Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberries are almost to the end of the season.  Not wanting to miss out eating strawberry shortcake, I hurriedly secure myself some strawberries, whipping cream and fresh eggs.  Those are the essential ingredients for a delicious strawberry shortcake.  I made the genoise the night before and left it overnight after slathering the cake with some syrup.  This will keep the cake soft and moist.
The next day, I whipped up the cream with some homemade strawberry jam and layered it in the middle of the cake then whipped up another batch of cream for covering the outside of cake.  My cake was done.  Nothing beats a slice of this sumptuous cake with a cup of mint tea from my garden.

Apricot tarts

There are days when I just wanted to eat some really refreshing tartlets.  And it just so happen I had some frozen apricots, so, I decided to make some apricot tarts.  This is a mix and match recipe.  Basically, it is pie dough for the shell, custard for the fillings and of course half apricot for the topping.  Just put all together and bake in the oven, we have tartlets.  I glazed them with a little strawberry jam for extra shine...hahaha.  Probably better if I use apricot jam, but I didn't have any.
Anyway, it was not as delicious as I have hope it to be, because the apricot was too sour.  I should have cook the apricot in syrup before using it.  I will try it again next time.  But overall, it is not that difficult to make.  Have a try.

Sables - Butter cookies

I made this a while ago...one of kids' favorites.  They have been bugging me to make it, but I was too lazy to do so.  I got this recipe from American Test Kitchen.  In my opinion, this is one of the best butter cookie recipe available.  Anyway, the recipe is quite simple, but the process of making them is not so straight forward, especially when making the checkered ones and the spiral ones.  But the effort is well worth it when I see the kids' face.  They absolutely love it.
Actually, when I was young, I saw these cookies in a recipe book (probably from one of my grandfather's collections), but I had never tasted them.  I always wanted to try them.  So, there you go...just make it!

Sanma with ground peanuts coating（サンマのにつけピーナッツあえ）

When we were living in Kobe, Japan there was a store in Motomachi that sells Iwashi no gomaae (Sardines with ground sesame).  It was so delicious.  There is absolutely no way we can get it here in Cheney, WA.  I wanted to recreate it here at home.  But all I could get is frozen sanma.  It is several times bigger, but taste really good when stew.  So, I thought perhaps I can do the same as iwashi.  The second problem, toasty flavorful kin goma (golden sesame) is hard to come by here (actually none at all).  I have not seen it in any of the asian grocers here.  Thus, the next substitution would be using peanuts which are also several times bigger than sesame.  Hahaha...I guess big is good (as the saying goes in America!)  We call this sanma no nitsuke pinattsuae.

I used the same process as stewing iwashi basically, which is to simmer it in a little vinegar together with sliced ginger until it is reduced to more than half.  Then add soy sauce, sake and sugar in equal portion (enough to cover the fish) and continue shimmering until the liquid is about 1/4 of the original.  Shut the heat and add lots of ground peanuts.  Basically, the peanuts will absorb the rest of the liquid and become pasty so that it will coat the fish.  Done!

It actually turned out good.  I still need a few adjustment such as making it sweeter (my preference).  So, next time I'll add a little more sugar.  Also, frozen fish can be be quite fishy, so, it is important to preprocess the fish with vinegar and ginger.  Do not skip this step!

And this dish can keep for a few weeks, so, it will be a good emergency food.  I'll probably try to make this for shogatsu next year.  Hahaha!!!

Molasses Cookies

I read a article a couple days ago about a miracle mineral that is good for our body---that is magnesium. It is a mineral that is absolutely vital for our body, which contribute to "nearly 300 biochemical reactions...within our body," (quoted from Organicauthority.org).  So with this in mind, I wanted to use ingredients that is rich in magnesium for baking.  And one thing came to mind---blackstrap molasses.  It is available widely in grocery stores, though I personally prefer the one without sulfur in it.  The recipe I used is from Martha Stewart's Molasses Cookies.  As usual, I made a few minor changes in the recipe to suit my family's taste.

Firstly, I often find recipes from the US are often too sweet.  In this case, I reduce the sugar to 1/3 cup of sugar.  And I skip some of the spices, mostly for personal taste.  I prefer less spiciness in cookies.  Then I set to work.  This is a fairly simple recipe.  I didn't even work up a sweat.  Once the dough is formed, it needs to be refrigerated for at least half an hour.

