The Dainty Macaron: Queen-Bee Confection Extraordinaire

Wandering into one of my favorite local shops (Sift Cupcakery) to pick up some sweets, I was taken aback when behind the glass wall, intermingling amongst the cupcakes, was a strange yet tantalizing new treat. It was large and colorful. Like a whoopie-pie on crack. They came in an assortment of colors: pink, deep red, pale beige, deep chocolate brown, and yellow. When I asked what they were, I was shocked.

"They're macarons." the girl behind the counter said.

...as in *French macarons*?!? OMFG they have macarons the size of your head here! Hello AMERICA! Land of the free, home of the obese -where if it's worth doing...it's worth doing 10x the size of the original! :) "I'll take one!" I blurted out immediately. I chose the one that was the macaron cousin of my favorite Sift cupcake, the "Ooh La La". It's a red velvet cupcake with a simple cream cheese frosting. The macaron was delicious. It was so big it made me want to vomit when I was done. But it was still good.

A few weeks go by and I am craving macarons again. I now no longer have to go all the way to Sebastopol to Patisserie Angelica, for a Parisien (by far and away my favorite cake in all the land!). The Parisien is essentially one big macaron cake. There are three layers of almond macaron with a praline buttercream filling and it is to die for!

I also don't have to go to Berkeley to stop by Masse's Pastries for an assortment of the best local macarons money can buy. 

This place is also a culinary *must*. They are mix-masters of different world culinary styles. Incorporating unusual and divine flavors (for a macaron at least) such as the Asian Yuzu (it' a citrus fruit. Think: the lovechild of a mandarin and a grapefruit...on their sexy vacation to Paris.) Anyhoo... I don't have to go there either because now there's Sift. Making French macarons in my own backyard. 

Or so I thought, until I returned weeks later to find their macarons had evolved even more so. They were now peitie -the size they should be. And daintily packaged in a cellophane bag, in clusters of four. Excitedly, I took home my new prize and tried the other flavors in the bag. They were...terrible. Visually they were appealing. Beautiful even. But the flavors had none of the subtlety or complexity of Masse's confections or Patisserie Angelica. The pink one, tasted like Easter candy. Bright, overpoweringly sweet, and artificial. It was an assault on the senses. The only so-so one was the chocolate flavor. The rest, including the rouge Ooh La La had to be rejected. Before the proportions had been all off...but the flavors were good. Now, the size was correct, and the macaron it's self was still palatable, however, the filling had been replaced with a cheap sugary icing, a cheap sugary icing that hadn't been mixed well...so the powdered sugar was still gristly on the tongue. ICING!!?! WTF! There is no ICING in a MF macaron! What are you doing here Sift!? I expected more from you. :p

Zion National Park

Back for a minute from a long road trip to Zion National Park. For those of you who are like: "Huh? Where's that?" and you're not feeling like Googling it...it's in the Southwestern corner of Utah.

Beautiful country. "God's country." -Geeze when I say that...some part of me squirms and thinks: "Man...this feels like the adult version of believing in the Easter Bunny or Santa." Does he exist? I'm not sure. What I'm pretty sure of is, I don't know...and you don't know...but I guess we'll all find out one day. But I digress...

I went with my little cousins, Jenna (13), and Daniel (10). For a long time, I had been wanting to do something nice for both them and their parents. So, I called them up and invited them. Luckily, everyone was up to the impromptu adventure. :) And it was a blast!

The drive down took FOREVER! Practically 24 hours! Primarily because of some heinous pockets of traffic that we hit on I-5. It seemed to get worse the closer to the L.A. area we got. There were two spots where we spent about 3 hours (in each spot) going about 5 miles an hour. :p But by the time we got into Zion...it was all worth it!

We spent most of our time there cycling through a few activities. The average day was an amalgamation of: sleep until you're sweaty and hot, get up and go swimming in the river, play, laugh, talk, relax, then when we're cooled down...at some point we'd notice that we were hungry...so we'd head back to camp, make some food, eat our meal (usually with s'mores), wash up, get our heads cool by running them under cold water, then take a nap from the food coma. :) Rinse and repeat. It was a good time.

I didn't have time to do the hiking that I had planned on. An executive decision was made to forgo the hikes this trip. After running it by Jenna and Daniel, it became apparent that they were much more interested in going swimming rather than the *awesome* hike through The Narrows.

