This Young Mum: When in Rome...

I am so fucking proud of myself right now.

Shut up. You have no idea.

Okay, so. There was this one time I went to Europe, k? Right. And there were a couple of things I experienced there that never left me. They left an indelible blot on my soul and I thought about them for years after the trip. So what if those things were edible? Shut up.

Paris, France: Laduree. This place is like a little heaven. I think there is more than one in Paris. At any rate, these macaroons. Oh God. I had them at Laduree in des Champs-Elysees, the most beautiful part of Paris. The place with the giant Louis Vuitton suitcase? So. The Laduree Macaroon:

"The story of the Ladurée macaroon starts with Pierre Desfontaines, second cousin of Louis Ernest Ladurée, who at the beginning of the 20th century first thought of taking two macaroon shells and joining them with a delicious ganache filling."

Doesn't that just sound like the greatest idea since electricity?

The second thing in Europe that never left me was the Gelato at San Crispino, very near the Trevi fountain. They have so many flavours. So many. Pistachio is one of their best. I must have tried twenty when I was there. Gelato is not ice cream. Gelato is a religious experience.

I can't make Gelato, and would never attempt to try. BUT not long ago, Mike and I were in Oakville and we stopped in a place called La Casa Del Gelato Divino and I'll be damned if they didn't have hand-made-by-real-Italians-fucking-Gelato!!! I haven't been back since, but it was the first time since Europe I was so excited.

SO, finally, the reason I am so proud and ecstatic:

I FOUND A RECIPE FOR LADUREE MACAROONS!!!!

I have to make them in the very near future. And SO DO YOU!

Vegan or not, who gives a shit when it comes to Laduree Macaroons? (The correct answer is NOBODY)

So please do yourself a favour and force a little European indulgence into your life. I promise you've never had anything like it.