New Years Resolutions

So I'm getting back to blogging after taking an unplanned hiatus. Unplanned hiatus is just a fancy way of saying I fell off the wagon because I am lazy and get anxiety about procrastination.


Anyways, it's New Years Eve. Yeah yeah, I know. So typical, Melanie. Coming back to your blog just in time for a New Years resolution to blog more. I bet you'll be gone again by mid January. HUSH UP, ITALICS. YOU DON'T KNOW MY LIFE.

I mean, one of my New Years resolutions is to blog more frequently. But I think that is going to require a few changes in this blog. I am no longer limiting myself to posting about food (but let's be honest...I'm going to post about food like A LOT). I originally thought that being a food blogger would be super fun because OMG I LOVE FOOD. But it turns out that there's a lot more that I would like to talk about. I don't want to say that this is going to be a Lifestyle Blog, because that sounds more adult than I'm willing to handle. Except this is basically going to be me blogging about my lifestyle...so...it is a lifestyle blog. But like...isn't every personal blog a lifestyle blog?? The point is, this is not a food blog anymore. It's about me trying to be like a real human being becauuuse...um...I want to do that.


I'm halfway through my junior year of college and I still feel like people don't take me seriously, and I can't blame them, because I don't really share the part of me that takes things seriously and has interests that aren't related to the Disney channel. I'm still struggling with my health and fitness the same way I was in high school, and I still don't answer e-mails in a timely manner, and I still wait until the last minute to study and write papers, and I am starting to feel the pressure to act like an adult because...I am putting pressure on myself to act like an adult. I don't want to graduate college and then end up thrown into real life without having at least some practice in being a grown up. Even worse, I don't want to graduate college and then end up ignoring real life and still acting like a teenager. I think that I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself to grow up, and I don't think that it's a bad thing. I can't be a troll forever!

Anyways, I'm still going to call this blog "Deep Fried Carrots". Because I think it represents a lot about what I need to learn. I think that I struggle with finding balance in almost every aspect of my life. Either I'm super prepared and on top of things, or I wait until the last minute. I eat really healthy, or I eat cupcakes for dinner. I'm really serious/upset/annoyed/anything or OVER THE TOP EXCITED HAPPY OMG FREAKING OUTT. I'm getting tired of it, and the people around me are getting tired of it, and it's time to make some changes.

Anyways here are my New Years Resolutions for 2013:

1.) Get healthy! Same old same old every year. But I would like to tackle one health/fitness goal for every month of this year, so that I have an actual plan. For the month of January, my goal is to drink at least 8 glasses of water every day. Weekends are no longer cheat days in 2013...I guess lol.


2.)Speak my mind more often on things that matter to me. This is really broad and kind of vague, but I think that having this blog as an outlet will be helpful for this resolution. I've stopped raising my hand in class, I never write to professors to tell them what I think of their lectures (which one of my professor's often asks us to do), I don't usually share my opinions on current events, and I don't talk to people about books and media that I genuinely enjoy (that is not the Disney channel or QVC). I'm not an active participant, because I am afraid of being shot down. Which I have been, but it's time to get over that. I've been too cautions for too long about the things I say, and I'm starting to look vapid to the people that don't know me well.


3.) Blog more! Starting goal is once a week here, and since I don't have to talk exclusively about food, I have no excuses! Except let's get real, I'm still going to talk about food.


4.) Answer e-mails within 12 hours of receiving them (24 MAX). Seriously, Melanie. It's not that hard. AND WHILE YOU'RE AT IT, GET OVER THE ANXIETY YOU HAVE ABOUT SENDING E-MAILS. Jeez.


5.) Overall, find balance and moderation. I know that there's nothing wrong with treating myself, and that part of who I am is loud and obnoxious (AND FUNNY. AMIRIGHT??). But also I know there's a way to still enjoy the things that I love without going overboard, and that I can still be a fun (and FUNNY...AMIRIGHT???) person without annoying myself and everyone around me.

