le blog

Ladurée Macarons (photo from Ladurée) One of my favorite things to do in Paris is to go to a Ladurée and have a macaron. No, not a macaroon, my American friends, but an authentic French bite of heaven - a macaron. Before you shrug this off as just being a difference in the spelling of an ordinary cookie, read on... Inside Ladurée (photo by J. Boyer-Switala - 2013) Although both delicious in their own right, there is a big difference between a macaroon and a macaron. A macaroon / mah-kah-ROON/  is chewy, lumpy, coconutty goodness. They are relatively simple to make, and unlike the macaron, require little to no finesse. A macaron / mah-kah-ROHN/ is chewy, smooth perfection. Although macarons are made with almond flour, they come in a variety of flavors and colors. And boy can they be buggers to make... Me eating (loving) a Ladurée Macaron Violet at CDG, Paris My quest to make macarons began a couple of years ago. I was craving them, and well, Central PA is not known

My Dad - Carl Boyer  (8 July 1946 - 1 June 2014) My Dad was the best man I’ve ever known. He was intelligent, kind, brutally honest, fair, and incredibly loving.   Nothing made him happier than his family – especially his grandchildren. This past December, we were delivered the terrible news that he had an illness called Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF).   IPF is a terminal condition that causes a build up of scar tissue to the point that the lungs cannot expand and contract properly. The lungs become rigid and a variety of undesirable things occur – namely the inability to breathe. Because there is no cure and relatively no treatment for IPF, we were given the timeline of about two years. If we’d only had that long… My Dad as a Senior in High School - 1964 Two weeks ago, Dad contracted pneumonia. Despite a full course of antibiotics, his health steadily declined. Last Wednesday, he was admitted to the hospital, and by Thursday he was in the ICU.   I watched helplessly