What's New.....

Grandpa Moe had a birthday, Parents Watching Week at Ballet, and on Sunday November 27 we had our first annual Christmas Draw and Baking competition at my Uncle Jason's and Aunt Alana's house. It was wonderful, and may very well be my new favourite Christmas tradition. The house was beautiful, the food was amazing, the baking was delicious and the spirit was wonderful. This was our family's first year of drawing names, we have always bought for everyone in the past, but we thought we would draw names and just buy for the kids instead. We also decided we needed an extra party to do so. My favourite part was singing with my mum and sisters, I wish I had a picture, but Darryl was taking video instead. My uncle is a juno-nominated musician who plays the piano like nobody I know and when my family sings, we all blend really well and are able to harmonize beautifully. They are my favourite people to sing with. Darryl worked so hard on his candy-cane cookies, Grandma won the "taste" competition for her macaroons with the Hersey's kisses inside, Ceilidh won for "creativity" with her white chocolate dipped and decorated oreos, I won for "originality" with my Holiday Pretzels, and Alana won best overall for her Orange Meringue Kisses. They are to die for. And I don't usually even like anything meringue! I voted for her too, but don't tell Darryl......

I felt so blessed to have such a wonderful family. I am really lucky my mum's parents and my dad's parents are great friends and we get to do everything with them together. My dad's parents car broke down, so we got to drive them home, and it was nice to have an extra long visit with them, which was nice. I can't wait to do this every year. Char's fave Chloe line: I'm taking a bun for the ride Alana!"

2011 Bake Off Winner: Alana's Orange Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies Recipe

These little meringue bites are lighter than air but packed with orange flavor and kicked up with chocolate chips for extra decadence. It will take great restraint not to eat them like popcorn! Buy these at the store and pay a fortune. Make them at home for pennies. Good for gluten-free and low-fat diets. If you omit the chocolate chips, they are fat-free.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Ingredients:
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup superfine granulated sugar (see Note)
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
1 Tablespoon grated orange zest (see Note)
1/2 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preparation:
Chill mixing bowl and beaters for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 250 F. Line cookie sheets1 with Silpats or parchment paper.

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until soft peaks form. Add sugar a tablespoon at a time until all sugar is incorporated and melted into the meringue. The meringue should be shiny and form stiff peaks.

Fold in orange extract, grated orange zest, and miniature chocolate chips.

Drop by scant teaspoonfuls (or use a pastry bag) onto prepared cookie sheets, placing cookies about 1 inch apart. (You want these bite-sized to pop the whole cookie into your mouth. Larger ones are fine but make a crumbly mess when you bite into them.)

Bake about 1 hour until stiff and dry. Turn off oven, but leave meringue cookies in the oven until cool to further dry out, another 2 hours.

Store in an airtight container.

Yield: about 5 dozen meringue cookies, depending on size

Note: If you cannot find superfine granulated sugar, measure 1 cup plus 1 tsp of granulated table sugar in a small food processor and process about 2 minutes. Do not use confectioners' sugar. It contains cornstarch. Save your knuckles and use a microplane to grate the orange zest. You'll also save time and get a finer grate of zest that better incorporates into these feather-light cookies.