Pork Tenderloin and Chocolate Dipped Pretzels

I love that Fall is finally here! This means football parties (yummy dips and chili), and cooler weather (soups and hearty dishes)! I really needed to "rearrange" the freezer to see what all we had in there and came across my pork tenderloin which I had almost forgot about! So, I whipped up an easy pork tenderloin in the crock pot while I cleaned house and made a fun little dessert that I knew Dee Jay could take with him to work and snack on! Both were a hit and very easy! A caution to the "snackers" out there, I almost ate ALL the filling to the pretzel sandwiches which would have a disaster because they were ridiculously fantastic, so hurry and make the pretzel sandwiches so you won't be tempted! :) Now on to the good stuff....let's get cooking!

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. It is very easy and so delicious so let's get started! You are going to start with 1 pork tenderloin (I had tenderloin "chops" so I used those). Put the pork in the bottom of your crock pot first. Then you are going to add one envelope of dry onion soup mix on top of the pork. Then add one cup of water, 3/4 cup of red wine, 3 TB minced garlic, and 3 TB of soy sauce. Mix this together and turn the pork to make sure both sides have been introduced to the sauce! Sprinkle in a little pepper and cover your crock pot and turn it on low for about four hours! See how easy that was? You can literally make this while running out of the house for errands, or pick up the kids from school, and come home to a delicious pork tenderloin for dinner!
NOTE: I had a few extra potatoes left that I needed to use before they went bad, so I sliced them in thin rounds and threw them in with pork! I would recommend this, you won't be sorry!

Now, on to the dessert! I am not a big fan when it comes to food in the sweet department, but I could have devoured the entire batch of these bad boys! For a little added bonus, these are just as easy (but more time consuming). I found this recipe on Two Tiny Kitchens which is a fun site with lots of great recipes! Now...let's get to making these! You are going to start by combining 1 cup of creamy peanut butter, 2 TB of softened butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar (you might need a little extra), 3/4 cup of brown sugar (you might need a little extra). Mix all these ingredients in a bowl (this is where I almost lost the whole recipe due to my lack of not being able to stop eating this sugar packed yuminess)! Now grab a bag of mini pretzels and spoon about 1/2-1 tsp of the mix inside the pretzels and squish together to make a sandwich. I rolled the peanut butter mix into a small ball and it made it much easier and the perfect "sandwich" was formed! Now put these on a pan and let them sit in your freezer for about 30 minutes. Next you are going to need some Baker's dipping chocolate!

Pop this in the microwave and follow the directions on the package to melt the chocolate! Now you're going to dip the pretzel sandwich into the chocolate and place them back on the cookie sheet and stick them back in the freezer until you are ready to serve! Something we noticed is that they will melt (not so much the chocolate but just overall) pretty quickly, so try to keep them on a chilled plate when serving or you could have very messy hands and fingers when it's all over!

Both of these recipes turned out wonderful, and the pretzel dessert was a hit with the guys Dee Jay works with! I sent him to work with an extra bag of them just so I wouldn't be tempted to eat the whole tray before he got home!






Hope everyone is having a fabulous start to your Fall season! I can't wait to share Fall recipes and hear what you all are cooking up in your own kitchens! Until then...

~Happy Eating~

Sunday Afternoons Make For Good Eating

So, Dee Jay, his brother and I went out fishing last night and got to see the beginning of this meteor shower that's going on! We caught one baby catfish (I did... thank you very much) and saw lots of beautiful meteors with their long and sparkly tails! Tonight is supposed to be the best chance to see them, so we're hoping the clouds stay away and we can get a great spot to fish and watch the stars! We didn't get back home until about 2:30-3:00 this morning so needless to say we crashed hard and woke up in time for lunch! I had made some shredded chicken in the crock-pot the other day, so I went to work on a little "brunch" for all of us, and then got in the baking mood and decided to make some cupcakes I have had my eye on for awhile now. Both were BIG winners, and the chicken that I thought we would never get through is almost gone now :) So let's start with the chicken and move on to the cupcakes to end our weekend! Here we go...

I got a text from my friend Amy who said she just cooked some shredded chicken for her and her hubby and that I had to try it! Well, we are so glad we did because we have loved it! You can find the original recipe on a blog titled Chocolate Therapy. Already, with a name like that you don't really feel anything can go wrong :) It is ridiculously simple to make and we let it simmer on low for almost 10 hours! By the time we got home this morning, we were starving and ready to eat a taco and crash, and then this morning I took the leftovers and made some breakfast burritos! Here are your ingredients...

