Confection - kənˈfekSHən/ noun: a dish or delicacy made with sweet ingredients.
Just so you know right off the top, this post is all fluff. There's nothing intellectually deep here. It's all sensory. I went to sleep last night and woke up thinking about a delightful confection that quite possibly may have the power to change your mood or your mind and take you straight to bliss. How could I keep that kind of information to myself? Besides, sometimes what we need is just a little confection to make our world right.
I have a new love affair. With macarons. Do you know them? I can't believe I've lived my whole life up until now without them. I'd seen them around but dismissed them as a funny little colored hamburger looking cookie that probably tasted weird. I passed them over time and again for the same old cookies and brownies. Anything oozing chocolate overshadows everything else in the bakery case. Chocolate is king, right? Until one day a couple of months ago when a girlfriend and I found ourselves in a café and bakery in San Francisco looking for an espresso to make our way home with. What's coffee without something sweet, so I found myself laboring over the minor decision of what to select. I scanned the bakery case, saw the multi-colored macarons and thought my usual, "no, those are weird" but couldn't land on something I wanted. Finally as a last resort I figured what the hell, I'll give the macarons a try. They did come in pretty colors after all. One chocolate, one caramel, one raspberry and one vanilla went into the bag and off we went. A ways down the road I decided to dig into my bakery bag. I fished out a macaron and held it up for inspection. I looked at it from all sides skeptical about its ability to please me. "Here goes" I thought as I took that first bite preparing myself to toss it back in the bag. It's a good thing I wasn't doing the driving because I think I would have slammed on the brakes as that first bite yielded unexpected deliciousness. I swear I heard the hallelujah chorus as I experienced the light, spongy, faint crunch of the macaron followed by the perfection of filling that flooded my senses. "WOW, these are amazing," I thought digging in for another bite. The beauty (one of - there are many) of the macaron is in three bites at the most, it's over. It's like being sprinkled with little fairy dust and then it's gone. Their fabulousness can hardly be denied when offered in flavors such as Lavender Poppy, Persian Rose, Salted Caramel, Dark Chocolate, Almond Amaretto and Red Velvet.
In that instant macarons and me became a thing. It was like overlooking the great guy that had been there all along. I made the ones from San Francisco last for a couple of days but then how was I going to get my fix? Some weeks later while perusing the freezer case at Trader Joe's for a dessert to bring to a BBQ there they were - Macarons à la Parisienne - chocolate and vanilla, 12 of them. Not long after that they started stocking the pretty flavored kind. They're not as good as the bakery but in a pinch, when I'm feeling pinched, they are as close as my freezer and are the magic salve that makes me feel pampered, sated and smiley. I've shared them like a treasured secret with my closest friends who were equally as impressed with the delight of them.
I'm looking forward to a long and lovely future of searching for and experiencing the joy of macarons with the sweetest of people.
