Disappearing Meringues and a Giveaway!

Believe it or not, but those unappetizing flat little discs in the picture were supposed to be chocolate meringues. They certainly didn't go into the oven looking like that. In fact, before dessicating to shrunken circles of nothingness, they looked just perfect. My egg whites had whipped up all nicely and I piped some beautiful, poofy pillows of meringue onto my parchment paper. But about halfway through the baking time, I noticed that they looked considerably smaller. And a little later, they looked smaller still and I started to despair. By the time I took them out of the oven, they were practically gone, although what remains of them looks remarkably like teeny tiny cow patties. Anyone have a miniature model farm in need of some realistic-looking miniature cow patties?

This is my second attempt at low carb meringues and my second failure. I have a few theories about what might have gone wrong this time, but I couldn't muster up the energy to try another batch. All in all, I thought the whole thing quite hilarious. I was only despairing because, after a weekend away from my kitchen, I have no new recipes to share with you. I was ahead there for a bit, with more recipes than I had time to post, but a busy week and a trip up to my sister-in-law's have used up all my reserves. I was so certain this would be a great recipe, I was going to dip the bottoms of the meringues in mint-chocolate ganache. But making meringues without sugar is considerably harder than it looks. I will try again, someday. In the meantime, all is not lost. My baby, the pickiest eater in the world, loves the darn things and is happy to gobble them all up. She is blissfully unaware of any resemblence to cow patties.

And I have a lovely giveaway for you. You might remember that back in December I won several giveaways, one of which was a set of beautiful pewter measuring spoons from Crosby and Taylor. They are so lovely, I have to talk myself into baking with them, they almost seem to nice for it. Well, after seeing me mention them in my blog, the good folks at Crosby and Taylor asked if I would like to do a giveaway as well. I had my choice of beautiful items to review and giveaway and I chose the lovely petit salt pots. We were actually in need of a salt pot, as our kosher salt was just sitting in an open dish by the stove. Now it's in a gorgeous green ceramic pot with an intricate pewter spoon and I somehow feel like a better cook for it!

I am thrilled to tell you that I have two of these beautiful pots to give away. One from their Vineyard line in Pistachio and the other is from their new Heart line in Buttercream (just in time for Valentine's Day!). Both are just beautiful and will certainly brighten your kitchen or table setting.



To Enter (US and Canadian addresses only, please!) -

1. Leave a comment here, telling me what kind of salt you would keep in your petit ceramic salt pot.

2. Retweet this giveaway with @dreamaboutfood and @crosbyandtaylor and let me know that you did so.

3. Follow me on twitter and let me know that you did so.

4. Visit the Crosby and Taylor website and tell me which of their beautiful lines of pewter and ceramics you like best.

5. Follow Crosby and Taylor on Twitter and let me know that you did so.

6. Like Crosby and Taylor on Facebook and let me know that you did so.

Each comment will count as a separate entry, so you have 6 chances to win! Contest will run from now until Friday, February 4th at midnight and there will be two separate winners. Be sure to leave me a way to contact you with your entries, I've had some trouble with that in the past.

Good luck! I know you will love these as much as I do.