Ann D. brought pink meringue cookies--made with raspberry jello!-- to a holiday party, and I thought they were of cultural significance, coming from the Land of Food Far Removed from Nature, so I am sharing her recipe here (at end of post).The cookies are from Ann's childhood, in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where my auntie now lives. It was on a trip to visit her that I photographed the Cheese Cows.
The drink of choice in that region is beer, of course, but these pink puffs would nicely complement your Wisconsin plonk. (You can get a fine cranberry wine at the Cheese Haus, next to the gas station where I-94 divides.)
For Christmas, I plan to sit with a plate of pink food and a bottle of red liquid and watch the third season of Black Books [links to clips on Channel 4], my latest discovery that makes me laugh out loud.Bernard Black (Irish comic Dylan Moran, far right, the only good thing in this year's Run, Fat Boy, Run) is a bookshop owner who wants everyone to piss off and leave him alone to drink bottles of cheap Spanish wine, smoke cigarettes, and read books. (It's worth watching just to see a television character reading--very odd.)
His friends (?) are Fran (Tamsin Greig) and Manny (Bill Bailey).
Black Books reminded me a bit of Father Ted, which also made me laugh out loud. Turns out Moran cowrote B.B. with Father Ted creator Graham Linehan.
Would I like these shows about nasty and/or bumbling people if I weren't American? I can't stand American TV comedies, but I have a high tolerance for Brit-coms. I suppose they are more amusing to me, not just because they're better written (though could that be said of Father Ted? I think not) but because the mad, idiotic characters don't seem real to me, whereas I recognize the idiots on U.S. comedies as all too real.
Pink Cookies
3 egg whites
1/8 tsp salt
3 1/2 T raspberry jello (1/2 of small box)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vinegar
1 cup mini chocolate chips
Beat egg whites with salt until foamy.
Add raspberry jello and sugar gradually.
Beat until soft peaks form and sugar is dissolved.
Mix in vinegar. Fold in chocolate chips.
Drop from teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets covered in parchment paper.
Bake at 250 degrees for 25 minutes.
Turn off oven and leave cookies in for another 20 minutes longer.