Pavlova

Our next door neighbours invited us round to their Birthday BBQ yesterday. I had a few hours notice so I made this Pavlova to take with us. I used Mary Berry's recipe and the link I've given you is almost identical. However I made the following adjustments:- I added half a teaspoon of Pure Vanilla Paste with the white white vinegar and cornflour mix. I only cooked the very large meringue for an hour as my oven is a bit unpredictable and I was in a hurry. Rather than leave the meringue in the oven to cool completely I switched the oven off and gave it half an hour resting and then took it out of the still warmish oven. It didn't crack! Whilst the meringue was cooking I sliced a punnet of strawberries and sprinkled over a couple of tablespoons of caster sugar and left them to make their own strawberry syrup. I then whipped half a pint of double cream til it was quite firm but not solid, the strawberries and syrup were then folded into this whipped cream and I kept folding until it firmed up.
This Pavlova drove Maisie mad, she kept pestering me to get her some but nobody had cut it. We didn't know anybody there other than our neighbours so I felt a bit self conscious about helping myself to food. I had to keep whispering to Maisie to wait a while.....then she noticed that people were now eating the pavlova so I sent Barry up to get her some. Barry and I never had any, even though this was a large desert it didn't seem to be going far enough! I was so glad Maisie managed to get a slice, I'd have had a very unhappy little girl with me if she had gone without. Needless to say, I am making another one in a minute for us to eat calmly and leisurely, I do love to make meringues but it wears my poor shoulder out...we definitely need a pink KitchenAid!

I am having an operation on my shoulder on the 12th September, my tendons are inflamed because of a bony over growth in the joint which means the tendons don't have enough room to manoeuvre so the extra bone needs removing and also I have a torn tendon which needs repairing....this is being done with keyhole surgery but I'm rather scared none the less!