My List: Parfait, Ballard, WA

As you might know (if I know you), I have a list of restaurants, bakeries, and cafes that I want to go to. Places that are as close as five minutes away, to as far away as Italy. Yesterday I checked another one off. Parfait in Ballard, WA.

Parfait is an ice cream/frozen yogurt place that I read about in the Seattle Magazine (Here’s the link to the article: http://www.seattlemag.com/article/must-try-cold-dessert-macaron-ice-cream-sandwich-parfait). They’re known for their macaron ice cream sandwich, and their mellower, more sophisticated flavors than Molly Moon’s (As anyone had her Scout Mint? Crazy good!).

I was very disappointed to find the only flavors of sandwich they had left were Raspberry Ripple (I can not stand raspberries. Unless the flavor is covered by something else. Say, chocolate) and Honey Lavender (So-so about lavender. Smells nicer than it tastes).

Instead I ordered a cone of Brownies ‘n’ Cream.

The ice cream had a nice, creamy flavor, with lot of small, fudgy brownie chunks. Good serving size. The cone was the best part. Completely homemade, more like a krumkake then a cone, but thicker. It didn’t fall apart when I bit it.

My only complaint was the consistency of the ice cream. More icy than creamy, and I love creamy ice cream. However, the chocolate and coffee ice creams were creamier.

They’re also all-organic, all-natural, and local, which makes up for their higher prices. In inside of the shop is modern and slightly chilly. The person who helped me was nice enough, and didn’t glare at me when I asked for a sample (I’m looking at you, Cold Stone!).

The ice cream flavors are good, and I’m going to go back to try their macaron sandwiches, and will be looking for their ice cream trunk in the future. But if you’re craving a creamy, rich ice cream, I’d go to Molly Moon’s or Full Tilt.

Super Bowl, Puppies, Cousins, and Macarons!

And that, my friends, explains the Super Bowl in a sentence. At least in my family.

And, compared to some stuff, this is not even that weird.

You know me, and my family, and have heard stories, you know this is nothing. At all.

Anyways, sorry this is so late. I keep meaning to post this….then I don’t. And I watch my one blog-post a week goal go down the drain. I am sorry. I will try to make more stuff.

Also, this does not have any pictures. Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of them. I will tell you this. They were in blue and green. Seahawk colors! Go, Hawks! 12th man! Champions! You’ve won!

Now would be a good time to say that I love football, have been a diehard Seahawks fan my whole life. unfortunately, that is not the case. I like the Seahawk’s namesake, sure. Ospreys are awesome! I love raptors.

But, really, I don’t get football. Soccer, a little bit. Football, no. I mean, I enjoy the game when we play it at the Super Bowl party we sometimes go to (A hint, boys do not expect a girl to dive for a football, elbow and knee them out-of-the-way, and run to get a touchdown. You can get an insane amount of points that way. I don’t get how teenage/preteen boys’ brains work. I mean, shouldn’t you not be surprised after the forth time doing it?), but watching it? No, I get bored just thinking about it.

There are two things I like about the super bow. 1. The food. Doritos, skittles, Swedish fish, chili, before mentioned macarons, and rootbeer all made an appearance this year. 2. The commercials. (Who else like the no compromise commercial? The one with the dog? Also, the Oreo one from last year. And the kid in the Darth Vader suit from two years ago.)

But, this year, there was a number three. 3. MY COUSINS JUST GOT THE CUTEST PUPPY ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH!!!! His name is Watson. He’s black lab with something else mixed in. I think Border collie. So, while the boys were out yelling at the T.V, me and my cousin were in the kitchen, playing with Watson.

Also, sometimes I sat in the living room and laughed at them while they jumped and screamed as people made touchdowns. It was very entertaining.

Also, since this is a food blog, I should probably add something about the macarons. They were blue and green. They were made from a link I posted a few weeks ago. They…uh…were all eaten.

Yep, that’s it. Can’t wait for next year. Also, I can’t wait until the next Iron Fey book comes out. Major cliff-hanger.

I hate Julie Kagawa right now.

Foodie,

Sighing Off

Macarons……and The Best Buttercream I have ever tasted.

Hello, peoples! Day 2 of blogging. I meant to post this yesterday, but it got kind of late, so I’m squeezing it in before school.

And, yesterday, as well as waiting for my lovely, minty spicedrops to dry out enough to get the gumdrop consistency, I decided to make macarons.

In case you don’t know, macarons are small, brightly colored french confections. They’re two cookie-like almond meringues that have some sort of filling between them. I have fallen in love with these yummy little treats.

But anyways, this is my third time making them…though it’s the second recipe I’ve tried. I first tried the Martha Stewart French Almond Macarons (Linky: http://www.marthastewart.com/355759/french-almond-macaroons), but they got all flat. Still insanely yummy. So I tweaked the recipe and came up with my own ‘Gluten free Almond Meringues’. I know, all meringues are gluten-free, but if you call a recipe gluten-free, people tend to be very impressed.

However, these macarons didn’t work perfectly for me as they did last time. They got all flat.

See how flat they are? And I wouldn’t mind flat, so much, but they were crunchy, too. And hollow.

😦 My macarons are flatsos. That was batch two that went in the oven, though, and I haven’t tried the first batch, and I think they’ll be better.

See? It’s fluffier, and hopefully slightly chewy on the inside. They have feet, too.

In case you were wondering, a ‘foot’, or ‘pied’ on a macaron are those little ruffled things you see around the bottom. They’re the sign of a well-baked macaron, which is why I was surprised they where crunchy and hollow.

I like my feet.

Here’s another picture of rows of filled macarons.

You can see there’s a bit of a difference in the buttercream: cookie ratio. I don’t mind.

I got the recipe here: http://ohsweetday.com/2013/04/my-perfect-macaron.html
The buttercream recipe is my own. Although I was a bit sad that they weren’t perfect, the buttercream cheered me right up. Man, is it good.

I’m not a frosting person. At all. Easy on the frosting and pass me some plain cake, guys! But I made this recipe to my tastes, so I think it worked out. I call it The Best Buttercream, or TBB.

This uses what I call the ‘melted butter method’ which I like because it doesn’t coat powered sugar all over the kitchen while you’re trying to cream it into the stupid butter. Take it from someone who has once had to brush powered sugar off the ceiling; this is easier.

Recipe!

4 cups powered sugar

1 stick butter, melted

2 – 4 tablespoons of milk.

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In bowl of mixer with paddle attachment, put in powdered sugar and turn on low. While mixer is on, add the melted butter and mix until it appears crumbly. Add the milk one tablespoon at a time until you get the consistency you want. Add the vanilla.

And that’s it! For this recipe, I added 1/4 teaspoon caramel extract from Market Spice, and I’ve used strawberry jam to make strawberry buttercream, too. You could even replace the milk with coffee if you wanted, though I’d do that more to taste.