on making goals rather than resolutions

Now that the year is coming to a close, I've been thinking about the goals I set for myself with my thirteen by thirteen list. I am being specific when I say goals. I am so not a resolution person, because I think it just sets you up for stress or failure. But goals...goals are different. If you reach them, awesome. If not, then it's a good way to evaluate whether they were important enough to begin with, or whether you tried hard enough.

With that in mind, here's how I fared with my list of goals for 2012.

Number 1--Make a terrarium.

Made it.

Number 2--Henna my hair.

Yup. What I should have added to the list was "spend next year trying to UN-henna my hair." Oye.

Number 3--Make baked Alaska.

New Years Eve treat, baby.

Number 4--Finish every half finished project sitting in my studio.
They were, as follows:

A half-finished painting, done.

Two big quilts, done.

Suprisingly I think that was all I had.

Number 5--Build a chicken coop.

Weeeellll...I didn't build one. I found a tractor on Craigslist for free. It's already been modified a bit--we put in a gravity feeder and soon I'll be building an external nest box. But they have a place to hang out so I'm counting it as DONE.

Number 6--Learn how to shoot a gun well.

I totally didn't do this. Mostly because I didn't have a gun. But I got one for Christmas, so this one I think will have to transfer over to next years' goals.

Number 7--Make Macarons.

Made 'em. Lots and lots of them.

Number 8--Read Anna Karenina.

Nope. I have to say, I got it from the library and then I saw the preview for the new movie and lost all my interest in the story. How Hollywood can turn a classic book into a smutty rated R movie is beyond me. But anyway, that's a rant for another day.

Number 9--Plant Ranunculus somewhere in my yard.

Look at them grow! I just hope they actually make flowers come spring.

Number 10--Learn how to smock.

Negatory. And honestly...eh, I didn't really care about this one to start so I'm not bent out of shape about it.

Number 11--Start keeping a sketch journal again.

I did. But more importantly I started drawing for real again. It feels so good to put pencil to paper after so long.

Number 12--Go camping.

Did it--not once but twice. Though technically the second time I spent more time in a warm house than I did an ice-cold tent. Camping in the winter is not my favorite thing ever. :)

Number 13--Build a city out of paper.

Not what I envisioned, but I think it counts.

So there it is. I feel pretty good about what I accomplished, especially considering I started halfway through last year. And that's the point, isn't it? To feel good about what you've done. Why else bother with goals or resolutions unless you finish well or aren't fussed when you don't finish at all?

Now it's time for some goals for this year. I'll keep you posted as those formulate in my addled, post-holiday brain.

Happy New Year!

I finally did it! I made Baked Alaska, number 3 on my thirteen by thirteen list. I figured why not work down to the wire and do it right before 2013? Plus it feels like a festive sort of thing, so New Years Eve it is.

It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and the kids sure loved it. (My weird husband doesn't like cake OR ice cream OR meringue, the party pooper. But he did at least try it).

I made my own black forest chocolate cake, topped it with the ice cream (I sent my husband to the store, so we are using Maple Pecan ice cream. No comment.) and I used Martha Stewart's recipe for Swiss Meringue to insulate it. Tada!

Well, I wish I could say I was going to do something fabulous tonight, but we've spent two days cleaning camping gear, doing eight thousands loads of laundry, and cutting up, marinating, and vacuum sealing a ton of deer meat. All while hacking up our lungs with the flu. I'm dead on my feet and I keep pausing mid-job to stare off into space from pure exhaustion. My head feels like it weighs a million pounds and is stuffed with very wet wool. This state of being is not conducive with hanging out till midnight to party in the New Year.

Plus, nobody we know is having a party.

I guess we'll have to be satisfied with some bacon-wrapped deer tenderloin, homemade bread, mashed potatoes, and baked Alaska. And champagne! Even if all it does is send our poor flu-ey selves straight to sleep. :)

Happy New Year everyone!

number twelve. and other things.

So.
I just posted the first part of our family vacation over at my non-crafty blog, The Grigoryevs. I don't post those kinds of things here so that those of you who are not interested in things like camping, adventure, wine-tasting, etc., will not have to be bored with pictures and details from our family trips.

If you are interested, feel free to check out the deets here.

As my friend Susan pointed out, I can now cross #12 off my thirteen by thirteen list: I've been camping, and it wasn't in our backyard (thank the Lord).

On an unrelated note, after days of cleaning up our horrific overgrown yard and trying to get back into the process of everyday life, I had a random spurt of creativity yesterday. I just started playing with a big piece of paper and some crappy pastels I have and within three minutes I had a big old pear. I don't know why really.

And then I made this. Just for fun. Because I could, and because I like the reminder that the best really is yet to come.

Happy Thursday!

feeling blue? go red.

As I said in my last post, we're having a not-so-awesome week. Baking macarons made me feel better, but I needed something with a little more sticking power. Something like...henna maybe? Oh yeah!

Here I am before. Blonde. Natural. Yawn.

 Wow. I have a really big mouth. Ahem.

