Birthday Baking

This blog is about what I want to share, and not about Don and Ashley's secrets. 

This blog is also about me preserving memories. A few years from now I'll wonder when did I bake with Ashley? This post will answer that question. 

It is also about trying out words and phrases. Ever since I could remember I wanted to be a writer. This blog is as close as I have gotten to writing for myself. Someday posts may be turned into chapters of a book. You'll be able to say you read it here first.

Ashley is busy. When she backed out of birthday dinner at my parents' house because she was busy I understood. Disappointed, because I love seeing her, but I understood. 

When she offered to spend time with me a few days later I was thrilled.  

My parents gave me a book about the history of chocolate complete with recipes and a bar of Special Dark chocolate to get me started. I asked Ashley if we could bake one of the recipes together.

I chose the macaron recipe because it was something I never made before.

Ashley took over the role of head pastry chef. 

I was her sous chef. I bought the ingredients, supplied the kitchen, the pans, the equipment, washed the dishes, and tried to solve problems.

Mostly I smiled to myself. Happy to be able to spend one-on-one time with my 23 year old. Proud of the woman she is becoming -- one who knows that making macarons is a huge time commitment that starts the night before (when I separated eight eggs in anticipation of our day of baking), and required less humidity than is possible on a warm late summer day in New Jersey. 

We had some starts and stops to making the recipe. I didn't realize the eggs needed to warm up to room temperature for two hours. Though I thought I had checked all the ingredients, I did not have enough confectioner's sugar. I also did not have enough cookie sheets so I started improvising. 

There was a lot of improvising. 

Hopefully Ashley will remember the fun. We didn't throw almond flour on each other like they do on TV. I'm not even sure she saw my happiness in spending time with her.

My hope is we can spend more time together. Just the two of us. Just for fun.