never have i ever.

if you know me at all, you know that i love to cook. which is why this weekend's culinary escapades were horrifying, to say the least.

never in my life have i ever made anything that turned out so awful that it was beyond salvaging. it was my first foray into french pastries (which, as i learned, are VERY delicate) and it was not a pretty sight. not only did i burn the dough, i also ruined the vanilla pastry creme (it didn't taste too bad...just had some "vanilla chunks" in it...).

but have no fear...i didn't quit.

no.

instead, i salvaged the egg whites from the vanilla pastry creme (since i had only used the yolks for the recipe) and made something brand new: chocolate macarons.

i've never made them before, but i guess they are a mix between cookies and brownies. also they are yummy. ask my brothers-in-law

( : they ate almost the entire batch at dinner yesterday.

so between yesterday and today, i remade my raspberry napoleons. here are the layers before i stacked them on top of each other.

napoleons were originally my mom's idea. i told her i wanted to make something french and she said something about them. so i found a video on youtube of a guy making them and made up my own recipe (since he didn't include any measurements...) and *voila.*

i didn't burn them this time ( :

^ one more treat to put on the menu at my bakery someday.