OKAY THIS POST IS GETTING A LITTLE HEAVIER THAN I WAS HOPING so I'm going to close it out and say HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!

2012 was an amazing year for me. I had so many wonderful experiences that are too numerous to list. I'm excited for things coming up in 2013, but I'm also excited to see what surprises the new year brings me. I hope you all have a terrific night and I'LL SEE YOU IN 2013 BITCHESSSS.






P.S. Let's go ahead and pretend that the pictures I took of food in Hungary and Vienna got lost because there is no way I can go back and write two more blog posts about July. Saaahhryyyy.

Eating My Way Through Europe, Part 2: Greece

OKAY OKAY I KNOW THIS IS LATER THAN I SAID IT WOULD BE. Better late than never?

Anyways, ON TO GREECE!

This is Thessaloniki. It is the second largest city in Greece, and it was...not quite what we were expecting to see. Or smell.

Try to picture Greece in your mind. You know...white roof tops, mediterranean beaches, olive trees growing everywhere, etc. Now stop picturing that, because Thessaloniki didn't have ANY of that. We started lovingly referring to it as "ThessaloNO-NO". Which in retrospect sounds pretty rude...but it was a pretty stressful three days for us.

On the upside, we performed an amazing concert at the ISME Convention, went to an amazing beach that basically made up for the entire city of Thessaloniki, and ate some very delicious Greek food!

Two words: Greek. Salad. I ate SO MUCH Greek salad over the course of our three day stay. But you know what? I AIN'T EVEN MAD. Aside from the olives, there is nothing about Greek salad that I do not like. The feta cheese in Greece was not like the feta cheese I have eaten here. I mean...I don't doubt that feta cheese in America is not legitimate. But this stuff was like...oh man...it was creamy, and it was salty...but not TOO salty, and it was tangy. I've never felt this way about those dried out feta crumbles from the supermarket.

This was an entire chicken that was given to me to eat as an individual. I don't know what else to say about this.

Okay, yes I do. This chicken was DELICIOUS. It wasn't something I had ordered off the menu. How our means in Thessaloniki worked was that all the performers at the ISME convention were given a specific time to eat meals, which were already chosen for us.
Honestly, I didn't mind. I didn't have much of an appetite because of the heat (like...100 degrees every day), and I was trying not to fill up anyways because no one likes to sing on a stuffed stomach. I didn't finish this chicken or the potatoes, but I definitely loved what I ate.

Of course, I always save room for desert. I have no idea what this was, but I was in love with it. It was spongy...but not super soft. And it was sweet...but honey sweet, not sugar sweet. I don't think it was made of phyllo, but it was some kind of cake soaked in some kind of syrup. I'm being super specific, I know. If someone can identify what this, please let me know so I can make sure it is a part of my life. I'M LIKE A HUNGRY VERSION OF PRINCE CHARMING LOOKING FOR MY CINDERELLA CAKE.

Wow I'm so poetic.

(not pictured: more Greek salad)

This was another assigned meal, and they kept calling it hamburger but I'm still not 100% what the meat in this was. Either way, it was super meaty and I enjoyed it a lot. Especially since we were done performing for the next few days, so I could eat as much as I wanted :).

Yet another mystery desert...this one was a lot like the first. I think it might have been soaked in the same syrup? The cake was a little different in texture...almost the consistency of corn bread...very suspicious. But also very delicious!

And then we hopped on a bus and went to the beach!

Where I paid 8 euro for this pina colada!

And ate, YOU GUESSED IT, another Greek salad! Obsessed.

I also tried ouzo, which is NASTY stuff. I did not like it! But I also don't like anise. If you like anise you would probably like it. Like like like like.


This was about it for my culinary exploration of Greece. After we got back from the beach, I stayed in the hotel room (feeling sick from too much ouzo). Which is a shame, because a whole group of people went out to get some real Greek food! One of my few regrets on this entire trip was skipping out on that outing.

Although I did get to eat my one must-try for Greece! SPANAKOPITA! It was...well it was everything I expected it to be. The phyllo was tender, the spinach tasted fresh, and the feta was perfect. I would DEFINITELY do it again.

