Devil Dog Damn Yankee Macarons – MacTweets Challenge #20

These may not be typical ball park snacks. Instead of hot dogs, I am offering up devil dogs. They are my homage to Damn Yankees, a classic musical about America’s favorite pastime in which the devil character is a major player. 

I loved everything he created. From Damn Yankees to Sweet Charity to Pippin (raise your hand if you saw The Big Deal). His wife, Gwen Verdon, was an extraordinary performer I admired as well. 

One of Gwen’s most famous roles was Lola, the devil’s secret seduction weapon in both stage and screen productions of the Faustian musical Damn Yankees. The Devil (Applegate) sets Lola out to seduce Joe, a middle aged man who made a pact with Applegate to become a young baseball star. Joe wants to help The Senators, his beloved baseball team beat those damn Yankees. Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets. Except Joe who is still in love with the wife he left behind and madness ensues.

Years later when I lived in LA and working as a TV producer, I went to an event honoring several ladies from movie musicals. After the presentation there was a reception during which I made a quick dash to the ladies room. Coming out of the stall, I washed my hands and began to touch up my makeup. Another woman emerged from another stall and our eyes met in the mirror. It was Gwen Verdon. However aged, her playful beauty and fabulous dancer bod were both still intact. I smiled. She smiled. We started chatting about this and that, the presentation, etc. I was about to leave and then I broke my own cardinal show biz rule. I turned back to Ms. Verdon and as dignified as I could manage, I gushed. I thanked her for her talent, for setting the standard, for inspiring me and fueling my show biz dreams. She was gracious and lovely. I felt uplifted and awkward at the same time. Ok, at least I didn’t ask for a picture. That would have been beyond awkward considering we were in the ladies room.

I walked back in to the reception thinking about the little girl I was all those years ago dancing around in my childhood bedroom or in local community productions to songs like You Gotta Have Heart, Hey Big Spender and Magic to Do. And  here I was years later, an Emmy nominated TV producer sharing a ladies room moment with one of the greatest musical performers ever. It was a measure of my journey and I would be lying if I didn’t say it made me a little sad at the time to think about how far I’d strayed from Theater.

  
So these are for Gwen Verdon, one of the brightest lights Broadway and Movie Musicals has ever seen…and forever the quintessential Lola.

Devil Dog Macarons

I could not resist putting little fondant horns on these. I am sure I need professional help about compulsively dressing up macarons in little outfits.

These devil dog macarons are snack food good. You can’t lose with a chocolate marshmallow combo.

For the Chocolate Shells:

 I used David Lebovitz’s recipe. I wanted my shells as dark as possible to mimic a Devil Dog so I threw caution to the wind and added 4 tablespoons of cocoa instead of David’s recommended three. The shells came out fine just a bit chewier than usual.

For the Marshmallow Frosting Filling:

I searched for a copycat Drake’s Devil Dog recipe and found this one over at Famous Tasty Recipes. I used the filling recipe. It was delish.

I see cannibals munchin’ a missionary luncheon
The years may have flown but the memory stays
Like the hopes that were dashed 

when the stock market crashed
Ha ha ha ha
Those were the good old days