I form it into a ball and press it down with a glass with flat bottom to about 1/4 in thick and about 1 1/2 in apart.  And into a pre-heated over of 375 F for about 13 minutes (I prefer cookies a little crispy).  I guess this is probably why the color of the cookies is a little darker than Martha Stewart's.  Nevertheless, I like it.  It is definitely a good cookie to have with a cup of milk.  Not to mention, it is loaded with complex flavor and essential minerals such as magnesium.

Reimen

I must be craving for noodles---not.  Noodle dishes are usually simple and fast.  So, what this boils down to is "I am lazy!"  Anyway, this is the Japanese version of ren mien (the chinese cold noodle dish).  As usual, I substituted many of the ingredients but kept the essential ones.

Basically, this dish is full of prep work.  Julienne after julienne of fried egg, cucumber, ham and shitake.  And of course the sauce that goes with it.  When I am a little energetic, I'll make banbanji sauce (a spicy sesame base sauce), but this time, I was plain lazy.  So, I use ponzu (sweetened citrus and soy sauce) with a dash of sesame oil.

Actually, the most difficult prep of this meal is the egg.  Just make a bunch of thinly fried egg and stack together.  Nonstick frying pan is the best for this job.  Once everything is done, just julienne them into appropriate size.  Then arrange the julienned ingredients by alternating with each other, then top with beni shouga (basically pickled ginger in beni).  Pour appropriate amount of ponzu and reimen is ready to be eaten.  Nothing beats this cool sweet and sour dish in a hot day, though today is somewhat chilly in Cheney.

Carbonara

I bought some local bacon that seemed quite genuine.  At least according to the written information, the bacon is made from Washington pigs fed with natural feeds (meaning no chemical overload) and cured and preserved without any nitrate.  When I saw that, I thought this might turn out to be a good find.  Furthermore, I also have some delicious fresh eggs from a friend.  So, the next thing that came to mind is "Carbonara!"  (By the way, I usually use bacon instead of pancetta because it is widely available.)

I haven't been very successful making carbonara, mostly because I almost always ended up cooking the eggs more than I should.  The recipe for carbonara is actually very simple: pasta, bacons, garlic, eggs, whipping cream (or heavy cream), and parmasen.  The most critical point of making carbonara is timing.  The timing must all be right for the dish to be perfect.  While the pasta is cooking, the bacon should be sizzling in the frying pan, garlic should already be minced and eggs should be beaten with some whipping cream.  Once bacon is crisped, removed to a plate lined with paper towel.  If there is too much bacon fat on the frying pan, remove it and leave about 1 tablespoon on the pan.  Throw in the minced garlic.  When the fragrance of garlic tease your nose, add the pasta (which should be cooked adente at this point), shredded parmesan and the bacons.  Of course, salt and pepper too.  When they are all mixed, remove the pan from the heat and add the egg mixture.  Stir quickly so that the egg doesn't cook and forms a cream coating the spaghetti.  Carbonara is done!

But let me tell you.  It is easier said that done.  Often, the frying pan is so hot that my egg mixture turns into pieces of fried eggs.  Of all the attempts that I had, I only had two successes.  Guess, I still need experience.  But a good carbonara is so delicious and satisfying.

Steamy hot tempura udon

There is nothing like a hot bowl of udon.  Today is a great day for tempura udon.  Luckily I have some frozen sanuki udon in stock, as well as frozen shrimp.  This is how things are when one lives in the boonies---hardly any fresh noodles or shrimps!

I got the pot boiling with water to make my dashi.  Heat up the frying pan with oil ready for frying tempura.  I made prawn tempura, kakiage and corn tempura (almost had to use frozen corn but found some fresh ones in the store).  Heat up another pot of water to thaw the noodles, sliced up some green onions, and I was ready to serve tempura udon.

Took me an hour to prepare all, but 5 minutes to wipe clean the bowl.  Another day of satisfying meal!

Eclair

When I was a child, I saw among my late grandfather's (he was a baker) collection of recipes was a picture of eclair.  At that moment, I thought they looked beautifully scrumptious.  Of course, at that time, my grandfather's bakery shop was no longer as active as it was in its heyday.  He was already half-retired.  So, the only cakes that were usually available in his shop were cup cakes and some decorative cakes for special occasion.  I never did get a chance to taste any eclair made by my grandfather.  But according to my father, grandfather often bake pate a choux when he was catered for weddings.  He'll make all sort of fillings including those heavy butter cream.

