Spiced plum pavlovas + a nice hint

You know well about my love for Donna Hay’s work: I have some of her cookbooks – cannot live without “Modern Classics 2” – and I’ve been a subscriber to her magazine since September 2006. But for the past year I’ve been having trouble receiving the magazines – last year’s winter issue never arrived and the same happened to this year’s summer issue. I do not know if they’ve changed the shipping

Rice pudding with rhubarb compote and homemade meringues

Another rhubarb recipe – please, bear with me. :)

The idea for this dessert came from "Jamie at Home" – he uses strawberries for it – the rice pudding is Sophie Dahl’s – have I told how much I love this book? :) – and the rhubarb compote and the meringues are the ones left from the mini pavlovas. Does that sound messy? I bet that not as messy as the dessert itself. Nor as delicious. ;)

I ate

Mini rhubarb pavlovas

I told you once how much I adore “True Blood” – the show got me so addicted that after watching the 3 seasons I started reading Charlaine Harris’ books – in a very incessantly way, I might add. :)

Something similar happened when I watched some of Sophie Dahl’s videos on You Tube: her soft, lovely way around her beautiful kitchen and the delicious food got me hooked – I immediately bought her

Chocolate and cinnamon suspiros

It’s been a month since I last brought you anything chocolate – cocoa doesn’t count – and hope you like these meringues as much as Jessica and I did. :)

I wasn’t really in the mood for meringues but needed to do something with my frozen egg whites (which seem to be suffering from the Gremlin curse, too); what convinced me here was the addition of chocolate and cinnamon.



Chocolate and

Little strawberry meringue tarts

The strawberry maniac strikes again – and this time with pies topped with meringue. :)

I know I’ve been carried away by the strawberry season, but tell me: would you resist making such adorable little pies? I’m not that strong. :)



Little strawberry meringue tarts
adapted from Australian Gourmet Traveller

Filling:
400g strawberries, hulled and quartered
½ cup (88g) brown sugar, packed – you

Mini meringues with boozy cherries and orange cream

Some people say – and several of them are from my family – that the best things in life are the simple ones. As much as I hate agreeing with my grandmother – and she knows that – this orange cream is a good example: ridiculously simple, but it has got to be one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted. In 31 years of existence. :)

The original recipe called for fresh cranberries, but I

Vanilla cupcakes with pistachio praline whipped icing

Trying to find something good on TV last night – ended up watching “Ghost” for the sixth time - I caught a few minutes of this movie, which got me thinking of how underestimated Jeff Bridges is. I find him a fine, talented and versatile actor but don’t think he has received the deserved attention/acclamation. He also lets the other actors he works with shine.

My vanilla cupcakes do the same

Roasted strawberry meringues

Strawberries are in season here now and I have a loooong list of recipes to make with them – it’s been my favorite fruit even since I was a kid. My mom used to make a wonderful strawberry tart and I loved it so much she would make it all winter long.

I can’t wait to try making my mom’s tart, but these meringues looked so pretty on the magazine I had to start my strawberry frenzy with them.

Honey and golden syrup meringue cupcakes

I’ve realized something really important: there’s a huge lack of cupcakes on this blog! Shame on me! :D

I’m determined to change that and my mission has already begun: these tender cupcakes I found on DH mag #41. The meringue topping was a wonderful way of using the egg whites I had left after making stracciatella ice cream for Joao - for the 10th time. :)



Honey and golden syrup meringue

Lavender and white chocolate mini pavlovas

Those around here in their 30s - like yours truly - probably remember Rick Astley: a thin, red haired guy that had a really powerful voice. It made me wonder how such a strong voice would come out of such a small person. For my younger audience – who must be thinking “what on earth is she talking about??” - Alex Band would be a similar example. :D

The lavender buds I used in this recipe are

Rose water meringue hearts

Can you resist heart-shaped food? I thought so - neither can I. It’s like watching a child eating ice cream or a very sticky chocolate cupcake and NOT do anything about it. :D

The recipe comes from DH magazine #36 – the only change I made was to use rosewater instead of orange blossom water.



Rose water meringue hearts
adapted from Donna Hay magazine

150ml egg whites (4-5 egg whites)
220g

Very berry meringues

After so many batches of custard based ice creams – there are recipes I’ve made three or four times – I had several egg whites left. I did freeze some but there were a couple of whites still in the fridge – that seemed like the perfect excuse to make meringues.I’d bookmarked this recipe ages ago – I just love Delicious. magazine’s website – and it called for only 5 ingredients, all of them in my

Lemon meringue cake

The fun, adorable and sweet Susan is celebrating her first blogiversary and she’s throwing a party to celebrate it!I want to be a part of it, so this is what I’m bringing – a light (not as in “low fat”, of course), refreshing and very lemony dessert, that resembles a pavlova. I hope she likes it!Meringues are “tricky little buggers” - as Jamie would say - so it’s really, really important to keep

Zuger Kirschtorte

I usually write about myself, my family and friends here. I share info about my favorite food, music and movies with you, my dear readers. But today I am going to tell you a story that happened to someone else – Neusa, a coworker of mine.She was once at her mother-in-law’s and was served a beautiful, delicious cake for tea. The cake was on Neusa’s mind for a while – that was, for sure, a

Brown sugar and cinnamon meringues with praline cream

I'll admit it: I can be quite stubborn sometimes. Some people say it’s because I’m a Scorpio and others will even call it “persistence”. What I know is that if something gets stuck in my head I won’t put it to rest until it’s done.

I was looking for a recipe with cinnamon - my favorite spice – and saw this. It was a huge coincidence, since there were 4 egg whites in the fridge. Off to the

João's favorite dessert: Merengue (Eton mess)

João is not into sweets (how lucky is he?) but merengue is his favorite - he loves it and always asks for seconds, sometimes even thirds. :DI know that for my foreign readers "merengue" would be something else - only one of the ingredients of this dessert, actually. I also believe that "Eton mess" is similar, if not equal, to this dessert.There's not an actual recipe here, you just need place the