Laduree Macarons (slightly damaged from air travel)

Our darling 3rd daughter stepped off the plane today from London after cancelled travel plans for us and for her.  We worried about how long she would be stranded in London.  A week later, our patience paid off and she is finally home after a semester abroad.  She thoughtfully chose gifts for everyone.  The Customs agent must have wondered if she was a sweets/cookie representative for Harrod's Department store.  She brought gifts for everyone; a can of tennis balls from Wimbledon, scarfs, shoes, bags, silver charms,

hot sauce from Nando's, a large assortment of British candy, Ben's cookies, and for me; reproduction fat quarters from the current Victoria and Albert Museum Quilt exhibit; and my very favorite gift...

a whole box of Laduree macarons from Harrod's. 
 

Rachel even spotted a Garrett's popcorn outlet in the Chicago airport terminal and brought me a whole bag of freshly made caramel crisp popcorn.  If you've never tasted Garrett's caramel corn you haven't lived.  It was just like Christmas at our house.

What a treat.  We tasted all 18 flavors of the macarons, a sliver at a time.  We made a game of trying to distinguish the flavors.  Rachel brought some of her favorites and some that were new to her.  Some flavors were very familiar to us and others like rose water and bergamot were totally foreign to our taste.  We all had different likes and dislikes.  Laduree says that one of the most popular flavors is Licorice.  No one at our house liked it and I think the black was odd (unless it's Halloween).  My favorite unusual flavor, believe it or not, was bergamot.  Who knew?  Everyone's favorite in our house was lemon and we agreed that the salted caramel was good, but it was the filling we loved, not the shell.  One pastry tasted like lilies and one (we never did figure out what flavor it was) tasted unpleasantly like soap.   Yecch!!!  You can see that even though they were boxed, they didn't travel particularly well.  Of cours, they did have to travel a long way.  Those of you who have tasted or made these confections know that they are oh-so fragile.  We didn't care at all what they looked like.  You can see that they rolled around in the box some.  When we put them back we didn't pack them as nicely as they were originally spaced.  No matter.  We started cutting into them as soon as the photos were taken.

Laduree Parisien Macarons.  What a treat; by far my favorite souvenir!   Thank you Rachel, for being so considerate and picking out things that you knew we would love.  We're so grateful to have you safely home.  That you also brought such thoughtful souvenirs was just a very nice bonus.