dinner with lorna and italian for beginners

Yesterday was a lazy day. Kels and I spent the afternoon in the garden talking about our plans and other musings. We also built a ping pong (i call it ping kong) table of sorts and played a couple of sets.

As the afternoon progressed, so did thoughts of dinner. We kept alternating between barbecue chicken (it was sunny out) and just using what we already have. We decided to go with the latter, and chose Sweet Potato Curry. I found the recipe on the blog Gastronomy Domine that i really enjoy reading. Given that it was a vegetarian dish we thought we'd invite our friend lorna over to share it with us.

For dessert I wanted to keep to the really easy theme so decided to make Eton Mess. Ainsley Harriot has a version of it in his book ainsley harriott's all new meals in minutes that uses crushed maltesers. Don't ask me why, but those maltesers make all the difference! Turned out we made a quick run to the store anyways to get the eton mess ingredients, and to get a 'sticky' as kelsie is now calling sweet dessert wine. We actually didn't have to get the meringue nests because Lorna brought some home made ones over -- way better of course, than store bought meringues.

Not sure if i've mentioned this before, but we're going to be taking a beginner italian course this autumn with our friend lorna. To get us psyched for the course we watched a dvd of the film Italian for Beginners. Lorna and Kels were quite right in pointing out that the film really isn't about Italian lessons, but hey ho, it was in the title, and i enjoyed it.

Eton mess with maddie malteasers
[from Ainsley Harriott's All New Meals in Minutes]
Serves 4

300 ml double cream
50g caster sugar, plus extra, if the berries are tart
250 g fresh raspberries
2 meringue nests, about 75g
40g packet Maltesers

1. Whisk the cream with 1 tablespoon of hte sugar in the bowl, using a balloon whisk or an electric beater, until soft peaks form. Be careful if you're using electric beaters, as this will happen really fast.


2. Place the reaspberries in a separate bowl with the remaining sugar and, using a fork, lightly crush -- you may need to add some extra sugar if the raspberries are particularly tart or if you have a very sweet tooth.


3. Lightly crush the meringues and the maltesers. Don't overmix here, but gently fold the raspberries into the cream wtihthe crushed meringue and Malteseres, until you get a rippled effect. Spoon the mixture into serving glasses. Serve immediately.