Macarons Part 2
I decided to take another stab at macarons… and they turned out significantly better!
The last time I made macarons, I made a few mistakes:
1) The piping tip I bought was so small that I had to use all my might to squeeze the mixture onto the tray;
2) I cut the recipe in half, and since the measuring cups I have do not use the metric system, I did a lot of guesstimating—which proved to be a bad choice when making such a high-maintenance dessert; and
3) Most notably, I set my expectations so high—as I do—that it just made for a bad time.
This time around I tried my best to fix these problems. I bought a bigger piping tip. I did the full recipe. I told myself it was fine if they didn’t turn out perfectly.
I could actually squeeze stuff out this time!
Made circles, not blobs :)
Looking nice, no?
Not perfect, but pretty good!
The colour was a bit off, and they expanded outward a bit too much and upward a bit too little. But, they were still quite pretty, and very, very delicious.
Overall, this macaron experience was a significant improvement compared to last time.
After I shared my last blog post, I couldn’t get over how nice people were to me. In the post I talked about my mental health and how I’m a negative perfectionist who’s struggling to feel fulfilled and optimistic.
Henry, my work BFF and one of my mental health counsellors, trying one of my macarons.
A bunch of people, many of whom I barely even know or haven’t talked to in years, reached out to me to tell me that they can relate; they get down and feel lost sometimes too. One person also kindly gave me a reusable piping bag with a large tip!
To all those people, I just wanna say thank you!
It was so nice to have friends, old acquaintances, and strangers connecting with me and wishing me well—especially when I thought that my mom was the only one reading my blog!
While it may seem obvious, sometimes it takes chatting with other people to remind you that you’re not the only one who gets sad. You’re not the only one who’s not sure what the bleep they’re doing. You’re not the only one who’s realizing that they’re living life based on wonky expectations and other people’s opinions.
With getting older comes self-awareness. As a result, shit that you don’t like about yourself can be brought forward, which—at least in my case—can lead to breakdowns. But if you learn something during those falls that causes you to make beneficial changes when you get moving again, then you’ll be better off than when you started!
We’re all just a bunch of delicious, imperfect macarons, and we’re only going to get better if we learn from our mistakes, try again, and treat ourselves a little bit nicer.
What I’ve learned/some realizations:
Doing shit, making mistakes, learning from said mistakes, applying those lessons next time > Sitting on your ass being sad.
People are really nice. And they’re stressed too.
The metric system… if there’s a better system, then I must have missed ‘em.
Click here for the lyrical treat that I’ve been listening to on repeat this week https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYzlVDlE72w.
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Stay tuned to see what I do with this old thang!