The Farmers Market opened today, so I guess it's "officially" spring now. But oy gevalt! it was freezing outside. Still, I got the groceries, and a few recipes besides. I think pretty soon I'll have to try cooking nettles, because there's a few stands that sell them. And, to my astonishment, there was a stand that sold brisket and even a stand that had macaroons! The lady selling the macaroons was astonished that they were selling out so quickly until I told her that Passover starts tonight and probably every Jew in Grad School Town was stocking up. I got half a dozen because they looked gooooooood.
- Current Music:Mickey Katz -- Duvid Crockett
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Macaroons
5 1/3 C. sweetened flake coconut
3 egg whites
1/2 C. sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 300. Mix all ingredients with hands and make macaroon-sized clumps. Bake 15 min.
Now, my addenda: When you shape them, you want to smoosh them together real firmly, really squeeze them in your hands. Otherwise, you get cute little arrangements of coconut thread that fall apart when you look at them. Grease the baking sheet, unless it's one that you don't mind having to sell for scrap later. And forget the fifteen minutes. At 300, it'll take a lot longer than that. Bake till done (i.e. they don't fall apart when you try to get one off the tray).
I wonder if hobbits would feel like that about buying supermarket mushrooms? Or would they conclude, practically, that having chanterelles or porcini or morels made up for the ignoring of tradition?
I distinctly remember being eight years old and visiting friends who lived in Wimbledon. I walked straight into a patch of nettles because I didn't know what they were; they didn't have them where I grew up. Stung like crazy, but that's how I learned to put dock leaves on nettle stings. And then, whenever we had foreign guests, I would always show them around the neighborhood and point out poison ivy so they'd know to avoid that, because poison ivy doesn't grow in Europe.
And I've heard of poison ivy - it must have come as a horrible shock to early settlers. Definitely a good idea to point it out.
I was going to go into a story about my uncle, Winnipeg and a skunk, but I decided it's probably not really that interesting!
We've got the macaroons all over, but it's hard to find really GOOD ones. There's like this INFLUX suddenly of so-so ones.
Got my mother some of the 'fruit slice' thingoes the other day. Will probably try again to find really terrific macaroons, and get my step some. He loves those.
So glad I'm heading out of town for my uncle's second-night seder today. He'll have them.