Hell Yes Chocolate Macaroons

My best friend got me Company's Coming Fondues for Giftmas, so of course the first thing I cook are the macaroons. It's a cool book--I'm more interested in the recipes for the dippers than for the fondues themselves, although the lemon and cherry fondues look crazy-good!

Anyway, the macaroons... The recipe's listed ingredients were two beaten egg whites, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1/3 cup confectioner's sugar, two cups ground almonds, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla; I modified it with 1/4 cup cocoa powder and about 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, because I'm ridiculous. Bake at 325 for 12 minutes (I should have for a bit longer--the recipe says make 3/4-inch balls, but I just did 1-inch-plus globs).

They turned out completely decadent. Like a cross between real macaroons and chocolate chip cookies.

Rating: A+++

Oh, P.S., I'm in Ottawa for the holidays. I traded the two-foot snowstorm in DC for the crazy icestorm in Ottawa. Awesome.

Here's Your Sign

In DC, you never really know, exactly, when "real winter" begins. Sometimes it never does. Sometimes it smacks you in the face and crushes you beneath the obviousness of its arrival, like a drag queen in sequins and three-foot-feather-plumed hat with a giant spotlight shining on her (except the snow is probably less comedic and outgoing).

This year is definitely one of the latter instances.

The pre-snow photos were taken on Friday, 18 December. Snow photo is from Sunday, 20 December.


This is the front planter, which used to have the Datura moonflower and Alternanthera dentata. In the foreground are a lot of turnips, arugula, spinach, and radishes, mixed in with rhubarb, garlic, spearmint, and purple verbena.


The Alternanthera dentata didn't survive through the first real freeze, so I chopped it back. The second freeze split open what I left behind--I thought it kind of cool, but disheartening, to see the water within the plant pop open the stems.


And despite the ravages of the A. dentata, the purple verbena was all like "I'm a-flowerin', yup."


Here's the other end. The strawberries are doing well, even making new leaves in the cold, but the Leyland cypress hasn't done much this year--except for not dying. I could count that as success. The freeze killed A. dentata, the Datura, and the ornamental sweet potato, so I ripped all those out a few days earlier.


Remember when some drag queens fell on Datura? Removing the light obstruction from Leyland allowed his leaf tips to turn yellow, as they are supposed to. So that's a bonus, right?


The grape vine lost all its leaves in the past two or three weeks, but it grew about a dozen feet in just months. We'll see how it does next year. Maybe I'll get grapes? Or maybe I'll just make dolmades with the leaves?


Here's the spring bulb garden--the daylily and the Iris are doing just fine, but the ornamental sweet potato died here as well. The verbena in the foreground is just as happy as the one in the other planter. I mulched the planter with fallen ivy leaves and the remains of my ornamental sweet potato vines and the moonflower.



And the crocuses in the bulb garden are doing the same things as the ones on my windowsill--they made leaves! You can only just barely see at the top of the photo a tulip sending up a shoot to catch some rays, too.


But 'twas for naught, 'cause then it snowed, and everything's under the snow and all cold. I don't want my plants to die. The grape vine is a cascade of ice from water dripping off the building; nothing was mulched except for the bulb garden; and by golly, someone's gonna step on my rhubarb again! Welcome to winter in DC.

Winter Already Brought It!

So how appropriate is it that I've been AWOL all weekend because the snow absolutely forced me to stay at a friend's and bake and hang out and make a snowman? 'twas a fun weekend, and an even funner week is ahead of me--I got to work from home today yesterday because of ice! (Everyone else just isn't working. My coworkers and I are the "lucky" ones.) So I ended up going to a cafe only blocks away from work, of course. (And, of course, got distracted and didn't finish this post. C'est la vie.)

With all the white stuff on the ground shouting "New season! New season!", I figure a fall wrap-up is in order. There has been a lot of change in the past few months--the tomatoes are gone, the Mr. Yogato Garden is barren, and I have been paying more attention to nonedible plants.

I'll split up the update into two posts. This one will focus on the Indoor Garden (as it should!). A post later this week will spotlight the Mr. Yogato Garden 24 hours before and 24 hours after the storm.