But with my grandfather's eclair in thoughts, I decided to make my own eclair.  I had in the past attempted them, but the longish shape of eclair fell flat for some reasons.  But after a few tries, I managed to keep them in its supposedly oblong shape.  The recipe for choux is fairly standard, I simply use one that is available online.  But I like American Test Kitchen's recipe the best.

As for the fillings, I made two types: plain vanilla custard and chocolate custard.  Normally I would split the eclair and layered the plain vanilla custard and chocolate custard.  But I somehow made the chocolate custard a little less firm.  So, I pumped the cream into the eclair.  I also made some ganache to use as the topping.

I slit a small opening at an obscure point of the eclair and squeezed the custard into the eclair until the cream began to ooze out of the opening.  Turning it upside down, I dip the eclair into the still warm chocolate ganache and walla...it is done!  Now....wait just one moment, at least that is what I always needed to remind my kids.  I stick the eclair into the fridge to harden the ganache slightly before serving.

Eclair is truly a labor of love.  But the end result is well worth it.  It really made me wish that I had spent more time with my grandfather.  Maybe I would have tasted more variety of cakes and sweets that way.  I might even pick up some tips from my grandfather.

Teishoku

I am DOOMED!  I really am.  Sucked into the vortex of otaku's world, I can no longer pry myself off from the 2D world.  Subdued in a world full of imaginative graphics, a world that can be so real yet so surreal.  It seeped not only into my dreams, but my very being, shaking every core of my living cells.  I trembled at the sight of this flat world, a world that existed from mere fantasy that seems to have crossed over into my daily life.

What I meant by that is simply, the world of manga actually influences my daily activity, and that includes cooking.  One of food manga I recently read, Shinya Shokudou is a good example.  This manga is about a night "diner", serving from night till dawn.  In one particular chapter, the shop features its tonkatsu teishoku a.k.a. tonkatsu set meal.  It looked so tempting that I decided to make my own teishoku for lunch.  Hahaha...now, that is what I meant by how manga influences my daily life.

But it is not as if I have other set meals...I only have tonkatsu, thus this is tonkatsu teshoku (the only option).  Hahaha!!!  Well, perhaps in the future if I become a little more diligent, I'll prepare a few different dishes so that I'll be able to offer set meal options for my family.  As for the above teishoku, I have stew mushroom in the small bowl, with main entree of tonkatsu with a dollop of oroshi daikon, cold slaw in lemon sauce and grill asparagus with ham, and not forgetting a bowl of takenoko (bamboo shoots) miso.  Another satisfying meal to get myself going.

But really, I should control my otaku self a little better.  Otherwise, I am probably turning 2D myself!

Another satisfying lunch using yesterday's dinner---Katsudon!

This is another case of using yesterday's night dinner for today's lunch.  My family loves tonkatsu which is basically fried breaded slice of pork.  Usually, tonkatsu is served with a side of shredded cabbage and perhaps tonjiru (miso soup with pork).

But what is best is when there is left over.  I normally will make lots of tonkatsu just so that I would have left over.  Because, with that slab of fried meat, I could transform it into a totally different dish such as today's lunch.  In a small pan, I heat up a small amount of dashi (fish stock-can be bonito or anchovy base) seasoned with soy sauce, and throw in some sliced onions and julienned carrots, my lunch is more than half completed.  I sliced up my leftover tonkatsu and added into the simmering dashi and vegetable.  While heating up the meat, cracked an egg and beat it slightly before adding into the meat with dashi.  When the eggs about cooked through, sprinkled with a little green onions and shut off the heat.  In a bowl, scooped some hot steam rice then poured the meat with egg and dashi onto the rice and lunch is served!

So simple and best of all only one pan to wash!

Feeling good morning panini

Spring is finally in full swing.  This morning, it was a great morning.  I cracked open all the windows to let the cool breeze filled the house.  In a distance, the birds were singing and blooming flowers were dancing to the caressing wind.  And my grill pan was warming up on the stove.  I sliced the my home-baked sourdough and slapped a few slices of hungarian style salami together with some roasted pepper I roasted just the night before.  Topped with a few slices of parmesan cheese, the sandwiches were ready for the pipping hot grill pan.  With my handy dandy pan cover, I pressed the sandwiches onto the grill pan to form my panini.  Flipped them over and gave them another squeeze with my cover.

