Thanksgiving Macaron Centerpiece: Pumpkin Spice Macarons

Hey all! How are your thanksgiving preparations going? did you plan your menus, finish the grocery shopping and shine the silver already or are you more of a last minute type (like me?) I have been seeing posts and tweets about turkey thawing, and pie-crust rolling and I can't help getting caught up in the excitement. I always miss my large family during holiday season and wish there were more of us on the West Coast. But I can't complain too much since I was blessed to see my awesome cousins recently and had my mom-in-law visiting us until last week. So this year Thanksgiving looks to be a small affair with my little family and plans to meet a couple of friends after which we three are heading off for a short trip. It didn't seem natural to not do any cooking or baking though, so here is a thanks giving center piece idea: Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Macarons! 

Making these and piling them into glass jars or stacking them on cake stands along with little pumpkins, squash, pine cones and autumn leaves seemed like a good idea to add some festive cheer to your table. They would make great hostess gifts too I'm thinking :)

I haven't made macarons in a while and recently a couple of friends were discussing them and I felt that familiar itch to bake them all over again. Looks like my macobsession is back eeeeeks! These pint sized treats are perfect to nibble on while waiting for the caramel cardamom pumpkin pie or swirly pumpkin-ginger  cheesecake to be served. Another interesting fall macaron idea is this Ginger Spice Macaron

Oh and I discovered that you don't need cream to make ganache. Ok so I forgot to buy cream. But the important thing  is- you don't need it! Make ganache with chocolate and ...milk! You can thank me now and Nigella who apparently knew too. 

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balsamic roasted wild strawberries with greek yogurt

Each trip to the farmer's market that I have the great blessing of living just walking distance to,  is like a treasure hunt. I am always excited about what I will find that day. A few weeks ago when berries ruled, where now there are mountains of peaches and nectarines and plums, I chanced upon a stall with tiny strawberries. The cheerful woman missing one front tooth, who had woken up at 3 am to bring this bounty to us, pointed  out that this was the same variety of the regular larger strawberries, just those growing wild on the mountains.

I bought some of each, the regular ones and these tiny ones to compare. The wild berries had a concentrated strawberry flavour and tartness and crunchy seeds while the plumper ones were juicier, being fleshier and I actually preferred those to eat. 

The mountain berries however, would be wonderful in dessert and jam, being incredibly flavorful. 

small wild mountain strawberries 

larger fleshier regular strawberries sliced 

Both types were nothing like the tasteless ones from the supermarket. From thinking that organic produce was just overpriced hype, I have become a locavore convert! Seriously the difference in taste between something that is grown in small farms organically and brought fresh to the market to that which is grown on a large scale God-knows-where to look pretty and last longer on supermarket shelves but taste like water balloons is something you have to taste yourself to understand! So get yourself to your local markets or farms where ever in the world you are, if you haven't already! 

I had grand ideas of making balsamic roasted wild strawberry ice-cream and cut up whatever strawberries remaining I hadn't greedily eaten ( both kinds) into a roasting dish with a tablespoon or so of sugar,  a squeeze of lemon juice, a scraped vanilla bean and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and after about 8 minutes at 350 F in the oven I just about died when I tasted the sweet  juicy warm goodness.

Forgotten was the ice cream and we happily ate it by itself or topped some greek yogurt with sweet juicy red spoonfuls. It would make a great cake or ice cream topping too, but sadly it was all gone before I could investigate further!

Roasting fruits is a great way to experience them completely differently. Adding just a few spoonfuls of sugar and nothing else even, while roasting or stewing with a little water on the stove top, turns fruits that are slightly tart and sour and thus untouched on your dining table into something that everyone will fight to finish! They break down a little and become soft and slightly jam like, releasing delicious juices.
I had tried this with peaches last summer, (and again this time in roasted peach and bourbon icecream) where the edges get browned and caramelized. Bananas are great to roast too, as are a lot of other fruits. 

Am playing around with my camera settings and very slowly learning about exposure and the other nuts and bolts about photography. The awesomely talented and wonderful Xiaolu, Aparna, Prerna have been awesomely patient and not laughed at my embarrassingly noobie questions. Thank you! 

I submitted the first photo to Food Pixel's fruit as core ingredient themed photography event. I am now liking this darker feel that I achieved shooting against a dark back ground and by reducing the aperture and also reducing the exposure bar by a couple of points, and further increasing the shadows on a simple editor like Picasa tho I need to look into a more powerful editor soon. This is new for me, after  years of obsessively trying to make my pictures brighter! 

For those of you who want to learn more like me, here is what I'm reading and trying to get into my small brain!

• My Take on Food Styling and Photography by Xiaolu of 6Bittersweets
• Food Photography series by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen
• Understanding Light by Prerna of Indian Simmer 
• 31 days of Food photography Tips at Learn Food Photography
• Creating moods with Ilva Beretta
• A highly recommended book is of course Helene Dujardin's book on food photography Plate to Pixel

Will update this list with more as I find them, but first, going to have to force myself to read beyond the first few pages of my tedious and boring camera manual :(

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Low fat Chocolate Truffle Mousse from Alice Medrich

I promised to post a couple more dreamy desserts I made from the book I'm currently madly in love with "Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts" by Chocolate guru Alice Medrich and just in time for Valentines day I present to you this decadent, versatile chocolate mousse.
It's rich, silky, extra chocolate-y with bittersweet chocolate and cocoa and has less than half the fat of regular mousse because it is lightened with egg whites and contains no cream! It can be eaten as it, or used as fillings and in the coming days I'll be showing you the many delicious uses I put it to :)

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