SWEET TREATS Make your Valentine’s Day a tasty one with mouthwatering macarons » Taste CAPE CORAL /FORT MYERS

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STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS Follow the leader, Obama tells GOP

President rolls out his prescription to fix the ailing U.S. economy. inside By David Jackson creating good middle-class jobs planned overall withdrawal. RUBIO USA TODAY “must be the North Star that “By the end of next year,” Oba- guides our efforts,” Obama told ma said, “our war in Afghani- Florida senator President Barack Obama a joint session of Congress and a stan will be over.” says more outlined plans Tuesday to re- national television audience. The president also con- government vive American prosperity by While devoting most of his demned the nuclear ambitions isn’t the answer. rebuilding “a thriving middle speech to jobs and the economy, of North Korea and Iran, and »A2 class,” calling it the “true en- Obama also announced plans to pledged to work with Russia to gine of America’s economic pull 34,000 U.S. troops from Af- continue reducing American RESPONSE growth” during his annual State ghanistan over the next year, re- and Russian nuclear stockpiles. President Barack Obama urged Congress on Florida of the Union Address. ducing the American presence Tuesday night to embrace his plans to use congressmen Growing the economy and by about half as part of a See SPEECH » A2 government money to create jobs. AP weigh in. »A2

LEE COUNTY SPRING TRAINING Vote on Baseball springs to life impact fees is tabled

Commission will take another stab at moratorium in March.

By Thomas Himes [email protected]

Lee County commissioners Tuesday unanimously pulled away from a vote on suspending impact fees, agreeing instead to weigh the issue for another month. Meanwhile, de- velopers who pay the surcharges will have their dollars shuttled to an escrow ac- count. The money could be refunded if impact fees are Kiker reduced or lifted by commissioners in March, ac- cording to Commissioner Larry Kiker’s request to postpone the vote. Commissioner Frank Mann, who wants to keep levying the fees to cover the cost of new Boston Red Sox pitcher Andrew Bailey soaks in the first day of spring training Tuesday at JetBlue Park. SARAH COWARD/THE NEWS-PRESS schools, roads and parks, wel- comed Tuesday’s delay. “This may be government at Red Sox take field for first workouts; Twins begin practice today. its finest in seeking a compro- mise here,” said Mann of talks By David Dorsey ing. They relished the present. VIDEO INSIDE that have shifted from suspen- [email protected] They tried not to think about the Watch David Dorsey’s SPORTS cold and dreary future arriving for interview with the first Boston Red Sox star See FEES » A5 Eric and Clea Meliso and their them today. fan to arrive to the Red Sox David Ortiz opens up four children, ages 4 to 9, were “I’ve got to go back and dig out spring training complex, about the troubles he soaking in the first rays of spring Fenway South, for the first and the team had last training sunshine Tuesday morn- See BASEBALL » A3 day of workouts. season, C1. SPORTS Champions Tour ELECTIONS comes to town

See our viewer’s guide to After 2012 foul-up, Nelson floats 1-hour voting The ACE Group Classic. »C3

Bill makes case for national standards. in the November election. Sen. Bill to ensure that no voter waits longer Nelson wants to prevent that from than an hour to cast a ballot. By Ledyard King happening again. “In the interest of fairness and to The News-Press Washington Bureau The Orlando Democrat is teaming avoid undermining the credibility of and Jackie Winchester up with Democratic Sen. Barbara our elections, we should be making [email protected] Boxer of California on The LINE Act voting more convenient, not more dif- (for Lines Interfere with National ficult,” Nelson said Tuesday. “People WASHINGTON — Thousands of Flo- Elections), which calls for national ridians stood in line for hours to vote standards for polling sites. The goal is See VOTING » A5 Nelson