A few minutes later, those crispy hot panini were ready to be served, together with a side of Jewish pickles and homemade coleslaw.  Of course, I didn't forget my usual cup of coffee topped with milk.  Mornings should be like this, at least that was what I thought at that moment.  Now, with my manga on the side, I think I can consider my morning quite satisfying.

Mocha Chiffon Cake

Sometimes we need to indulge ourselves with a soft and fluffy cake.  I made mocha chiffon layered coffee fluffed cream.  Top with a cup of tea, what a way to end the day.  That was yesterday's treat!

I have always preferred cakes that are fluffy and soft, probably because I am asian.  Although chiffon cakes originated from California, USA, but the recipe I have is slightly different the original recipe from Mr. Harry Baker back in 1927.  The difference is baking powder.  For cake that is so soft and light, the presence of baking powder actually gives off a slight chemical taste.  So, personally, if I can avoid it, I usually skip the baking powder.

The recipe I am using I obtained from my Taiwanese friend who is currently residing in Boston.

Ingredients:
7 egg whites
5 egg yolks
160 g cake flour (mix with 20 g coco powder)
80 g sugar
160 ml milk and coffee
80 ml vegetable oil (I use canola)
1 tsp vanilla
45 g sugar (for the egg white)

Preheat oven at 345 F and turn down to 335 F when you slide the cake into the oven.
Cooking time: 40 minutes

Now, in order to experiment with the different flavor, I suggest that you keep the proportions about the same and try out with coco powder, banana, orange, lemon, etc.  If you have more liquid, use less milk or if you use a lot of coco powder, reduce the flour slightly.  You can also adjust the sugar level if you want it less sweet.  But since coffee and coco powder can be bitter, I kept the sugar level at 80g for the egg yolks batter and 45 g for egg white.

You'll need two large bowls.  Crack the eggs and separate the egg yolks and whites into separate bowls.  Leave the additional 2 yolks for other baking or cooking.  In the egg yolks bowl, beat and slowly add the sugar.  Continue beating at high until the color becomes pale.  Then add the oil slowly while beating (just like making mayonaise).  And it'll look like mayonaise too.  Then add the milk (or the final liquid) and vanilla into the batter and mix well.  Set aside.
Using clean whisk, beat the egg white while slowly adding the sugar until soft peak.
Then mix the egg white into the egg yolk batter.  First, add 1/3 of the egg white and mix thoroughly.  Then the rest, and mix gently so that the air from the egg white do not escape too much.
Finally, into the traditional chiffon cake mold (pretty much angel cake mold).  Do not butter or oil the mold!  Then into the oven.
Once cake is done, flip it upside down. You can let the hole in the middle of the pan sit on a bottle.  That's pretty much how I did it.  Once cool you can unmold it.  And decorate as you please like I did with whip cream.

Tea time Biscotti

Biscotti is very good to have in the house.  I found that biscotti can be a good travelling food especially this particular one because it is packed with lots of good stuff.  I think biscotti is a very easy to make and you can pretty much experiment with it one way of the other.  It is hard to fail.

My version of biscotti has a combination of nuts, dry fruits, oats and even ground flax seeds, which made the biscotti very healthy snack.  I often bake them when my family are travelling far.  These elongated shape cookies are like energy bar considering rich ingredients.  And even if they broke into pieces, just pour them into a cup/bowl and add milk.  The kids have cereal now!

Today, I made biscotti not for breakfast, or travelling, but for tea time.   This is another of my family's favorite.  These crunchy cookies are definitely far from the original hard biscotti.  Actually, my version of biscotti is closer to crispy cookies than twice cooked bread.

Hearty Biscotti

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

> 1/2 cup Sugar

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 cup Rolled Oats

2 Tbsp Ground Flax seeds

1/2 cup Toasted Walnuts (coarsely chop)

1 cup Raisins/Cranberries (or both)

8 oz Butter

1/4 tsp Salt

2 large Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla

Oven preheated at 350 F

Steps:

1.  Melt butter.  

2.  Prepare dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt and baking powder, oats, ground flax seeds) and put aside.

3.  Add beaten eggs and vanilla into cooled melted butter and mix.

4.  Toss in toasted walnut and dried fruits.  Mix.

5.  Add the dry ingredients.  Mix.  This will take a little time for the flour to absorb the butter.  Make sure they are well combined.