So...I made the decision to go do things that we would all enjoy and just relax. I made the right call. We had so much fun. And on the ride home, we stopped in Las Vegas for lunch! Ahhhh Las Vegas....how I love you for your amazingly clean public restrooms. Casino's and Mormons...they have the cleanest restrooms. :) (It's the little things in life that make it all worth it.) ;)

We took a different route home, and cut through the Nevada desert. Meandering through one horse towns like Beatty, Goldfield, and Tonopah. The drive home went much faster, due in large part to the overwhelming *nothingness* that is the Nevada countryside. No SoCal traffic! :)

We stopped to get gas, sandwiches and of course try on hats. :)

Lookin' good Daniel! 

So...I'm definitely going back to Zion. Next time, I will pack lighter -take waaaaay less clothes. Jenna and I agreed that one pretty much only needs to take their swimsuit, PJ's, and a pair of shorts. (the shorts are optional) :) As well as the PJ's....OK...so you only need to take a swimsuit. :D And I'll slot more time to enjoy the scenery once I'm there.

George Is Missing

Last Sunday, I spoke with George in the evening. His foot hadn't been healing (he's diabetic), and the doctor told him to stay off of it. Then he told me that his vision had faded out to black in one eye, which *really* worried me. "Um...George? Do you want me to take you to the emergency room?"

"No, no. I'm going to make an emergency appointment with my specialist on Monday. I'll call first thing tomorrow morning and get in. I'll call you on Monday or Tuesday to let you know how it goes." -He didn't want to go to the emergency room because he figured that they wouldn't be of much use. That they probably wouldn't know what was up with his vision and that they wouldn't have a specialist on hand over the weekend. After thinking about the many times that I took my mom to the hospital, and how frustrating it would be having to explain and get the emergency room staff up on my mothers condition, I thought about it and decided that George was probably right.

George is a very practical man. When you call him, and get his answering machine (and yes...he has an *actual* machine in his apartment) the recording that you get says: "Leave your message after the beep." That's it. Straight forward. Simple. Clear. He's the kind of man who calls when he says he will call. Shows up when he says he will be there. He's steadfast and reliable. So when he didn't call me on Monday or Tuesday to let me know how he was, I began calling him. It's now Saturday. And I still haven't heard from him. On Friday I called the hospital that he usually goes to. This morning, when I still hadn't heard from him, I called all of the other hospitals in the city as well. Then I called the police department to do a welfare check. My friend Katy, who is a social worker advised this. She told me exactly what to say to make sure that someone actually does go down and do a check. She told me things that I wouldn't think to emphasize. Wouldn't *know* to emphasize...how would I really? I've never done this sort of thing before. She told me to tell them that he's old, the last time I spoke with him he was sick and was going to go to the hospital, that he has no family, no one to make sure he's OK, and that this is very unusual behavior. That I speak to him *all the time* and that I haven't been able to get a hold of him since Sunday. That he would call. That he always calls.

To the credit of the San Francisco Police Department, they listened. From the initial officer who took the non-emergency call that I placed, to the street cop who called me back shortly thereafter. They followed up promptly. They contacted the owner of the building, and unfortunately, everyone who has a key to George's apartment is in L.A. this weekend. :p But they also spoke with his neighbors, and they said that he usually leaves his shoes outside of his apartment door. The officer said that there was a pair of Crocs (oh George...Crocs? :)) outside of his door, but that his neighbor said that he wears other shoes when he goes out and that they were missing. "That's a good sign right?" I said. The officer wasn't sure and asked me if I wanted them to break down his door. I really am not sure. I don't want to make the wrong call on this one. He very well could be in a diabetic coma in his apartment, slowly dying. That thought has crossed my mind. Or he could be in a hospital somewhere...and maybe through some clerical error or perhaps the person not hearing me clearly, when I called to see if they had a patient with his name...he didn't show up? But was actually there??? Or maybe he's dead, which is *why* they don't *currently* have a patient by his name? Or maybe he's at a friend's house, being taken care of because he was too sick to care for himself? I honestly don't know. Or he could be just fine (fingers crossed) and in a very out of character manner has simply forgone checking his answering machine or calling me like he usually does? -Yeah...that last one is not likely...but I hope it's what has happened. The police officer told me that if I wanted them to break down his door, that someone would have to be there to take responsibility and secure his apartment. -makes sense. Glad to see that they won't just break down a door and leave it unlocked. :p I'm waiting a bit longer. If I don't hear from George today, then I will do it. The logical part of me says so many things. I'm not sure what to do really. I don't want to break George's door down and have him come wandering back home. But I *really* don't want to do nothing when he needs me. ...And what if I already have? What if I should have broken his door down on Wednesday? I have a horrible feeling inside of me. ...Of "What if?" What if...George is dead? How am I going to handle it? How am I going to reconcile myself with that, knowing that I may have acted too late? What if...we break down his door and actually find him?

Please George...Just be OK?