For some reason the end of the year always seems to fly by. One minute I’m outside enjoying the last few days of summer and the next minute it’s the middle of January and I’m left wondering what happened. It could be that I love the holidays so much I bury myself in them, so much so that I completely forget to take a moment and step back to enjoy each day as I’m constantly looking forward at what needs to be completed by the end of the week.

That is exactly what has been happening around The Gourmet Foodie Blog household. I have completely submerged myself into intricate details of our next Halloween party. For me Halloween is the second greatest holiday there is. While I know many a foodie are scoffing at the fact that I place this “pseudo” Holiday above that of the endless food buffet that is Thanksgiving, there has always been a special place for it in my heart (it probably has to do a lot with the copious amounts of candy and treats).

I promise to do a post on what we made for our Halloween party food as I have some really fun ideas planned. While I know this will be a little too late I just don’t have the time to make them before the night of the big event as I have been elbows deep in some props I plan to have at this year’s party. My fingers are literally black right now from all the spray paint I have been using and I’m beginning to wonder if they will ever be clean again (my bet is for sometime around Christmas).

Now where was I ….. oh yeah!…

What does this all have to do with a Mac Attack you ask?

Well because I have been so entirely busy I almost forgot about this month’s Daring Baker’s Challenge! Lucky for me I have a calendar alert for such an occasion… I quickly logged into the Daring Bakers website and read that our challenge would be macarons… I both cheered and moaned all at the same time. While I was excited because I have always wanted to try making macarons I have also heard many a bad things about how difficult they are to make and doing this on a short time frame could prove to be very difficult.

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Fortunately the only thing I really found really difficult about making macarons was finding the almond flour. I had to go to 4 different grocery stores to find it! This would explain why I was so late in posting this today. I chose to add chocolate as my flavoring because let’s face it who doesn’t love chocolate? Maybe it’s because of all the Halloween decorations or maybe it’s because I love the combination of orange and chocolate. I decided to fill my freshly made chocolate macarons with quick and easy orange buttercream frosting. The resulting combination melted in my mouth and really satisfied my Mac Attack! I love these little treats so much that I can’t wait to start experimenting with other flavor combinations!

Ingredients:

Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)
Cocoa Powder: 2 tablespoons

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Yield: 10 dozen. Ami’s note: My yield was much smaller than this. I produced about two dozen filled macaroons.

Orange Buttercream filling

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Unsalted Butter
2 tbls Vegetable Shortening
3 1/3 cup Confectioners’ Sugar
1 tbls Orange extract

Directions:

Beat Vegetable shortening and butter until creamy.
Mix in Confectioners’ Sugar until smooth.
Add Orange extract.

Two weekends ago my grandparents came into town to do some visiting as they made their way down to Florida for the winter. Yes, most Minnesota (well most northern state) grandparents have the same migratory patterns which are surprisingly similar to that of a flock of ducks.

While they say they are just trying to stay warm I have a different theory. I believe that all of the grandparents go to Florida and engage in one massive 3 month long Spring Break party that no one under the age of 60 knows about and is reminiscent of the days of yesteryears. While many of you may question the feasibility of this let me first give you the name of this recipe; Mumbo Jumbo Gumbo.

Mumbo Jumbo Gumbo is not really a name that grandparents come up with while sipping hot coffee watching the sunrise on the beach. This is partly why I suspect that there may have been a little spring break partying involved with the creation of this recipe. *Disclaimer* they claim to have gotten this recipe from their son (my uncle) but I’m pretty sure that this is just another one of their elaborate cover ups (similar to that of Roswell).

Next Mumbo Jumbo Gumbo has everything you could ever want at a party; it’s extremely filling (great for absorbing any late night party concoctions) quick and easy to make (you need that if you have been partying for too long), and then there is a case to be made about how the recipe directions were written…

Mumbo Jumbo Gumbo

4 Chicken thighs
2 lbs of Polish sausage, sliced
1 can (14 oz) chicken broth
1/2 cup uncooked white rice
1 jar of Prego/Ragu/whatever Garlic and Herb spaghetti sauce
1 can (11 oz) corn
1 green pepper

- Cook the birdie bits and den slice ‘em up.
- Cut up the sausage. 2 lbs is double the normal amount but I like da sausage.
- Dump everyt’ing in a pot and den add 2 cups of water. You can add more water if you likes your Gumbos thinner.
- Bring da pot to a boil as if you was going to cook up some crawdads. Cover and cook over a medium fire for about 15 minutes or until da rice isn’t crunchy no more.

For a little more kick in your Gumbo you can zing it a little wit’ a bit of hot red pepper sauce.

Hoo-Wee!

Now does that sound to you like a recipe written by grandparents who do nothing but sit around and play cards every day as they say they have been? I think not! But I’ll let you be the judge here…..

Regardless of who or how this recipe was created I would have to say that this recipe is definitely the perfect recipe for a fall get together with family or friends. It makes enough to feed a hungry group of people and will leave everyone completely satisfied. Which is great…. no matter what it is you’re doing ……

I love bacon.

There I said it.

And because I love bacon I love to try an incorporate it into many of the dishes that I make (it’s a sickness I know). While I may not like it enough to dip it in chocolate or mix it into my cupcake mix (that takes it a little too far if you ask me those people need even more help then I do) I do like to add it when a dish is missing a little something.

A while back I had picked up some fresh scallops that had arrived at the local grocery store and made myself some seafood primavera. While the dish turned out pretty good I felt as though it was missing something. Which is probably why it didn’t turn out to be a post on my blog despite the fact that I took the time to photograph the dish in the first place.

