Meringue New Year

May you have a joyous, healthy, and peaceful New Year. Thank you all for your friendship and support. It's meant the world to me. And be sure to check out the latest interview with me and a few fabulous food bloggers here. Cheers to you and yours.

Meringue Clouds

250 ml (1 c) egg whites

1 pinch cream of tartar

205 g (1 c) sugar

255 g (2 c) powdered sugar, sifted

2 drops blue food coloring

Preheat oven to 200 degrees (100 Celsius). Line three baking sheets with Silpat or well buttered parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk, beat egg whites with cream of tartar at low speed. Gradually increase speed to medium until the mixer gets white and frothy. Increase speed to medium high. Slowly add sugar and beat until whites are stiff but shiny. (The egg whites should flop over a bit at the top when you pull the whisk away). Remove bowl from mixer. Gently fold in powdered sugar with rubber spatula.

With a large spoon mound 2/3 of the meringue into balls on the baking sheet. They should be about 3 inches high and have some space between them. Pulling up on the spoon will help you create a swirly effect on the outer surface. For the remaining meringue fold in 1-2 drops blue food coloring. Use the blue meringue to make more mounds on the cookie sheet.

Bake for 1 and 1/2 hours - 2 hours. Place the handle of a wooden spoon in the door to hold it slightly ajar during the baking process. Keep an eye on the meringue. If it browns too quickly, lower the temperature a bit. Cool on a wire rack.

Bon Appetit!

Create A Quick, Free Website Using Blogger

Making a simple website using Blogger requires only basic computer skills and little effort.

First, I recommend that you create a logo for the top of your page. This can be as simple as a picture that includes text (like the one you see above). You can make this picture with a free trial of photoshop, pixelmator or any basic photo program. I cropped my picture in the shape of a rectangle.

Next, decide what you want the website to say. Write it out and set it aside. Be sure to describe your product and include your location, phone number, hours of operation.

Now it's time to get started with Blogger. You can also use Wordpress and follow their tutorial.

Visit www.blogger.com
Click “Create a Blog”
Fill out form and choose url. Write down your url. It will end with “.blogspot.com”. If you’d like, you can change it to your own url later.
Agree to terms of service and submit.
Select a template. I selected Minima because it’s easy to work with.

You will now see 4 tabs at the top of the page (Posting, Setting, Layout and Monetize.) For maximum speed, follow these instructions. You can go back and change anything at a later time.

Click on the tab labeled “Settings.” Click on the “Comments” link. Select “hide comments.” Press the save button at the bottom of the page.

Click on the “Layout” tab.

Click on the following links on the right side of the page:

Click on “Followers” and press “remove”
Click on “Archive” and press “remove”
Click on “About Me” and press “remove”

Don’t worry, you can add these back later if you’d like. The only thing remaining in the right column should be “Add a Gadget” - do not delete this. Press save.

Click on the "edit" link in the "Header" box. Select “shrink to fit” and select “instead of title and description”. Upload your image. Press the save button. Click “view blog.” You should be able to see your progress.

Under the “Layout” tab, click on “fonts and colors”. Change the colors to your liking. For example, to make the side bar text blue, select “side bar text color” and then click on a blue color square to select it. You should be able to see the changes automatically in the window below. If you don’t like the frame around your picture, be sure to select “border color”and set it to white by clicking on a white square. You can also change the fonts on the same menu. Press save.

Click on the “Posting” tab. Type in or cut and paste the description of your business. Press save. lick View blog. You should see your website up and running.

Voila! You have a website.

If you wish to make your Blogger site more glamorous - spend some time playing with the features. For example if you don't need the gadgets on the side, click on "Layout" then "HTML" and scroll down and look for this:

#main-wrapper {
width: ___px;

Change the width to 700 px and it will make your text area wider. Click preview and if it looks good, click save.

If you’re not afraid of playing with the html, this site can be helpful: www.bloggerbuster.com. Once everything is to your liking go to the layout tab, click on the HTML link and click on the link that says Download Full Template. This way you’ll always have a back up you can upload in the event of an emergency.

If you need additional help, read the Blogger tutorials or search the web for specific blogger help tips.

Best of luck!