David Dewey Watercolor Workshop Maine

Monday- first day out painting in Rockland, Maine with David. This is our subject matter or whatever you feel like painting.

David starts his demo at 9AM with a thumbnail painting of the two chairs.
David talks and paints while we watch. And listen.

I doodle.

Then on to painting!

At 4 o'clock David crits our work

Shirley Cook did this wonderfully loose watercolor (with Alison in the hat)

Sue Del Ponte's lovely page combining drawing, paint swatches and large thumbnail.

My combo thumbnail/watercolor of the two chairs. The first day is always the hardest, getting your feet wet in watercolor.

Speaking of feet, the majority of workshoppers are wearing Keen's shoes. Next time.

And then la piece de la resistance of the day

FRIED CLAM SANDWICHES at the Rockland Cafe

Official LOBSTER DAY for us is on Thursday so we must wait.

But it's impossible to wait for ice cream cones.

Maine deck chairs are everywhere, even miniature versions.

BONJOUR PAINTING Maine!

Bisoux Market

You might think you're in Paris if you saw these croissants... You might think you were at Balthazar in Soho...You're not. You're at the new Bisoux Market in the Delta Terminal at LaGuardia Airtport.

Bisoux is loaded with French classic sweeties like Barnier lollies...

And typical Provencal calissons d'Aix...

Dragees anyone?

My favorite French sweet - sticks of guimauve/marshmallow.

Bisoux has savory French things to eat like salade Nicoise.

I shall be diving with the lobsters...

Into this tub at The Slipway in Thomaston, Maine...

I really ate steamed clams and mussels. I'm saving lobster for later..

BONJOUR BISOUX & MAINE!

Parisbreakfast is in Vogue

While the mystery of how to make macarons alludes us, there's a new mystery. A Paris Breakfast's watercolor turned up in August Vogue announcing an opening.

Anyone know how this happened?

DIY Chocolate

Part 2 of Quel désastre Granted they look right. They taste GREAT! But...

This time I got the measuring and mixing of the almond batter right (sort of).

The Macaronage I screwed up first go-round reached the 'MAGMA' (Tartelette's description) stage nicely I thought... First time macaronage was too liquidy...

I used M. Mercotte's trick (Also Jill's) of using a clothes pin to close off the pastry bag tip to prevent leakage when filling with the 'magma'. (Watch her video in French - the Eng. one doesn't work - you'll get it anyway). And I found my lovely Parisian special scraper - it was stuck to the bottom of the almond flour bag in the fridge.

Go figure :)

Rick asked, "Where is BEAR?"

BEAR was busy testing out the 'skin' of the piped macs after 30 minutes.

Voila! Tout va bien.

Inside the oven after 10 minutes = I got Feettttttttttt!

Yay

*A neat trick I found in the comments of the recipe I followed in the Huffington Post for these chocolate macarons - put them onto a rack and stick inside the freezer for 5-10 minutes. They practically pop off the parchment paper! Yahoo.

And look!

Beautiful flat bottoms and shiny tops!

I forgot to taste though...uh oh

Regarding the ganache filling. This I found the easiest step. I looked at a lot of recipes and then improvised.

Basic proportions: 1/3 cup boiled heavy cream to 1 bar of 3.50 gr of dark chocolate is standard, plus throw in 1 tbsp of softened UNsalted butter at the end for a glossy look. I used SALTED butter to cut the sweetness and extra lashings of salt + 1 lash of Ceylon cinnamon to give some mystery. I planned on using McCormick's Extract of Raspberry but when I saw the Red Dye #40 I got their Almond Extract instead. Also I used a bar of Perugina dark chocolate w/ almonds bar for more almondy hints. Once it's chopped up fine in the Cuisineart you won't bite on any chunks of almond - so not to worry. I would love to try an infusion next time... Looks good no? Tasted even better. By the way I softened the chopped up chocolate bar in the microwave at 20 second on low heat 5-6 x. Worked like a dream and less pots to clean. The ganache will easily resoften after taken out of the fridge and left at room temperature for a bit. Can I freeze it though? So much leftovers...

Still looking very good and they taste yummy. I had 4 for breakfast, but...

I baked my meringue cookies TOO LONG!

25 minutes in MY oven is just too long and I forgot to taste them once they were cool :(

So in the end I made a really nice HARD cookie, but not a merinque.

Was it from overbaking?

Was it from overbeating?

Was it from NOT 'aging' the egg whites as some will tell you?

The mystery continues until I get back from Maine.

Will I solve this conundrum?
I must!

Remember there's still 5 pounds of almond flour in my fridge.

By the way I used Valrhona cocoa in with the almond flour and lashings of salt to cut the cookies sweetness. Je le deteste the overly sweet macarons I find here.

Just my 2 cents.

Stay tuned dear PBers and I LOVE all your helpful hints!

BONJOUR CHOCOLAT MACARONS!

quelle désastre Macarons!

SOS! EMI...911?

Calling Dr. Jill (of Mad About Macarons)

OK So I DID IT!

Yes, I tried to make macarons this morning enfin. After consulting an insane number of books in THREE languages and being up till 1 AM checking again every internet recipe bla bla bla

And I have an insane amount of equipment some of which I kept losing in the process.

Like I lost this special scaper I bought with Dr. Jill in Paris at Mora. Go figure?

Somehow I managed to measure out the 90 grams of egg whites on my new metric scale (which I haven't figured out yet - never mind). I even had a few squiggles of yolk mixed in - it didn't seem to hurt a bit. Who knew?

PS - I did NOT age my egg whites for 16 days on the kitchen counter but instead nuked em for 20 seconds - I think it worked fine - qui sait?

I got the almond flour from Amazon - 5 POUNDS of it! So this is an ongoing process till I figure these %$#@ macarons out.

Dr. Jill says to beat the Hell out of the egg whites...hmmm
Practice makes perfect - not there yet.

The 'Macaronage' - the dreaded infernal mixing of the egg whites and almond flour etc. was a bitch. Getting the stuff into the pastry bag was an even bigger bitch.
Sorry PBers. This post is 'R' rated.

My little babies did not come out so nice - c'est la vie

But they did form the appropriate skin on them to the touch after 30 minutes.

The Doc said it's all about knowing YOUR oven and to get an oven thermometer - I did as I was told.

LOOK! I got 'FEET'! ...kind of

Malheureusement I did not cook them long enough.

And I used 'Superfine' sugar instead of the required GRANULATED.I don't want to think about the mess I made of the macaronage :(

MAD MAC meets Sad Sack.

Still I am NOT discouraged dear PBers.

Ever onward into the breach!I will be tackling chocolate macarons as soon as I post this.

Pray that there is some improvement dear friends.

Besides I have FIVE POUNDS of Almond Flour to get through

My ganache mess. They say you must be organized to make macarons...hmmm

Even though I failed with flying colors it was A LOT OF FUN!

BONJOUR QUELLE desastre MACARONS!