Pav.....

Pavlova. Kiwis and Aussies fight over who is entitled to the official rights regarding this fluffy meringue dessert. Made with egg whites and superfine caster sugar a pavlova done right will have a crunchy outside that encases the lightest marshmallow fluff you can imagine. Now hang on a minute. When I say "marshmallow fluff" I don't mean the stuff you can buy in the jar. I'm describing something more like ambrosia: a sweet, billowing ultralight cloud.

It will come as no surprise that with Timmy at the helm in the kitchen he made the perfect pavlova. On the first try. Now this is no easy feat. I say this for two reasons. One, it's easy to contaminate your egg white mixture along the way. A tiny bit of oil in your mixing bowl or a minuscule piece of egg yolk sneaking in with the white will destroy all efforts. Two, many self-reported experts online openly scoff and say that you cannot make pavlova without an electric mixer. They say don't even bother. With our tiny kitchen we have a dearth of counter space and therefore very few appliances. Amongst those we don't have is an electric mixer. This fact would dissuade me from trying such a recipe but Tim was unfazed. He say, "Ah, yeah, it'll be fine. I'll whip it by hand". And he did. For at least 30 minutes he sat on the couch and whipped those egg whites until peaks began to form in the mixture.

From there he piled the fluffy creation onto the baking-paper-covered cookie sheet and slid it into the oven.

We watched it periodically during the cooking time. After it had elapsed we followed the instructions and let it cool completely in the oven which took several more hours. 

In the end Tim served up a beautiful Pavlova with freshly whipped heavy cream topped with blueberries, kiwifruit and strawberries. A veritable taste sensation!