as most of you know my little sister, georgia, and her family (husband + 2 little boys) recently came for a visit.  we had a wonderful, if exhuasting time.  february is not an ideal time for travel under the best of conditions (unless perhaps you are in the bahamas or some other place with a nice winter climate), but add five kids under five to the mix, and it becomes very difficult!  so much time to bundle everyone up, then there is the whining about the cold, trying to keep hats and mittens on, trying to keep kids out of snowdrifts, etc.  the weather since they left has been fabulous, naturally.  haven’t even needed hats and mittens at the beach the past couple of days.

anyway, despite the miserable weather we did manage to show them a few of the sights around switzerland, one of them being the château de Gruyères.  besides the castle and the cheese, Gruyère is famous for it’s very thick and rich double cream.  which i made sure, of course, that my sister was able to sample.  We bought a container of double cream and a package of meringues (berries would have been my first choice, but in february meringues are a good substitute) on the way home.  you can actually buy all this stuff in morges, but i personally think it’s always more fun right from the source.

the meringues are so pretty, like waves of silky white desert sand frozen in….um…i think i’d better leave waxing poetic about food to the food bloggers.  but seriously, they are very pretty, don’t you think?  i don’t know why, but they taste different than the meringues i am used to in the states.  ryon, my brother-in-law, thought they tasted like popcorn balls. i checked the ingredients and the only thing they contain is sugar and egg whites, so i’m not sure where the different taste could come from. perhaps they use more of a brown sugar instead of a white sugar? i am not sure.

according to various sources i found on the internet you are supposed to dip the meringues in the double cream. i didn’t immediately adore this combination, but it has grown on me (have to use up all that double cream somehow, right?).  the cream does a great job of cutting the sweetness of the meringues, and the silkiness of the cream also pairs well with the crunchy meringues.  note:  keep it under three meringues per sitting.  otherwise the roof of your mouth will feel like someone has been going at it with sandpaper.  the double cream is supposedly The Best.  period.  having not tasted any other double cream, i can’t say that myself, but it is good!  here is poor niamh holding a meringue dipped in the cream so i could take a photo.  how mean am i–making the child allergic to eggs hold the special-treat-’o-poison.  i did give her a piece of chocolate afterwards for her assistance.