Dark Chocolate & Orange Macarons (plus macaron-making tips!)

Hello hello!

This week, friends, I’ve got a shiny new recipe that took many attempts to perfect.
I offered to write a guest post for Laura’s Mess and decided upon French macarons.

As we Northerners enter into the cold and desolation of winter (Well, we’re technically entering into fall, but we likely won’t be graced with its presence for long before winter shows its face!), and Southerners enter into the fresh rejuvenation of spring, I decided on a macaron recipe fitting for all seasons and any hemisphere: Dark Chocolate Orange. The slight piquancy of citrus is especially for those of you in or entering a season of warmth, and the chocolate is for anyone, because is there ever not a time for chocolate?

Fresh Squeezed Lemonade (with hints of orange & grapefruit)

I’m hooked. Honestly, I don’t know if I’d ever made true, fresh squeezed lemonade before this summer, but now that I’ve started, call me Miley Cyrus because I can’t stop.

I CAN’T STOP.

The obsession all started one day at work while cutting up a big ol’ container of lemons. It’s something I’d done hundreds of times, but I was really feeling the summer fever this particular day. After all the lemons were cut, the tray previously holding them was now holding a generous reserve of fresh lemon juice. Summer fever… lemon juice… What’s that saying? “When life gives you lemons…” MAKE LEMONADE! Well okay. 😀