Of course, if I ever got the chance to do Greece again in general, I would definitely get more adventurous with the cuisine I try!


COMING SOON: Munich and Hungarian Hospitality (Hungary part 1).

Just checking in...

Okay, I swear I will get my post about Greece and Hungary by the end of the week. I've just been swamped with school work...and catching up on Once Upon a Time (WHICH IS ON NETFLIX NOW WOOHOO) before the new season starts. DON'T HATE. But seriously I will write that post...


Anyways, here are some pictures of food I've eaten in the past two weeks. Most of them were taken with my cell phone. I'M NOT SORRY.

One of my fave healthy dinners: Sauteed shrimp, brown rice with peas, and steamed carrots. Filling and delicious!

Another one of my favorite healthy choices: Turkey burger (I made the patties myself!) on an English muffin with oven baked white sweet potato fries. It's like McDonalds...but without the misery!

From the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire: a scotch egg! They should rename it...um...deep fried breakfast. It was delishh.

From the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire: TURKEY LEG. I thought I would be able to finish this on my own but I was sadly mistaken. I'LL DO IT NEXT TIME. LIMITATIONS ARE ONLY IN OUR MINDS.

I made this super simple bread (FROM SCRATCH) this week to go with my roommate's beef stew. I didn't get a picture of it, and it didn't look QUITE like this...but it was still sososooo yummy!


Okay I need to get back to work for real now. EXPECT A EURO POST SOON. I AIN'T LYIN.

Pasta a la Procrastination

Okay, this blog post is not about food from Europe. But I wasn't really feeling inspired by all of my iPod photos of the seven different versions of Greek Salad I ate. Don't worry, I'LL WRITE IT. I just figured I would cleanse the palate with a recipe.

So I made this delicious pasta for lunch yesterday:

(Yes, that is the comforter on my bed. Our kitchen doesn't have windows, and my bedroom gets good lighting during lunch time. GET OVER IT.)

This recipe is actually one that I MADE UP. WOAH THERE MELANIE, SLOW DOWN, WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS IS, CHOPPED? No, voice in my head. I just threw a bunch of things that I was craving in a pan. Jeez.

The real story behind this pasta is pretty pathetic, too. Basically, I'm easily distracted in my Music History class. I sit down, open up my computer, set up a document for note taking, and then proceed to drool at all of the recipes on Pinterest. I don't know what it was, but I was like HARDCORE craving pasta. So I searched the tags for "healthy pasta" (because I am trying to be healthy now...but that's a whole other post!), and I was just not feelin' any of the pins I was seeing. I was craving something really specific...so I was once again distracted from our lecture on Oratorios, and started making a list of things I wanted in my dream pasta. This is what I came up with:

EVOO
Chicken
Mushrooms (sliced)
Garlic (minced)
Some cooking wine
Teensy bit of ragu
Basil
Little bit of cream?

1.) Thaw chicken in the microwave? Maybe boiling water?
2.) Dice up chicken real good. Cook it?
3.) Heat up some EVOO, drop some garlic and mushrooms into dat pan
4.) Deglaze w/ some crappy cooking wine.
5.) Throw some ragu in there. Heat it all up.
6.) Stir in some light cream cream? Like a tbsp...
7.) Mix it all up with the pasta that you should have been cooking this whole time.
8.) Toss in some low fat mozzarella and parmesan because whatever.
9.) Steal some basil from your roommate's basil plant, chiffonade that shit, and throw it in.
VOILA.

So that was a..uhh...rough outline of the recipe. It wound up being a tad different...but if you wanted to follow it step by step I'm pretty sure it would be the exact same dish. But you know what? I made an effort to take pictures of everything I did, SO YOU'RE GONNA SEE THE GAME, PLAY BY PLAY.

This is the cast of characters, mise en place version, minus the low-fat mozzerella and parmesan I threw in at the end. You get the idea. Also, GET OVER THE RAGU. I can feel you judging me silently through your computer screen. And don't hate on that jar of garlic, either. My mom minced that shit FRESH just for me.

