Rooted in Mississippi

I just can not seem to get the texture exactly right on meringues made with Splenda, but this recipe is very low calorie and low points, so I thought I would share. The texture is ALMOST there, but I like a crisp crust that seems to melt in your mouth, with a slightly chewy center.

Ingredients:

• 3 egg whites, room temperature
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
• 6 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 6 Tbsp of granulated Splenda
• 6 small peppermint candies, crushed
• 1/4 Tsp peppermint extract

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (F).

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Start beating the egg whites and add the cream of tartar.  Beat until frothy.  Slowly add in sugar one tablespoon at a time, then add the granulated Splenda the same way.  Scrape down bowl.  Continue to beat until the mixtures is glossy and forms stiff peaks.

Fold in crushed peppermint candies and extract, it can be tricky to get an even distribution.

Use a tablespoon to drop the mixture onto a cookie sheet.  Cook for twenty to thirty minutes, or until the meringues are dry to the touch and move easily on the parchment paper.  Move to a wire rack for cooling.

Yields:  36-40 cookies

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Since I am half way through my Weight Watcher leader training, I decided to try to make WW friendly Meringue Cookies. They are mostly egg whites and sugar, so I know it can be done. I had to make a baseline recipe, before I could start altering it. So I started with a pretty basic Chocolate Chip Meringues recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/3 cups miniature chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Lightly grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper. (I love me some parchment paper!)

In a medium mixing bowl, beat egg whites on highest speed until soft peaks form. Add the cream of tartar and vanilla; mix again. Scrape down bowl, before returning to high speed.  Add sugar and cocoa to the mixing bowl one tablespoon at a time.  Beat until glossy.  Fold in the chocolate chips.

Put the mixture into a pastry bag and dose out cookies onto the prepared cookie sheet.  Bake for about twenty minutes or until firm and the bottoms of the cookies are lightly browned.  Cool cookies on a wire rack.

Yield:  72 small cookies or 36 medium ones.

Some notes:

Bring your egg whites to room temperature before beating.

You can use 3/4 of a cup of 100% liquid egg whites instead of separating whole eggs.

Make sure your mixing bowls are very clean.  Any fat or grease can interfere with whipping the egg whites.

Mix your cocoa and your sugar together before adding to the mixing bowl.  You may want to sift the cocoa.

You can spoon drop the mixture, but it will be harder to keep them uniform in size. If you do not own a pastry bag, you can always improvise with a ziploc type bag. Personally, I love Wilton’s disposable bags and you can find them at most any hobby store.

Make these as soon as possible.  The longer you wait, the more the egg whites will fall.

If you go ahead and dose out the cookies ahead of time, make sure your bake ware is not near the heat of the oven.

I plan to start lightening up the recipe, to bring the points value down even lower.  Using straight splenda resulted in a cookie with a strange texture.  I will keep you all apprised of my successes!

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Stitching on the Barbary Coast in San Francisco was a huge success.  I enjoyed seminar so much.  I took two different Catherine Jordan classes and loved the whole process of painting and stitching on linen.  I got pretty far on the Point Bonita Lighthouse Keepsake Box during the class.

The first picture was one I took on vacation in California, where I finished the lid (see second photo for detail).  The last photo is of my progress as of today.  I should be finished pretty soon.

Per EGA rules, I did get permission from Catherine before posting my personal photos of my work on her class project. If you would like more information about her classes, designs or products, check out her website.

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I wanted to include some photos, most of which were not posted here before. They cover the span of time he was here, including his last days.

Our first indication of his health problems was a bout of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis in November, where we rushed him to the Vet ER and they put him on a IV.  His albumin was shockingly low.  We picked him up in the wee hours and then took him to our regular vet, who thought the test may have been wrong. When Rudy was retested, his protein was still super low. In all of this time, even with all of the medication, his albumin rarely got above 1.  When we took him MSU Vet School in January, they shaved his belly to do an ultrasound before the endoscopy and biopsies. I took the blurry photo of him trying to drive while we were heading up there.  He was in good spirits. We got our diagnosis after a couple of days (inflammatory bowel disease/lymphocytic plasmocytic enteritis) and a new treatment plan.  From that point on, it was a series of ups and downs.  There were a couple of times when we thought he would not make it, but he always pulled through. He would get a little better, but as soon as we thought he might beat this thing, his health would fail again. We switched him to a lamb and rice diet, a beef based diet, a turkey based diet, a low residue diet, and finally a duck and potato diet.

