Grown-Up Playdate {Macaron Make n' Mingle}

Happy Spring, everyone!  I am so close to packing up the snow boots, snow pants, parkas, and shovels, I can taste it!  This has been such a long and cold Winter.  Karen & I  will be sharing a ton of fresh ideas this season. But, in the meantime  I wanted to share the sweet way we decided to say good-bye to Winter and hello to Spring!

For me, each new season is a clean slate.  And, this is certainly true of Spring.  I find myself to be the most creative this time of year. I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the vernal equinox but, a couple of weeks ago, I purchased that copy of Martha Stewart Living with the technicolor stacks of macaroons on the cover claiming,  "Gorgeous macarons you can make at home".  Well, if Martha says I can do it, then who am I to say they are wrong? This sounded like a perfect idea for a Make N'Mingle!

Macarons have always intimidated me a tiny bit.  Maybe its the maringue cookies, or the multiple step baking directions.  Or the delicate nature of them, or the fact that they seem to cost so much at the farmer's market.  I needed macaron moral support team; so I rallied a few girlfriends, promised them champagne and snacks, and picked up all of the ingredients we would need to make a few different flavored batches.

I'm not going to say that everything went according to Martha's plan.  Yes, we accidentally made almond butter instead of almond meal (thank you Trader Joe's for selling bags of already ground almond meal). And maybe we accidentally made hazelnut butter as well (which we obviously turned into an "I-Don't-Need-A-Reciple-Chocolate-Hazelnut-Spread".)  We may have even had a taste test to see which knock-off Nutella worked best (homemade won!) I may have had to rip the bowl of salted caramel filling out of Karen's hands.  

What I do know is that somehow, five ladies got together and created an assortment of macarons that were out of this world delicious. Everyone went home with plenty of macarons to share with their loved ones (if they lasted that long). These tasty, little, pastel-colored pillows whispered "welcome, Spring."