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There is LOVE in Pavlova…

Berry Pavlova

I first saw this in the fabulous food site – PlatetoPlate.com.  Then I saw a version in The Kitchn and thought, this must be a SIGN!  And I had to make it!

Berry Pavlova

This whipped up nicely.  The blackberries were picked on the way to school yesterday, surprisingly they made it another day, and I thought this would be the perfect ending.

Berry Pavlova

It was much lighter than I thought it would be, and the hard crust was nice and chewy.  And the whipped cream and berries, my, oh, my.  We all loved it.

Berry Pavlova

I was so excited to try this.  I was completely inspired by Plate to Plate’s version, but didn’t have enough ingredients on hand, so The Kitchn version worked nicely. I am looking for an excuse to make this again, I think it’s the perfect dessert.

Here’s how I made it: (from The Kitchn)

  • 4 egg whites
  • 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • big bowl of the freshest (and most local) berries or fruit you can find

Preheat your oven to 275F.  Line a cookie sheet with a sheet of parchment or one of those fancy silicone cooking sheets.

With a hand mixer, beat the egg whites, when the egg whites get a little bubbly, mix in the cream of tartar.  When the egg whites firm up a bit more to soft peaks, add the sugar in slowly.  When you’ve got firm peaks, you are done.

Pour the meringue onto the parchment.  You can do one big one, or a bunch of little ones.  I made just one and it was about 3-4 inches high and just shy of the width of my sheet.

Bake for 45 minutes.  Turn your oven off and let the meringue sit in the oven until it is completely cool.

Right before serving, whip up your heavy cream.  Spread onto the cool meringue, cover, with berries.

My notes:

  • We ate this the same day I made the meringue, while it is hand downs one of  the most delicious things I’ve made, I think another day hardening up would have been better.
  • I’m glad I didn’t add any sugar to the whipping cream, the meringue is pretty sweet.
  • For just the 3 of us, this was too much, so the next time I make it, I’ll make 2  or more, so I can store what we won’t eat in one sitting in an airtight container.
  • I think next time I’ll try 1/2 granulated sugar and 1/2 confectioners sugar.  Just wondering how it would be different.
  • I love it with the berries, and I’m trying to think of ways to make it every season.  I love Plate to Plates toppings that include hazelnuts, berries, caramel and mint.  YUM!
  • This also totally reminded me of Angel Food Cake, glad I can make something like it without the pan.

Gay Marriages Will Save The Economy

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Egg Crates



37thStreetLights, originally uploaded by Fosco Brown.

I’m saving our egg crates, thinking that there’s a great to use them this holiday season. Art project ornaments for Iz? Hmmm, looking for ideas. Have any?

Happy Birthday Grammie!

A Little Family Reunion

Since we’ve moved to our house in Western Ma 2.5 years ago, I’ve been daydreaming of having a big family party. And now that we are moving, everyone came to visit. Most of the visitors stayed for 10 days and over the weekend of July 4, we had 22 people! It was fantastic. Do you know that saying, something like, “Visitors are like fish, after 3 days, they go bad”. Well, my little family is proof that it’s not always that way. Everyone got along, was pleasant, quite appreciative, and a wonderful help.

Family Reunion

Here are a few of the highlights:

Crazy Cousins

I got to meet my brother’s youngest for the first time ever. He’s 5. (They live in South Korea.)

Dad chased his oldest grandson around and ripped up his knee, spent his entire visit on crutches, but was a good sport.

My brother gave up Diet Coke. This is a big deal. He drinks something like 3 cases of it a day. (Is Diet Coke bad for you? – you do the research.)

4th of July Parade

We went to the 61st Annual Chesterfield 4th of July parade. Animals pooped, and well, that was certainly the highlight for the cousins.

Family Picnic

We ate SO MUCH FOOD. For our family picnic, we (I mean GREG Thanks Greg – you rock) grilled pizzas. If you haven’t tried this yet, you really, really must. They are SO DELISH! I used whole wheat dough from Trader Joe’s and for one pizza I carmelized fennel and red onion and added Feta cheese. The other pizzas were topped with mozzarella, basil pesto and tomatoes. YUM!!!