1 jar of salsa (I used Pace-Hot)
1 envelope of taco seasoning
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

I told you it was easy. You literally are going to put all of this in your crock-pot, turn it on low and cook for at least 6 hours or high for 3-4. Last night, we added guacamole, sour cream, jalapenos, and shredded cheese for soft tacos. This morning I added sliced green onion, finely chopped white onion, one tomato, and half a jalapeno. I scrambled 7 eggs, and half-way through cooking them, I threw in all the yummies! Then we rolled them up burrito style with sour cream, shredded cheese, and a big spoonful of the chicken! It was heavenly!!

Now on to the cupcakes :) I got the "idea" of this recipe from Sweet P's Baking Co. blog. Now you can check out her version, and I will tell you mine! The ingredients I used were...

1 box of French Vanilla cake mix
1 cup of orange soda
1/2 cup of canola oil
3 eggs
1 container of Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Frosting Starter
1 envelope of Duncan Hines Flavor Mix powder-Cotton Candy

You are going to mix in a bowl the French Vanilla cake mix, 1/2 cup of canola oil and 3 eggs. After you have this well mixed, you are going to gradually add the one cup of orange soda! Stir or mix together well because the orange soda had a tendency to separate from the rest of the batter. Once we got everything mixed in, I spooned the mixture into cupcake liners and popped them in oven at 350 degrees for 17 minutes.

Right out of the oven :)

 

Now while these are cooling, you are going to follow the directions on the frosting creations. You are going to stick a knife in the middle of the frosting causing it to form a "hole". Then dump the envelope of flavoring into the frosting hole and mix together! Now you will have a delicious blue frosting that the taste of alone will bring you back to your childhood days of eating cotton candy at the fair! I spread the frosting on the cupcakes once they were cool and added some sprinkles for decoration! The boys tried them and fell in love! I have a feeling these won't last long either in our home! 

I am not a professional when it comes to decorating...But I'm going to work on it :)

The combination of the orange soda, vanilla and cotton candy frosting makes a really delicious combination that you must try! Add your own decorations and send me pictures because I want to see them to drool over once these bad boys are gone!

~Happy Eating~

Here are both links again! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Shredded Chicken 

Cotton Candy Cupcakes 

mini peach cobblers

This peach cobbler for one recipe from Joy the Baker is perfect when you want a little sweet treat but not the sweat of a full blown cake or pie. As Joy mentions, I'd totally eat it for breakfast and I did eat it for a midnight snack. Nom.

Just cut peaches in half and remove the pit. No need to peel.

Combine some flour, brown sugar, old-fashioned oats, cinnamon and salt (Joy also likes shredded coconut and slivered almonds but I used what I had on hand.) Combine the dry ingredients with cold, cubed unsalted butter.

Pile equal portions into your peach holes, peach pits, peach ravines, what have you.....

.

Bake. Top with ice cream. You're done! And your mouth is happy.

For more happy, spend lots of time on Joy's blog over HERE.

Peach Cobbler for One, Joy the Baker

1 ripe peach

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

3 tablespoons old-fashioned oats

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon shredded coconut

1 tablespoon slivered almonds

2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed

Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Slice a peach in half and remove the pit.  With a small spoon, scoop out the the dark red pit center, creating just a bit more room for the crumble topping.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon, salt, coconut, and almonds.  Add butter and, with your fingers, work the butter into the dry ingredients.  Quickly break up the butter until it is well combined.  Some of the butter bits will be the size of oat flakes, others will be the size of small peas.

Place peach halves, cut side up, in a small, oven-safe dish.  Top each peach half with a generous portion of crumble topping.  Heap it on!

Bake for 20 minutes, until topping is golden brown.  Remove from the oven and serve warm with vanilla ice cream or cold milk.  Peaches are best served warm from the oven.

grilled fruit, and other fun foods, on a stick

I read about this cookbook On a Stick on a few blogs and also an interview with its author Matt Armendariz, a wonderful food photographer (yes, it's a profession), and really wanted this book. Though I seldom throw parties, I'm always looking for fun "party foods" and unique ways to serve them. This book, as the title describes, is all things on a stick which totally appeals to my love of fair food, kabobs, s'mores popsicles---happy foods come on sticks, no? And Matt feels the same.

