running nose

i finally finished using up the twelve egg whites that have been in the deep freeze for periods ranging from one week to about four months. i had them packed in twos, so i had six bags: one was used for the wash in the potato rosemary bread; two were leaking, so i threw them away; the rest i used for meringues.

the excess egg whites accumulated because i've been making things like pudding. and the recent challah used up four yolks, leaving behind another four whites. come to think of it, it's really hard to use up excess egg whites unless you make meringues, or macaroons.

almost every recipe that uses egg whites for the foam technique also uses the egg yolks elsewhere, so it's difficult to get rid of excess egg whites. (though i remember there's a recipe for a white tiramisu somewhere in nigella's how to eat that can use up a lot of egg whites.)
these are the white meringues. i love the way the shiny unbaked meringues hold their swirls and peaks so firmly. the baked white meringues came out powdery; their sharp, curly, twisted little tails broke off easily.
the chocolate meringues were less stiff. either i folded the cocoa in too vigorously, or i didn't whip the meringue hard enough. so the chocolate meringues were softer to begin with when they went into the oven and they swelled larger. anyhow, the chocolate meringues broke more easily to reveal a very gummy interior (which isn't that undesirable).

immediately i can think of two uses for the meringues. one is to make mini pavlovas, like the one i made so long ago. the other is to make an eton mess.
to make a pavlova, you top a meringue base with some whipped cream and berries. to make eton mess, you whip the cream and fold in berries and crumbled meringues. (i used blueberries in hopes that their sharpness would counter the tooth-aching sweetness of the meringues; what i usually see for eton mess is strawberries.)

on other news, i got a real steal today. i found this organic waitrose strong white bread flour going at half-price, though that's really because it expires in one month. i do hope keeping it in the refrigerator will extend its life.
now i have two flours to use for bread. one is the above, the other is the waitrose very strong canadian white flour. i have an idea though - recently i've been seeing bread recipes that make a distinction between 'high-gluten flour' and 'strong white flour', and i think this is it: i'll use the very strong canadian flour for the high-gluten, and the organic flour for strong white. saves me some money too - the very strong canadian costs a little more, though both are still very expensive.

and right now i can feel the symptoms of flu coming... i'm having a runny nose that has been running all day. and worse is the dull joint aches that are setting in.