The New Year's Resolution

Most people make New Year's resolutions like going to the gym, losing weight, donating to kids in third world countries regularly, and other things that are perfectly nice and good for the average human being.

I am not the average human being.

I went through anorexia for several years, and was only able to get through it by eventually gaining a love and respect of food--flavors, textures, colors, smells. I watched Food Network like it was my job. I went from being terrified of anything fried to being amazed by the art of a perfectly fried piece of chicken, from being scared of the butter dish to sampling butters of different regions, from nearly vomiting when coming near yogurt to loving tzaziki. I've become that twenty-something foodie who lusts in the spice store and craves rashers of jowl bacon. But my greatest food moment came this summer.

I decided after having had a package of macarons from Paris and lusting over them on Pinterest that I needed to attempt making these. Complicated recipes don't phase me. I bought a macaron cookbook on sale, printed off some recipes, and went to work. I followed the book's directions step by step for their Almond Macarons. All was going wonderfully. I had those gorgeous bubbly feet, my batter was the perfect color, but I had unintentionally made pinwheel macarons. The texture wasn't quite perfect. But they still tasted delicious, so I didn't stop. I made almond ones again as well as salted caramel chocolate for our church's bake sale. Again, they were pinwheels. Again, the texture wasn't perfect. The caramel was overly drippy. But they tasted incredible, so I couldn't give up. I then made nearly 300 for my church's annual Christmas tea. In the midst of making those, I accidentally made a batch that went pooly on me and had several connected shells. But the texture was almost perfect! So I pressed onward and discovered exactly what I needed. I proceeded to make 5 kinds of macarons over Christmas. All turned out perfect. 

And so, I vowed to make 2014 the year of the macaron. I would've made some today, but I've been on the couch with about enough energy to nap thanks to a newly discovered blood clot. (If you wake up to find your feet two different colors, get it checked out. Seriously. It's not normal.)

Tomorrow, however, I'll be making almond macarons. It makes a wonderful base to create flavors from, and there are few flavors more classic.

Happy New Year, everyone!