Some of his recipes are what you might expect. Corn dogs and various meats, fried things and desserts. Others are plain wacky. Grilled spam and pineapple on a stick? Yes, please!

photo from On a Stick



Spaghetti and meatballs on a stick. WHA?!

photo from On a Stick

Pizza rolls on a stick. Wouldn't this be fun for a birthday party?

photo from On a Stick

Appealing to my entertaining side, this book also has a section for types of sticks that would be fun to use (more out there than bamboo and toothpicks--who knew!) and about 10 different dipping sauces from creamy to savory to sweet that can be mixed and matched with the recipes.

photo from On a Stick

Recently, we bought a new charcoal grill, our first, and I thought Matt's grilled fruit on a stick would be a nice and light dessert post burger binge. Just pineapple, watermelon and cantaloupe but topped with a honey, mint and lime simple syrup and grilled for a smokey flavor and pretty grill marks.

Start with a fresh pineapple. Have you chopped one up before? A little messy from all the juice, but totally worth it in cost and flavor. This cutie was just $2.

Chop off the green top.

Chop off the bottom.

Cut the flesh down and around the sides like you would peel any other fruit. After I slice off the flesh, I go back over it with a vegetable peeler to get all the fine pieces I missed. You're left with a gorgeous hunk of pineapple. Smell the islands?

Pineapples have a core (think of the hole you see when you buy pineapple rings). If you want rings, slice it across in rings then gently cut out the core of each ring. That's a lot of work in my opinion so instead I cut around the core similar to cutting around an apple core. Then, I cut those wedges into cubes. Ditto, cut and cube some watermelon and cantaloupe roughly the same size.

The simple syrup is 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 white sugar, 1/2 water. Cook them on medium heat until sugar and honey dissolve. Add 10 - 12 mint leaves finely chopped and zest of one lime. Remove from heat and let it thicken as it cools.

This makes A LOT of syrup and you could certainly cut it in half or serve the remainder as a dipping sauce. I put my leftover syrup in a jar in the fridge to sweeten iced tea and maybe a weekend adult beverage.

Thread the fruit onto bamboo skewers that have soaked in water for about 30 minutes. Trust me, skipping this step will result in flames and burnt food.

Sprinkle with a touch of salt, says Matt (bleck, I do not salt my melon or cantaloupe normally).

Brush the syrup on to fruit. Grill 3-5 minutes per side. Brush again with syrup and cook another minute per side.

We were still getting the hang of the charcoal grill after years with a gas grill. As you can see, I didn't quite get the grill marks I wanted but the fruit did infuse with a smokiness from the grill and made for a pretty presentation. I'll be honest, I prefer my watermelon and cantaloupe ice cold but I did like the warm pineapple with sweet honey syrup. I froze the leftovers to put in a smoothie later this week.

Maybe I'll try the spam and pineapple skewers next!

Do you have a favorite food on a stick?

vanilla ice cream with roasted peaches and amaretto caramel

Sometimes I get a flavor stuck in my head. Do you do that? Like, all I can think about is basil. How I’m going to use it. Recently, it was peaches. I wasn’t even thinking about peaches. It’s a little early for them. But there I was, wandering the farmers market and one vendor was selling fresh, fragrant summer peaches. I grabbed some right away. The drive home became about what I’d do with them….other than snack on them as is. Peaches. Mmmmm….

I’ve seen a lot of recipes for roasted strawberries lately. Roasting veggies and fruits under high heat brings out their natural sweetness and makes everything from pineapple to carrots even tastier. Sprinkle a little sugar on the fruit and a little salt and olive oil on the veggies first---even better.

Now, roasting peaches was in my head. Roasted peach ice cream sounded divine. But I’m a vanilla girl. I like the blank canvas of vanilla to top and swirl in whatever toppings I feel like that day (might I suggest frosted flakes, chocolate chips and Hersey’s chocolate syrup?). So vanilla ice cream topped with roasted peaches and……I remembered a Giada recipe where she sprinkled crunched up amaretti cookies on something peach. Cookies for crunch? No. CARAMEL! I needed a drizzle of caramel on top of this imaginary sundae. Booze it up with amaretto. Chopped up peanuts for a salty crunch?

PSA: This, my friends, was an actual thought process that went through my head during a ten minute drive. Associate with me as you will.

Normal person decision:Buy ice cream. Chop up peaches. Put on ice cream. Top with jar of store bought caramel. The end.

Leah’s mind: LET’S DO THIS!

Best thing about making your own ice cream? These five ingredients plus some sugar is all you need. Milk, heavy cream, egg yolks and sugar make custard based ice cream. Low fat and practically calorie free. (*snicker*)

I used the beloved David Lebovitz’s recipe from his beautiful book The Perfect Scoop (see recipe below). It isn’t difficult but there is some stirring, heating and tempering of the egg and cream mixture. I suggest distracting any littles with an activity so you have full attention to your custard making. Clean out mommy’s purse, anyone?