The first thing I did was thaw the chicken breast I was working with, and then sliced it into cubes. See, we're using chicken breast. It's already off to a healthy start! I threw that into a pan coated with olive oil, along with some chopped up mushrooms and garlic. I cooked it all up with some Salt n Pepa, until the chicken was mostly done and the mushrooms were tender.

Side note: I am partially obsessed with mushrooms. If you don't like mushrooms, I respect that. But also I hate you. Just kidding.

After I got the goodies all cooked up, I threw in some of the cooking wine I bought back in June, because why the hell not. Also, I don't think that cooking wine is such a terrible thing...I'm not allowed to buy real wine yet sooo this is a good compromise. And I'm sorry, but if you give me a bottle of fancy white wine I'm not going to be like "OOOH PERFECT FOR MY PASTA DISH". I'm gonna put it in a plastic cup and drink it in my bath tub.

...this post just got weirdly personal.

Anyways, after the wine cooked down, I threw in some Ragu. Yeah yeah, I know. It's what we had in the fridge. I'M IN COLLEGE. Although, if I were making a version of this for more than one person, I would maybe use canned tomato sauce that is not seasoned.

I waited for everyone in the pan to become friends before adding a touch of light cream. It was maybe 1 tablespoon. I have no regrets. THERE AIN'T NO SHAME IN MY GAME.

In the mean time, I drained my pasta that had been cooking this whole time and threw it in a bowl. I used pasta that is "made with vegetables". Which is not really any more special than regular pasta. Except it is enriched...so there are some nutrients in it from the "vegetables" that aren't in regular pasta. Plus, I straight up hate whole wheat pasta. I might give this a try with the pasta that has fiber added. We'll see.

Besides, my nutritionist told me I'm allowed to eat pasta. SUCK IT, MOM.

Anyways, I put the sauce with the pasta and went to grab all the extra yummies for the finished product.

This basil plant belongs to one of my roommates. I'm super jealous of it, because I'm OBSESSED with basil. I almost took the basil without asking her...almost. I mean, I asked first. Obviously she was cool with it...because she has a whole basil plant.

I took a gratuitous shot of the chiffonade'd basil, because I'M OBSESSED WITH IT.

I also threw in some parmesan (from the plastic jar...ONCE AGAIN, I'M IN COLLEGE) and some shredded low fat mozzarella. They were totally unnecessary. Sooo...maybe next time I will leave it out and focus on the basil.

And once again, here is the same shot of the photo at the beginning of the post, because I was too hungry to take more than one picture of the finished product. But let me tell you, IT WAS SO GOOD. I think the cooking wine really made all the difference...because otherwise it would have been Ragu with chicken on pasta. Lame.

Here's why I think it's healthy: Chicken breast? That's a lean protein, and I used about 3 ounces--which is a normal serving. Mushrooms and garlic? Very few calories, but TONS of flavor. A splash of cooking wine? PLEASE. A cup of that stuff is only 20 calories. I checked. The ragu? Not so sure about this one, because I didn't check the label...but generally with tomato sauces (especially plain canned sauce), they are low on calories. Because it's made from tomatoes. So far, the bulk of the calories is coming from the chicken. I threw in the light cream because, you know what? It's light. And honestly, it bumped up the sauce with not even one tablespoon. I combined that with the low fat mozzarella and parmesan to count as a serving of dairy. And I underestimated the amount of pasta I need by kind of a lot, so the portion of pasta was a totally moderate one. Not bad! I felt totally guilt free about eating this for lunch.

I really should have taken more pictures of this dish.

Eating My Way Through Europe, Part 1: Bavaria

So I went on a big European adventure with the University of Delaware Chorale for three weeks this summer. We went to tour around various towns in Germany and Hungary, with the purpose of preparing for a Big Fancy International Choral Competition at the end of July. It was a pretty big deal. And I could talk about how life changing the experience was and how it solidified my passion for music and how I made such great connections etc.

