More Macarons!

Last week, I made this fruit cream pie for a competition at the local farmer's market. I didn't win...probably because the competition was on Sunday and I ended up skipping church. Indeed, the Sabbath must be kept holy.

To use up the egg whites leftover from the cream filling, I decided to make macarons for practice. I made pistachio macarons, since the last one I made didn't have a whole lot of pistachio flavor, so I increased the amount of ground pistachios a little. I wanted to keep everything natural, so I didn't add any green food color, but sprinkled finely chopped pistachios instead.

Macaron batter, piped, whacked, and resting. I need a bigger silpat...
The dimples on the batter kinda worried me. The sesame macarons I've made previously had the similar dimples and they turned out to be a disaster. But what else can I do besides just popping them in the oven and praying to God?
About halfway through baking, I took a peek through the oven window (please excuse the grime....)

Sweet! The 'feet' are starting to develop on some of them!

Fully developed feet. Looking good!

Removed from the oven and cooling on the rack. As they cool, the 'feet' tends to shrink.

Pistachio Macarons with Strawberry Buttercream filling.

I whipped up a strawberry (American) buttercream to fill these beauties. Although their feet got a little tiny, they still qualify as the perfect macaron, with smooth, eggshell-like dome (no bumps); the interior was a little too hollow to my liking, but it turned out soft and meringue-like. I'm thinking of using other methods to make these--instead of French meringue, maybe use Italian meringue method. What's interesting is that there are no recipes (at least I haven't found any) that utilizes Swiss meringue method. I wonder why?