Sabotaged by the cat and a summery dessert

I finally got around to cutting out a pair of cropped trousers from some material that I bought about a year ago!  It was all going well until I heard the cat flap go and Scruffy strolled in and promptly laid all over my working space.  I say 'working space' but it was the sitting room floor, as I needed a good space to lay the fabric out on.

Scruffy was in no rush to move...

...at all.  Why do cats always put themselves right into the middle whatever you are trying to do?  I suppose it is all down to attention, or food.  I made sure he didn't get on any pins.  He did eventually move and I was able to finish the cutting out.

 On a totally unconnected theme, I made use of some of the blueberries this year.  I am not really fond of them raw as I always think they should be lovely and juicy and they aren't.  However, they do make a very nice sauce to have with Eton mess - crumbled meringue nest and Quark (soft cheese, fat free, high protein) with a bit of fat free natural yogurt to thin the Quark a bit and the blueberry sauce swirled through. It was a really lovely summery dessert.

Meringue trials and tribulations

My meringue trials and tribulations all began a few months ago when a colleague and I were talking about growing soft fruit.  I am growing raspberries and blueberries in tubs and he is lucky to have a large garden so can grow raspberries in the ground.  He said he would bring in some raspberries and I rashly suggested I could make a meringue (never having made one before, you understand!) and we could have a pavlova at work. 

So, the months rolled on and last week he brought in some raspberries.  I used a Delia recipe and made my first attempt.  It turned out rather browner than I would have liked and was very squidgy in the middle.  So we had to have Eton Mess with the outer, crispier bit, but that was very tasty.

Undeterred, I looked on the internet to see what I may have done wrong and discovered that 1) I hadn't whipped the egg whites for long enough and 2) the oven temperature was too high.

Yesterday, I tried again.  I whipped the egg whites until I could put the bowl upside down over my head without them moving and I lowered the oven temperature and put the meringue on the bottom shelf.



 Here it is when baked - SUCCESS!

 Here is the finished pavlova (a perfect summer dessert) with double cream (and a bit of natural yogurt mixed in), my colleague's raspberries and icing sugar.

We all enjoyed it and I was delighted with the meringue consistency - crispy with a slightly chewy bit in the middle - YUM! (The only thing that worries me is, was that a one off, or will I be able to repeat the success when my blueberries are ripe?!)