After some chill time and a brief spin in the ice cream maker—voila! Creamy, perfect vanilla ice cream. I’d stop right here but….those peaches are calling.

Simply slice them up, toss with a little brown sugar and bake at about 400 degrees for 20 minutes or so.

Making caramel sounds scary. It isn’t, but it does need your attention. No texting while carameling. Melt some butter.

Stir in sugar. I went brown here for a deeper flavor. Stir on medium heat to combine. At this point I stirred in two tablespoons of amaretto for an almond, and ok, boozy kick. You’ll cook the actual alcohol out but you are left with a hint of  “oh, this is adult caramel we’re having here.”

Stir in some heavy cream. It will bubble up a bit. This is because it is so happy. Turn of the heat and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly and thicken.

I chopped up some peanuts I randomly had on hand for some texture and a salty balance to all that sweet.

Pile these goodies together. Now all you need is a spoon.

Oh, and the recipes. Try mixing in your favorite flavors to this ice cream base. Rum would be good in the caramel or a few pinches of salt at the end. Try roasting apricots, pineapple, or berries. Cooking is about doing your own thing. (Note: baking is not. Be vewwy, vewwy afraid of baking) (I kid) (Kind of)

Vanilla Ice Cream

From David Lebovitz, The Perfect Scoop

• 1 cup whole milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream
• pinch of salt
• 1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise (I omitted)
• 6 large egg yolks (save the whites for an omelet or to make your own pavlova)
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract (I used 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract)

1. Warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup of the cream, and salt in a medium saucepan.  Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the warm milk and add the bean into the warm milk and add the bean as well.  Cover, remove from the heat, and let steep at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. Pour the remaining 1 cup cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top.  In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks.  Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.
3. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula.  Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream.  Put the vanilla bean into the custard, add the vanilla extract, and stir until cool over an ice bath.
4. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator.  When ready to churn, remove the vanilla bean, rinsing and reserving it for another use, and then freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Roasted peaches

·         3-5 fresh peaches, sliced

·         1 tablespoon brown sugar

Set oven to 400 degrees.

1.     Toss peaches and brown sugar to combine

2.     Roast for 20 minutes.

Amaretto caramel sauce

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons amaretto
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

1.     Melt the butter in a small saucepan over high heat

2.     Add the brown sugar and amaretto and cook, whisking until the sugar has melted and the mixture is smooth.

3.     Whisk in the heavy cream and cook until heated through and slightly thickened.

4.     Transfer the mixture to a bowl, let cool slightly.

A Roast and Mud Pie...First meal in our new home

So, I've been out of the cooking world for the last week because Dee Jay and I were moving so it was a lot of take-out and leftovers in our house the last week. We celebrated our 1 year anniversary on the 1st of June, so of course I had to get our kitchen ready first so I could make us a good dinner to celebrate! In true Okie fashion I made dirt pudding and chuck roast. If you have a Food Pyramid in your area, I think I should make it known that you can buy five packages of meat for $25. We got about $40 worth of meat for $25...what a steal!!! So I pulled out the boneless chuck roast and went to work.

This recipe can be found at Cooks.com after I googled what I had at home (I know the recipe says to use a dutch oven but I don't own one so I made do with my crock-pot), and found this little gem! You start with 3 to 4 pounds of boneless chuck roast and half a stick of butter. You're going to melt the butter in a skillet and brown the meat on both sides, then place it in the crock-pot. You will then sprinkle a half of a teaspoon of garlic salt, half a teaspoon of onion salt, half a teaspoon of salt, and half a teaspoon of black pepper over the meat. Cover it with one can of mushroom soup and one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. (I used about 2 and half tablespoons of Worcestershire because I love the taste)! Add about 3 cans of water, and set the crock-pot on low and cook it for about 3 hours. You are going to want to check on it about an hour in to make sure there is still quite a bit of liquid. Now, you can eat it after 3 hours OR you can let it simmer on low over-night to give it time to soak up the juices and it will end up being so tender it practically falls apart as you scoop it out of the crock-pot! Either way is fine we tested it both ways and preferred the over-night deal but 3 hours was great too!

You can eat this with some veggies or pull it apart and serve up as a sandwich. Either way it's fantastic! Save the liquid in the crock-pot, you can use it as gravy! 

Here is the direct link to the recipe, as well as the run-down!

