Joe had a party last week and he made quiche so he had A LOT of egg whites in the fridge. So I decided to go on a meringue cookie experimentation. A shout out to the Bucher’s for being our “test dummies” (Isaac’s term!); I guess there are worse things to have to test, huh? What we and the Bucher’s don’t eat, the remainder will go up to church to offer as dessert at the fish fry tonight.
Our first batch was Chocolate Meringue Cookies; I doubled the cocoa and didn’t use cream of tartar. Have you seen the price of that in the store? Joe says it’s just to stabilize the whites and you could leave it out so I did in all the recipes. I free formed these when I put them on the cookie sheet. I read some suggestions to leave the cookies in the oven to cool so after the baking time, I turned off the oven and waited (hard for me...I like instant gratification!). This resulted in a light and crunchy cookie all the way through. My one suggestion would be to add more chips. Unfortunately, these were all eaten up before I decided to conduct The Eggs-periment so no photo…
Our second batch were actually Coconut Macaroons but it also came out more like a meringue. I followed this recipe exactly except for the baking temp and time. The 20-25 minutes at 300 degrees seemed to work for the Chocolate Chip Meringues so I decided to use that combo for all the meringues. I used an ice cream scoop for these. These meringues were crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside and looked awesome!
Third batch was Lemon Meringue cookies. The texture turned out a little disappointing…too chewy. I substituted 1/3 cup Countrytime Lemonade Drink Mix for some of the sugar called for in the recipe, I don’t know if that led to the disappointment. I put the meringue in a Ziploc bag and cut out the end and piped them on the cookie sheet. They came out too flat. I guess that’s why I’m calling this an experiment…you win some you lose some. But I did have high hopes for these since I love lemon. Maybe next time I’ll follow the recipe exactly.
For the forth batch, Isaac wanted something with peanut butter. I don’t have any peanut butter chips and I don’t think I can add peanut butter into the meringue, I would think that would weigh it down. I had some Butterfinger pieces in the pantry so I decided to reuse the Chocolate Chip Meringue recipe except substitute the pieces for the chips. I did not double the cocoa this time but doubled the pieces to 2/3 cup. I scooped these as well since the Macaroon turned out so nice. These turned out more chocolate than anything else; I really couldn’t taste the Butterfinger.
Isabelle wanted to go rogue for the fifth batch; Thin Mint Meringue. Again, we took the basic Chocolate Chip Meringue recipe, omitted the chocolate and added 2/3 cups crushed Thin Mints. Yummy!
One more batch (the last!), and I went even more rogue this time; Wicked Meringue Cookies! I followed the Chocolate Chip Meringue recipe and added a ½ teaspoon of cayenne and doubled the chips. Just a nice little warmth after the second bite…I think going rouge paid off.
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| Coconut Macaroon, Lemon, Butterfinger, Thin Mint, Wicked |
Goodwill adventures have not been successful of late. So I have nothing exciting to report there.
I ran the Heart Mini Marathon with my friend Deb last Sunday. Every year I say I’m not going to run that race and every year I’m at the starting line and it’s always rainy and cold. Out and back Columbia Parkway sucks, the hills are plentiful. So why do I run it every year? My work sponsors it every year and they pay our entry fee so I’ve been running it for free so that’s incentive. I changed brands at work so I no longer get the free registration so I thought I was done with it (and very happy about it!). Then Deb calls me and tells me she’s doing her first half at the Heart…now I have to run for support! Just like the marathon I’m running in April…I said I’d never run another one but here I am, training again to support my sister, who is running her first full. The things we do for the ones we love! All in all, the Heart was good and it was great that Michelle, Jan, Sara and Lauren came out to cheer us on! And Anchor Grill afterwards…its tradition!
The night before the race we went out with friends in the Nipple Mobile. I don’t know if that’s the official name for Kevin’s "new" car but look at the color…what does it remind you of? We had a great time piling into that and heading to Knotty Pine for dinner. I had to watch my beer and food consumption due to 13.1 miles the next day, but I made sure I stayed hydrated. We had a great time and after, we went to Bobby Macke’s. I’ve never been there before and I wasn’t extremely impressed. The bull was $6 to ride and a ghost tour was $10…really? I had to pay $5 to get in to listen to the band sing 1 song and be done, hear a DJ and then listen to karaoke. No thanks, I’ll just hang out at Peecox for free.
Gia got a hold of my camera and took some lovely shots of her toys. And she wanted me to photograph the outfit she picked out. She's just like her mother...always ready to smile for the camera and be the center of attention!
That’s it for now folks…catch you later.
