A Rest Day

I have been having Wednesdays off during February to coincide with Bethany's rest days. From March she will go to school full time but, for the moment, we are enjoying a rest day in the middle of the week. Last Wednesday one of the mums organised for us all to meet in the Botanic Gardens to play. Morning tea in the park? Definitely time to try out my new biscuits cutters. I love the teapot so much!

I did ice them (pretty in pink) but forgot to take a photo. Narelle stopped off for coffee on the way but I had run out of time, thanks to the biscuit icing, and was most pleased when the coffee van drove up. There is a café in the park but it isn't the sort you buy coffee at, if you know what I mean.

Bethany and Hannah enjoyed the swings and Bethany is almost at the point of swinging herself, she just needs a few pushes to start.

The flying fox was a big hit with all the kids. I don't know how Heidi, heavily pregnant as she is, got the job of pushing everyone. I could have taken over but there where photos to take....

It took a bit of effort getting her on that seat but Bethany was very keen. Whee!

Despite their beautiful feet, the macarons I made last week were not quite right. They began to weep pretty quickly and in the end I had to pick them up with a spoon! I couldn't wait to try again so on Saturday morning I did just that. I reduced the sugar by a third, made sure the granulated sugar was beaten in well and put the oven on the temperature recommended by Tartelette (a full 60 substantial Celcius degrees lower than the recipe I used last week). Success on the feet front and the lower temperature meant that they didn't lose the delicate green of the pistachios. They were terribly sticky underneath, though, so I popped them back in the oven for a bit which wasn't the best idea. Now they are a bit on the crunchy side, but still delicious, especially with the pistachio buttercream filling.

Two batches of macarons means two lots of three spare egg yolks. The first lot went into the silky smooth, kahlua scented puddings below. The others went into the lemon polenta sandwich cookies from Not Quite Nigella. Obsessed with baking? Moi? (For those concerned, I haven't put any of the weight back on and it has been almost two months.)