Boneless Chuck Pot Roast 

3-4 lb. boneless chuck roast
1/2 stick butter
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. onion salt
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 can mushroom soup
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Cook in Dutch oven on top of stove. Melt 1/2 stick butter. Put roast in Dutch oven in melted butter, brown real brown. Turn over brown other side. Add garlic salt, onion salt, salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Pour mushroom soup on top roast. Spread over roast. Put 2-3 cans water into Dutch oven over roast.Cover and cook 2-3 1/2 hours on low heat. Check to see if you need to add more water in hour or so. Makes its own gravy. Serve 4-6 people. Serve with rice or cream potatoes.

Now, onto the dirt pudding. It's been awhile since I have made this so I found the recipe at  Food.com and whipped it up in no time! Before I start to tell you this particular recipe, I'm going to vent. You know how you buy 10 hot dogs and then have to buy 8 hot dog buns and then if you need to cook all 10 you have to buy an extra bag of buns, only to have buns left over and you wonder why they do that?? Well in this particular recipe if it called for 14 oz of something I could only find it in 16, or 3 1/2 ounces....I found it in 4+ ounces. Sheesh!! Why can't everything just be easy?? So, all that to say, it calls for two packages (3 1/2 ounces each) of vanilla pudding. I bought two packages that were close to that it worked out fine. So don't fret and don't over-buy! Save yourself some money because I'm here to tell you it will work out! Okay....start with one box of Oreo cookies (close to 14 oz) and crush them as much as you can in a big Ziploc bag and set aside. In a separate bowl you are going to mix 2 packages (as close to 3 1/2 oz as you can) of instant vanilla pudding with 3 cups of milk. (I am allergic to regular milk so we always have Almond milk in our fridge, and it works great). 

In another bowl you are going to mix together one cup of powdered sugar, one 8 oz package of cream cheese, and 1/4 of a cup of butter. Now add the sugar mixture in with the pudding and mix well. Take a 14 oz container of Cool Whip (or as close to 14 oz as you can find) and fold it in with the pudding/sugar mix. I whisked mine until I got all the lumps out. Now for the fun part!!! You will take about half of the crumbled cookies and place them in the bottom of a flower pot...

Now fill it up with the pudding mixture, but leave room on top for the rest of Oreo dirt! (We had leftover so I made a mini "pie" in the Ziploc container). Top the pudding with the rest of the Oreo's...(you can also add gummy worms sticking out of the top to make it look more authentic...this was fun as a child and fun for parties but I left them out this time). Stick a flower in your pot and presto-magic you have a fun dessert that looks great on the table before you're ready to eat! 

 Here is a direct link to the recipe and you don't have to use the regular Oreo cookies if you don't want. You can mix it up and use whichever cookie flavor you like! 

Dirt Pudding

1 (14 ounce) bag Oreo cookies
2 (3 1/2 ounce) packages French Vanilla Pudding
3 cups milk
1 cup powdered sugar
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/4 cup butter or 1/4 cup margarine (1/4 cup)
1 (12 ounce) container Cool Whip 

Break up cookies, put 1/2 on bottom of preferred dish and save other 1/2 for topping. Mix pudding and milk together, set aside. Mix sugar, cream cheese and butter. Add sugar mixture to pudding; fold in cool whip. Pour onto cookies, top with remaining cookies. I like to let it cool for at least a half hour if I have time. Let's it all meld together and it tastes better cool.

~Happy Eating~

Blackberry Pavlova - impress someone with this fancy looking (but EASY dessert)

Confession: I LOVE me some Gwyneth Paltrow. I didn't have feelings about her one way or another until I watched her travel Spain with Mario Batali on a PBS series a few years back. I immediately wanted to be her friend and go to Spain. 

Then, her website Goop showed up a bit later. I was hooked. My interest was now a full  blown crush. Because of her posts on her site ranging from fashion to relationships to religion--and most importantly COOKING--I'm convinced she's "just like us"--a working momma and wife just trying to keep it all under control. Granted, her kid's play dates are probably with Stella McCartney's kids and going to visit dad at the office means a huge concert stadium...but I dig it. 

And when I thought I could love her no more, she went and put out a cookbook. 