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THESE ARE A FEW PLACES TO BUY AND TRY MACARONS: » Norman Love Confections: 11380 Lindbergh Blvd. off Daniels Park- way, Fort Myers, call 561-7215; and 3747 Tamiami Trail N., Naples, call (HEART) 687-7215; visit normanloveconfections.com. » Lush French : 1514 Broadway at First Street, downtown Fort Myers, call 561-0306; 13550 Reflections Parkway, Suite 4-401, south Fort Myers, call 454-9100; and 20461 S. Tamiami Trail, Unit 20, at Broadway WE Avenue, Estero; visit lushfrenchbakery.com. » Grain de Cafe: 8803 Tamiami Trail N. just south of Vanderbilt Beach Road, Naples; call 594-8081; visit Grain de Cafe on Facebook. » Le Macaron French : 10801 Corkscrew Road, Suite 183, at MACARONS Miromar Outlets in Estero, call 949-7001 or visit lemacaron-us.com. Check out a raspberry-rose macaron recipe, a photo gallery and video of chef Nathaniel Reid making macarons at For this Valentine’s Day, we’re sweet news-press.com/taste. cated,” Bernier said. Lush’s for about for 13 minutes, al- on oh-so-fragile French dessert. master baker, André Gratesol, though every recipe detail de- makes the macarons, which go pends on the weather, the chef’s By Amy Sowder to the three Lush bakery loca- eye and intuition. Reid opened [email protected] tions. the oven a couple times and waved the hot air out so humid- hen you bite into a Making macarons ity didn’t damage his macarons. fresh French macaron, Named 2010 of “There are so many vari- Wthe delicate outer Pastry chef Nathaniel Reid, left, removes trays of freshly baked macarons from the oven under the watchful eye the year at the U.S. Pastry Com- ables with this cookie, it makes layer crackles. of chocolatier Norman Love. PHOTOS BY SARAH COWARD / THE NEWS-PRESS petition in New York, Reid han- people crazy, so they stop,” Fault lines in the pale rose dles the way macarons are Love said as he watched Reid’s macaron succumb to your teeth tween $1.50 and $2.10 a piece at made at Norman Love Confec- macarons round up smooth and and tongue, giving way to a Southwest Florida’s Norman tions. shiny. Each macaron sported a soft, airy almond . Love Confections, Lush French More than a week before the spongy ring, called the “foot,” a Your senses tingle with plea- Bakery, Le Macaron French Valentine’s Day holiday rush, true sign of a chef’s ability. sure as your tongue touches Pastries and Grain de Café. Reid started on a batch of rasp- Pulling the tray out, Reid upon the smooth orange-blos- “It’s a nice contrast of crispi- berry-pink macarons filled with picked one up with his middle som sandwiched ness on the outside and softness a white -chantilly finger and thumb, checking for inside. inside with the cream,” said buttercream that whispered of a loose, yet firm wiggle to the This is a French pastry like pastry chef Nathaniel Reid, a orange blossom water. macaron. He then paired the no other, exciting dessert lovers graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in “The shell has nothing to do macarons to create the sand- from California to New York Paris. Reid took his macaron with flavor. It’s just the vessel wiches, pressing lightly . the last five years, eventually love from the St. Regis Hotel in and for texture,” he said as he Outside the Norman Love taking hold of hearts in South- Dana Point, Calif., to Norman began boiling the raspberry pastry kitchen, in the salon west Florida. Pastry chef Nathaniel Reid pipes Love Confections in Fort Myers sugar syrup to drip it into the where customers lined up at the Pretty much every pastry macaron batter into heart shapes in 2010. whirling KitchenAid standup counter, Cape Coral couple chef and salesman call it the at Norman Love Confections. “Two and a half years ago mixer. Jamie and Mandy Kagol tried a “new cupcake” as the dainty An assortment of freshly made macarons at Norman Love Confections. when I started making them The egg whites, sugar and few macarons with Mandy’s delicacies appear more and here, people thought they syrup whipped into a pink parents, Roger and Nyla Goos- more behind glass cases in our Le Macaron French Pastries macaron maker is Ladurée, looked like little hamburgers or frothy cloud, later combining sen, visiting from St. James, French salons, and opened at Miromar Outlets in Identifying a macaron which has only one shop in the Whoopie pies,” Reid said with a with almond flour and pow- Minn. These pastries are not to be cafes. Oh, and they’re gluten- Estero in November, offering United States, on Manhattan’s smile, wearing a chocolate- dered sugar to form a pink “Wow,” said Jamie Kagol, 39, confused with the American free. flavors such as basil white Madison Avenue. colored rubber apron reaching paste for a . as he bit into a strawberry-lime coconut cookie, often hay- “The macaron is the craze chocolate, candied ginger choc- Opening in 1862, the Parisian down to his ankles. Reid piped perfect 4-centi- macaron. “It’s very soft with a stacked and dense, sometimes today,” said Norman Love, the olate, Colombian coffee, pas- café invented the double-deck- Parents who buy macarons meter circles onto the stencils kind of crunchy exterior and dipped in chocolate. That’s a award-winning chef and foun- sion fruit dark chocolate and er macaron in the 1930s, in for their children at Lush showing through a Silpat non- then you get the filling inside. . der of Norman Love Confec- crunchy . which two macarons sandwich French Bakery call them crab- stick baking mat. He smacked They’re light-tasting.” French macarons have a tions in Fort Myers and Naples. “But vanilla is their favor- a buttercream, jam or creamy by patties, said downtown Fort the bottom of the cast-iron bak- Nyla Goossen’s favorite is deceptively simple list of ingre- American chefs are tweak- ite,” said keyholder Sierra Har- ganache filling. The macaron Myers bakery manager Kara ing tray so the puffy pink cir- the vanilla cassis, or black cur- dients: almond flour, egg ing the traditional French mac- lan about her customers. Le itself came to 16th-century Bernier. cles flattened and smoothed rant, version. whites, sugar and powdered aron by creating crazy flavor Macaron’s product is made in by way of Queen Cath- “Families like to get them out. “The flavor is, is, it’s right sugar. profiles, stenciling, marbling the Florida company’s St. Ar- erine de Medici in Italy. for their kids, even though The macarons baked in a there,” said Goossen, 53. “It’s Perhaps the most famous and adding more texture. mands Circle store in Sarasota. The colorful sweets are be- they’re actually really sophisti- rotation rack convection oven kinda like a marshmallow.”

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