In a medium sized bowl sift Almond Meal and Confectioners sugar together removing any pieces that remain in the sieve. 

You will need to separate the 4 egg whites and save the egg yokes for the icing.  place the egg whites into your mixing bowl and turn on the mixer to medium high.  when eggs whites start to froth add sugar slowly.  whip the egg whites until you have firm peaks, add the food coloring finish mixing until color is even.

you will need to combine the egg whites and the dry ingredients together.  You will need to fold in your ingredients. The idea here is not to deflate the egg whites completely (this is what helps form the feet, but you don't want to leave it with to much air then you get puff balls and cracks).  this is where the ribbon effect or lava flow comes in.  Best way to see if the batter is ready is to lift your spatula out of the batter and see if the batter flows evenly off  your spatula and melts together once it hits the batter in the bowl. Once you have this consistency you are ready to pipe your cookies.

Follow the instructions on how to use the coupler and piping tip.  place the decorating bag into a tall cup, it is much easier to put the batter in the bag this way. fill the bag up 2/3 of the way and then, fold top down and use a rubber band to secure (this keeps the batter from oozing out of the top of the bag.

This step needs a little practice, (to get the size even on each of them), you need to pipe them far enough apart so the don't grow together. Here is an example of one of my first tries at piping the cookies

Once you have piped the cookies you will need to let them sit for about 1/2 hour to a full 1 hour depending on the weather.  The top of the cookie needs to be dry to the touch, not sticky at all (again this allows you to have those perfect feet)You will need to bake them at 350 degrees.  Do not use convection the air doesn't lend itself to even cooking with Macarons.  It takes about 14 minutes to cook them, again this is an art, too long and they get dried out and the top pops off and to little and they are sticky and don't come off the tray.

Now you need to make your filling.  Take 3 TBSP of Confectioners Sugar, 2 TBSP of Water, and 1 egg yoke (I used 2 egg yokes), mix together and place in a small sauce pan, bring to a boil  over medium heat and then remove from heat.  This happens very quick so keep your eye on it.  Let it cool.  In your mixing bowl, mix butter til it is light and fluffy, add 1/2 of the remaining confectioners sugar with your vanilla, blend, add the egg mixture, blending on medium high. You will then  adding the remaining confectioners sugar.  You will have to decide if you need more water or less.  I don't add water til the end so I can control the consistency.  I also used 2 egg yokes instead of 1 so I didn't need any of the additional water.

At this point you are ready to put the cookie together.  Match up the cookies, a top and bottom, you will again use the Decorating Bag with tip.  (you can use a fancy tip that makes pretty edges) I just use the same tip #12.  fill them and you are ready to go.  With this filling you will need to refrigerate these due to the filling but if you use jams they can remain out.