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Friday, July 2, 2010

Sing a Song: Attack of the Macs!


Summer has finally arrived! Not that I would wish my life away or anything, but the prospect of summer fruit could compel almost anyone to yearn for July to roll around. Yes, cherry/plum/apricot/raspberry/strawberry season has come, and the bounty has started to emerge. Granted, our cool and damp spring weather has hindered fruit harvest slightly, but I remain optimistic.

One of the fruits I most anticipate is the cherry, preferably dark, firm Bings. Last spring, I had the great fortune of living within easy access of a cherry tree, although by this time in the Bay Area the fruit would be long gone! But here in the PNW, cherries are ripe for the picking.

So this month, Mactweets challenged us to take inspiration from a song when concocting our little almond cookie sandwiches. As a devoted Broadway musical fan, a good portion of my iTunes selection consists of showtunes. During the fall of 2008, I had the great fortune to attend Spring Awakening in San Francisco. Not only was the performance marvelous, but in the preceding weeks leading up to the show I managed to thoroughly addict myself to the soundtrack. It seemed perfectly appropriate to listen to the final song, The Song of Purple Summer, while baking macarons for this challenge.

In the spirit of the song and the recent transition from spring to summer, my sister and I celebrated her return from London by creating Purple Summer macarons. Yes, these little green pistachio gems are filled with a deep amethyst cherry preserve. While slightly undercooked (I admit to being impatient!), the flavors really did complement each other nicely. I highly recommend David Lebovitz's guidelines for No Recipe Cherry Jam to fill your macs!

8 comments:

Deeba PAB said...

Brilliant work. I love the fruity flavours and the song. Your macs are riding high on a Spring Awakening! Your purple summer macs are precious!
{You might be able to add the link to the song by going into post edit, edit HTML, and then paste the code from the link you have where you want the video to embed.}

Jamie said...

Perfect! And fabulous macs! I am in total agreement about summer fruits and wait impatiently all year round for them. The cherries are just showing up at the market and I've been wanting to try Davd's recipe.

The song is great and so are the macs! Cherries and pistachio are one of my favorite combos. Great job!

The Mad Hausfrau said...

These are beautiful. Love the colors and the flavor and the inspiration.

Bonnie said...

I love the bright purple and green colors. Nothing is as good as fresh summer fruit. Nothing. These are wonderful.

Hungry Rabbit said...

Fantastic use of cherries for your macs.Love it for the representation of purple.

Deeba PAB said...

Love your macs. Brilliantly done on the flavours and colours. I was here a while ago and left a comment; it's strange that I can't see it. Hmmm ... looks like it got eaten up by the mac attack!! Thanks for joining us at MacTweets Rachel!!

Cristie said...

Rachel, I've done the same thing so many times with soundtracks to broadway shows--you can't get them out of your head once they are there. I'll have to check this show out, I haven't heard of it before. Your macs are such a beautiful, brilliant color. I love it! And the flavors are so well chosen.

Sue said...

I love the bright lime green color, especially with the contrasting deep purple! Pistachio macs sound yummy!