And I dig almost every page. Though she was known for her somewhat wack-a-doo eating habits in the past, she's pretty real these days. She balances healthy choices (lots of grains, veggies, fish) with personal choices (she won't eat things with hooves, so no steak or pork here). And then some, like, amazingly real food. Pancakes, cookies, and muffins, fried fish tacos, pastas full of cheese. Each page has easy instructions (all the recipes are perfectly do-able) and tips on making the recipe kid oriented. In one, she makes her son a "crabby patty" fried fish sandwich but caters it more toward adults by adding spicy mayo to the sandwich and a glass of wine on the side. Inspired by her dad who liked to cook, this book is very family oriented filled with short personal anecdotes about each recipe. 

While none of the recipes are hard, some of them are made harder by the ingredients. Let's just say I've subbed white flour for spelt flour called for in her recipes more than once. Duck isn't easily available here, though I found one frozen, roasted and shredded it into her delicious ragu recipe for my birthday dinner. I felt fancy. 

I've avoided this dessert recipe for a while. Felt TOO fancy. Looked hard. Oh, my friends----the opposite. This recipe for blueberry palova is ALL of the easy. You basically whip egg whites, whip cream, and mix some sugar with some fruit. The lesson--don't let a pretty picture scare you. 

So you want to know how to make this gorgeous, fluffy  meringue dessert? It's easy enough for a summer patio party but looks fancy enough for any formal dinner. Let's do it! 

Combine berries of your choice with a little sugar and set aside. I had blackberries from the farmers market that I used....DELISH. 


Set the oven to bake and 350 degrees. 


First, you make meringues. Almost exactly like meringue on a pie, but instead of being frothy/spongy you're going to bake these into a soft, yet crispy cookie. 


Combine egg whites, salt and white vinegar together in a bowl. With a hand mixer or a big electric mixer, beat the egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. 


If it looks like this.....you aren't done. 

If it looks like this....DONE! See how the egg whites got fluffy? You'll know you're done when you lift up the beaters and those little peaks form. 

Combine sugar and cornstarch together in a small bowl. Add to the egg mixture a little bit at a time, beating it in to completely combine each time. Add vanilla and beat until soft peaks form again. It will get stiff and glossy white. If it reminds you of whipped cream, you're done. 

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spoon meringue in eight big spoonfuls on to the baking sheet, with the back of the spoon, spread the meringue into a circle. Make a shallow indention in each. Have a beautiful assistant read a magazine in the background, if desired. 

Bake the meringues for 10 minutes at 350 then lower the heat to 200 and bake for an hour. Remove baking tray from the oven and let cool completely. They'll be crisp and a lovely light brown. You could make these earlier in the day to save time. Even the day before. Just keep in an airtight container. 

Now, whip some cream! Two things I no longer buy--pre-made: whipped cream and salad dressing. For no other reason than I prefer the taste of making my own. Few things taste as decadent to me as fresh whipped cream.  You literally put whipping cream in a bowl, sweeten with a bit of sugar and beat it until it looks like the stuff that comes in the plastic tub. Some people say it's "ready" when you can flip the bowl upside down without it falling. If you feel like trying, make sure your beautiful assistant is some distance away. 

See? PURDY! Just try it once for me, ok? 

Your cookies are done. Your fruit and whipped cream are done. Now--assemble. 

Cookie.

Freshly whipped cream. 

Sugared berries. 

You will be so pleased with yourself for making this fancy looking treat. You'll be even more pleased once you take a bite. I think I'll make this again this weekend---I just can't say no to blackberries or GP. 

Berry Pavlova
based on Gwyneth Paltrow’s blueberry pavolova in My Father’s Daughter

Serves 8 (I halved with no trouble) 

Ingredients

4 organic large egg whites
Pinch fine salt
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons
Granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream
11/2 cups fresh blueberries, plus more for serving

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Combine egg whites, salt, and white vinegar together in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on high speed until soft peaks form. 


Combine the 3/4 cup sugar and cornstarch together in a small bowl and add to the egg whites in thirds, whisking each addition in completely. Add the vanilla and beat until stiff peaks form. 


Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spoon the meringue in 8 big spoonfuls, using a spoon to spread them in a circle, and then make an indent in each. 


Bake for 10 minutes, lower the heat to 200°F, and bake for another hour. Turn off the heat and cool the meringues in the oven for an hour, propping the door open with a wooden spoon. 

Berry toppings:

Toss berries with 1 tablespoon of sugar and stir to combine. Smash slightly if desired to let a bit of juices out from the fruit. Set aside (I like mine chilled).

Whipped topping:

Whip together cream and remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar.

To complete:

Evenly distribute whipped cream onto each meringue filling the indention and top with macerated berries and their juice.

Here is the same recipe over at Saveur if you'd like to print and try: http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Blueberry-Pavlova