But this is a food blog. And boy was there FOOD.

We started our trip in Erding, right the heart of Bavaria. When you think of Liederhosen and yodeling on a mountaintop, you're thinking of Bavaria. And what is more German than a big 'ol soft pretzel?

I have to say, soft pretzels from Germany were nothing like those nasty super pretzels that you would get in your school cafeteria, and they were SO much better than the chewy-doughy mess of a Philly soft pretzel (...which I do love...but...come on). Everything about these pretzels were perfect. The outside was buttery and crisp, and the inside was soft and pillowy and if I could have a mattress made out of the stuff then I would eat that mattress.

...what was I talking about??

The best part about the pretzels is that you could literally find them EVERYWHERE. And they were delicious no matter where you bought them!! I could write poetry about German pretzels. But...this isn't that kind of blog.


We spent the first two and a half days rehearsing and performing around the area, and we even got treated to a delicious dinner of Wienerschnitzel in the town of Traunstein. But I didn't get a picture of it, because I was too hungry to remember.

This was a meal I had on my first free day. A couple of friends and I had decided to skip out on the optional excursion, and decided to explore Erding. We found a cafe that served this delicious quiche. Can we talk about how I am a sucker for a good quiche?? And this one was made with fresh tomatoes and the crust was super flaky and I sometimes have dreams about this quiche. The side salad was equally as delicious, because every component was super fresh, and I'm pretty sure that balsamic vinegar has magical properties. IT SAVES LIVES.

This is the first glass of wine I had in Europe. I ordered it after trying to convince myself that I liked beer for like two days only to realize that I'm really just a vino girl.

On our first Sunday in Europe, Chorale had this delicious dinner at the Erding Weissbrauhaus. It was one of my favorite meals of the whole trip, partly because I enjoyed the whole meal from start to finish. The first course of this meal was an onion soup that had fried onions in it (SO YUMMY) and giant buttery pretzel croutons.

I'll tell you a secret: my friend has a gluten allergy, so I took all of her croutons. I'm just that good of a friend ;)

SPAETZLE.

Oh. My. God. Speatzle.

Spaetzle is like...a German crossover between mac and cheese and gnocchi. The spaetzle itself is considered a dumpling, but acts a bit more like a pasta. And I'm not sure what sauce they put on it...but it was buttery and cheesy and I wanted to rub it all over my face. Is that weird? It was also topped with more fried onions, which I had no complaints about.

I didn't realize that eating authentic German apple strudel was an item on my bucket list until after I had crossed it off, but I will never forget the dance for joy my taste buds performed after I took a bite of the delicious pastry. It was just...just so beautiful. The pastry was served on a pool of this glorious vanilla sauce that I would like to bathe in. Is that too much information?

Also does anyone know what the fruit on top of the pile of whipped cream was? I was scared to try it, but I did it anyways and I spent the rest of the night trying to convince people that they wouldn't like theirs so I could eat more.


The next day we left Germany for the next leg of our trip...

Greece.

But you'll have to wait until next week to read about that!

BLOG REBOOT

So it's been a while...

Like....a couple of months.


In case you were wondering what I was doing, here's a quick recap:

-I moved into a new apartment
-My sister got married
-I went to Europe for three weeks on a choir tour
-I started my junior year of college

Soooo I'm writing this in my music history class right now, because I need to make it look like I'm taking notes. But I also really want to use this blog...because....food. I posted a whopping ONE post before my unexpected hiatus, so this is going to be a fresh start. FRESH. PROFESH.

Some posts to expect in the near future:
-EATING MY WAY THROUGH EUROPE
-Lemon poppyseed macarons!!
-I started going to the nutritionist.

LET'S GET THIS PARTAY STARTED Y'ALL. IT'S A BLOG PARTY AND I'M CATERING.

Red (brown) Velvet Macarons with Cream Cheese Frosting

So last week I tried to make red velvet macarons with cream cheese frosting. Except...I didn't use enough red food coloring so they really just looked like plain ol' chocolate.

