Adam's Meringue

Anecdote

When I was in college, my girlfriend gave up candy for lent. Her birthday was coming up and I wanted to make her an Angel Food cake with fresh whipped cream (some convoluted logic had be believe this wasn't a contradiction). So, I bought the cream and took on beating it as long as possible. Half an hour later, while the cream was still cream, I called my mother on the telephone and asked her for help. When I explained that I was using a whisk, she laughed at me.

One electric mixer later, the whipped cream was done.

The moral of the story is, if you try to do this without an electric mixer, you get what you deserve.

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites
• 8 tsp. powdered sugar
• 1/2 to 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 brown paper shopping bag
• (Optional)Chocolate Chips or Toasted Almonds, either finely chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Put egg whites in a bowl. Using an electric mixer (see anecdote above) beat the egg whites until it is so fluffy that you can turn the bowl upside down and the egg whites don't slip out. If you can turn the bowl upside-down and shake it without the eggs falling out, you're ready.

Using one teaspoon at a time, fold in the powdered sugar until each one is dissolved into the mixture. Then fold in the vanilla and any optional additions.

Unfold a brown paper shopping bag and place it on top of a cookie sheet. Drop teaspoons of the cookie mixture on top of the brown paper. Let it bake for an hour. Turn the oven off and let the cookies sit for several hours while the oven cools. This allows the cookies to get hard.

It's best to make these cookies in advance. I usually make them before going to bed so I can let them sit overnight. Then I eat three or four of them for breakfast.

Do yourself a favor and buy real vanilla. Trust me.