Well this weekend I was looking back though some of my “close but not good enough” meals that I had made in the past and came across my seafood primavera recipe and remembered that there was just something about it that didn’t make me go “YUM!” And for some reason (maybe it was because I had just eaten a bacon filled breakfast) it hit me why not use bacon wrapped scallops?!?

So I ran to the grocery store and got everything that I needed for dinner that night. Then instead of just pan searing the scallops for the pasta primavera I wrapped them in bacon and that definitely did the trick!

Bacon wrapped pasta primavera is now one of my favorite dishes. I think it’s funny how sometimes you can change a dish from okay to fantastic with the addition of one or two ingredients. Maybe this is why I love cooking so much. I love to take recipes and try them out and then think about what I could add or take away to make the dish just a little bit better. While many dishes I make seem to be perfect in nature there are just as many that I feel could use a little tweaking.

This dish is best served with a little white wine on a beautiful fall afternoon. It is light in flavor and hearty enough to fill you up. Jess and I filled ourselves silly with this dish and still had some leftovers!

Bacon Wrapped Scallops Primavera

Ingredients:

• 10 Fresh Scallops
• 10 Slices Hickory Smoked Bacon
• 1 Red Bell Pepper
• 1 Green Bell Pepper
• 1 Yellow Bell Pepper
• ½ Pound Spaghetti Pasta
• ½ cup white wine

Directions:

1. Wrap each scallop with 1 slice of bacon securing with a tooth pick.
2. In a separate pan begin to boil water for pasta.
3. Add Pasta to boiling water cook according to directions.
4. Pan-sear the bacon wrapped scallops until bacon has fully cooked.
5. Slice Peppers and place in pan on medium heat. Add wine and simmer until soft. Approximately 7 minutes.
6. Dain cooked pasta and combine with peppers and wine in a separate bowl. Plate spaghetti and top with bacon wrapped scallops.

As the rain starts to fall here in Texas the grills slowly turn off as the winter months slowly come into view and while this may bring tears to many a grill masters it also presents opportunities for those same chefs to expand their horizons and explore what they can accomplish outside of the grill.

While most feel that cooking a steak on the stove is an unobtainable goal (which it isn’t) I like to look at the changing weather as a chance to expand past steak and visit other meats that get the shelf during the warm summer months.

I personally feel that Tuna steaks get a bad rap. I think that most people feel that they are like most fish and have that “fishy” taste to them and refuse to try them because of this. I unfortunately was like most people in the beginning and thought that surely the “fishy” taste would overwhelm any sense of satisfaction. This was until I tried sushi for the first time and realized that not all fish taste like…. Well… fish.

Tuna Steak recipes vary greatly, this is probably due to the fact that some feel as though the fish should be left “naked” to display the complexity of its flavor similar to that of a well aged steak, while others feel as though the flavor is not all that interesting and really aim to flair it up with intricate sauces and marinades. I am on the fence on this debate. While I have enjoyed a pan seared tuna steak with little more than salt and pepper I have also fallen in love with recipes where the real star is in the marinade.

This is one of those recipes. While I can appreciate the complex and delicate flavors of a freshly seared tuna steak I really love what Tyler Florence did with this recipe. The balance of the sweet and the savory really come together to create a marinade that makes this steak delectable. It has a fresh zesty taste that also carries a little kick (which is completely adjustable by the amount of jalapeno added)!

I personally only used 1 ½ jalapenos when I made this as I like a little heat but I don’t like to tear up when eating well maybe I do… but not because the meal is overwhelmingly hot….

Pan-Seared Tuna with Avocado, Soy, Ginger, and Lime
Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

Ingredients

• 2 big handfuls fresh cilantro leaves, finely chopped
• 1/2 jalapeno, sliced
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 1 garlic clove, grated
• 2 limes, juiced
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• Pinch sugar
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 (6-ounce) block sushi-quality tuna
• 1 ripe avocado, halved, peeled, pitted, and sliced

Directions

In a mixing bowl, combine the cilantro, jalapeno, ginger, garlic, lime juice, soy sauce, sugar, salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Stir the ingredients together until well incorporated.

Place a skillet over medium-high heat and coat with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Season the tuna generously with salt and pepper. Lay the tuna in the hot oil and sear for 1 minute on each side to form a slight crust. Pour 1/2 of the cilantro mixture into the pan to coat the fish. Serve the seared tuna with the sliced avocado and the remaining cilantro sauce drizzled over the whole plate.

Good Morning –

For Some reason I LOVE fall mornings. There is just something about the cool crisp breeze, dew drenched grass, and the quiet stillness in the air that makes me want to wrap up in a warm blanket and watch the sunrise!

Another thing I love about fall mornings is the smell of cinnamon. I can’t think of a better smell in the morning and I can’t think of a better breakfast treat then some fresh homemade cinnamon rolls! There is just something about the smell of fresh homemade cinnamon rolls that gives me the sense of home. Maybe it’s because I always use to love it when my mom made cinnamon rolls for breakfast. While she usually made the ones that were from the can I can assure you when you’re younger there is no better breakfast in the world.

What I love about these cinnamon rolls is the fact that not only are they quick and simple to make the whiskey gives them a whole new flavor profile. As the whiskey caramelizes in the oven and burns off the alcohol your buns will come out in ewey gooey perfection! Perfect for wrapping up in a blanket and watching the sunrise…. Speaking of which….. I probably should get back to that!

Whiskey & Walnut Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients:

1 ball of bread dough (can be store bought)
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
½ oz whiskey

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl combine the Sugar and Cinnamon.
Roll your dough into a 9 x 11 in rectangle. Evenly spread the combined cinnamon and sugar over the dough.
Now roll the dough so you have an 11 inch long tube. Cut the tube into 1 inch sections and arrange in a round glass baking dish.
Using a pastry brush gently apply ½ oz whiskey coating.
Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until golden brown.