I always love Daylight Savings Time.  Today I have an extra hour, and what better way to use a gift like that than to shop.  In the spring, we lose an hour, and since the day’s shot anyway, is there any better time than that for a shopping excursion?

Although due to not having baked ahead, I have an awful lot of catching up to do, and therefore have precious little time for joyous shopping.  Yesterday I made 84 fruitcakes, and hope to do the same again today.  It sounds like a lot, but those sell very quickly when stores like Quality Greens order 8 cases (192 fruitcakes).

As well, I get asked to make adorable little gift baskets, and that can be time-consuming. You know the nice woman from the gym who ordered bark for her business’ conventions?  She wanted to see a little gift ensemble for their managers for Christmas.

I recalled the half fruitcakes I made for the huge Nokia cell phone company order I received in 2007.  I still had some fo the cute cube-shaped boxes left, so cut one of each fruitcake in half, vacuum-sealed them, and put them in the little boxes.  Then I put half a pound of bark in one of the larger fruitcake boxes.

All three labels, the Okanagan Harvest, Totally Decadent and Okanagan Chocolate Bark, have the same orchard and sun-rise theme, so they look absolutely fab together in the box.  I wrapped the bark box in a thin green fabric ribbon, and placed all three items onto a pillow of white tissue.  Voila!

It’s a really nice-looking gift.  I put a note into it for Joanne saying, “I scare myself sometimes.” She loved it, and said they want a minimum of 12, but maybe more.  That’s the kind of thing I love fooling around with so much.

I guess that’s why an article about macarons caught my eye.  I’ve heard of macaroons, of course, but never macarons.  It turns out they’re also a meringue confection, but made with almond paste and filled with butter cream.

There’s a new chi chi French patisserie here in Kelowna, called Sandrine, and I see they make macarons.  I plan to go in there and buy some, so I know what the finished product should be like.  Then I can start to experiment.

And wouldn’t you know Alison, whose mother was a home ec teacher, and who can’t stop emulating her mother’s penchant for hunting down new recipes, said she has a recipe for macarons which she’ll send.  There’s even one in the older edition of The Joy of Cooking, even though I’ve never heard of these little delights until now.

I’m telling you, the old home ec teachers from Osoyoos Elementary Junior Secondary School would be amazed.  My best pal Liz was called a “lazy pudding” by one of them, and I only survived because my mom would sew my projects for me.

But here I am, all Martha Stewart-like, with tons of ideas, and no time.