Lazy Eton Mess

Yesterday morning, I was accosted by a pair of 5 year old maniacs, one of whom demanded I paint her nails in a Skittles Manicure style, but with just pink and coral polish.  The other one just wanted to put pink princess stickers all over me... so what had I done to deserve this treatment after just 4 hours sleep?  We had been at Gift Grub on Saturday night in the Grand Canal Theatre & stayed the night in my parents house where my two nieces Lulu and Sheesha, together with S's brother Handsome Man were also having a sleepover.  Little Sis is on hols in Sunny Spain (the cow) so Lulu is on a week's holidays with Nanny & Grandad and loving every minute of it.  I had promised her that she could tickle Uncle Hubs until "he screams like a girl" so they were all highly excited at the thought of a grown up getting tickles!  Himself eventually rose from the dead at about 10.30 and was pounced upon.  Sheesha & Handsome Man knew the drill by heart and began the "all around the garden, looking for lots of TICKLES" routine while Lulu watched in awe.  The Hubs tried to ignore it, but it was no use... they had him bang to rights.   We even did part of Lulu's turn as Gaeilge - it's a bit mad when only one of the nieces & nephews goes to a Gaelscoil as I'm so used to switching between Irish & English when I'm talking to her, that I do it automatically with the other two as well!

We eventually managed to leave the house intact (with the two girls screaming bye bye's out of the sitting room window) and I was in dire need of a disco nap when we got home.  The Hubs only woke me because he was hungry and wanted dinner.  Luckily we had done a quick pitstop in Superquinn earlier so had a feast of Greek-marinated chicken skewers, some leftover tomato & feta salad and some aubergine parmagiana. 

I had bought some strawberries there too so decided to make a lazy version of  Eton Mess for dessert as a tribute to the Pink Princesses.  This is a perfect last-minute dessert which takes seconds to make but looks very impressive.  I always keep M&S meringue nests in the cupboard for emergencies, so combined with the strawberries and low-fat cream, it was ready in the turn of a page from the Sunday Times!

Lazy Eton Mess to serve 4

4 small meringue nests, broken into pieces
1 punnet of strawberries, cleaned & sliced
1/2 carton cream
1 tsp vanilla sugar

Whip the cream and sugar until stiff (if you're using low-fat cream, this takes three times as long to beat as regular cream, so prepare for the wait...)

Mix with the meringue and strawberries and serve in pretty bowls - if you can find them!

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!