and had read many tutorials before I attempted my first macarons, but to see and feel in person how exactly the macaronage should look was why I took the class and am glad that I did.

I have only once before posted (in passing) about macarons and well another time, if you count my post on my failed attempt at making macarons (both posts were before I took the class). The last few times I have tried my hand at macarons, I have been having a fair amount of success and even though I am still not an expert on it, and hope to practice as much as I can and get better, I thought I will share the recipe, tips, resources and sites that have helped to get me a successful batch of macarons.

As mentioned before since I am still fairly new at making macarons, I still feel I am inexperienced to write a post on successful macaron making and thought I will leave it to the experts to help you out. If you are new at making macarons, or have had trouble I suggest you go through the following two posts that I am sure will be helpful to you.

These two people have summed up in quite a lot of detail the ins and outs of making macarons at home. Please do check them out before you make your own batch.

Read More →

Cheesecake Factory’s Avocado Egg Rolls

by

 

CheeseCake Factory Avocado Egg Rolls #copycat #recipe by the Novice Housewife

Before leaving for Canada, on a trip to my favorite antique place an hour away from where we stay, I got a good deal on a second hand copy of Todd Wilbur’s copycat recipes. The moment I got it I instantly bookmarked the recipes I wanted to try. One of the recipes I adapted for my Bruschetta post. The other, I am sharing today- Cheesecake Factory’s Copycat recipe for avocado egg rolls.

To be honest I have never tried the avocado egg rolls at the Cheesecake Factory. But the description of the recipe and the ingredients in its dipping sauce- tamarind, cashews, honey sure intrigued me to give it a try.

CheeseCake Factory Avocado Egg Rolls #copycat #recipe by the Novice Housewife

I made these egg rolls for the coffee I hosted the Friday that went and my friends really liked them. Then I made them again the next day and V really liked them. As for me, if something is fried, I always like it. Plus, I love avocado. And sun dried tomatoes. And tamarind based dipping sauces. Plus, I love it when things that I love come together pretty quickly as well. Bottom line, I love them!

There is hardly any prep required. The only part that I don’t like is the chopping of the onions- which left me in tears, like it always does. But besides that, the pre-prep is a breeze. And  you have delicious egg rolls in no time.

Read More →

Back Home, tetanus and all! Plus, my time at Bonnie Gordon College!

by

bg4Its not that I have been absent because I don’t have recipes to share (in fact, I have quite a few piling up), it’s just that I have ten thousand things going on in my mind right now, and since each thought is more absurd than the next, I just wasn’t able to blog. Probably not blogging for so long has got me in a blogging rut as well and hence the writers’ block or whatever this is. But I guess I just need to jump back into it.

Kind of like cooking. For the first three days back from Canada I cooked absolutely nothing, relying solely on the frozen buffalo chicken wings and spicy black bean burgers that V had stocked up on while I was away for our meals. Three days later I took baby steps to cooking and now I am back in full swing (on most days). Except that on Monday I cut my finger real bad and had to go to urgent care to get my skin glued back and a tetanus shot as well, which left me more or less incapacitated to do anything and gave me an excuse to just louse around.

Now since I am better and I do have a lot of things to share, especially about my trip to Canada I thought I will just fill you in with all the stuff I learnt and made during my two month course at Bonnie Gordon College, and since I am not in the mood of writing too much (yup, this is when I am not in the mood), this one will be a picture heavy post. The picture on the left at the top (the very first pic of the post) is the cake I did as part of my Haute Couture assignment. We had to be inspired by haute couture and translate it to a cake. I chose to do a cake inspired by an Indian designer duo’s collection (Meera and Muzaffar Ali’s Jamazeb Collection). I really wanted to do a lehenga cake and thought it would be fun to practice the fabric like draping on the cake.

Read More →