Not all of the pictures are happy. I decided to show the photo from June, where he looked so bad.  Rudy was going downhill fast at that point, but he perked up when we brought Burt home.  He gained a little weight, the sores on his skin had healed and the hair on his belly was finally starting to grow back. I also included photos from his last night, when the vet let us bring him home with the IV catheter taped in place.

I miss his sweet, fuzzy little face.  No doubt about it, Rudy was my little heart dog.

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Rudy was my constant companion for the last several years.  We spent hours and hours together daily.  He was always interested in my stitching.  I miss him so much.  These are some of the photos of him from this blog.

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After nearly a year of fighting inflammatory bowel disease, he died in my arms this morning. Rest in peace my most favored boy…you were the most amazing dog a girl could have.

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I was recently interviewed by Burt Case for a segment on WLBT’s 3 on Your Side. The branch director of the YMCA Downtown called him about all of the animals that are dumped near her rural Rankin County home. Trust me, if I had known I was going to be filmed for TV, I would have worn make-up and decent clothes.  They came to get me during yoga class, so as an added bonus, I was sweaty!  I looked terrible…but I was on point with my message.

Many thanks to Kandy who found him, cleaned him up, removed his ticks and wormed him.  She was calling him Oscar but he did not respond to that name, so we dubbed him Burt, which has morphed into Bertie.  He is learning his name, which is good, because it helps me correct him when he tries to pee or mark his territory…which is a problem since he is still in tact!  The vet said Bertie has a swollen lymph node, probably from the tick bites, and is on medication for the next two weeks.  Because of that, the vet will not be able to neuter him right away.  He is clearly a dachshund mix, his legs are too long and his face is a little too sharp and short….so he would not be appropriate for a breeding program…so I am not sure why he was not fixed.

Anyway, today we got him his first real tag, next will come the microchip! He is officially one of us.  Scary, no?

What better to post than videos of dogs?

Burt’s First Day on YouTube

Advanced Dog Play featuring Roscoe and Bertie

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Thanks to those of you who have contacted me about the tornadoes that hit Mississippi.  They hit about 45 minutes north of my home, but I was not in town.  Please feel free to donate to the Red Cross or other relief effort, if you are so moved. The people in Yazoo County can really use the help.  Thankfully, my friends in Yazoo City are safe and sound.

I just got back from another visit with family in Atlanta.  I loved being able to see everyone and  I had a great visit.  After more than a week of daily outings, I finally figured out what made my mother happy: pizza from Fellini’s and butter pecan ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery.  I am so glad that I am below my goal weight and did not have to worry about how we ate, especially since my sister-in-law had two cakes, plus she made biscotti and brownies.  That said, I am glad that I do not have to weigh-in tomorrow night!

Last week, I also finalized my registration for EGA National Seminar in San Francisco.  Oh, and I helped my sister pick out her classes too!

Sorry I never seem to post on my blog any longer.  I blame FaceBook!

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As some of you may know, I am the Seminar Chair for Share-A-Stitch XXXI, the Tennessee Valley Region’s annual embroidery conference.  SAS XXXI is scheduled for June 2011. If you are a member of EGA (or want to be a member) please consider coming to Birmingham, AL for this three day event!

Anyway, I am headed up to Memphis to spend the weekend with the Dean of Faculty.  I am excited to participate in class selection for the event, in part because I have never been a part of this process before.  I mean, how cool to see all of the proposals and watch the process for selecting classes unfold.  From this point forward, the chairman job will demand more of my attention.  So please understand if I am distracted!

Oh, and on a completely unrelated topic.  Yesterday and today, my hair was curly.  I often let it dry naturally, but it has been too cold to do that for a few months.  My hair used to be super straight, but it got wavy after my thyroid problem presented itself.  I started using a straightening iron about ten years ago.  For the last two days, I have noticed a lot of soft curls, something that would have required a permanent wave to accomplish in the past. It has been so long since I had a perm, I can barely remember how to handle curly hair.

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