Makecarons: A review and a Giveaway!

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Chai filled makecarons-3

A few weeks back I had the opportunity to try Francois Payard’s “MakeCaron™” box, which contained the ever so elusive macaron shells.

The third-generation pastry chef, Payard, is a very well respected French pastry chef with pastry shops all over the world. Francois Payard has made macarons all of his life, just as his father and grandfather did. He introduced them to NYC in 1993 and now he wants America to take over the flavors.

Chai filled makecarons-2

Payard’s creation, MakeCaron, which launched in November last year, is basically the base cookie of macarons. After watching dozens of “make your own” macaron videos and reading articles online, Francois realized that macaron shells are very temperamental in the regular kitchen (I can vouch for that- with my own set of failures at attempting macarons and the occasional successes). Plus he felt there are plenty of steps and small details to take into consideration to achieve perfect consistency which might not be everyone’s ball game.

Chef Payard thinks that “if you make burgers, you don’t bake the buns”. So, why not have the same concept for macarons.

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Sausage, Mushroom & Potato Gratin & a Giveaway of sorts!

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sausage mushroom potato gratin-1

I have been having a tough time writing posts these days. I start, type and then delete and decide I just cant write anything and its better not to post. As a result recipes keep piling up, and the blog just sits idle. I have about 7 recipes in my drafts and just look at them each and every day. I was supposed to post for GMT, had the recipe ready, everything, but then no words. I guess I spoke too soon on my instagram when I said that I will post the recipe for GMT on Tuesday because as you might have noticed that post did not happen. I just tell myself its a phase that I am going through- writer’s block probably (except I am not as eloquent as a writer). Hopefully, I will be back to my chattery blog self, for now I will just talk about the recipe I am sharing today.

I made this for the first time when my friends came over, and when I got a recipe request from my friend I knew it was good. And the fact that all of it got over should have led me to the conclusion as well. I was a little wary of it not getting over since I made it with pork sausages- a meat that V does not eat and was worried that if it did not taste that good, I would have to finish it all. But luckily that problem took care of itself. The pictures in the blog are of the time I made this with vegetarian sausages and it tasted equally good. If you do decide to make it with pork sausages, do try to find the kinds with fennel in it, or if you can’t then add fennel to the dish. The fennel flavored sausages did give this distinct flavor to the dish which in my opinion was what made this dish absolutely great.

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Oven baked Rutabaga Fries, a Review & a Giveaway

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So after more than a month of no blogging, I am back and plan to keep it that way. I could give you the reasons for not blogging, but I realize I will just end up whining. And that is something I just don’t want to do, especially today.

Since I have been away for so long I thought I would come back with not only a recipe but a giveaway as well.

A few weeks back Ariosto seasonings sent me some samples to review.  (Do understand that even though these samples are free, I have not been paid for the review and the opinion I share today is unbiased, or as far as being unbiased goes)

Ariosto seasonings have been very popular in Italy for over 47 years. They have an excellent range of Italian seasonings which combine the right amount of specially selected herbs, spices and Sicilian sea salt to perfectly flavor meat (chicken, beef, pork and lamb), fish and side dishes. The seasonings use herbs such as rosemary, sage, juniper, bay, oregano, garlic, thyme, sweet marjoram, basil, coriander, onion, parsley, carrot and celery to create traditional Mediterranean mixes. All the seasonings are natural as they don’t contain preservatives, colorings or MSG.

I received several packages of Ariosto seasonings. One was for poultry and meat, one for tomato sauces, one for roasted or fried potatoes, one for fish, and one with garlic and chili pepper.

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