So, to henna your hair, you have to use body art quality henna, mixed with lemon juice and left to sit out overnight. In the morning you get a nice bowl of chicken-poop colored mud that smells like horse feed to me and Jamaican bread fruit to my friend Jenn, who was helping me slather on the mess.  Here I am nice and mudded up.

I really am not capable of making a normal face. On a side note, I have to say I really liked the feeling of cool slimy mud on my head. Is that weird? Probably. This goop was wrapped in saran wrap and covered in a towel, giving me the distinct feeling that my head weighed fifty pounds. I sat around with my fifty pound head for about three hours, and then I washed it out. The first day it was SUPER bright orange.

Then it oxidized and calmed down to a more natural color.

I really like it. My husband is not as excited as I am, but oh well. Eventually I'm sure I'll be dying to go back to natural again, but for now I'm enjoying the change. The nice thing about henna is that it's actually good for your hair, unlike commercial dyes. My hair is super shiny and straight and smooth now, and apparently henna makes your hair more break-resistant as well. Nicey nice.

So there you go--#2: Henna my hair is now crossed off the list!

when cookies go bad. and then get better.

It's been a rough week here at the G.'s. And when life gets me down, I can't just lay in bed and mope. I must move. I must clean and sew and most importantly--bake. I can't help it--baking just makes me feel normal and homey and motherly. My sister-in-law recently said to me that my house always smells good, like something yummy was baking or about to be baked, and to me that's one of the nicest compliments a home can get.

Now, naturally, if you're going to bake when you're in a really, really yucky mood, what else do you bake but extremely fiddly, temperamental, silly things like macarons?

It seemed like a good idea to me.

Well.

For my first batch (oh yes. there were several) I tried Mandy Mortimer's Earl Grey and Lemon macarons. Sounded good to me. I don't particularly like Earl Grey tea, but I love the bergamoty smell of it. What could go wrong? Mine came out looking just like hers:

Not.

I actually wished I'd been able to find my camera last night, because I would have loved to show you what those things looked like. Despite my misgivings when my meringue wouldn't make peaks, the domes were perfectly smooth, but the feet (the frilly little part at the base of the cookie for you mac newbs) were these giant amorphous puddles that gave my macs the appearance of having lived in the vicinity of Chernobyl for awhile. Not to mention my attempt to combine sky blue with brown gel coloring gave me dark teal cookies. Not a bad color in general, but certainly not that pretty blue I was going for. My husbands response when I took the tray out of the oven was to loudly snort and proclaim in a booming voice, "EPIC FAAAAIIIIL!!!"

But maybe they would still taste good? My husband bit into one, made a "are you kidding me?" face, and set it back down. "Tastes like overly sweet Russian black bread." I pouted for a second before biting into one myself. He was absolutely right. Needless to say, I didn't even bother with the lemon filling.

This morning I decided to try again. This time I wanted raspberry flavored macarons with chocolate ganache. I followed the basic recipe that seems to be standard on every blog and website, adding raspberry extract to the batter. Unlike the first time the meringue came out beautifully, and I was convinced these ones were going to be THE ONES. I followed all the instructions I read on the subject and folded my batter until it came off my spatula in a ribbon. Then I piped it onto the parchment and right away I sensed something amiss. It seemed way too runny. After 18 minutes in the oven, they emerged. Puke-tinted, flat, footless, and unpleasantly gooey on the inside. Ick. And: Dang.

The kids ate them, but then, what are kids but tiny humans who think hot dogs are fine cuisine?

Okay, I said. One more try. This time it HAS to work. I reviewed all the info and decided that I would follow Sprinkle Bakes Cayenne Macaron recipe, minus the cayenne and cream of tartar, and using 5 tablespoons of sugar instead of the 1/2 cup of extrafine sugar. I would follow her mixing and piping technique, but I would let the macs dry out on the counter for a half hour instead of 15 minutes since I live in Florida and the ambient humidity is higher. I also decided to keep the oven temp right at 350 instead of fiddling with it during baking. Aaaaaandddd.....

Nice smooth tops! Cutie little feet! Non-gooey middles! Excitement ensues.

I made a sour lemon curd to fill them with, out of what I had on hand-- the yolks left over from the whites I'd used, greek yogurt, and lemon juice.

While the curd was setting up in the fridge, I brushed the tops with some luster dust.

And then I piped the lemon curd onto the cookies and sandwiched them together, et voila! Tiny little hamburgers of delight.

I'm not gonna lie and say I consider these to be the pinnacle of macaron perfection. They were supposed to be bright, cheery yellow. See those nice splotches of yellow on the macs? Yeah. Old gel coloring doesn't like to mix with batter apparently. For me, the chief draw of making these things is the cuteness and the colors. So...not such a success in that sense. But in the technique and outcome of the things themselves, I'm kinda proud. And the lemony filling is the perfect thing to offset the bland sweetness of the shells. Yum.

So. That being said, I feel quite comfortable crossing #7: Make Macarons off my list. Yay!