They were still beautiful, though! And delicious. You can find the recipe for these macarons at the bottom of the post.

Anyways, this was my third time making macarons. You can read about my first and second times making macarons on my tumblr. 2012 is clearly the year of the macaron for me. After I started using tumblr in January, pictures of macarons kept popping up on my dash. It was long before I declared trying them as an item on my bucket list. Well, on my birthday my best friend Sarah came to visit me at school and as my birthday present, she got me a box of 20 macarons from a local bakery in our hometown (which was only like five minutes away from my house!! I was so excited to find out that they sold them!!). After I tried my first macaron, it was OVER. Macarons were my OFFICIAL obsession. I spent the weeks leading up to spring break reading articles and recipes about the technique of making them, and then I spent about half of my spring break eating and making and eating and making macarons.

My first two attempts at making these were, in my opinion, a pretty big success. They formed feet (the cute little frilly things at the bottom) and didn't crack. And they were delicious! And if we are comparing my third try to the first two, it was also pretty successful. But I think the fourth time will be the charm, and I'll tell you why in a little bit.

I used Tartelette's basic macaron recipe from her article "Demystifying the Macaron" plus some cocoa powder for the shells. And then for the frosting I used a basic cream cheese frosting.

So the main thing I did differently from the first two times, was use almond flour instead of grinding up the almonds myself in a food processor. This saved me SO MUCH TIME and it also resulted in a much smoother, less lumpy consistency from the last two tries. I used the Bob's Red Mill brand which I found in the organic section of my grocery, and it was kind of expensive ($9.99 for a 16 oz package! Yikes!) but pretty worth it in my opinion...my opinion mostly banking on the fact that I used my parents' credit card. Heh. Anyways, using the almond flour was a huge time savor, and I didn't have to break out the clunky food processor (OR CLEAN IT UP THANK GOD). I probably should have mixed the almond flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder in a blender before sifting (because I had to mix them all together in a bowl ANYWAYS) so I will probably try that next time. The blender is easier for me to clean than the food processor, I'M JUST SAYIN'.

Since I used red gel food coloring, I added it into the egg whites while they were beating instead of while I mixed in the dry ingredients. I have to say, this is the second time I've used gel food coloring and I am NOT IMPRESSED. When I used purple, it wound up being too purple for my liking (like...Willy Wonka purple instead of the lilac I wanted) and then when I used the red food coloring it turned the egg whites barely pink and didn't show up at all after I added the dry ingredients. And of course, with the red food coloring, I couldn't just add more red in afterwards because then I would have had to overmix it to get the color to actually blend in blah blah blahh. Anyways, I ordered some Americolor powdered food coloring on Amazon and I'm gonna try that next week.

I've been told they look red in the pictures, but in real life they were just straight up chocolate colored. So sad.

I was not so happy with the turnout of the macarons while they were resting/forming shells before being put in the oven. They were kind of lumpy, because I tend to undermix when it comes to all baking. They were the right consistency by the time I piped out the last macaron, but the first two rows were not the most perfect shells I've seen. So next time I'm definitely going to try to mix them a bit more to reach a "lava" consistency (whatever that means). I also need to use a larger pastry tip for piping, because I've been using the Wilton #12 tip, which means I have to actually pipe out a little swirl. Next time I'm going to try using an Ateco 807 tip, which will hopefully allow me to just kind of...squeeze out the right size circles. ...in my head it makes sense. Although, I did use a template this time for the circles so overall they were much more uniform in size (and not as giant as the last two tries!).

I piped the filling onto the shells this time instead of just spreading it on with a knife, which was much prettier! And the icing was delicious!! I'm fairly convinced you can't go wrong with cream cheese icing. It's a little tangy, which I think adds a nice contrast to how sweet macarons can be. Also, I'm getting much better at piping in general! Yay me!

