« it’s just a meringue » I say under my breath, bracing myself for another set of eggs to go wrong.

Charlie is watching the football in the living room. He’s blissfully unaware I’ve been falling apart. The easy and quick recipe my mother-in-law has served every Sunday since 1976. Did you know there are different meringue type? The French, the Italian, the Swiss… all with the same easy first step of neatly separating the whites from the yolks. My eggs stubbornly refuse to do so. the slippery yellow buggers keep escaping into the bowl.

« if SHE can do it, so can I»

my friend Mairead gave me a tip. « Don’t try to be so bold and get all of it fast. let it slip by itself and stops when it’s done ». The trick is to break the egg nicely into two halves and slowly pour the white back and forth between the two bits of the shell, letting the white falls by itself into the bowl in the process. when the half where the yolk still lays, unbroken, has little white left, stops quietly. Don’t try to be eager and get it all out. You’d break the yolk.

«  It’s working! I can’t believe it!» I’m shrieking like a little girl as I watch the transparent gluey texture glinting from the bowl. That stirs up a snoozy «you all right Love ? » from the living room.

I do one, two, three… I can’t stop…The whites all escape in the bowl with the yolks unscathed. I’m a genius! I’m so good! I can see so many bakes happening in the future. I’ll be the envy of the family, the centre of love and attention… oh I can’t wait to show them all what I can do!