So, overall, the whole "growing food indoors" experiment was floptastic. I mean, although finally figuring out how to pollinate the peppers and tomatoes, I harvested only a few mini potatoes and one pepper and less than a dozen Ace Bush tomatoes. The edibles have been a bit disappointing, but I blame lack of planning and thinking more than the plants themselves. I did not think, really, about what would be best in an indoor environment. I will try again next year with happier varieties and edibles that I'm more interested in. The tomato plants' growth was rewarding, but the harvest was not. I don't really use tomatoes--it would do me greater good to figure out a variety of squash that is amenable to indoor growing!


And speaking of growing edibles indoors, I ordered some Bloody Butcher Corn from Seed Savers Exchange. I put a few in a few pots just to see how they like it in my living room. The rest I plan on planting as vine support at Mr. Yogato (of course) in the spring. I love corn--it germinates so swiftly!


My indoor Crocus flowers are gone, but the bulbs are sprouting leaves! I think I also see some of the Scilla siberica popping up--I don't remember planting tulips in this container, so it has to be the Siberian squills. I hope.


Remember my cute little gesneriad, Episcia "Coco"? After he popped out a single flower, he decided to send out another runner. The growth has been slow but steady, and I'm hoping that after having potted him up, he'll reward me with a cascade of growth. Despite my initial worries about being able to keep Coco alive (due to the purported horrid care requirements from several of what I consider to be reputable sources and websites), I have found this particular plant to be much more accommodating than people give it credit for.


Barton the Beast, my Gynura aurantiaca, however, was said to be pretty friendly, and he was, for a little while. But then I hacked him back, and he said "Peace be with you, I'm dead." The Zamioculcus zamiifolia in the pot there is developing a nice little bulbous growth at the base of the leaflet. I'm hopeful for its survival and proliferation.


I got these Kalanchoe as a bonus when purchasing my pregnant onion, among other plants, back in June. They're doing well, but not amazing. Give them time.


This Kalanchoe is definitely doing well! I got a cutting from a coworker in October. Her's are in a vase of water and rocks in her office underneath an Indoor Garden(er)-provided grow light bulb. It's leggy, pale, and does not have red leaf edges. Mine is in the windowsill. Its growth is dense and the leaf edges are red. It make me happy. I've heard-tell that it has yellow flowers (if that helps identify it to species...?).


I got this Maranta prayer plant at the same time as the first Kalanchoe. It has done well--it sends out new leaves all the time and is currently branching, so I sometimes have new leaves coming at the same time from different branches!


After salivating over these at Garden District for months, Mr. Subjunctive's profile of Philodendron bipinnatifidum sealed the deal. In just weeks since I bought the plant, it has sent out two new leaves.

Yay!


These are the survivors of the slug incident. I am happy that some of the rhizomes made it. This Begonia was truly pretty!


A recent, previously unblogged-about purchase. This Sinningia is currently flowering, but I think I need to move it to a more shady position. It already looks like we'll have a love/hate relationship.


Oh, my squills! They're so awesome.


These tulip bulbs that I bought at the DC Green Festival? Not so good. Click for a bigger picture of icky insects crawling all over the rotting bulb. Ugh. Vomit. Trash.

Fate?

Do you think the universe is telling me something? Nick at Macheesmo tweeted about wanting Facebook fans to get the name he wants (you have to have 100 fans or something, right?). So, having recently joined Facebook after stern talking-tos by my mother, of all people, I was like "yeah, sure, why not, I'm already giving in to the dark side..."

Even Facebook thinks I should be at home cooking more empanadas. Good thing I'm going to the store tonight to buy stuff to do exactly that!

Another New Plant...!

Three of the last four posts have been about new plant purchases.

Make that four of the last five. I swear, I'm almost done buying stuff. (I just spent $30 on seeds for next year; they should be here in a day or two.)

Alright. I have a problem. But look! Dracaena Cordyline fruticosa "Baby Doll"! (Thanks for the ID, Mr. Subjunctive! I thought better of Garden District, but now I'm all like "Who you gonna trust? No ones!") Who can look at that and not buy is for such a cheap, cheap price? And, again, supporting a good cause so Garden District doesn't have to go all the way out of business.