6.  Divide into two logs by rolling with hands.

7.  Put logs on parchment paper lined tray.

8.  Bake for 25 minutes.

9.  Let it cool slightly before cutting into the traditional biscotti shape (less than 1 cm apart).  Lay them back on the tray and bake for 10 minutes.

10. After 10 minutes, turn them over and put them back on the hot oven without the heat on.

11. Once cool completely, they are ready to serve.

24 little madeleines in four straight lines

I am sure many of you may have thought of the 12 little girls in two straight lines from the famous children book, Madeline.   I cooked the little madeleines in mini cupcake molds since I didn't have the infamous shell shaped molds.  Those things can be quite costly.  At least, that was what I found when I check out William Sonoma.  Anyway, little muffin shaped madeleines work just as well.

These little sweet devils will be today's "oyatsu" for the kids (and adults!)  Oyatsu, literally tea break snacks usually serve with tea (or juice whatever kids prefer).  Usually, when the kids get home they are so hungry, I thought these little snack is just perfect to tie them over till dinner time. (Maybe).

The batter for madeleines are very similar to genoise or sponge cake but I think making madeleines are much easier.  I got the recipe from Martha Stewart site.  For today's batch, I made a little change, that is by adding orange zest in it.  I smelled wonderfully citrusy.

There are a few variations, but I have yet tried them all.  For now, this recipe seems to work well.  Please try for yourself!

After meal dessert

Have you read the news about a teenager eating packet ramen for the last 13 years...and she is still alive!  That was my first thought.  Amazing...apparently she cannot even handle salads and fruits, but she can do with at least two packets of ramen per day.  And to top it all, her mummy buys boxes after boxes of ramen packets to satisfy her cravings.  Now, there is something wrong there.

You must be wondering what has packet ramen to do with maccha cupcakes?  Well, after I read the news, I thought there must be something wrong with mothers who encourage their kids to eat only ramen packets.  Then I realized, I fed my kids ramen packets too, two days in a row because I didn't have time to make snacks for them...ahhhggg...what a bad mother!  So, today, with quite a lot of effort and time, I squeezed in baking while preparing for dinner.  There was just too much...I made soup, baked parmesan chicken stuffed with garlic butter, asparagus rolled with ham, italian style cold slaw, and macha cupcakes, all in 3 hours...phew!  By the time we finished dinner, it was already 8:30 pm.  Yuta only ate half of the cake and was too tired to finish the rest.  Oh well, I guess he can have it for tomorrow's breakfast!  Hahaha!

You know, back to ramen packets...I always have some around (sort of emergency food!)  I think sometimes mothers get carried away because we get busy.  I was too busy working on taxes the last few days and didn't have time to prepare proper after school snacks.  So, I crank up the stove to heat a pot of water and throw in the ramen.  That is how easy it is to cook packet ramen.  And the kids love them.  But, I know it is not good to always rely on process food as such.  In short, I must try harder and make effort to make balance meals and healthy snacks for my kids!!!  Don't want them to become that teenager whom expert claimed that she is malnutrition and has IQ issues.

Anyway, in time, I'll try to link the recipe that goes with the picture.  So, give me some time before I do all that web jazz!

Tonkatsu and Miso Katsu

In my family, tonkatsu (see picture above) is one of the most well received dish.  Everyone loves it and it is a good food to have for bento.  Tonkatsu is basically breaded pork.  There are many variations if you were to try it in Japan.  Here at home, I have only made two to three variations---that is, instead of a slab of meat coated with flour, egg and panko, I thinly sliced it and add cheese or shiso in between the meat then coat the layered meat. Sounds like a lot of work, and yes, it is a lot of work but I don't do it as well as the professionals.  And my thinly slice---well, is not exactly thinly sliced.  And sometimes, I'll bread the meat with parmesan mix with the panko (bread crumbs) to make it more of a Italian flavor.  But this too, I don't always do.  I guess, it is also possible to transform that into pork parmasiana.

But for lunch today, I decided to go with miso katsu.  Basically, tonkatsu soaked sweet miso sauce.  The sauce is a mixture of miso, sake, sugar, mirin, and some tonkatsu sauce (optional).  After the tonkatsu soaked up the sauce, sliced it up and served it on top of steamy hot rice.  Then you add a little more of the sauce on top of the meat and rice, and garnish green onions and sesame.  That really hit the right spot in the stomach.  I just finished eating my miso katsu don....now, I'm going to brew myself a cup of green tea.