Overall, I'd still count this as a success! The macarons weren't perfect, but they were still delicious. Crunchy on the outside and chewy and delicious on the inside. The chocolate flavor was subtle, just like in an actual red velvet cake. The cream cheese frosting was tangy and sweet (although I might try my mom's cream cheese frosting recipe next time...that stuff is like crack) and a nice compliment to the shells. And they looked pretty good for amateur status if I do say so myselff.

I mean...it's not like I could quit school, move to paris, and start making macarons at Laduree...

But I'm getting there! Om nom!

Chocolate macaron recipe (from Tartelette):

Ingredients:
200 gr powdered sugar
110 gr almonds (slivered, blanched, sliced, whatever you like) or almond flour
25 gr cocoa powder
90 gr egg whites (use egg whites that have been preferably left 3-4 days in the fridge in a lidded container)
50 gr granulated sugar

Directions:
Place the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and almonds in a food processor and give them a good pulse until the nuts are finely ground. Sift if desired (helps keep the shells smooth in appearance). In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites to a foam, (think bubble bath foam) gradually add the sugar until you obtain a glossy meringue (think shaving cream). Do not overbeat your meringue or it will be too dry.
Add the nuts and powdered sugar to the meringue, give it a quick fold to break some of the air and then fold the mass carefully until you obtain a batter that falls back on itself after counting to 10. Give quick strokes at first to break the mass and slow down. The whole process should not take more than 50 strokes. Test a small amount on a plate: if the tops flattens on its own you are good to go. If there is a small beak, give the batter a couple of turns.
Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip (Ateco #807 or #809) with the batter and pipe small rounds onto parchment paper or silicone mats lined baking sheets. Let the macarons sit out for 30 minutes to an hour to dry their shells.
When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 280F.
Bake the macarons for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on their size. Let cool. Once baked and if you are not using them right away, store the shells in an airtight container out of the fridge for a couple of days or in the freezer for up to 2 weeks (longer and the sugar starts to seep out which makes them sticky). Fill the macarons and let them mature in the fridge at least 48 hours prior to eating them.

Cream Cheese Frosting recipe:

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8 oz (1/2 lb) powdered sugar

Directions:
Use a handheld electric mixer to beat together the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla; add the powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

Introduction

I don't know who will end up reading this blog (or if anyone will at all!) but I just wanted to write a quick introductory post before I get started on the good stuff.

So...I like food. I think that "I like food" is probably a severe understatement. I am obsessed with food. It's almost embarrassing how much I love food. And I think food, aside from music (I'm a music education major), is one of my biggest passions. I love talking about food. I do. It's almost sad how much I love talking about food. But I also have loved reading about food on other peoples' blogs, so I am hoping that I will be able to share a new perspective in the food blogosphere (I hope that is a thing).  A few things about me...well, my name is Melanie. I'm about to be a junior in college which is pretty exciting but also kind of scary. I just turned 20 three months ago, so I'm like pretending to be an adult...don't be fooled, I just spent like two hours playing games on Neopets (IT STARTED OUT AS A DISTRACTION FROM FINALS, OKAY??). College has been an...interesting experience for me when it comes to food. I did indeed gain the freshman fifteen. Hardcore. And then the sophomore...sixteen? Anyways, I've always struggled with my weight. It's nothing new to me, and sometimes I handle it well and sometimes I don't.

I've always had this sort of inner conflict, because it's been such a huge goal of mine to develop a healthy lifestyle but at the same time...damn gurl I can COOK. And I love cooking, and baking, and eating, and I'm GOOD at it. Food will always be a big part of my life. So hopefully that's something that whoever you are that is reading this can relate to.

...I mean, don't get me wrong. I love ALL food, healthy food included. Fruits and veggies? THAT'S MY JAM. Whole grains? DELISH. But I also love brownies. And macarons. And CAKE. OMG CAKE. So yeah, some of the entries here will be like OMG LOOK AT THIS HEALTHY ASS DISH. And then sometimes it's just going to be cake overload.

"Quick introductory". Yeah, okay.

HAPPY READING. AND HAPPY EATING!!