Pizza On The Grill

Bear Prints

That very night, we had visitors. Bears came and toppled our compost. They must have played for a while, there were lots of paths created on the hill. Everyone got a little nervous, but they didn’t come back. Mom fell asleep watching TV, and woke up hearing growling the next night. She tried to wake her husband (he slept through the excitement), and after a few minutes of heart-in-throat, she realized it was the lion on the MGM bit of the movie she was watching.

Cooking

My super wonderful sister-in-law made us “kimbop” (I am spelling this phonetically… but it’s Korean for hot dog – so I’m told). We call them sushi rolls, or California rolls. They were so AMAZING. We stopped at the Korean grocery store and I learned about a few new things that we’ll be adding to our Friday night roll making ritual. They were perfectly rolled and absolutely delicious.

Seeing my daughter and her cousins play together was just priceless. I only wish we could do it every weekend.

Watermelon

It was 10 days. It was wonderful. As everyone left I couldn’t stop thinking about the pictures, did I get enough? (ok, I took over 500…) Did I get the right ones? I don’t want to forget our wonderful time together, and I want Iz to be able to look through the photos and remember too.

More Summer



Izzy lake ontario, originally uploaded by printtroll.

This was actually spring – but reminds me so much of summer.

Because Every Day Is Earth Day, This Bag’s For You.

You might remember that I host sew-cials (aka sewing circles) at LuckyStitches? Well they are a great opportunity to sew your own bags or bags for The Bag Share. One night – this lovely bag was developed. It’s a cute little bag that’s super sturdy and will hold a lot. This was made from heavy canvas and a jean patch pocket. (scroll to the bottom to see the inside…)

LuckyShopper - Heavy Canvas

LuckyShopper - Side View

I’ve typed up instructions for making this little LuckyShopper. Click here to download the PDF. One little note – I tested the instructions myself…so if you feel like it’s missing something – or if you find an error – please let me know so I can make it easy for everyone! Soon – a tutorial – maybe next week. Happy Sewing! and LuckyStitches!!xxoo

Oh! and here’s a peak into the inside…these aren’t in the instructions, but I’ll put them into the tute, after all, a bag you sew should be able to carry lots of wine…or beer…or other sorts of glass bottles and things, and the holder collapses if you just want to buy cheese and bread, or take your lunch, or carry your books.

Bag Idea

Sand castles and the ocean.

Lake Ontario
Izzy and I are in Henderson, NY to take care of some family biz. Henderson is right on lake Ontario and Izzy loves the beach so we went yesterday. Lake Ontario is big enough that you can barely see across it. Izzy said daddy this is the ocean right? Well explaining the difference between a really big lake and the ocean to a three year old is well you know. I believe it is the ocean too.
Lake Ontario
Building a sand castle was the last thing we did on the beach. Izzy first lay down in the sand and then decided that a castle was a fun idea. We dug in the wet sand and piled mounds of sand. Izzy started telling the waves to stop washing away her castle. I think the ocean is a lot of fun and Izzy can’t seem to get enough.
Lake Ontario

Lake Ontario
The path to the beach is a series of wooden pathways that keep you from walking in the small ponds and sand dunes that come before the beach. We had fun running on them and Izzy loved being on my shoulders for most of the walk to and from the beach.

Single Parent Shuffle!

Thursday Spring
The first time Zanne went to NYC for a trade show Izzy was sick. Bad fever, cough the works. I stayed home with her for three days. On the fourth day we drove to Jersey to stay with friends and met up with Zanne. Izzy is fine this time around and it is much harder. Getting her ready, getting me ready, getting her to “school”, getting myself to work it is crazy. Today after I picked her up we ran a couple errands and came home and played in the backyard for a little while before dinner. It makes for a very long day. The single parent shuffle is something that many people do all over this country and they should be commended for the effort they put forth. I am sure that one finds a routine and is able to get everything done, but when it comes for a few days at a time I find myself crashing on the couch with a glass of black sambuca and catching a movie after Izzy is to bed.

I’m posting over at DesignMom.com this week…

so please stop by and visit!

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