Meringues....

Mmmh, fat free....!

 
This week, whilst Peter is away, I'm going to try to crack on with some sewing.  It's been a while since I did any - I think I've been distracted by baking!  But now I need to lose a little more weight before Xmas so should probably refocus on sewing some Christmas gifties.

Before I move on though, I thought I would share our meringue attempt.  I've seen these giant meringues for sale in shops at ridiculous prices so Isobel and I decided to make some!  Mixed and matched with some recipes.  And the result was a lovely crispy meringue on the outside and gooey-ness in the centre!  And a sugar rush.  Here goes -

- preheat oven to 200 degrees C (gas mark 6) and warm 300g of caster sugar on a roasting tray for 7 minutes or until hot but not melted

- in an electric mixer, whisk 150g eggs whites until they are foamy and then add the hot sugar all in one go.  Put the mixed on high and whisk for about 10 minutes until the mixture is cool and white, shiny and stiff!

- then it's up to you what you do.  Isobel and I made two batches - so we split the mix in two and with one of them very loosely folded through a tiny drop or 2 of red food colouring.  In the other, we loosely folded through some sifted cocoa and cinnamon.  We probably only used about 3 'folds'.

- put large 'blobs' on a baking tray covered with baking paper and decorate. 

Which one was Isobel's?

-  bake in oven at 110 degree C for 1 hour and 45 mins.  Cool.

Eat! They were very yummy!

Finished article - they spread out quite a bit on cooking!

Oh, and our meat free time is going well - we might have had a few slip ups but basically it's all good and it's been a great opportunity to learn how to cook new veggie dishes and to get our 5 a day in one meal!  Now, the next step is to not eat cake.....or drink Amaretto with ice (!)

I want to mix with mummy

Well, the bagels were a hit - relatively healthy too (until the butter and the jam!) - not sure about 'the crumb' though (I really must stop watching the Great British Bakeoff!). Isobel as per always wanted 'more please'. About a kilo of flour made 16 bagels all in all, so pretty good really and having purchased a little chest freezer they could join the pureed mush for Arty (who I reckon really wants steak and chips rather than never ending milk!).

Left the kids with Peter yesterday. He's off with work for a bit so I thought he would appreciate his first day in sole charge! Apparently he was complemented by many for being brave enough to venture out with two and no female supervision! No one seems to complement mums when they go out with two - and the toddler melts down, collapses in the middle of the car park and screams 'no car, no home, no mummy, no daddy'......

I headed up to Borough Market in the sunshine to examine the massive piles of brownies and meringues. The bloke at the meringue stall hadn't tasted the meringues - very disappointing as he couldn't really tell me how gooey they were inside. I mean he works on the stall. Seems rude not to have tasted the produce. On the train on the way up there was a guy in a kilt and I'm still wondering if he was baring all under it given the facial expression of the woman who sat down opposite as he propped his leg up! Wandered down the south bank past the beach huts which were randomly on display and headed to the lovely Charlotte Cave in Clapham Common for a wig chop - much to Peter's delight didn't come home with pink hair which is what Isobel wanted. Charlotte is great. One of a kind.

Very happy to see kids this morning. Arty rolled over a few weeks ago but since then has clearly thought 'well, been there, now what?' and we haven't seen any more rolling, despite the hours spent lying on the floor waving rattles and plastic giraffe at him to encourage some movement. Amazing how much time you can spend hiding, crawling about on the floor pretending to be a lion or a bear just to get this giggles over and over again. Did something to my back this morning entertaining Isobel jumping up from my hiding place to wave my hand in the air like we just don't care as she shouted 'again mummy, again'.

The particularly lovely weather we've been having this summer basically meant a day inside with kids and Peter. Kids going slightly nuts being stuck indoors, like mum really! So we got Isobel to help stick stickers on Arty's wall. Got some great stickers (this website is great for stickers and other stuff for kids) - Isobel didn't quite get the idea to stick them individually and not one on top of the other but never mind! When she woke up after her nap she declared she wanted to 'mix with mummy' so we spent the afternoon making jam sourced by hubby on a foraging trip (he reckons he was like Bear Grylls?) and then a twist on Jamie O's plum bakewell (from Jamie at Home) made with damsons which exploded all over the oven but tasted great! She particularly liked eating raw dough (kids are so strange!) and beating the eggs and telling mummy to 'just sit there mummy'. I think we have a bossy boots on our hands!

Off to London tomorrow to see the eye. Must get that double buggy off eBay.