Jam filled cream cheese cookies

I personally think that it is really hard to resist cookies.  I borrowed the recipe from doing a search in the Internet, "Raspberry filled cream cheese cookies".  Let me tell you, they are delicious.  The kids love them the most.  The only drawback, aside the calorie, is that the dough is extremely sticky--- Need to stick it in the fridge to harden slightly before rolling and cutting into shape.  This is not a one hour prior guest's visit type cookies.  It is more like, prepare dough in the morning and bake it in the afternoon type cookies.  I even made the jam to fill.  This time I used blueberries.  So, three steps for me: 1. Prepare jam in the morning  2. Prepare dough late morning  3. Roll out cookies.  Or you can spread out in a few days, I guess.

This is definitely not a good midnight snack.  It had 1 cup of butter and 8 oz cream cheese packed in those scrumptious cookies.  But life is too short to worry about that...so, I'll eat and worry about tomorrow when tomorrow comes.  Hahaha!!!

Yesterday's dinner, today's lunch

I tried a new dish yesterday, peppered pork braised in yoghurt.  It is a recipe I found from home (Malaysia that is).  However, as usual I altered the recipe due to many reasons, mainly lack of certain ingredients.  Anyway, the actual recipe calls for mutton, in which lamb would be a better substitute, but all I had was pork.  Pork in the US has a STRONG smell, unlike the ones in Japan or Malaysia.  I am not sure why, perhaps it is the process of butchering the pig...hahaha!!!

This recipe uses a a few different spices such as cumin, cloves, cardamon and of course black pepper.  I figure with such spices, I will surely get rid of that smell from the pork.  And since I ran out of cardamon, I had nothing to substitute, instead I altered the taste by using coriander powder instead.  I set to work and got all the ingredients together and marinade the pork in the fragrant spice mix and yoghurt right before I had to pick up the kids from school.

Anyway, I braised the meat together with the yoghurt and a little chicken stock (for extra flavor), and then pan fry them with some butter.  This dish turned out alright, though I think mutton/lamb would have tasted great.  Nevertheless, the kids ate it just fine, which is a good indicator.  Haruka was hesitant in the beginning because she doesn't like hot-spicy food.  But this dish is spicy but not hot.  Yuta loves spicy food, so I knew he'll be OK with this dish.

But of course, I usually make more than 4 servings so that I'll have something for lunch (talk about lazy!)  Since my husband is a stickler on not having the same thing twice in a row, I transformed it in to a fried rice....hahaha!!!  Actually, I think the fried rice tasted pretty good.  For dinner, I had paired the peppered pork with saffron pilaf with raisins.  That was good too.  But like many other spicy food, the second day usually tastes much better.  I think it is because the spices and meat had a chance to marry!

All these because I was inspired after reading a manga title Chef of Nobunaga.  It is a good food manga. Lots of good food and substitutions used in the manga (no peppered pork braised in yoghurt).  Of course, the manga is fiction but some of the food prepared are definitely mouth watering.

Almond cookies with chocolate custard

Both my husband and I had this as our late night snack.  I know, I know, it is probably not a good idea to eat this right before bed.  Hahaha...but the kids were asleep and we were just craving for some sweets.

Actually, the almond cookies were really derived from macaroon recipe from America's Test Kitchen.  I made small alterations, but essentially the recipe is the same.  Plus, I didn't have the proper tip to pump dough out, so, I decided to make it into a spiral cookie (basically a flat macaroon--see picture).  Usually, the we just eat the "cookies" by itself.  The crispiness and nuttiness makes this cookie a perfect pairing with afternoon tea.  But this time, I added chocolate custard just because I had some leftover in the fridge (from previous day eclairs).  I forgotten to take picture of the eclairs because everyone was too excited to eat...hahaha!

Now, the best part of this cookie aka macaroon is that it is relatively low fat.  There are three main ingredients which are almond meal, sugar (of course I cut down the sugar!), and egg white.  And almond is good for those who have high cholesterol (in appropriate quantity please).  Ssshhh...this is also why I allow my husband to have it as late night snack, though he really ought to be watching his weight!