Chocolate French Macarons

The first time I had a macaron was in Paris, and I liked them so much I brought a box home to New York. Fast-forward to three years later and you can buy macarons as easily here as you could in Paris! We’re not talking about Passover macaroons here, which are gross when they come in a box, but I recently discovered are good if they’re homemade. These French macarons are popping up everywhere, but they’re expensive little cookies, some costing around $3 each. So I decided to make them myself.

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White Chocolate & Ginger Ice Cream

Quick, what’s the best part about a Meatless Monday dinner? It’s got to be that you can have ice cream for dessert!

You already know we love making ice cream, and David Lebovitz is one of the best sources for no-fail ice cream recipes. He served his white chocolate and fresh ginger ice cream with nectarine-cherry compote, but I just served it plain, and still got rave reviews. The ice cream was so creamy and the ginger flavor was perfect – not too strong, but still present. So if it’s winter and you still want to make ice cream but don’t want to pay $10/lb for cherries and nectarines to put on top, just skip them!

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Salted Butter Caramels, TakeĀ 1

I know I should have posted these before Shavuot so you could impress your hosts with homemade candy (yes, these have to be dairy), but I didn’t have much time to upload pictures and write down the recipes because I was busy wrapping 97 individual caramels. That’s right, 97…so making caramels was fun and my house smelled like a candy store (which may be better than smelling like a bakery, I’m not sure yet), but next time I’m going to invite some friends over to wrap them with me. Continue reading

Chicken with Shallots

When David Lebovitz posted a recipe for caramelized shallot chicken, I knew I had to try it. Chicken is a cheap, healthy, and easy dinner, and I was blown away by how great his looked and then later by how great mine tasted. This has become a favorite Monday night dinner of mine.

I love shallots, and recently started using them in place of regular onions in many of my recipes. I always have shallots in my onion bowl, so after reading this recipe, I didn’t have to do much shopping, and that totally added to the awesomeness of this dish.

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