Yesterday's Day Trip

Yesterday we took a break from all the tractoring and slash burning and went for a drive. We were looking for a horse camp for possible future rides. As luck would have it the camp is not open yet for the season.

On the way we passed this field full of...

...water buffalo!

We've seen them before while driving this road and I never had a camera with me or they were way off the road.

I could hardly believe it the first time I saw them but found this article about them on-line. Yesterday they were close to the corner by the road so I jumped out to get a picture. Unfortunately they were rather skittish and as soon as they saw me getting out of the truck they started scampering away.

We continued on our way and came to this rock formation. It's called Steins Pillar. The sign explains how it was formed. (Click on the pictures to enlarge.)

This was taken at the "view point". Next time we go this way I think we'll stop along the road because I think I could have taken a nicer picture.

The road loops through the national forest and we ended up back in Prineville on Main Street. When we got home I attempted to make "macarons". (Not macaroons.) I first saw them when Chuck Hughes made them on his show "Chuck's Day Off". I got the recipe off of the Cooking Channel website. They were very time consuming to make (I had to make my own almond powder for one thing...) Then there was the thing they forgot to mention in the recipe. The important thing like to line the baking sheets with parchment paper before piping the mixture on. Here's the first mention of a baking sheet:

Fit a piping bag with a 3/8-inch/1 cm round tip. Pipe the batter onto the baking sheets. Tap the underside of the baking sheet to remove air bubbles. Let dry at room temperature for 1 hour to allow skins to form.

Did you see any mention of parchment paper? I didn't. So I cooked them and then:

Remove the macarons from the oven and transfer parchment to a cooling rack.

Now it mentions parchment! So my macarons kind of stuck. I had to be very careful getting them off the pan. That's why they are all cracked. Then came the experience of attempting to make the butter cream. Well, let's just say it was a slight disaster that I fixed by adding a packet of instant vanilla pudding.

So my macarons weren't perfect but they didn't taste too bad. They are very rich and I may attempt them again some time in the distant future. But with a different recipe source.