Baby Showers and Macarons

Today I had the great pleasure to help throw a baby shower for a good friend of mine. An amazing thing with marrying my husband is that he has been friends with the same guys since elementary school. Some of the guys came into the group more in middle school or high school, but this group of friends have been loyal to each other for decades. What is truly wonderful is over the years they have gotten married and are having children, now the wives have become good friends and our sweet children get to grow up together as well. I have met some of my favorite people from this truly cherished amazing group of friends.

So today was the special day to throw the shower for our friend, who is so sweet to always think of others, so we got to return the kindness by showering her with love today. We are so excited to meet this little baby girl soon. One of my other good friends we worked together to plan it and held it at her beautiful home. We decided on a brunch themed spread of food.

My good friend Nicola and I were excited to throw this shower and we had it at Nicola's beautiful home. We both agreed that brunch food was the best option. What is great about it is that you can go as healthy as you would like or add some bacon and chocolate! 

The foods we had:

French toast strips with syrup and pecan pieces
Mini croissants 
Thick cut bacon
Blueberry maple sausages
Vegetable quiche
Vanilla Greek yogurt
Berry medley, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries
Two types of granola, chocolate and cinnamon nut/berry
Three types of cheeses
Vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream and strawberry filling

We also put together little favor boxes, with a "with love and thanks" badge on top. They had two types of Macarons in them. Now you need to say the word Macaron with a very heavy French accent sounding like "Maak-harun" I probably butchered that haha. I will explain more about the debacle later in the post about making the Macarons.  

A great idea Nicola had was to set two little stations up. One was for us to write little notes or encouraging words on diapers that will be great to read during the midnight diaper changes. If you have had a baby we all know that something that will make you smile in the middle of the night can lift your spirits. Station number two was for us to write words of advice or encouragement for the soon to be new parents. I know the baby shower I had for my little girl Olivia everyone wrote a note to me that was advice or encouragement, I still have them in a safe box that I cherish dearly.
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It was so fun to put together this shower, I love baby showers and celebrating the little ones joining the world and the soon to be Mommy. A great touch to have is to have some fresh flowers in a vase, it adds a pop of color to the room and table. Remember when decorating, you don't need to go crazy and have a million things hanging from every nook and cranny. Simple, clean, colorful, textured accents in the room add enough to make it a beautiful party without overwhelming the room or the event.

For me, it is all in the little details. I like seeing beautiful little accents,designs or beauty throughout the room. But I am not someone who likes loud patterns or busy surroundings. Simple yet elegant!
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A couple weeks back my friend and I decided to try and make Macarons. They are notorious and are often referred to any pastry chef as the Bane of their existence. They are super finicky and one too many turns of the batter and they are ruined. So when me and my friend set out to make them I was pleasantly surprised that they turned out so well for a first time.

Naively thinking all is well in the Macaron world I set off to make them at home. I had already planned on making them for the shower, silly me thinking I would bang it out of the park again. I bought all the ingredients and started on making them... well lets just say FIVE yes FIVE batches later and I was at a hair pulling loss and about to kick a can I was so mad. I tried three different recipes and two different techniques. I even went to my friend who is the queen of them and followed her go to recipe to a T! and you guessed it, they failed. 

After talking to my husband about it he convinced me to buy the book that my one friend and I used and that maybe I should try again. So I went and got the book, score on that because it was slightly ripped so I got 30% off and I had $5 in Plum rewards so I only paid $10 for it! The book I bought is "Le Petit Macaron" This little thick book is a God send for anyone wanting to take on the task of learning how to make Macarons. It is an in depth guide and really breaks it down for you. It is easy to follow and makes amazing macarons. Trust me when I say, just follow the recipe, they know what they are doing. They have an amazing troubleshooting guide at the end with pictures and scenarios as to why they look the way they do.

If you are wanting to make the beautiful colorful French cookies, this is the book to buy! I am now more confident and know I can make them. I will experiment more with the different shells they have, but as of right now I do not want to look at Almond flour or powdered sugar for awhile!  
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It was one of my goals to learn how to make them and now I can check it off!
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See they are so pretty, when those "Feet" that form on the bottom come out perfectly it makes a grown woman want to cry! No?? Just me! Well I tell ya my hair got a bit grayer this last week because of those things! So when I saw them raise up and those perfect feet form I screamed out with joy and my husband thought I was crazy but then also was happy I didn't have to go buy more expensive ingredients!

The shells I made were, the green ones were just plain with a cream cheese icing in the middle and the purple I did were lavender shells with a honey, lemon mascarpone  filling. I am super happy with how they turned out and look how pretty they are!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Cheers!
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